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Toyota Issues 2010 Prius Recall'); document.write('
posted on February 09, 2010 02:59:21 pm'); document.write('

Official Toyota FAQs

Toyota answers the most frequently asked questions about the Prius recall.

After several days of speculation, Toyota today issued a recall of the 2010 model year Priuses as well as Lexus HS250h luxury hybrid. Only the 2010 model year vehicles are involved because previous generations had different brake system software. The total recall will include about 150,000 vehicles in the United States.

With the recall, Toyota is responding to about 200 official complaints that the anti-lock braking causes the cars to have an \"inconsistent brake feel\" during slow and steady application of the brakes on rough or slippery surfaces. Toyota says that the system is working as intended. The Prius and HS250h recall is separate from the company’s larger recall regarding unintended acceleration.

The repair, which involves loading new anti-lock brake software onto the car, takes about 30 minutes to perform. 2010 model year Toyota Priuses manufactured after January 27 and Lexus HS250h units manufactured after February 8 already have the new software.

Toyota says the 2010 Prius is completely safe. If your brakes feel unusual, keep pressing firmly on the brake pedal. Don\'t pump brakes. Instead, keep the pedal firmly pressed down.
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Coda Takes on Major Players for Affordable Pure Electric Car'); document.write('
posted on February 09, 2010 12:35:42 am'); document.write('

$\"Coda$

California buyers will have the chance to purchase a Chinese-built highway-capable all-electric car by the end of this year. That was the promise made by Coda Automotive CEO Kevin Czinger to a group of about 60 automotive journalists last week. Speaking to a meeting of the Western Automotive Journalists, Czinger revised earlier pronouncements on price, declaring that after the $7,500 federal tax credit, a new Coda sedan will retail for about $30,000, a price comparable to a high-end Toyota Prius with similar equipment. That price point should be very competitive with the Chevy Volt, although will be perhaps $2,000 to $3,000 more than the Nissan Leaf. The Coda sedan, Volt, and Leaf will all go on sale in late 2010.

\"We\'re focused on the battery,\" Czinger said in summary of his start-up company\'s reason for being. \"We have the first and best (automotive scale) mass-produced battery pack\" and \"we own the intellectual property on our battery system and advanced electronics.\"

$\"Coda$

Coda is producing the batteries in China in association with Lishen Power Battery. The partners have the potential to make 20,000 units a year. Based on that volume, according to Czinger, the company would have enough capacity to one day consider selling their batteries to other car companies. That lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery, which features 728 cells, is durable enough to offer with an 8-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

\"To get the first vehicles out, we had to design the battery within the [given] vehicle requirements,\" said Czinger. The Coda sedan has a four-passenger Mitsubishi chassis with a nondescript Pininfarina-designed body weighing 3,360 pounds. The Coda sedan will be built to order, so new purchasers can expect their vehicles to be delivered four-to-eight weeks after they\'ve been ordered. Prior to delivery, Czinger said that Coda has an arrangement with Sears to have one of their technicians visit the new buyer\'s home to determine its adaptability for installation of a 220-volt charger. He added that Sears will handle permitting and installation, an issue that has tripped up some companies venturing into the EV field in the past.

The next Coda car will be designed from the ground up as electric vehicles, Czinger promised.
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Hermance Award Debuts at 2010 Chicago Auto Show'); document.write('
posted on February 08, 2010 01:05:05 pm'); document.write('

$\"Dave$
David Hermance

The 2010 Chicago Auto Show, which kicks off later this week, is the location for the inaugural presentation of the Hermance Vehicle Efficiency Award. The award recognizes the most efficient new car with the greatest consumer appeal. The award is given in honor of the late David Hermance, Toyota’s highly respected executive engineer of environmental engineering. Hermance was considered Toyota’s hybrid guru, and a spokesperson for efficient vehicle technologies for the entire auto industry.

The 2010 Hermance Vehicle Efficiency Award will be presented this Wednesday, Feb.10, to the new vehicle that represents Hermance’s vision, described by the award committee as “practical efficient design, as well as affordability for consumers and profitability for car companies.” The organizers hope the award will help consumers better understand the importance of efficiency—and place a high value on it when purchasing their next vehicle. Only cars and trucks currently available in showrooms today are eligible for the award. All powertrain and fuel options were evaluated on an equal basis.

“I\'d like to leave the planet a little better than I found it. It\'s going to be hard work.”

