Green Options

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. 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 [...]

I was recently glancing through the Washington Post, when the headline, “Green Is In The Eye Of The Beholder,” caught my eye — mostly because I have been wondering a similar question question as of late: What, exactly, makes a vehicle “green?”

It seems there are as many answers as there are shades of green. But, ultimately, the question all automakers need to figure out the answer to — especially the Big Three in Detroit — is which variety of environmentally friendly vehicles do Americans really want?

At the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, Audi announced that their Clean Diesel A3 TDI would be available in US by early 2010.

The Audi A3 is by far one of Europe’s cleanest and most fuel-efficient cars, and Audi is hoping the car will kick some major Prius butt. Pitching the car as a hybrid-fighter, Audi is pairing it off against both the Prius and the Honda Insight.

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Volkswagen showed off its latest roadster — the BlueSport Concept. The BlueSport features a 177 hp diesel engine with rail injection and a downstream NO_x storage catalytic converter, all in a 6-speed DSG dual clutch transmission.

Last week at the Detroit auto show, new, battery-powered, green cars reigned supreme. General Motors announced finalized plans for its Chevrolet Volt, which will be on the market in both fully electric and plug-in hybrid forms by late 2010. LG Chem, a South Korean company, won the much anticipated contract to manufacture the Volt’s lithium-ion batteries, beating out several other contenders, including Massachusetts’s A123Systems and Germany’s Continental AG.

Well, actually I wasn’t there, at the Detroit Auto Show, but it stands to reason that someone from Ford uttered those words, near a rotating platform, without breaking into a laugh.  I’m willing to go on record, though, with the prediction that Ford’s new engine, the EcoBoost, will bear a new nameplate within two years. In a world fixated on what is sustainable, that name is simply not.

The name of Ford’s new V6 engine seems to imply that power is somehow boosted by some naturally occurring and environmentally sustainable green technology, like tree leaves, or a river.  Cars are a long way from being environmentally friendly, regardless of the technology that’s been developed and put into hybrid and electric cars.  Electrical outlets don’t grow own trees, and in fact, much of the electricity we use is powered by coal, not exactly a clean or sustainable technology.

This has been a Lotus/Chrysler-heavy blog in the past few days, but let’s face it: if you’re talking advanced automotive technology and lightweight engineering, you’re talking about Lotus Cars - and if you’re talking highly-anticipated new electric vehicles at Detroit’s 2009 NAIAS auto show, you’re talking about Chrysler’s ENVI electric-vehicle program.

The car shown above is the Dodge Circuit, which Chrysler promised would be a real step forward from the concept Dodge EV they showed last summer (a UK-only Lotus Europa powered by a 200 kW electric motor that Dodge painted yellow and decorated with cheap vinyl stickers).  I won’t keep you in suspense:  it ain’t.

More - including Chrysler’s official press release and some official photography - after the jump.

Automotive News is reporting that Chrysler is readying an updated version of its Dodge EV concept for the Geneva auto show later this year.

Despite a solid PR launch of Chrysler’s ENVI electric vehicle group, the current Dodge EV is little more than UK-only Lotus Europa with Dodge badges and fly-yellow paint.  This new concept, however, promises to be something more.

From Automotive News:

The Dodge EV shown in September was a Lotus-derived electric sports car. Look for the show version to have more Dodge styling cues and possibly be a four-passenger coupe.

Reading between the lines a bit, then, what can we expect from Chrysler?

Utilities are among the groups now considering mass orders of electric vehicles from the U.S. automobile manufacturing sector, to help the autocompanies make the biggest manufacturing realignment since since WWII.

Mercedes-Benz plans to unveil all electric plug-ins next month at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, according to Hybrid Cars. All models go zero to sixty in under 11 seconds!

5 million $10,000 deposits on EVs and PHEVs could focus automakers on building the solution