Toyota and Lexus Achieve United States and Global Hybrid Sales Milestones

Toyota and Lexus Achieve United States and Global Hybrid Sales Mileston ... http://p.ost.im/p/dXmLWs

Toyota and Lexus Achieve United States and Global Hybrid Sales Milestones

 

 

Nearly 2 million (1,951,243) Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicles have been sold in the United States since July 2000 and a total of 5 million globally.  Toyota estimates its global fleet of nearly 20 hybrid vehicles has resulted in approximately 34 million fewer tons of CO₂ emissions and fuel consumption than those emitted by gasoline-powered vehicles. In addition, Toyota estimates its hybrids have saved owners more than 3 billion gallons of gasoline compared to gasoline-only powered vehicles.

Toyota and Lexus hybrids make up 70 percent of the U.S. auto industry’s total hybrid vehicle sales, and account for 16 percent of overall Toyota/Lexus sales globally and locally.  Between now and the end of 2015, Toyota plans to introduce 18 new hybrid models and expects global sales of its hybrids to be at least 1 million units a year.  Toyota Motor Sales forecasts that about one-third of those will be sold in the United States.

Toyota and Lexus Achieve United States and Global Hybrid Sales Milestones

New ‘Arrive in Style’ Safe Driving Campaign to Empower Teenage Girls

New ‘Arrive in Style’ Safe Driving Campaign to Empower Teenage Girl ... http://p.ost.im/p/dCmLSM

New ‘Arrive in Style’ Safe Driving Campaign to Empower Teenage Girls

Toyota and Teen Vogue magazine are partnering to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving among teenage girls and empower them to be safer drivers.  Through a new campaign, “Arrive in Style,” teens can learn safe driving practices and are encouraged to make a commitment with their parents to drive safely by signing Toyota’s Mutual Driving Agreement.

The campaign includes print, digital and social media elements that will run this week through February 2014.  Monthly features in Teen Vogue will include helpful tips and advice from Toyota’s teen safe driving programs, Toyota Teen Driver and Toyota Driving Expectations.  The campaign also will include stories and online videos of Teen Vogue readers and their mothers, which will highlight how they are making the commitment together to driving safely.

 

For more details, go to teenvogue.com/arriveinstyle.

New ‘Arrive in Style’ Safe Driving Campaign to Empower Teenage Girls

What Do U.S. Car Shoppers Really Want?

What Do U.S. Car Shoppers Really Want? Continue reading ... http://p.ost.im/p/dCHyT6

What Do U.S. Car Shoppers Really Want?

By Joseph B. White, Wall Street Journal

American car buyers are a tricky bunch to please. Consumers want luxury and performance, but they want fuel economy. They’re intrigued by electric cars but they are far more likely to buy a family-size sport utility. They want affordable hatchbacks with the safety technology of a luxury sedan.

A look at five new cars unveiled at the 2013 New York International Auto Show this week reveals how auto makers are trying to respond to these mixed signals in surprising ways, from Mercedes-Benz small electric hatchback to Toyota Motor Corp.’s plush SUV. These cars will hit showrooms during the next year.

Luxury car brands are stepping up their efforts to deliver eye-popping horsepower numbers without subjecting buyers to the indignity of paying a gas guzzler tax as part of the purchase price.

What Do U.S. Car Shoppers Really Want?

Earth Day: The History of A Movement

Earth Day: The History of A Movement Continue reading ... http://p.ost.im/p/dCA6pu

Earth Day: The History of A Movement

Each year, Earth Day — April 22 — marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

The height of hippie and flower-child culture in the United States, 1970 brought the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last Beatles album, and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. Protest was the order of the day, but saving the planet was not the cause. War raged in Vietnam, and students nationwide increasingly opposed it.

At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.  Although mainstream America remained oblivious to environmental concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962.  The book represented a watershed moment for the modern environmental movement, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries and, up until that moment, more than any other person, Ms. Carson raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and public health.

Earth Day 1970 capitalized on the emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center.

The idea came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land.

As a result, on the 22nd of April, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, andEndangered Species Acts. “It was a gamble,” Gaylord recalled, “but it worked.”

As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It also prompted President Bill Clinton to award Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1995) — the highest honor given to civilians in the United States — for his role as Earth Day founder.

As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. With 5,000 environmental groups in a record 184 countries reaching out to hundreds of millions of people, Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. It used the Internet to organize activists, but also featured a talking drum chain that traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, and hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Earth Day 2000 sent world leaders the loud and clear message that citizens around the world wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy.

