The new Ford Fiesta will get 40 miles per gallon on the highway. (Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company)
After years of dominating the market for big trucks and SUVs, Detroit automakers are getting into the small car business. Tracy Samilton reports they don’t just aim to compete with Toyota and Honda – they aim to beat them.
Transcript
After years of dominating the market for big trucks and SUVs, Detroit automakers are getting into the small car business. Tracy Samilton reports they don’t just aim to compete with Toyota and Honda – they aim to beat them.
The new Ford Fiesta will get 40 miles per gallon on the highway. That’s several miles per gallon better than the Honda Fit and the Toyota Yaris. Chevy’s Cruze Eco could also hit that magic 40. Erich Merkle is President of Autoconomy dot com – an auto consulting firm. He says Detroit’s new small cars will also be loaded with high-tech features. That could grab the attention of Gen Y, a group of 67 million young Americans.
“And it’s gonna have to be affordable, low-cost of ownership and yeah, if you wanna get them into your vehicle, it’s gotta be cool and have some sex appeal.”
Asian car companies won’t give up their former territory without a fight. Honda may postpone the new Civic in order to boost its fuel efficiency.
Hybrid cars like this Honda Insight look good to consumers at first...until they see the price tag. (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)
We’re hearing a lot more from automakers these days about new
technologies that will save you gas. Most of the technologies they talk about
are not in showrooms yet. So when will they be? And which technologies
will find their way to your car first? Dustin Dwyer has some answers:
Transcript
We’re hearing a lot more from automakers these days about new
technologies that will save you gas. Most of the technologies they talk about
are not in showrooms yet. So when will they be? And which technologies
will find their way to your car first? Dustin Dwyer has some answers:
There is already one kind of car out there that will save you a lot of gas. You’ve heard of
it before. It’s a hybrid. And it seems like everyone says they want one. They say they do:
“I live in the world where I don’t deal with what people say they think, or what they give
to a survey. I live in the world where they write the check.”
That’s Mike Jackson. He’s the head of the country’s largest chain of car dealerships –
Autonation. Jackson is pretty much the prototypical, no-nonsense businessman. He’s also
somewhat of an unlikely environmentalist, but Jackson doesn’t have much faith in today’s
hybrids:
“70% of our customers want to talk about hybrids when they walk through the door.
They’re aware of it. They think it’s a great idea. And they’re predisposed to buy hybrids.
You then get them at the table.”
Jackson says that’s when the customer asks how much extra the hybrid costs, and how
long it takes to make that money up by saving at the pump. That’s when the deal falls
apart:
“And we have a two percent closing rate.”
Jackson says, plain and simple, most people just aren’t willing to pay the extra money to
get a hybrid. So he says to really cut gas use, the industry still needs mass market
solutions, and the first technology that he’s looking out for is something that Ford
announced earlier this year. Ford’s chief marketing guy, Jim Farley calls it Ecoboost:
“Which uses direct fuel injection and turbocharging to get big engine power and all that
low end torque we love from smaller, inherently more fuel efficient engines.”
Direct injection and turbocharging have been around,
but mostly as a way to make cars go faster. Now the idea is to use them on small engines
so that when a customer comes in and wants a big powerful engine, Ford can give them
Ecoboost, which promises the same power with 20 percent less gas, and 15 percent fewer
CO2 emissions. Ford plans to put Ecoboost in more than half a million cars per year
within the next five years.
In that same time frame, you can also expect to see more diesel engines coming out from
all the automakers. Diesel will get you better mileage, and it’s now cleaner in some ways
than gasoline. But it can create more smog-forming gases such as nitrous oxide.
Ethanol is also still out there. But at best, most people say today’s corn ethanol really
doesn’t save any fossil fuels when you look at what it takes to raise the corn. So the big
hope is cellulosic ethanol, which can be made from grasses, or even used tires.
Nobody’s found a good way to make it yet and Mike Jackson, the no-nonsense car
salesman, says he’s not holding his breath. Instead, he’s looking for the real game
changer – hybrid vehicles that can be charged through a wall socket and run on electricity
alone for miles before a gas engine has to kick in. Jackson expects those plug-in hybrids
on the road within five years:
“The cost-benefit ratio is going to be so compelling, and people are going to be so
enthralled at the idea they don’t have to go to the gas station, just go home and plug it into
the socket, this idea will win over American consumers.”
