Chevrolet announced today that it is installing solar-powered electric charging stations at two dozen dealerships in North America as part of its Green Zone initiative.

The new units will generate enough electricity to fully-charge 12 Chevrolet Volts a day, while excess electricity created will be used to power the dealership, supplementing their power needs. According to the Detroit automaker, each canopy generates enough electricity for up to 4,500 charges per vehicle annually.

Sibling rivalry: every family faces it, at one point or another. And what are automotive groups such as General Motors if not one, big (and bailout-happy) family? Platform and parts sharing is the name of the game in order to reduce costs and maximize profit margins. But what happens when two brands, like Opel and Chevrolet start to overlap each other?

Having introduced five new cars in the past 18 months and on the verge of launching a major TV, print and digital campaign this summer to celebrate its centennial anniversary, Chevrolet is trying to become more premium.

Plug-in hybrids seem to be all the rage these days, from Chevrolet’s Volt to Nissan’s Leaf and the soon to be launched in the U.S. market, Toyota Prius Plug-In. And there are many more vehicles capable of running on electric power to follow.

However, their owners must not forget to charge them, usually overnight, or they’ll wake up next morning and discover they’ve run out of electric juice. In addition, they need to know their way around with the charging cords –not an easy task as any computer geek knows very well.

Chevrolet is celebrating its 100th birthday on November 3, and parent company General Motors is planning several happenings to honor the occasion. To kick off the 100-day countdown to Chevy's centennial, GM launched a dedicated website at "Chevy100".

Visitors are encouraged to share stories and photos about the roles that Chevrolets played in their lives through social media channels like Facebook, as well as to cast their vote on their most favorite model using a list of 16 celebrated vehicles, starting with the 1912 Six and concluding with the 2011 Volt.

In the 1960s, customers who could only dream of owning a Corvette often left their local Chevy dealers with the keys to a new Impala or Bel-Air. Now, it seems the same thing is happening with the Chevy Volt don’t-call-it-a-hybrid and the Cruze small car.

Year-to-date sales are up some 32% across the range, though only 567 of the 80,000 plus cars the Detroit automaker sold in June were Volts. The remainder were cars like the Cruze, which has earned the crown of Chevy’s biggest seller.

General Motors and OnStar announced a new program that will be applied to the Chevrolet Volt and which will use the car’s built-in telematics system to send data from the vehicle to the power grid.

This will enable the carmaker to track the charging habits of the vehicle’s drivers so as to better manage the car’s energy supply.

Police officers in New York City will now be able to boast that they drive environmentally friendly cars and, as an added bonus, approach possible offenders silently. That’s because 50 Chevrolet Volts have been added to the 40 Nissan Altima Hybrids of the NYPD fleet, as a part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC project for lowering emissions and creating, in his own words, “a greener, greater New York City”. Read more »

The Union of Concerned Scientist, a non-profit science advocacy group in the U.S., has released its second annual Hybrid Scorecard. The organisation criticised hybrid car manufacturers for not delivering on the technology’s promise, for placing performance above fuel efficiency and environmental benefit and burdening hybrids with features that put them out of the price range of average Americans.

A total of 34 hybrid vehicles from the 2011 to 2012 model year were tested for their fuel efficiency, environmental impact, value-for-money and their so-called “forced-feature premium”. The latter is features that don’t improve fuel efficiency but probably make the cars more appealing to money-conscious consumers.

If you are a GM diehard or a Chevy Volt fanboy, I suggest you cover your ears and start humming loudly to yourselves. CNN Money recently featured an article from Fortune magazine’s Motorworld declaring the upcoming Toyota Prius Plug-in hybrid a better buy and a better car than Chevy’s range-extended electric vehicle. Shock, gasp, horror, blasphemy etc.

To quote Motorworld senior editor Alex Taylor III: “[The Prius Plug-in is] more efficient and less expensive than the Volt, and Toyota actually stands the possibility of making a profit on it -- something General Motors concedes it can't do with the Volt.”

The battle for supremacy in the electric car category has begun –even though at present there are only two prime contestants. According to Bloomberg, the Nissan LEAF sold 3,875 cars the first half of the year, compared to 2,745 of GM’s Volt over the same period.