Much like 1970, Earth Day 2010 came at a time of great challenge for the environmental community. Climate change deniers, well-funded oil lobbyists, reticent politicians, a disinterested public, and a divided environmental community all contributed to a strong narrative that overshadowed the cause of progress and change. In spite of the challenge, for its 40th anniversary, Earth Day Network reestablished Earth Day as a powerful focal point around which people could demonstrate their commitment. Earth Day Network brought 225,000 people to the National Mall for a Climate Rally, amassed 40 million environmental service actions toward its 2012 goal of A Billion Acts of Green®, launched an international, 1-million tree planting initiative with Avatar director James Cameron and tripled its online base to over 900,000 community members.

The fight for a clean environment continues in a climate of increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more manifest every day. We invite you to be a part of Earth Day and help write many more victories and successes into our history. Discover energy you didn’t even know you had. Feel it rumble through the grassroots under your feet and the technology at your fingertips. Channel it into building a clean, healthy, diverse world for generations to come.

Earth Day: The History of A Movement

Experts: Electric cars a decade from the mainstream

Electric vehicles are still a decade from becoming mainstream Continue ... http://p.ost.im/p/dxw6q8

Experts: Electric cars a decade from the mainstream

By Alisa Priddle

Detroit Free Press Business Writer

Electric vehicles are still a decade from becoming mainstream, experts said at Tuesday’s Megatrends auto conference in Dearborn.

“Continuous improvement in gas engines will continue to push plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles farther into the future,” said Michael Omotoso, senior manager, global powertrain forecast, with LMC Automotive.

The Troy-based firm does not see electric vehicles hitting 1% of the market until 2018.

It took eight years for hybrids to hit 2% of the U.S. market but the second 2% only took a year, said Mike Tinskey, Ford’s director of global vehicle electrification and infrastructure.

And a recent Harris poll showed that 60% of consumers in the showroom today are interested in hybrids and one in four shoppers are interested in plug-in hybrids, Tinskey said.

One reason is electricity is 20%-25% of the cost of filling a vehicle with gasoline, Tinskey said. The Focus Electric costs $2-$3 to charge; the Fusion hybrid costs about $1 to charge.

There are about 12,000 charging stations in the U.S. and 15,000 in Europe, he said.

More electric vehicles are coming to market but most are small cars: Nissan Leaf and electric versions of the Focus, Honda Fit, Fiat 500, Smart, Scion iQ and the Toyota RAV4crossover.

“We expect sales of each to be low,” Omotoso said, and the lack of a full range of mainstream electric vehicles will keep them from penetrating the market.

President Barack Obama set a goal of having 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. “He won’t reach it until 2017, and there will be more plug-in hybrids than electric vehicles,” Omotoso said.

Regulations are at odds with what consumers want, Omotoso said. Automakers find themselves in the tough position of trying to appease regulators, consumers and shareholders with their mix of vehicles.

Automakers must meet corporate average fuel economy requirements of 54.5 m.p.g. by 2025 although Kevin Green of the CAFE program for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the standard can be met with efficient gasoline engines and advances in areas from transmissions to tires.

Only 1%-3% of the fleet in 2025 needs to be plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles, Green said. That is good given reluctance by consumers to buy them. Even early adopters are buying them as a second or third car, not the primary vehicle for road trips..

And automakers are introducing more diesels. On the horizon: diesel versions of the Chevrolet Cruze, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Mazda6 and Ram 1500.

Diesel prices remain high, in part because of a global shortage, said Stuart Johnson, Volkswagen of America manager of engineering and environment.

Even with the high fuel prices, “we expect diesel to grow,” Omotoso said, in part because the premium for the engine is $2,000-$4,000 while a hybrid can cost $6,000 extra, a plug-in hybrid has a $10,000-$15,000 premium and an electric vehicle is $15,000 to $20,000 more.

“The price is not low enough yet to justify purchase by consumers,” Omotoso said. “As long as the price of gas remains below $4 a gallon, alternatives such as diesels and hybrids are not needed, let alone plug-ins and electric vehicles.”

And gasoline engines can improve efficiency by 10% with just turbocharging, and another 10% with direct injection, in addition to other technologies that don’t involve electricity or recharging.

