Ever feel like a sucker? Well right now, you should. After taking billions in bailout loans from the Federal Government, promising a half-million electric cars on the road by 2013 and even going so as establishing an electric vehicles program, Fiat-owned Chrysler has renegged on pretty much all of its electric car promises after axing the ENVI program.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who saw Chrysler’s revised vehicle lineup last week, but it still feels like a kick in the gut.

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Electric Vehicles International is returning to its home in California from Mexico and later this month will have a state tour to celebrate; from their new home in Stockton to the state capitol, Sacramento. Along the way, they are offering test drives for any interested Californians. So if you’ve ever wanted to test-drive a 13 ton full electric delivery truck that goes 60 miles an hour on the freeway; now is the time.

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In may, the Obama administration moved the deadline for low carbon cars closer to 2016. Under this proposed new rule each electric car would count two times when figuring the average fuel efficiency of a new-vehicle fleet, making the average easier to meet—if the automaker adds electric cars to its fleet.

But an environmental policy group in Washington would prefer to see regular old-fashioned gasoline vehicles built to be more fuel efficient.

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Yesterday, Chrysler/Fiat’s new CEO Sergio Marchionne presented the 5-year business plan he hopes will save Chrysler, and bring Fiat back to the US market for the first time in nearly 30 years. The company presented its plan during a live, seven-hour-long marathon webcast, which was notable for two things: first, a virtually unprecedented willingness to discuss future product, and, second, the conspicuous absence of New Chrysler’s much-ballyhooed ENVI electric-vehicle division.

What happened to the Dodge EV? Can we expect some innovative green tech from Marchionne’s new Dodge product future? The depressing reality, after the jump.

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Tata Motors, the company whose claim to fame is selling one of the world’s cheapest and most fuel efficient cars, is considering letting other local India-based manufacturers produce and sell their Nano under their brands.

The company began selling the 56 mpg car last July, and, due to high demand, is in the process of building a manufacturing facility that would produce an additional 350,000 units per year. The plant, located in Sanand in Gujarat, should be up and running by March of 2010.

But in the meantime, Tata Motors is considering allowing smaller manufacturers produce, rebrand and sell the car under license from Tata. The maximum amount of production per year in this fashion would be 10,000 cars. Now that’s an interesting way of selling more cars. I would venture to say that I doubt an American car company would take a similar tack since they use the brand to drive sales.

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Ford Motor Company and Azure Dynamics have teamed up to introduce a battery electric commercial van called the Transit Connect. The electric van will be available in America and Canada beginning in 2010 and is the first vehicle to be produced as part of Ford’s accelerated electric vehicle strategy. Azure will integrate its Force Drive battery electric drive train into the van and Johnson Control-Saft has been selected as the lithium ion battery cells and battery packs supplier. The Transit Connect van is being marketed for fleet and retail use.

What Ford has not brought to market is their Ford Escape Flex-Fuel Hybrid which they have been working on for close to a decade. I actually drove one in a car rally in upstate New York two years ago (it was a great car) but the company discontinued its work claiming that there was no demand. How quickly times change.

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Indiana-based Bright Automotive has released some pretty impressive performance figures for its technically (and aerodynamically!) slick new IDEA cargo van. Aimed primarily at delivery fleets and in-town rental companies, the freshly-upgraded guppy promises to shave operating costs by thousands of dollars per year, per van.

More pictures, an official company press release, and my own opinions (that nobody asked for) after the jump.

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Many manufacturers of high-mpg and electric vehicles have adopted a 3-wheeled layout for cost and weight savings, and—in some cases—aerodynamic efficiency. In most states, however, these vehicles are classified as motorcycles. That motorcycle moniker has made them ineligible for DOE funds set aside to foster innovation among American automakers… until now!

More details, after the jump.

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At the beginning of this month the first ever algae-powered plug-in set off on a ten day coast to coast demo from California to show that a plug-in hybrid can be fueled with green crude.

The algae fuel for the plug-in Prius was supplied by Sapphire Energy. They are developing an algae fuel completely compatible with current gas pumps and pipeline infrastructure.