The late David Hermance
Toyota\'s executive engineer of environmental engineering
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Sorting Out Hybrid Brake Issue: Safety Issue or a Different Feel?'); document.write('
posted on February 05, 2010 02:49:46 pm'); document.write('

Coming at the heels of Toyota’s problems with sticking accelerator pedals, news of potential braking problems on the 2010 Toyota Prius and Lexus HS250h hybrid has raised legitimate concerns among hybrid owners. Yet, media coverage of Toyota’s safety issues may be blurring the lines between a potentially fatal problem with the accelerator pedals—resulting in a massive recall of 4.5 million Toyota vehicles—and the hybrid braking issues that may largely be based on perception.

First, consider that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received nearly 200 consumer complaints about the 2010 Toyota Prius’s braking performance—while approximately 103,000 units of the 2010 Prius are on US roads. (Each of these case must be investigated before any conclusions can be drawn.) It’s also interesting to note that in Japan, where the 2010 Prius has been the No. 1 selling car for six months and 200,000 units have been sold, the Prius braking issue “hasn’t registered on the national radar,” according to National Public Radio reporter Lucy Craft. She characterized the coverage in the US as a “hysterical reaction,” compared to the response in Japan.

$\"2010$
Some drivers of the 2010 Toyota Prius have complained of a feeling of losing brake power when going over a bumpy surface.

NPR added that Toyota doesn’t believe there are any “defects” and any problems related to the driving experience can be “fixed fairly easily by adjusting some software.” That’s exactly the position taken by Ford to some customer complaints about braking in the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid and 2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid. \"While the vehicles maintain full braking capability, customers may initially perceive the condition as loss of brakes,\" said Ford. “There have been no injuries related to this condition.” Toyota informed HybridCars.com that \"there is no loss of braking control.\"

In an interview with local ABC News, Wayne Mitchell, co-founder of a local Prius chat group in Chicago, said, “The sensation you have is like your accelerating, but in actuality you\'re just coasting.\" He explained that the brake pedal doesn\'t feel engaged going over an uneven surface, even though it is. \"If you were just to push a little further into your brake pedal, the brakes—the regular brakes—are there. They\'ll come on and they\'ll stop the car,\" said Mitchell.
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Ford Will Update Software on Fusion Hybrid Brakes'); document.write('
posted on February 04, 2010 06:20:43 pm'); document.write('

A day after Toyota admitted to a software problem with its hybrid braking system, Ford Motor Co. says that it will update the brake-related software on the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid and Mercury Milan Hybrid.

\"We have received reports that some drivers have experienced a different brake feel when the hybrid\'s unique regenerative brakes switch to conventional hydraulic braking,\" Ford said. \"While the vehicles maintain full braking capability, customers may initially perceive the condition as loss of brakes.\"

“To be clear, the Fusion and Milan Hybrids’ brake system maintains full conventional brakes and full ABS function even as the customer sees visual indicators and hears a chime. The software threshold to transition from regenerative brakes to conventional brakes can cause the system to transition to conventional brakes unnecessarily. The software upgrade will reduce unnecessary occurrences of the vehicle switching from regenerative braking to conventional hydraulic brakes.”

Ford Statement

Ford said there have been no injuries related to this condition. Customers with affected vehicles will receive a notice in the mail, asking them to bring in the cars to be reprogrammed at dealers at no charge. The company is calling the effort a \"customer satisfaction program.\"
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Toyota Admits Brake Design Problems with 2010 Prius'); document.write('
posted on February 04, 2010 10:03:15 am'); document.write('

$\"2010$
2010 Prius

Toyota acknowledged Thursday that it found software design problems with the antilock brake system on the 2010 model year Prius. The company corrected the problem in Prius models sold since late January. The company said it was still investigating how to inform people who had bought the 2010 model prior to January. Toyota has sold approximately 100,000 units of the 2010 model since it went on sale in spring 2009.

The braking issue is not related to the unintended acceleration problem that recently led to a series of recalls on earlier Prius models, as well as eight non-hybrid Toyota models.

Paul Nolasco, a company spokesman, said the time lag for Prius brakes kicking in felt by drivers stem from the two systems in a gas-electric hybrid—the gas engine and the electric motor. When the car moves on a bumpy or slippery surface, a driver can feel a momentary pause in braking—lasting about one second—when the vehicle switches between the traditional hydraulic brakes and the electronically operated braking system. The brakes start to work if the driver keeps pushing the pedal.