From January through May, the Volt was only 17 cars behind the Leaf, but in the following month, sales of the Volt plunged to just 561 cars, while those of the LEAF took off with a record 1,708 units, giving Nissan’s EV the lead. The LEAF costs $33,000 before a $7,500 federal tax credit, while the Volt costs $41,000 before government incentives.

General Motors says owners of the Volt are driving up to 1,000 miles (1,610 kilometers) before they need to fill up. “A sample of our early Volt customers suggest that they drive 1,000 miles before they fill up the gas tank,” Tony Posawatz, vehicle line director for the Chevrolet Volt, told Bloomberg news.

However, the official driving range of the Volt, measured by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is much smaller than the GM executive's claims. The Volt's electric-only driving range is 35 miles (56.3 km), with another 344 miles (553.6 km) possible as the gasoline generator kicks in. The combined range therefore sits at 379 miles (610 km), way below the claimed 1,000 miles.

Sure, the Opel Ampera is nothing more than a Chevrolet Volt with some extremely mild cosmetic changes, but doppelgangers have always had a very special place in the wonderful world of General Motors. If Bloomberg’s inside sources are right, GM is currently looking into the development of a Buick-badged version of the plug-in hybrid Opel Ampera. According to people familiar with the project, the Buick model could go on sale in 2013, if the plans goes ahead.

Given that the styling changes over the Chevrolet Volt would be limited to a Buick-specific grille and bumper designs, one of the most significant problems GM faces is how to justify the car and its higher price tag which would be in excess of the Volt’s base MSRP of US$41,000 not including a $7,500 federal tax credit.

Chevrolet announced at the Geneva Motor Show that it will sell the Volt in Europe, with prices in Germany starting from €41,950 (US$58,560). It will be similarly priced in other European markets, where it will arrive in November 2011.

The Volt's sister car, the Opel Ampera, will also go on sale this year in Europe, at a slightly higher starting price. Unveiled in final production form at the Geneva Show, the Ampera will cost €42,900 ($59,885), but prices can vary in different countries depending on the standard equipment.

Chevrolet said the Volt would be fully equipped with all the usual safety and convenience features, plus leather seats. As in the US, European buyers will have an 8-year/160,000 km warranty (100,000 miles) on the powertrain and the lithium-ion battery.

Chevrolet announced at the Geneva Motor Show that it will sell the Volt in Europe, with prices in Germany starting from €41,950 (US$58,560). It will be similarly priced in other European markets, where it will arrive in November 2011.

The Volt's sister car, the Opel Ampera, will also go on sale this year in Europe, at a slightly higher starting price. Unveiled in final production form at the Geneva Show, the Ampera will cost €42,900 ($59,885), but prices can vary in different countries depending on the standard equipment.

Chevrolet said the Volt would be fully equipped with all the usual safety and convenience features, plus leather seats. As in the US, European buyers will have an 8-year/160,000 km warranty (100,000 miles) on the powertrain and the lithium-ion battery.

Volt price will depend on gas price, GM says.

Although the conference call was supposed to be all about the progress on designing batteries for the Chevrolet Volt, the issue of the car's price loomed large in observer's minds.

With a potential asking price that's risen from an estimated $30,000 (U.S.) to a loftier $40,000 for the compact four-seater, Bob Kruse, executive director of the program, gave no specifics on its estimated MSRP, but said the price will depend in part on the cost of gas.

"We're not wishing for higher petroleum costs, but the economic viability of what we're doing only gets greater with higher fuel prices," he said. The plan to launch the car in November, 2010, is on schedule. "$1.50 gallon gas is not helping our business case."

The average price of regular gas in the United States was actually $1.96 a gallon earlier this week, according to American government figures.


GM is not sure what the price of the Volt will be, Kruse said, nor has the company established whether it will lease the battery separately from the vehicle itself, as Nissan plans to do with its all-electric vehicle, which is to go on limited sale next year.

"Part of the price will be dependent on fuel costs at the time, which will impact the value equation the Volt provides."

The focus of the update was on the progress of the lithium-ion battery design — as GM has said, once the battery is ready, the Volt will be ready.

It is the advanced battery technology that allows the Volt to promise up to 64 km (40 miles) of electric-only driving; the small internal combustion engine works only to recharge the batteries, instead of stranding the driver, as would have occurred with GM's ill-fated EV1 all-electric vehicle at the end of its range.