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We Americans did the right patriotic thing with our clunker money last month, it turns out. We bought more American. And we bought more hybrid cars.  Ford was the big winner, making a big dent in Toyota’s hybrid sales.

Consumer reports tells us that 80% would rather buy US cars and 46% of us now prefer fuel efficient cars.

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Entrepreneurs have begun to retrofit ordinary combustion vehicles into all-electrics or plug-in hybrids. Here’s why this could be the “big fix” that the auto-industry needs.

Are we stuck with our oil addiction? What if millions of our middle-aged vehicles could be reincarnated as superior versions of their youthful selves, while developing new revenue streams for Detroit? What if that “fix” could start reducing the billion a day we spend on imported oil, while creating tens of thousands of local jobs in communities and cutting greenhouse gases from fossil fuels?

Automakers could do all this—by thinking of vehicles as upgradable high-tech products. For example: A pioneering Chicago startup makes a prototype Ford F-150 pickup with an all-electric range of 30 miles per charge. After that it’s a hybrid, boosting the best-selling truck’s 15 city miles per gallon to 21.

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Members of Michigan’s Congressional Delegation are pushing to double a $25 billion Energy Department program designed that provides loans to U.S. automakers and parts suppliers for advanced technology retooling. The loans are designed to help American carmakers retool to meet new corporate average fuel economy standards.

Democrats John Dingell and Sander Levin and Republican Fred Upton introduced legislation yesterday to increase the loan program to $50 billion.

Established in the 2007 energy bill, the loans loans to automakers and suppliers for the retooling of production to make advanced efficient vehicles, Congress did not pass the necessary appropriations to fund the loan program until late last year. And now there is a run on the loan cash.

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So how much does a foreclosed home in Detroit cost?  Two weeks ago, you could buy a home for $1 in the city. Today the lowest price I could find was $40.

That’s right, you can buy a bank owned home in Detroit for only $40.

Of course, homes for these low prices may have fire damage or boarded up windows, but it is still a house sitting on a lot.

Another shocking statistic from Detroit is that the average price of a home is almost equitable to a year’s worth of auto insurance.  According to the Macomb Daily:

Because the neighborhoods and housing stock in the city have deteriorated so dramatically, the median sale price for a foreclosed home in Detroit has dipped to $7,750. At the same time, auto theft, insurance fraud and vehicle burglaries are so rampant that the average car insurance policy carries a price tag of $5,072.

The city’s morale has dipped so low that only 14 percent of voters turned out for the big mayoral election in February, and two-thirds of children drop out of high school.  What could we do to boost moral in Detroit?  We could buy up foreclosed homes and lots and turn them into green urban spaces.

By turning foreclosed homes into nature preserves and parks, Detroit could undergo a green urban renewal that would mitigate environmental damage the auto industry has done and improve the health of its citizens.  Recent studies have also shown how inner city children that grow up in neighborhoods full of green spaces grow up healthier and happier:

This study’s findings align with previous research linking exposure to green landscapes with health improvements.  Among adults, greenness is associated with less stress and lower [body mass index], improved self-reported health and shorter post-operative recovery periods. Among children and youth, the positive health effects of green landscapes include improved cognitive functioning and reduced attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms.

Another study has shown that crime rates go up in cities when the landscape is barren of nature.

Turning foreclosed homes into parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and urban gardens could be just what the Motor City needs to revitalize itself.  Considering the price of these foreclosed homes, it would be affordable for any grassroots organization to undertake.  I volunteer to buy a home and donate to any group willing to take on this challenge.

Image: Realtor.com

That lifetime is longer than we think. First and second U.S. owners typically keep vehicles seven to ten years. Many large guzzlers—built on durable frames, where it pays to replace rusted bodies—are then sent overseas, where they still produce greenhouse gases.