More Details: Non-electric engine strategies

Automakers are embracing technologies that improve efficiencies of gasoline engines without resorting to electricity. Turbocharging has gone from 6% of cars in 2009 to a projected 30% in 2017, according to LMC. Direct injection is expected to grow from 12% in 2009 to 55% in 2017.

Gasoline engine efficiencies

• Turbocharging improves engine efficiency 5%-10%

• Direct injection, 10%

• 8- to 10-speed transmission, 1%-2%

• System that turns off idling vehicle, 3%-6%.

Experts: Electric cars a decade from the mainstream

AAA Names Its Best Vehicles for Commuters

AAA Names Its Best Vehicles for Commuters Continue reading ... http://p.ost.im/p/dQ5EbE

AAA Names Its Best Vehicles for Commuters

By Jonathan Welsh

General Motors Co.

Chevrolet’s Volt plug-in hybrid is on AAA’s list of top commuter cars.

The automotive and travel group AAA named released a list of the vehicles it judged best for commuters. AAA said 86% of Americans rely on their cars to get to work each day and the average commute takes 25 minutes each way. So having the right vehicle can have a significant effect on one’s quality of life.

For its latest study the group’s auto Buying experts, who test-drive hundreds of vehicles each year, chose models in several categories based on comfort, performance, fuel economy and other factors that can make the trip more pleasant and less costly for commuters.

“Many Americans are spending several hours every week in their vehicle to get to and from work,” says John Nielsen, director, AAA Automotive Engineering & Repair. “Having a vehicle that is reliable, fuel-efficient and comfortable can really make a difference in your everyday routine.”

Here are the top picks in what arguably are four of the more sensible vehicle segments, with excerpts from AAA’s comments and pricing estimates fromTrueCar.com. Note that there are no giant SUVs, pickup trucks or fast sports cars or the list. For more details on the vehicles, visit AAA.

Compact Vehicles

Chevrolet Volt: The car is exceptionally quiet, handles well and boasts great acceleration but rear seat room is tight if you plan to carpool. TrueCar reports that the average transaction price is $38,871.

Toyota Prius or Prius V: The Prius seats five in reasonable comfort and is exceptionally efficient for urban commutes where regenerative braking and the ability to turn the gasoline engine off while the car is stopped enhances fuel efficiency. Average price: $24,066.

Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI: With the option of manual or automatic transmission, these cars are fun to drive, making the longer commutes seem less daunting. TrueCar reports an average price of $23,894 for the manual version.

Sedans

Audi A4: Beautifully finished and very comfortable in front, the A4 can make light work of any commute. The body structure feels exceptionally solid, even when facing rough urban pavement. Driving pleasure earns a very high grade, although the rear seat room earns a much lower score. Average transaction price is $31,697 for the front-drive sedan.

Buick LaCrosse: A steady ride, comfortable seating, responsive handling and an excellent V-6-based drivetrain make this car an ideal choice for commuting in a carpool. For buyers seeking the room and comfort of the LaCrosse with more fuel efficiency, a four-cylinder eAssist drivetrain is offered. Average base price: $30,727.

Ford Fusion: Ford’s entry in the affordably-priced family sedan arena has been completely redesigned for 2013. The new model features a sleek exterior, an upgraded interior and new drivetrains. Front-wheel drive is standard; all-wheel drive is an option. Average base price is $20,038.

Hyundai Genesis: The V6 engine and new 8-speed automatic transmission raise the performance level to the point where the optional V8 is unnecessary. While handling is predictable, the ride does fall a little short of full luxury sedan status. Average price: $33,358.

Nissan Altima: The redesigned 2013 Altima continues to be a top choice for commuting. It is comfortable for all passengers, performs well and offers several unique safety features, including clever use of the backup camera to provide lane departure and blind spot warnings in some models. Average price: $21,706.

Crossovers

Ford Flex: This boxy crossover is hard to beat when looking for room in a vehicle. Buyers will find ample space for passengers or purchases. The ride is quiet and well controlled. Average price is $26,803.

Toyota Highlander: While this vehicle’s size takes a minor toll in handling through sharp bends, a reputation for dependability and long life make it a top choice for commuters needing size and passenger capacity. Average price for the front-wheel-drive model is $27,978.

Minivan

Honda Odyssey: This roomy minivan is offered in a wide range of models, though even basic versions are well equipped and comfortable. Its size suggests that it is best suited to a less crowded commute venue, but even in an urban setting, the Odyssey is easy to drive. Average price for the LX model is $27,801.

AAA Names Its Best Vehicles for Commuters