The auto companies are scrambling to make a plug in hybrid. Right now the race is
basically between General Motors and Toyota. Both say they might be able to build a
plug in hybrid by 2010.
The problem is the battery. To get the higher charge, hybrids need a new kind of battery –
something called a lithium ion battery. It’s the same kind of battery, it turns out, that’s
used in your cell phone, but there are some challenges scaling that up for an automobile.
Lithium ion batteries can overheat, and right now they’re more expensive than the
batteries in today’s hybrids.
But Bob Lutz at General Motors says you can bet those problems will be solved:
“Every manufacturer in the world is hot on the trail of lithium ion technology, and the
battery manufacturers all say it’s going to work.”
And once you have viable lithium ion batteries, you’re talking about cars that can get
more than 100 miles to the gallon or better.
Most people say the next step is hydrogen fuel cells. With the fuel cells, you put
hydrogen in, and the only thing that comes out of the tail pipe is water vapor.
Some in the industry say fuel cells could be ready for the mass market in the 2020s.
Mike Jackson isn’t so sure. He pegs the arrival of fuel cells at somewhere between not in
our lifetime and never.
So maybe it's not your typical rental car... but it is possible to rent cars that run on used cooking oil, in a few cities. (Photo by Bio-Beetle ECO Rental Cars)
A lot of rental car companies have started to change their fleets to
make them more attractive to consumers who want better gas mileage.
It’s been a good opportunity for rental companies to market themselves
as “green.” But Rebecca Williams reports it all hinges on whether
customers actually choose those cars when they get to the lot:
Transcript
A lot of rental car companies have started to change their fleets to
make them more attractive to consumers who want better gas mileage.
It’s been a good opportunity for rental companies to market themselves
as “green.” But Rebecca Williams reports it all hinges on whether
customers actually choose those cars when they get to the lot:
“Thank you for choosing Enterprise this is Karen how can I help you? What exactly are you looking for?”
Rental car companies pay a lot of attention to that last question –
what are you looking for? They change their fleets based on what
people get the most excited about.
We talked to a few people waiting in rental car lines at an airport:
“I like a car that handles well and can put up with adverse weather.”
“Lower prices and that husband and wife can both drive without paying a
fee.”
“I typically vacation on beaches so I’ll rent Jeeps and things like
that that have some kind of open air.”
That confirms what rental car companies say – there’s no typical
customer. Making things more complicated, there’s usually a big
difference between what people say they want on the phone… and what
they actually drive off the lot.
Christopher Buck is a regional vice president for Enterprise Rent-A-
Car:
“You know, when you’re on the phone you’re just saying I need temporary
transportation and I don’t want to spend a lot of money. When they get
here and actually see the wheels and paint and tires I don’t know if it
tugs on people’s heartstrings or what, but it’s hey, that’s a sharp
looking car!”
So people want to drive something that makes them feel good.
Christopher Buck says lately, he’s noticed a shift in what customers
end up renting. He says two years ago, his branches had a lot more
trucks and SUVs in their fleets. He says that’s what most people
wanted:
“And lately it seems those vehicles are not as popular. Customers seem
to be demanding more of the sedan. I would imagine fuel efficiency has
something to do with that now that gas is back over $3 a gallon.”
Buck says now, customers want the biggest car with the best gas
mileage. He’s changed the makeup of his fleets to reflect that. These
days, it’s mostly made up of sedans, with just a few SUVs, vans and
trucks.
Because gas mileage is playing a bigger role, Buck’s also added a few
hybrid vehicles. But he’s having trouble getting more:
“We’d like to get more to see if we really open doors up and advertise
that we truly have them, because we such a small number it’s hard to
really wave the flag because they’re so hard to manage and make sure
the hybrid requests are going straight into hybrids every single time.”
Getting hybrids isn’t easy right now, but that could change.
Neil Abrams is president of Abrams Consulting Group. He advises the
transportation industry. He says automakers such as Ford and GM make
more money selling cars to people rather than rental companies.
And so the US automakers are pulling back from the big incentives they
used to offer rental car companies. Abrams says that’s opening the
door for more cars from foreign automakers, and that could mean hybrids
such as the Toyota Prius will be more available in the future.
But he says that all depends on what customers want. If they want
hybrids, they’ll have to ask for them:
“If the rental consumer does not step up and demand an environmentally
efficient vehicle or hybrid, eventually rental companies will stop
offering them.”