Why electrify transportation? Compared to combustion engines that waste most of their fuel in heat and friction, over the entire cycle from fuel extraction to use, electric motors are four times more efficient, making electric miles that much cheaper. Since we generate electricity from multiple sources—but almost none from imported oil—we get improved energy security. Electric vehicles are the only ones that get cleaner as they get older—because the power grid is becoming more cleaner. And electric motors have instantaneous torque for fast acceleration.

Why not just wait for the plug-in models OEMs will introduce by 2015? Unproven demand means they won’t make many. Hybrids took ten years to become 1% of all U.S. vehicles and 2% of new sales. So new plug-ins won’t significantly reduce petroleum use and CO2 for 15 years or longer.

Fortunately, we can get those benefits sooner by fixing tens of millions of over 250 million U.S vehicles—and nearly one billion in the world.

Electric Car Retrofits

Here’s how it could look: OEMs, dealers, and partners map out new revenue opportunities. Multiple customer-service pathways extend vehicles’ lives, reducing fuel and use and lifetime total cost of ownership. Electrification is the biggest but not the only fix. Dealers equip recent cars with real-time engine displays—videogames with fuel-saving tips. Some models get improved engine efficiency and aerodynamics. Dealers offer discounted home tire inflators, remote diagnostics, and at-home component swap-outs.

Past customers get validated, warrantied retrofits, installed by dealers or on idled assembly lines. OEMs certify franchises and garages as “qualified vehicle modifiers,” as they do now for customizers of everything from sunroofs to stretch limos.

The result? Hundreds of thousands of green installer jobs and a recharged supply chain for motors, electronics, batteries, and mechanical components. U.S. companies gain global leadership and licensing opportunities. Vehicles originally built anywhere get stickers, “Fixed in the U.S.A.”

How do we get there? By jump-starting a conversion industry, eventually paired with automakers. OEMs help commercialize safe, reliable conversions by blessing small companies’ retrofit solutions even if they’re inherently not optimized.

Washington has set a goal of a million new plug-ins by 2015. As the largest fleet owner, it could offset high costs for initial prototypes. Federal procurement could spark retrofits to military and civilian pickups, shuttle vans and buses. Innovation-friendly regulations could pave the way to rapid approval of conversion designs.

“Cash for Clunkers” could expand to incentivize converting vehicles, helping companies get started. Washington put a toe in the water with a 10% tax credit for plug-in conversions, up to $4,000. With gas over $3, a conversion industry could take off if, like the Chevy Volt, the first 200,000 of each model like the Chevy Silverado could get a $7,500 credit.

This could lead to financing by automotive “energy service companies,” which, like those working with building owners, could offer fleet owners one-day conversions at no up-front cost, with the installer collecting credits and sharing in fuel savings over time.

None of this depends on new technologies or infrastructure. Silicon Valley can show Detroit how continuous improvements and upgrades can accelerate the transition from foreign oil to domestic electricity. Visionary entrepreneurs can pluck the low-hanging fruit. We can finally align the interests of buyers, sellers, and get everyone rooting for great cars from a profitable industry.

Serial entrepreneur Felix Kramer is the founder of Calcars.org, a Palo Alto, CA-based nonprofit promoting plug-in hybrids. (He is also an advisor to several aftermarket retrofit companies.) For more see “Conversions to electrify World’s 900+ Million Cars.” All images courtesy of calcars.org.

The jobs produced by the new training programs will not necessarily “green collar,” because they will vary depending on local market needs. But the emphasis Gov. Granholm has been putting on building the state’s clean energy manufacturing sector, for example, is creating new jobs in the state’s budding wind turbine manufacturing industry that require specific types of knowledge, skills, and abilities.

>>More on green collar jobs at RG&B

“We must do everything we can to help our citizens get the training they need for good-paying jobs in this challenging global economy,” Granholm said. “These bills are another part of our plan to ensure that we have a strong workforce that can compete and win in the 21st century.”

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Car sales are down dramatically - in the UK, November sales were around 35% down on the same time last year - and it is hardly surprising. Big purchases like cars are not on most people’s shopping lists at the moment.  This leaves the industry in big trouble.

