GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

It was only a matter of time.

On Tuesday the Japanese automaker officially issued a recall of the 2010 3rd generation Prius hybrid for a braking flaw.

A software glitch mishandles the switch between regenerative and friction braking when anti-lock brakes (ABS) are also being activated, leading to a perceived loss of control which for some can be harrowing.

The recall is global and affects over 400,000 Prius and other hybrid cars including 133,000 Prius and 14,500 Lexus HS 250h sold in the US.

Dealers can fix the problem in about 40 minutes.

The recall was announced by Toyota president Akio Toyoda (shown above) who admitted his company was not failure-proof and committed to “redouble our commitment to quality as the lifeline of our company.”

The company denied that the braking flaw was dangerous but was fixing it to allow customers to feel more comfortable.

“We’re committed to doing everything we can – as fast as we can – to restore consumer trust in Toyota, and these recalls are part of this effort,” said Jim Lentz, President and Chief Operating Officer, Toyota Motor Sales. “We regret the inconvenience this recall will cause to Prius and HS 250h owners, and will do our best with the support of our dealers to make sure that it is conducted in the most trouble-free manner possible.”

Source (Toyota)

The Ford Motor company has just unveiled its first commercial electric vehicle.  The Transit Connect Electric Cargo van will go into production in late 2010.

It is a small van weighing in at 3948 pounds with a wheelbase of 114.6 inches and a length of 1806. inches.  It can hold from two to five passengers and a 1000 pound payload.

It is a pure electric vehicle utilizing a Siemens 3 phase AC induction motor and single speed transmission that offers 235 Nm of torque and a top speed of 75 mph on flat ground and 60 mph up 3 percent grade.  It will do 0 to 60 in 12 seconds based on curb weight and 15 seconds based on gross vehicle weight rating.

Power comes from a liquid-cooled 28 kwh Johnson Controls-Saft lithium-ion pack that can be recharged in 6 to 8 hours at 240 volts using the industry standard J1772 SAE coupler. It has an 80 mile target driving range.

The vehicle is intended for commercial fleet use and is “well-suited for commercial fleets that travel predictable, short-range routes with frequent stop-and-go driving in urban and suburban environments and a central location for daily recharging,” said Ford in a press release.

The “Force Drive” electric powertrain is manufactured and integrated by specialty upfitter Azure Dynamics.

“We’re excited about the potential for our electrified vehicles,” said Praveen Cherian, program manager for the Transit Connect Electric, who added that today’s electric vehicle buyers are similar to early adopters of hybrid vehicles. “People were a little hesitant about hybrids at first, but now they accept it and embrace it. We expect the same will be true of electric vehicles.”

Ford says the vehicle will offer lower cost of operation than a comparable gas vehicle due to the low cost of electricity versus gas  fuel and low cost of maintenance.

The vehicle including the battery pack is designed for a lifetime of 10 years/120,000 miles.

The current gasoline powered Transit Connect van won the 2010 North American Truck of the Year.

According to Ford spokesperson Jennifer Moore pricing has not been announced and will be “primarily for commercial use.”  Ford  ”would not exclude retail sales,” she added.

Ford has not yet determined whether the vans will be leased or sold.

“Volumes will be low to begin with to determine how the emerging market shapes up,” says Moore.  ”Up to a thousand will be produced in the first full year of production.”

Ford also plans to bring out a pure electric Ford Focus in late 2011, and in 2012 they will produce their next generation C-class hybrid and plugin hybrid.

Source (Ford)

Jaguar intends to be the third automaker to mass produce an extended range electric car,  joining Chevrolet’s Volt and Fisker’s Karma.

The British automaker recognizes the advantage of the extended range over pure electric design.  They foresee a time when large cities create emission free requirements for vehicles within their city limits across the globe.  Therefore Autocar reports Jaguar executives say “only a self-charging electric car could have sufficient zero-emissions range to be practical transport in such scenarios.”

PHEVs would not have the pure EV range to cover distances into and from those cities

The Jaguar XJ will be powered by a  145 kw electric motor (195 hp) running on electricity supplied by a lithium-ion battery pack.

The range extender will be the 1.2 liter 3-cylinder gas system designed by Lotus specifically for use in range-extended vehicles.

The planned range of the vehicle will be 600 miles and it is expected to achieve a combined fuel economy of 57 mpg (British) and a top speed of 112 mph.

Jaguar executives told Autocar that performance and handling will be surprisingly positive, “because of the bulk that’s removed from car when you strip out the conventional drivetrain.”

The new car is being c0-developed by Jaguar and Lotus in an effort partly funded by the British government.

Source (Autocar)

While the damage to Toyota’s reputation has certainly taken a hit of late due to the widely publicized problems with stuck accelerator pedals on many models, a case could have been made that it was insular event. At the time, it was fortunate for Toyota that the ‘image flagship,’ the Prius, was not involved in the recall. It would seem the other shoe has now dropped as well.

Several hundred drivers have filed complaints that they have experienced delays before the brakes fully activate in the Prius, or that the brakes sometimes became ‘confused’ in certain situations, leading to accidents.

