Autoblog

Jon Markman at MSN Money doesn't hold back when he says "Corn-based ethanol production is sure to go down as one of the greatest mistakes ever in U.S. energy policy." It's even more provoking when he writes "replacing fossil fuels with corn-based ethanol would double greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades. The studies show that switchgrass, an alternative to ethanol that's more weed than plant, would boost emissions by 50%."

The problem isn't with the cars, the problem is with what it takes to grow the biofuel in the first place. Clearing the land, harvesting, and refining the crops, plus the loss of forest and wild lands and habitats, amounts to creating a carbon footprint worse than fossil fuels. According to the Science article which, admittedly, posits an extreme scenario, it would take 423 years to even out the carbon debt if Indonesia's peat lands were converted to palm oil fields.

The research is starting to give some people pause, such as the folks at the European Union who declared they wanted ten-percent of the block's transport fuel to come from plants. And Joe Fargione of the U.S. Nature Conservancy asks, "Is it worth it? ...[S]urprisingly the answer is 'no'. These natural areas store a lot of carbon, so converting them to crops results in tons of carbon emitted into the atmosphere."

Thanks for the tip, Zo!

[Source: MSN Money]

Bob Lutz has staked a fair amount of his and GM's reputation on the Volt. Even though he has said since the beginning that the Volt needs battery technology that isn't ready for the mass market yet, he also said that the Volt would go on sale by the end of 2010.

Rick Wagoner, though, in a 50-minute Q&A session with journos and bloggers, said that the Volt launch date is "fluid." Citing, again, the lack of battery technology that the Volt would need, he said, "We continue to put massive resources into production as soon as possible. 2010 would be great, but (we) can't guarantee that at this time. We'll keep you posted regularly on our progress."

GM critics -- like the Toyota rep who called the Volt "vaporware" -- will take this as a sign that GM is waffling. GM supporters will say, correctly, that this doesn't mean the Volt won't come out in 2010 -- it simply isn't assured. We would love to see the Volt appear tomorrow. Short of that, we'd love to see GM get the batteries it needs to deliver the Volt on time.

[Source: Detroit News]

NY Times writer Lawrence Ulrich didn't merely disparage the Lexus LS 600h L, he grabbed the car by its back tires, dragged it around back, and while the Times readership looked on, gave it a big city back alley whoopin'. Invoking Nick Nolte, John Matuzsak, Jor-El, Jared from Subway, and blasting the big hybrid's gas mileage, weight, 0-60 time, price, carbon footprint, and the very reason for being, Lexus' standard-bearer could certainly use some private time to recover.

What compliments there were in the article -- and it did garner some genuine compliments -- were little defense against Ulrich's ultimate assessment that "the hybrid may have set a new standard for automotive hyperbole." While it's possible that Lexus didn't expect such a scathing critique from the Gray Lady, it had to know that there would be questions about the paradox of a big, thirsty hybrid. However, Lexus is only making 2,000 of them, and it's a good bet that there are at least that many rich folks looking for what it calls "the progressive person's alternative." The LS 600h L is a shot across the bow. It will really get interesting when we get a glimpse of act two, and the responses from its competitors.

[Source: New York Times]

The Global Hybrid Cooperation partnership - a joint venture of General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and BMW - took the wraps off its new state-of-the-art "full hybrid" system Thursday.

The system integrates electric motors with a fixed-gear transmission into a unit comparable in size and complexity to a conventional automatic transmission. The magic happens via the unit's combination of four fixed gears with two electric continuously variable transmission (ECVT) modes, granting a total of six distinct operating modes:

• Input-split ECVT mode, or continuously variable Mode 1, operates from vehicle launch through the second fixed gear ratio.
• Compound-split ECVT mode, or continuously variable Mode 2, operates after the second fixed gear ratio.
• First fixed-gear ratio with both electric motors available to boost the internal combustion engine or capture and store energy from regenerative braking, deceleration and coasting.
• Second fixed-gear ratio with one electric motor available for boost/braking,
• Third fixed-gear ratio with two electric motors available for boost/braking.
• Fourth fixed-gear ratio with one electric motor available for boost/braking.

In comparison to conventional hybrid systems, the GHC design is claimed to provide better combined city/highway fuel economy, better performance, and better towing capability.

More details in the full press release after the jump.

[Source: DaimlerChyrsler]

While most car manufacturers believe that hydrogen fuel cells are the long-term solution to reducing petroleum consumption and automotive air pollution, a number of problems remain unsolved at present. Two of the biggest are how to produce hydrogen efficiently, and how to store it in a vehicle.

A recent article in Wired points to a possible solution for hydrogen production-- bioengineered algae. Developed at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab, the green hydrogen generators use energy from photosynthesis to produce hydrogen. Now that the algae's energy efficiency has been pumped up to useful levels, researchers are working on increasing the efficiency of hydrogen production. Ultimately, algae farms in the desert could be used as hydrogen factories.

The storage problem is also a major obstacle, and one of the goals of the Department of Energy's FreedomCAR program is to develop a hydrogen storage material capable of holding six-percent of its total weight in hydrogen. (Given that hydrogen is the lightest element, this isn't as easy as it sounds.) Recently, researchers at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory have enjoyed promising results using carbon nanotubes as a storage medium, although considerable work will be required to make them practical for routine, rechargeable storage applications. Nonetheless, early experiments have already achieved  five-percent hydrogen storage by weight.

Looks like we may be on the road to finding two pieces of the puzzle.

[Thanks for the tips, Keith!]

Well, not exactly, but President Bush's current fascination with E85 fuel aside, problems with widespread adoption of high ethanol content fuels go far beyond the lack of special pumps at your corner gas station-- the U.S. has an E85 shortage, and we're importing ethanol from Brazil to make up the shortfall.

The reason? Too much demand, and not enough supply, a conondrum that leads to shortages and high prices.

Oil companies that still use MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether to you chemists) to oxygenate gasoline are rapidly shifting to using ethanol instead, to avoid the public health hazard created by the additive (and the attendant lawsuits). While much of the U.S. already uses E10 blended gasoline, the East Coast and Texas region still depend on MTBE-blended fuel.

Unfortunately, U.S. ethanol production is running at capacity, and there isn't enough U.S. ethanol to replace all that MTBE. U.S. capacity will increase as new facilities eventually come on line, but that isn't solving this year's problem.

Already, ethanol prices have been driven high enough that E85 is selling for as much or more than gasoline, even though its energy content is lower (leading to comparatively lower fuel efficiency). Things will get worse before they get better, with CNN/Money reporting that the ethanol shortage will affect regions depending on it to replace MTBE... leading to high prices and possible fuel shortages on the East Coast and in Texas.