As readers will be aware, the auto industry is a major employer on both sides of the Atlantic, both with an enormous chain of suppliers employing a vast workforce, all of whom will be affected by the failure of the industry.

>>More about the auto industry bailout at Green Options

So what is to be done? There are obviously those on the Right whose view is that the industry (and other industries) should stand or fall in a free market - one presumes they were the people who formed the US Senate opposition to bail-out plans. Equally, there are plenty of environmentalists on the Left who are not conceptually very concerned about a reduction in production capacity for the quintessential fossil-fuel-guzzling consumable that is the automobile.

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But is it really surprising that the industry is in a state of collapse considering they continue to make cars that are increasingly irrelevant to the needs of the rest of the world?

This issue is no better demonstrated than by the US Government’s introduction last year of average fuel consumption targets. The legislation mandates a national passenger car fleet average consumption of 32 mpg by 2015, and 35 mpg by 2020.

Is this progress, or is it too little too late?

According to a recent report the fleet average for Europe was 34.4 mpg in 2007. Putting Europeans practically 14 years ahead of the game. Other major auto markets are similarly ahead.

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The White House and Congress are near a bailout for the “Big Three” auto manufacturers with a $15 billion loans. This is supposed to be a bridge loan to tide them over until the market improves. Will the market improve enough to pay back the loan or is this a bridge to nowhere?

Daimler-Benz wrote Chrysler off their books and sold 80% of Chrysler to Cerberus. Cerberus is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the US with total assists over $24 billion, yet they lack the faith to make a loan to their own company.

Bankruptcy is still the best tool for restructuring any failing industry!

Business cycles are a necessary part of any free market economy. Old industries and models must be replaced by new industries and ideas. This requires a shift in both human and material resources.
New industries require new skills. The government can best facilitate such a shift by easing reemployment of the workforce through realistic unemployment payments, education, investment in sustainable research and industry and a national health plan.

Healthcare, and pensions are a big part the Big Three’s problem. For every dollar paid as wages, more are spent on benefits for retired employees. Portability of health and welfare with affordable housing can increase mobility of the workforce.

Government should not try to pick winner in the market place. Old industry and models become entrenched into the government through lobbyist, influence pedaling, and just inertia. When Morse introduced the electric telegraph, he had to overcome a congress that was sold on optical telegraph – flashing lights, mirrors and telescopes.

Edison tried frantically to get alternating current banned as unsafe. Using A.C.. technology, Westinghouse drove Edison General Electric into bankruptcy, but GE emerged to become a pioneer and powerful competitor in a.c. technology.

Chrysler rose from the ashes of Maxwell Motors in 1915 by performance and safety innovations. It was reborn in the late ’70. After suffering loses from Dodge and Plymouth, Chrysler hired Lee Iaccoca, the former Ford CEO, who had been fired by Henry Ford II over his plain to market compacts.

While Iaccoca got government backing for loans, changes at Chrysler were well underway. He hired fellow renegades from Ford. The K-car, Omni, and Horizon are automotive history.

It’s been said that going to the moon was successful since it was a well-defined goal. Our primary goal should be greater than any particular market. It must represent a broad set of outcomes.

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This plan would provide emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler; however, Ford has stated it will not seek out federal loans.  GM and Chrysler claim they will not be in business much longer without federal assistance.  According to GM:

From plants to parks. From dealerships to driveways. From gas stations to grocery stores. What happens in the automotive industry affects each and every one of us. In fact, the collapse of the U.S.-based auto industry wouldn’t just impact the nearly 355,000 Americans directly employed by the Big Three. One out of every 10 people in America is employed in a service that is related to the U.S. auto industry. If a plant closes, so does its suppliers, the local stores, the hot dog vendors, and the local restaurants.

The House passed the American auto industry bailout bill largely along party lines.  The final vote was 237 to 170,  with 32 Republicans from auto industry states joining 205 Democrats in supporting the rescue package.  Senate Republicans have the power to kill the measure, and the White House has failed to gain their support. In an effort to compromise with Republicans, House Democrats agreed to drop a provision in the auto industry bailout that would have forced the automakers to end their lawsuits challenging state emissions standards, such as in California.