The problems at the company have gotten to the point where Toyota President and professional hermit, Akio Toyoda (who is also the founder’s grandson) left his bunker and made a rare public appearance at a hastily called press conference Friday. Of interest, when Akio tookover the position at Toyota he promised to be the President “closest to the frontliness,” but instead has earned the nickname of “No-show Akio.”

Shockingly, he offer no apology and blamed the previous president and his management team for any and all problems, claiming that everything was perfectly fine now at the ‘new’ Toyota…and the public was just being ridiculous about the whole thing and should move on with it and start buying cars from them again.

Alright, none of that last paragraph is at all true. Mr. Toyoda did exactly what was expected of him; he apologized half a dozen times and promised to fix the problems plaguing the automaker and once regain the trust of the car buying public…while not actually offering anything of real substance.

“We are facing a crisis,” he said. “I offer my apologies for the worries. Many customers are wondering whether their cars are OK.” Mr. Toyoda then promised to strengthen the quality control, and announced a special committee would be formed to ensure Toyota’s return to former glory, and that it would be headed up by himself personally.

However, his rare televised news conference was not without incident. In Japan, it is customary for executives to bow at the start of such a conference, and also when giving a apology. Mr. Toyoda’s bow during the apology portion of the program was received by the local media as being half-hearted and ‘not deep enough’. /the horror

The Toyota president also failed to address the Prius situation directly, and offered no immediate solution or direction to current Prius owners, just that he “has ordered swift action.”

Officially, Toyota has stated that the situation has already been rectified at the factory. Apparently, they retooled the brake mechanism in January and also did a software update to ensure the problem is not a issue going forward. Which is great if you want to buy a new Prius I guess…but not so good if you already own one of the 270,000 odd copies on the road and have been zipping around on bad brakes the last few months (while Toyota has known about the problem) and are still looking for a fix. (The NHTSA has not yet weighed in on the repair procedure, and announced Thursday it was opening a official investigation)

These situations have lead to Toyota taking a lot of heat, both at home and in the US, for acting too slowly. There is also a growing perception that Toyota is only reacting to safety concerns after being taken to task by US and Japanese transportation authorities.

In the US, Toyota has taken blow after blow by the NHSTA Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, who recently gave Toyota’s share price a 7% haircut by uttering the statement, “my advice is, if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it.” That statement was later ‘taken back’ by Mr. Lahood, but retractions are nothing like headlines…and the damage was done.

A few days ago, I wrote a piece entitled, Is Toyota’s Pain GM’s Gain? and although this crisis is badly hurting Toyota’s sales now and for the foreseeable future (they posted a 8.7% loss in January with only a few of the days at the end of the month being affected by these recalls) it is still unclear if GM will directly benefit.

Will a customer looking for a Toyota Camry make the jump to a Malibu? Or will they look to another manufacturer? Honda would seem to benefit the most from that scenario. Or will they simply insist on still buying that Camry, but look to postpone that purchase until well after the US Transportation Secretary gives Toyota the rubber stamp of approval and stops saying things like Toyota is “a little safety deaf”? I wager many will fall into that last camp. People don’t need a excuse to not buy a car right now, and many of Toyota’s customers in the end are probably still fairly loyal. (JD Power surveys puts the retention rate at over 60%) I expect the bulk of Toyota’s lost sales to be mostly customers deciding to just not buy. A no win situation for the industry as a whole.

However, coupling Toyota’s damaged brand name with the tarnish that has been put on the Prius’ halo, it will definitely help one car in particular at GM, our own Chevy Volt.

The Prius is purchased for not only how it performs and how much fuel it saves, but also for how it makes you feel, and how you are perceived by your peers. (The ’smugness’ factor if you will) Many cars have come and gone attempting to compete with, and dethrone the Prius…all have failed. In the end, it may be this convergence of events that opens the door enough for another car to someday take over its halo, and the mantle of the car of the future.

/I don’t see why that car can’t be the Volt

In the first IPO of an automaker since Ford went public in 1956, Telsa Motors has filed with the SEC an application to sell shares to the public and become a publicly traded company.

This is seen as a victory of sorts for the Silicon Valley start-up company that has been plagued with difficulties, controversies and delays. It is another landmark on the path to electrification of the automobile for the company that Bob Lutz admits inspired the Volt concept. Its CEO Elon Musk, billionaire founder of PayPal is not one to give up, and he has been pushing for this event for some time.

The timing of the IPO is not specified but is expected to raise $100 million dollar or more for the sale of shares.  Telsa has already received $465 million in goverment loans for the building of its Model S sedan assembly plant and a powertrain plant.

In the filing Tesla, has indicated it has sold 937 Roadsters for $109,000 each.  In the first three quarters of last year the company lost $31 million on revenue of $93 million.

The company warns that revenue is likely to become lower until 2012 when the Model S Pure EV goes into production.  The car was initially projected to go on sale in 2011, but was moved back. There are 2000 people who have put down $5000 deposits for it. Tesla will also acutally be ending the production of its current 2-seat Roadster in 2011, for which there are only 220 more backorders. A replacement isn’t due until 2013.