"As we've seen with computers, the technology has progressed to the point where they have morphed from large desktop models, down to the size of your Blackberry," said Denise Gray, director of battery systems engineering, while confirming that design work on generations two and three of the Voltec system is happening alongside the production Volt.

"We're looking for the same types of advancements (and cost reductions) in our electronics."

In a Q&A session afterwards with various media, one astute questioner asked at what temperature those promised 64 kilometres of electric-only driving were verified. Turns out, it was the figure achieved in the normal city cycle testing, said Kruse, which is done at 20 degrees Celsius.

So if your winter commute involves regular sub-zero starts and highway driving, the question isn't whether its electric range will decrease, but by how much?















GM was obviously very sensitive about the fact that the battery cells for the first-generation Volt will come from South Korea, courtesy of LG Chem, especially when it is receiving extra money from both state and federal U.S. governments to produce environmentally advanced vehicles in and around Detroit, on top of the federal bailout money it has and will receive to keep it afloat.

The first batch of pre-production prototypes will be produced later this summer, about 80 of them, soon after the world's largest auto battery facility will open near Detroit, said GM.

Overhyped Nano on sale in India

In yet another media-frenzy-generating launch event, Tata Motor officials confirmed that orders will begin being taken in April in India for the Nano, whose super-low starting price of around $2,900 has media outlets around the world breathlessly reporting on the debut of the "world's cheapest car."

Except it's not the world's cheapest car, it's the world's cheapest new car.

Option it up with various luxuries like a right-side rear view mirror, heating and air conditioning, and a cup holder, and that price moves to 172,360 Indian rupees, according to figures available at tatanano.com, or the equivalent of $4,152.

Still, offering any new vehicle at such a low price is a remarkable achievement, even if the lack of airbags and emissions controls would not allow the Nano as is to be sold in most developed markets, and certainly not in regulation-heavy North America.










"The Nano represents the spirit of breaking conventional barriers," said Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata. "It will provide safe, affordable, four-wheel transportation to families who till now have not been able to own a car." Or at least a new car.

The Nano offers a 35-hp. two-cylinder engine, coupled to a four-speed manual transmission, with a top speed of 105 km/h, for a published estimate of 33 seconds for the small four-seat hatchback to reach 100 km/h.

Plans are in the works to sell an upgraded version of this car to parts of Europe by 2011, the company said; it would a larger 90-hp, three-cylinder engine, available five-speed automatic, dual airbags, ABS and stability control, with a target starting price still under $5,000 (U.S.).

"Driven mainly by the change in demand that we see elsewhere in the world, we suddenly felt we had a product that could be of considerable interest as a low-cost product in western Europe, eastern Europe, the U.K. and even the U.S.," Tata told Reuters at this week's event.










Women's Car of the Year award launched

Female automotive journalists are a relative rarity in this business, but a group of 10 women auto writers from around the world will launch the first Women's Car of the Year award.

The initial group includes two journalists from Canada, as well as India, South Africa, the U.K., Australia and Europe.

"Most awards are chosen by a huge majority of men who tend to view cars differently to women," said Sandy Myhre, the New Zealand-based journalist who initiated the award.

"This award reflects changing times when you consider that today women make the final decision in as much as 85 per cent of all cars sold," according to Myhre.

After noticing that the 2007 World Car of the Year award's 43-member jury of international auto journalists did not contain one woman, Myhre helped organize a Women's COTY program in New Zealand last year, an award which went to the Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion (diesel) wagon.

"Newton-metres [or lb-ft] of torque weren't even considered, but we did look at drivability and sexiness," for those awards, as well as its carbon footprint, family friendliness, value, and, "of course," the range of colours, said Myhre.
Infiniti M to become brand's first hybrid

Playing some serious catch-up to arch-rival Lexus, Infiniti plans to start selling its own hybrid designs in North America next year, starting with its mid-size M sedans, Japan's Nikkei business daily reports.


While the Altima now offers a hybrid option, the hybrid uses leased Toyota hybrid technology, while Nissan, Japan's third-largest auto maker, struggles to come out with its own hybrid designs to rival those of Toyota and Honda.



Other luxury players are starting to jump into the hybrid market as well, with BMW and Mercedes-Benz both planning hybrid SUVs for North America and Europe this year, as well as the Mercedes-Benz S400 BlueHybrid that will compete with Lexus' top-line LS600hl.