While the Prius braking issue could cause safety problems at high speeds, the common complaint from drivers has been related to the \"feel\" or \"sensation\" during braking. A visitor to HybridCars.com wrote, \"It feels like the car is sliding on ice but only lasts a second then the brakes hold again.\" Others have described it as \"lurching forward\" or an \"unsettling experience.\"
Toyota said Thursday a software glitch is to blame for braking problems in the 2010 model. In late 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started to track reports—so far about 100 consumer complaints—about the 2010 Toyota Prius’s braking performance.
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Hybrid Owners Question Toyota Acceleration Explanation'); document.write('
posted on February 02, 2010 09:03:51 pm'); document.write('

When Toyota announced last week that it was halting sales and production of models associated with unintended acceleration, owners of the Toyota Prius, Camry Hybrid, and Highlander Hybrid, as well as Lexus hybrid owners, were somewhat relieved. That’s because the hybrid models were not included in the list of affected models.

Toyota said the problematic pedals found on conventional models are provided by CTS Automotive Products, while a different supplier, Denso Corporation, supplies the accelerator pedals for Toyota hybrids. As a result, the assembly line for the Camry Hybrid has remained online at Toyota’s Kentucky plant, while the non-hybrid Camry in the same plant has been idled.

Sticking Pedal versus Pedal Floor Mat Entrapment

To add to the confusion, the Toyota Prius remains on a different recall list, first issued in September, when the company said it would reshape or replace accelerator pedals on 3.8 million vehicles. That recall involves 2004 to 2009 Priuses—and recent year models of the Camry, Avalon, Tacoma and Tundra, as well as Lexus models ES 350, IS 250, and IS 350. The correction is intended to reduce the risk that the pedal may be jammed in the floor mat. In addition, the company will replace original equipment floor mats with redesigned mats.

Mike Michels, Toyota vice-president of communications, informed HybridCars.com in an email:

“The sticking pedal issue does not affect Prius, but the pedal floor mat entrapment does involve Prius and there is a recall in the works to modify the cars to make them less likely to get entrapped by an out of place all weather floor mat.”

At the time of the floor mat recall—prior to the more recent recall involving the accelerator hardware—ABC News cited reports of 16 acceleration-related deaths and more than 200 accidents. It’s not clear if those accidents are attributed to a sticking pedal or the floor mat problem, or a combination of the two. At the time, Toyota said it had confidence the problem was linked to floor mats and not a vehicle design flaw or problems related to braking, fuel or accelerator systems.

Publicity Fuels Speculation

Confusion about the two different potential causes of the acceleration problem most recently has been confounded by a number of anecdotal stories concerning Priuses. Speaking at an event in San Francisco last week, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said that his 2010 Toyota Prius—not on either of the two recall lists—has “an accelerator that goes wild, but only under certain conditions of cruise control.” He said, “This is software. It\'s not a bad accelerator pedal. It\'s very scary, but luckily for me, I can hit the brakes,\" he said.
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BMW Plug-in Hybrid Sports Car Coming in 2013'); document.write('
posted on February 02, 2010 11:39:58 am'); document.write('

$\"BMW$

A senior BMW executive last week told Edmunds.com that its 356-horsepower plug-in hybrid 2+2 concept sports car is headed for production in 2013. Only time will tell if the comment is backed by a real commitment from BMW. Regardless, the vehicle follows an emerging trend that the world’s fastest, most exotic, and most expensive sports vehicles will utilize some form of efficient electric-drive technology. It also, once again, shatters the image of a hybrid as slow and dorky.

“It’s the sports car of the future, the way BMW imagines it.” That’s how Adrian van Hooydonk, director of BMW’s group design, described the “BMW Vision EfficientDynamics” two-door vehicle that was unveiled at last year’s Frankfurt Auto Show. BMW’s overarching goal was to combine breath-taking speed and groundbreaking efficiency. In the BMW Vision, that boils down to 4.8-second 0-to-60 miles per hour acceleration and 63 mile to the gallon.

$\"BMW$

First, BMW engineers use the rear-axle to combine a turbo-charged three-cylinder diesel engine and the mildest forms of hybrid technology. Then they add a second motor to drive the front wheels exclusively by electricity. When both motors and the diesel engine are called into service, the overall system can put out 356 horsepower. The car’s slippery design boasts a drag coefficient of 0.22—beating out the Toyota Prius’s 0.25. With great aerodynamics and a lightweight polycarbonate glass skin, the Vision’s 10.8 kWh battery provides enough grid-supplied energy storage to travel 30 miles purely on electricity.