If you really want a hybrid right now, it’s a good idea to call ahead
and see if you can specifically reserve one. That’s because there
aren’t very many.
Even if you can’t get one right now, just asking for one might help you
get one in the future. That’s because rental companies plan the makeup
of their fleets about a year in advance. It’s based on what customers
want. So the cars you’ll be able to rent in the future depend on what
you ask for today.
Domestic automakers have been advertising their flex-fuel vehicles as an answer to independence from foreign oil. That’s because they burn a mix of gasoline and domestically-produced ethanol. But ethanol production has been inefficient. Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Domestic automakers have been advertising their flex-fuel vehicles as an answer to independence from foreign oil. That’s because they burn a mix of gasoline and domestically produced ethanol. But ethanol production has been inefficient. Lester Graham reports:
Ford Motor Company chairman Bill Ford, Junior says his company increased flex-fuel vehicles on assurances there would be a better source for ethanol.
“It has been mostly corn-based and we knew, we do know that long-term that’s not the answer.”
The hope was breakthroughs to mass produce cellulosic ethanol made from woody plants or waste wood chips were coming quickly. That didn’t happen.
“But, I’ll say this: if we don’t end up with cellulosic ethanol, we’re going to hit the wall pretty quickly in terms of vehicle penetration on ethanol.”
Ford says automakers are looking to fuel providers to find an energy answer that makes sense for mass production. In the meantime his company plans to make lighter vehicles with smaller, but powerful fuel-efficient engines that burn gasoline.
For the Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.
The Environmental Protection Agency says cars and trucks are starting to get better gas
mileage. That comes after a long period of worsening fuel economy.
Dustin Dwyer reports:
Transcript
The Environmental Protection Agency says cars and trucks are starting to get better gas
mileage. That comes after a long period of worsening fuel economy.
Dustin Dwyer reports:
The EPA says over the past three years, average vehicle fuel economy has improved by
about five percent, but that’s a small reversal after 20 years in which gas mileage only got
worse.
Jim Kliesch is with the Union of Concerned Scientists. He says the problem is that
getting more miles per gallon has not been a priority for automakers:
“The industry has been improving their vehicles for years. It’s just that they’ve been
applying their technical innovations to performance and not to fuel economy.”
Automakers say they’re now working to make cars more fuel efficient. In part that’s
because they have to under new fuel economy rules for trucks. And lawmakers in
Washington are debating new rules that could force even higher fuel efficiency.
Leaders from Detroit’s Big Three automakers say they’ll
double the number of vehicles that run on renewable fuels by 2010.
The GLRC’s Dustin Dwyer has more:
Transcript
Leaders from Detroit’s Big Three automakers say they’ll double the number of vehicles
that run on renewable fuels by 2010. The GLRC’s Dustin Dwyer has more:
General Motors, Ford and the Chrysler group have lagged behind their foreign rivals in
producing fuel-saving hybrid technology. But they’ve been out front when it comes to
producing cars and trucks that can run on ethanol-based E85.
Now, the heads of the three companies say they’ll have 10 million E85 capable vehicles
on the road by the end of the decade. And they’re asking Congress to help gas stations
pay for installing more E85 pumps.
Sue Cischke is Ford’s Vice President of Environmental and Safety Engineering. She says
E85 cuts down on the use of fossil fuels:
“And there really is a net benefit from a CO2 standpoint from ethanol produced by corn.”
Some critics argue that if you include the energy needed to grow and refine the corn,
ethanol doesn’t provide much of an environmental benefit.
Automakers say meeting the government’s new fuel efficiency standards for light trucks will be a challenge. The final standards were issued last week (Wednesday, March 29th). For the first time, the largest SUVs will have to meet the standards. The GLRC’s Tracy Samilton reports:
Transcript
Automakers say meeting the government’s new fuel efficiency standards
for light trucks will be a challenge. The final standards were issued
last week (Wednesday, March 29th). For the first time, the largest SUVs
will have to meet the standards. The GLRC’s Tracy Samilton reports:
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers calls the new standards the
most sweeping change to fuel economy rules in 30 years. Light trucks
include SUVS, minivans, and pickups, and account for more than half of
all new vehicles sold in the U.S.
Alliance spokesman Charles Territo says the set of rules will take weeks
for automakers to digest.