The filing also contains an easter-egg of sorts for current Tesla owners.  They will be considered “friends and family” of Tesla which means they will be permitted the option of purchasing shares of the company at its inital price prior to entering the secondary public market. This is a way for Tesla to extend their appreciation to their loyal early customers.

This year is also expected to potentially bring the IPO of the new GM.

Risks or rewards.  Will you buy these companies’ shares?

(Read Prospectus)

What a difference a year makes. The domestic auto industry (forgetting Fiatsler for a moment) is seemingly firing on all cylinders, while Toyota and Honda are hitting road bump after road bump. Which begs the question, can GM take advantage?

For years a trip to the doctor or dentist’s office meant the forced perusal of endless stacks of historical Consumer Reports magazines (unless you really fancied reading May 2006 Issue of Soap Opera Digest). This also meant you were generally treated to a glowing report on Toyota’s latest people mover (unless you were talking about the Tundra), which was usally summed up by a comparison to a similar, but ultimately unfavorable product from Detroit.

To be fair, a good bulk of the criticism was well deserved, but most would agree that the gap has narrowed significantly over time as Toyota has struggled with pressure of being both the number one manufacturer in the world and holding onto the crown for quality and reliability.

Very often public perception is a market-trailing result, gained from a historical experience with a product and does not accurately reflect today’s reality. It takes time for sentiment to change, and in the auto business that can be a very, very long time. A fact GM knows all too well…but sometimes a perfect storm of events lead to things changing in a hurry.

Enter a nationally focused recall and production shut down at Toyota, coupled with a resurgent Detroit auto manufacturing base, and you have some real momentum to change the public’s mind.

Toyota has been dogged by claims of a stuck accelerator pedal for months leading up to this week; at first they claimed it really wasn’t a big deal, didn’t exist, that no real accidents of any significance had occurred, and that maybe it was just floor mat in the end…basically they did whatever they could do to contain the damage.

However, the floodgates opened when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration got involved and claims started coming to the surface on hundreds of accidents. Eventually, millions of cars were recalled, and contrary to what Toyota would have you believe, they were federally mandated to stop production on 8 models until a fix was submitted and approved by the NHTSA.

Throwing even more gasoline on the fire, we now have a House panel holding a hearing at the end of next month, requesting documents from the automaker and the NHTSA about everything they know on it, referencing “persistent consumer complaints of sudden unintended acceleration,” all but guaranteeing the issue stays at the forefront of the news.

When you start hearing statements from the Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman like, “I am concerned by the seriousness and scope of Toyota’s recent recall announcements…our hearing will help us better understand how quickly and effectively Toyota and the NHTSA responded to consumer complaints about the safety of the recalled Toyota vehicles,” you know it has gone past the point of no return.

These 8 production halted models at Toyota account for roughly 6 out of every 10 vehicles sold by the Japanese automaker…which means if you have bought a Toyota car in the last half decade or so, the thought of involuntarily charging into traffic has, at the very least, crossed your mind…and that is not a good thing for Toyota. The only thing worse for Toyota would have been if the recall/stop work order included their flagship Prius…or if Michael Phelps was in a head on collision in one and could never swim for the US again.

Has the focus and criticism of Toyota gotten out of control? Yes. Is it fair to Toyota and the image they have worked so hard to gain over the past couple decades? Probably not. But that is the way it is…and that is the business reality that GM knows all too well of late.

Couple the hit Toyota has taken on its image, with the massive loss they took last year fiscally, along with its gloomy forecast for the coming year and put it up against Detroit’s new found renaissance and you would think it was Toyota that was in trouble.

Conversely, GM now has a clean balance sheet, a forecast of profitability, and potentially a car in the Volt that could steal the thunder from the leader of ‘all things green’ in the Prius. While, the other half of the Detroit equation (Ford) also just finished reporting a 2.7 billion dollar profit for 2009, increased market share, and had a fantastic 4th quarter. (although don’t look behind the curtain too much at that gross negative cash flow, or 1.3B loss from automotive operations…but I digress)

Toyota’s Japanese counterpart Honda has had its own share of troubles. On Friday it announced the recall of some 600,000 cars and has been soundly panned for its abysmal attempt in the strong hybrid market with the Insight (I myself walked from a $500 deposit at my local dealer when specifics/reviews on the car began coming to light). Not to mention introducing what I feel is the ugliest car of the new millennium, the Crosstour. (what the heck is that thing anyway?) Lets just say the new Civic can’t come soon enough for them, and leave it at that.

By no means is General Motor’s all the way back, and I don’t expect to see them atop all the JD Power ratings next year, or even on the cover of Consumers Reports the next time I sit down at my dentist’s office, but they have come along way in a short time.

How has GM reacted to the touble at Toyota? Well…while Toyota has been in a production shutdown, they have been adding salt to the wound by offering (albeit on the ‘down-low’) an additional $1,000 to any current Toyota owner to make the switch…on top of the (on average) $4,000+ in incentives already in play.

/twist the knife GM…twist the knife

Sidenote: It is reported that Toyota believes they have a solution for the gas pedal problem; a small spacer that would increase tension on the accelerator and (hopefully) cause it to not remain in a depressed position. Due to the NHTSA’s involvement, it must first be approved by them before production will resume.