The BMW executive told Edmunds that total volume could be between 5,000 and 10,000 units. No word yet on price, but the lithium ion batteries, diesel engine, exotic materials, and low-production numbers can’t be cheap. It will probably slot well above the BMW ActiveHybrid 7, the 4.4-liter V8 sedan offering around 20 mpg, which will sell for $103,000 when it debuts in mid-2010.

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Ferrari Hybrid Heads to Geneva'); document.write('
posted on January 31, 2010 12:05:07 pm'); document.write('

$\"Ferrari$

Ferrari will show its first hybrid production car this March at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. The high-end hybrid specimen will be a gas-electric version of the carmaker’s eye-popping 599 GTB. It will also be the world’s first ready-for-market exotic hybrid.

The exact specs will not be known until the car is unveiled, but it will most likely unite a lithium ion battery pack with a pair of electric motors fixed at the rear axle, along with Ferrari’s outlandishly powerful 600-plus horsepower V12 engine. Other fuel-saving features will include start-stop capabilities and Formula One-based regenerative braking technology known as KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). Fuel economy is expected to increase by about 30 percent over the non-hybrid 599 GTB. In other words, it will go from about 9 miles per gallon to about 12 miles per gallon.

The World\'s Fastest Eco-Cars

The days of fuel economy only coming in small, slow and stripped-down cars are over. Every major auto show these days brings the unveiling of another green super car using hybrid or electric car technology to conserve fuel while delivering Ferrari-like performance.

Nobody expects the Ferrari 599 GTB to save the earth from global warming—especially when you consider how few Ferraris there are, and how little they are actually driven by their owners. Ultimately, this move serves more as a sign of the times and a testament to technology, rather than having any kind of tangible impact on the environment. “It sends a message,” said Ben Davis, roadtest producer for PBS’ MotorWeek. “It’s a ripple effect that starts at the upper echelon of the auto industry, and echoes a theme that green is good.”

Reports of Ferrari testing a hybrid powertrain first surfaced in June 2009, but details were sketchy. Ferrari’s plans to reduce carbon emissions have been making news for the last few years, mainly due to Europe’s resolution for more stringent emissions standards to take effect in 2012. Still, it is unclear what route Ferrari and other ultra-luxury brands will take. Hybrids are just one possibility in a field of options that included diesels, electric cars, biofuels, and hydrogen. Ferrari may explore these other areas, but gas-electric technology is the carmaker’s first concrete initiative on the green front.
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Tesla Pins Hopes on IPO and Model S Sedan'); document.write('
posted on January 30, 2010 06:55:39 pm'); document.write('

$\"Tesla$
Tesla Model S

One week after finalizing the terms for a $465 million low cost federal government loan, Tesla Motors on Friday filed for an initial public offering. The company’s strategy is to sell $100 million worth of stock, and with a new level of capital in its coffers, to focus its efforts on launching its second vehicle—the $58,000 five-seat Model S luxury all-electric sedan.

“If we are to ever achieve profitability it will be dependent upon the successful development and successful commercial introduction and acceptance of automobiles such as the Model S, which may not occur,” Tesla said in the filing. Tesla originally planned to launch the car in 2011—but the current target is 2013.

Tesla defied the odds in bringing its $109,000 Roadster to market. According to filing documents, Tesla sold a total of 937 Roadsters by the end of last year, of which a large number had been reserved in previous years. Yet, the company recorded a bottom-line loss of $31.5 million for the first nine months of 2009—and has lost a total of $236.4 million since its inception in 2004. Tesla said it will use $33 million of its anticipated 2010 capital expenditures budget of $100 to $125 million to pay for parts of the powertrain and Model S production facility costs that are not covered by the federal loan.

Since the beginning, company founders and early investors expected the enter the market with the six-figure Tesla Roadster—merely as a stepping-stone to a more affordable electric car that could be produced and sold in greater volumes. Tesla is credited with spawning an industry-wide shift to electrified transportation, but that imitation could make it more difficult for Tesla to reach its annual sales target of 20,000 units for the Model S. By the time Tesla is selling the Model S, there will be several electric models on the market, including the Fisker Karma, Chevy Volt, Prius Plug-in Hybrid, and the all-electric Nissan Leaf.
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Official Toyota FAQs

Sticking Pedal versus Pedal Floor Mat Entrapment

Publicity Fuels Speculation

The World\'s Fastest Eco-Cars