“Which happens to be about the size of a major city phone book. It’s
about 550 pages.”
Territo says one change is big SUVs like GM’s Hummer and Chevy
Suburban will no longer be excluded from fleet wide averages. And that
will probably mean more alternative technologies on the big trucks, like
hybrid and diesel engines and fuel cells. That isn’t enough for many
environmental groups, who say the changes won’t do much to reduce the
nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
Auto emissions are a hot topic when it comes to compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. Canada has found a way to get automakers to voluntarily cut emissions. (Photo courtesy of the EPA)
Canadian officials have reached a deal with U.S. automakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The deal is expected to help Canada meet its obligations under the Kyoto protocol. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dustin Dwyer has more:
Transcript
Canadian officials have reached a deal with U.S. automakers to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The deal is expected to help Canada
meet its obligations under the Kyoto protocol. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Dustin Dwyer has more:
Last year, Canadian officials threatened to adopt a strict California car
emission regulation. That standard calls for a 30 percent cut in emissions
by 2016.
But Canadian officials now say they have reached a voluntary agreement with
the automakers. They say car makers have said they will reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by 5.3 million tons by 2010. They say that’s about a 25 percent
decrease.
Mike Flynn is a transportation analyst at the University of Michigan. He
says Canada’s agreement could still have an impact on U.S. cars.
“It may be cheaper for the automakers in the long run to manufacture the same higher-standard vehicles and sell them in both the U.S. and Canada than to have a small run specifically tailored for Canada.”
Automakers continue to fight California’s emissions regulation in court.
They say the law exceeds the state’s power.
Cars can contribute greenhouse gases in many different ways. However, California's stricter law on cutting these emissions is starting a trend. (Image courtesy of the EPA)
U.S. automakers are under increasing pressure to reduce
harmful emissions. Now, to meet its obligations to the Kyoto Protocol, Canada says it might partner with several U.S. states to demand cleaner cars. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dustin Dwyer has more:
Transcript
U.S. automakers are under increasing pressure to reduce
harmful emissions. Now, to meet its obligations to the Kyoto Protocol,
Canada says it might partner with several U.S. states to demand cleaner
cars. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dustin Dwyer
has more:
Eight states have already signed on to a law that was first passed in
California. That law calls for automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions thirty
percent by 2016.
Now, officials in Canada say they may also adopt a similar law. That would
put almost a third of the North American car market under the California
rules. And analysts say it could force a change in how all cars are made.
Stéphane Dion is Canada’s Environment Minister. He says he’s still
working with automakers to get a voluntary reduction in emissions, but he
says time is running out.
“We’ve are talking with them since years, and now it’s time to conclude. And
we hope the conclusion will be an agreement. If it’s not an agreement,
California has shown that something else is possible.”
Automakers have filed a lawsuit in California to block the law. They say it uses
powers reserved for the federal government.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dustin Dwyer.
Ford has started converting some of the traditional, gasoline-fueled engines into hydrogen-powered engines. (Photo by Szekér Ottó)
Automakers from around the world spent last week showing off their latest concepts and production cars at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Many car companies announced plans to begin producing more hybrid vehicles. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Poorman reports other environmental technologies got some attention as well, including a new way to use hydrogen to fuel the vehicles of the future:
Transcript
Automakers from around the world spent last week showing off their latest concepts and production cars at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Many car companies announced plans to begin producing more hybrid vehicles. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Poorman reports other environmental technologies got some attention as well, including a new way to use hydrogen to fuel the vehicles of the future:
Many automakers now say that cars ultimately will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Fuel cells consume hydrogen to generate electricity to power a motor, while leaving on water as waste. There are problems with cells. They’re really expensive right now. And there aren’t many hydrogen re-fueling stations. Ford Motor Company thinks it has a solution. It’s converting some standard gasoline engines to burn hydrogen. Ford’s chief engineer for the system, Vance Zanardelli, says the new engine is a necessary step.
“In order to get people familiar with hydrogen as a fuel, realizing it is a clean, safe fuel, in order to help spur the development of more hydrogen fueling stations, the development of revised codes and standards, and really lay the groundwork, so that when fuel cells are ready for primetime, the world is ready for them.”
Ford plans to begin testing some of the new hydrogen-burning engines in shuttle busses next year.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bill Poorman.
The new Ford Fiesta will get 40 miles per gallon on the highway. (Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company)