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Watch this video in which Heather Zichal, a member of the Obama-Biden Transition’s Energy and Environment Policy Team, responds to questions submitted to http://www.change.gov on topics ranging from increasing the number of hybrid cars on the road to making the White House green.

Do you have questions related to Obama’s promise of a green economy that you would like to ask the President-elect? Let us know what they are…let’s make this a collaborative effort.

That lifetime is longer than we think. First and second U.S. owners typically keep vehicles seven to ten years. Many large guzzlers—built on durable frames, where it pays to replace rusted bodies—are then sent overseas, where they still produce greenhouse gases.

Why electrify transportation? Compared to combustion engines that waste most of their fuel in heat and friction, over the entire cycle from fuel extraction to use, electric motors are four times more efficient, making electric miles that much cheaper. Since we generate electricity from multiple sources—but almost none from imported oil—we get improved energy security. Electric vehicles are the only ones that get cleaner as they get older—because the power grid is becoming more cleaner. And electric motors have instantaneous torque for fast acceleration.

Why not just wait for the plug-in models OEMs will introduce by 2015? Unproven demand means they won’t make many. Hybrids took ten years to become 1% of all U.S. vehicles and 2% of new sales. So new plug-ins won’t significantly reduce petroleum use and CO2 for 15 years or longer.

Fortunately, we can get those benefits sooner by fixing tens of millions of over 250 million U.S vehicles—and nearly one billion in the world.

Electric Car Retrofits

Here’s how it could look: OEMs, dealers, and partners map out new revenue opportunities. Multiple customer-service pathways extend vehicles’ lives, reducing fuel and use and lifetime total cost of ownership. Electrification is the biggest but not the only fix. Dealers equip recent cars with real-time engine displays—videogames with fuel-saving tips. Some models get improved engine efficiency and aerodynamics. Dealers offer discounted home tire inflators, remote diagnostics, and at-home component swap-outs.

Past customers get validated, warrantied retrofits, installed by dealers or on idled assembly lines. OEMs certify franchises and garages as “qualified vehicle modifiers,” as they do now for customizers of everything from sunroofs to stretch limos.

The result? Hundreds of thousands of green installer jobs and a recharged supply chain for motors, electronics, batteries, and mechanical components. U.S. companies gain global leadership and licensing opportunities. Vehicles originally built anywhere get stickers, “Fixed in the U.S.A.”

How do we get there? By jump-starting a conversion industry, eventually paired with automakers. OEMs help commercialize safe, reliable conversions by blessing small companies’ retrofit solutions even if they’re inherently not optimized.

Washington has set a goal of a million new plug-ins by 2015. As the largest fleet owner, it could offset high costs for initial prototypes. Federal procurement could spark retrofits to military and civilian pickups, shuttle vans and buses. Innovation-friendly regulations could pave the way to rapid approval of conversion designs.

“Cash for Clunkers” could expand to incentivize converting vehicles, helping companies get started. Washington put a toe in the water with a 10% tax credit for plug-in conversions, up to $4,000. With gas over $3, a conversion industry could take off if, like the Chevy Volt, the first 200,000 of each model like the Chevy Silverado could get a $7,500 credit.

This could lead to financing by automotive “energy service companies,” which, like those working with building owners, could offer fleet owners one-day conversions at no up-front cost, with the installer collecting credits and sharing in fuel savings over time.

None of this depends on new technologies or infrastructure. Silicon Valley can show Detroit how continuous improvements and upgrades can accelerate the transition from foreign oil to domestic electricity. Visionary entrepreneurs can pluck the low-hanging fruit. We can finally align the interests of buyers, sellers, and get everyone rooting for great cars from a profitable industry.

Serial entrepreneur Felix Kramer is the founder of Calcars.org, a Palo Alto, CA-based nonprofit promoting plug-in hybrids. (He is also an advisor to several aftermarket retrofit companies.) For more see “Conversions to electrify World’s 900+ Million Cars.” All images courtesy of calcars.org.