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.
A one-size-fits-all phone charger could cut down on the electronic waste generated by cell phones (Photo by Shawn Allee)
That search for the right cell
phone charger should soon become
a thing of the past. Cell phone
makers have agreed to come up with
a universal adaptor. Julie Grant
reports that that could save tons
of landfill space:
Transcript
That search for the right cell phone charger should soon become a thing of the past. Cell phone makers have agreed to come up with a universal adaptor. Julie Grant reports that that could save tons of landfill space:
Top cell phone makers – including Nokia, Samsung and Apple – have struck a deal to standardize handset chargers for European consumers by next year.
And the U.S. wireless industry association says Americans will likely see a universal charger before 2012.
That means when you buy a new phone, you won’t need to buy a new charger. You’ll be able keep using the one-size-fits-all charger.
Ted Scardamalia is with the technology analysis firm Portelligent. He says this is good for consumers – and the environment.
“If I have a charger that lasts for two or three or four phones, that’s two or three or four chargers I don’t have to recycle or put into a landfill.”
Last year, an estimated 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide, according to University of Southern Queensland data reported by industry umbrella group GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association), generating up to 82,000 tonnes of chargers.
With concerns over the level of waste generated by redundant or outmoded chargers, European legislators had, prior to Monday’s agreement, considered forcing manufacturers to adopt universal technology.
Musical instrument companies are a very small part of the demand for old-growth wood, but they can be very influential (Photo source: Arent at Wikimedia Commons)
People who make musical instruments know they have to start with a good piece of wood. Some guitar makers are worried that the woods they need for their instruments are becoming too rare. Tamara Keith has the story of how guitar makers are working with a group that fights to protect trees:
Transcript
People who make musical instruments know they have to start with a good piece of wood. Some guitar makers are worried that the woods they need for their instruments are becoming too rare. Tamara Keith has the story of how guitar makers are working with a group that fights to protect trees:
(sound of a factory)
There are people all over the Martin Guitar plant in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, doing fine detailed work. One man is chiseling out tiny pieces of wood to make the neck and the body of a guitar fit perfectly.
(sound of sanding)
Dick Boak does artist relations for Martin.
“So this is a D-35, this is what Johnny Cash played.”
He says this guitar’s deep resonant sound is all about what it’s made of. It’s a who’s who of rare and exotic species.
“Rosewood from East India, spruce from the Pacific Northwest, and mahogony probably from Peru or Bolivia. Those would be kind of the traditional woods for a guitar.”
Boak says logging is wiping out old growth forests where these types of woods are found.
“We would like it if every single supplier that we used was working in a sustainable fashion because that would ensure that our future as a guitar maker would be you know intact.”
So Martin Guitar has teamed up with the environmental group, Greenpeace.
Scott Paul is the group’s Forest Campaign Director and he’s super interested in the Sitka Spruce used in the Johnny Cash style guitar. We’re talking at the group’s office in Washington, DC. And he shows me where the spruce is used.
“This part on the top. This here is the soundboard. This is the species that really projects the sound.”
That Sitka Spruce comes from South East Alaska. Paul has been crusading to save the forests there for some time. He says Sitka Spruce has been logged as if there were no end in sight. Most of it is used for low-end construction materials. But when he found out the wood was used by the world’s leading instrument makers – he approached them.
“It was a very interesting meeting where you had the CEO of Gibson, and the CEO of Martin and Taylor and Fender all in the same room.”
The competitors said they were concerned about logging practices too. And the told Paul they’d work together on the issue.
“Let’s all go to Alaska and start talking to the logging companies that are providing you this product and figure out if we can do it better.”
So they did. This new Musicwood Coalition went to the Sealaska Corporation, which logs Sitka Spruce. And they’re now working with the company to save old growth trees for really valuable things like guitars.
Musical instrument companies are a very small part of the demand for old-growth wood. Paul says its less than 1%. But they can be very influential.
“They need the wood. They’re not the driving force. But their profile, and to be honest, their sex appeal is perfect. Not everyone likes Greenpeace, but red state, blue state, everyone loves guitars.”
(sound of guitar being tuned)
Dick Boak is tuning a guitar that’s just about ready to leave the Martin factory.
“Everybody has a song they use to tune.”
This guitar is part of Martin’s sustainable woods series. The hope is that someday all Martin guitars – and those of Gibson, Fender and Taylor too – will be made from trees grown and harvested in a way that makes sure the wood will be around for the long haul.
A laboratory researcher examines a lithium-ion battery that may be put in a hybrid car in the future (Photo courtesy of the Department of Energy)
The federal government and US carmakers are spending more
money on battery research for plug-in hybrid vehicles. That’s because
existing battery technology is limited. But some of the grant winners
say success won’t come easily. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
The federal government and US carmakers are spending more
money on battery research for plug-in hybrid vehicles. That’s because
existing battery technology is limited. But some of the grant winners
say success won’t come easily. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
The US Advanced Battery Consortium is made up of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford.
Together with money from the Department of Energy, the consortium is handing out millions of
dollars to develop batteries for Hybrid vehicles.
Johnson Controls and a partner will develop lithium-ion batteries for plug-in hybrids.
Michael Andrew is a spokesman for Johnson Controls. He says his company has a lot of work to
do to make a battery that will go forty miles between charges.
“You’ve got to hit volume targets, weight targets, power targets, energy targets, cost targets. For
the 40 mile range application, that’s gonna be a tremendous challenge for us.”
The battery and car makers say it might take even more government support to help the US auto
industry shift away from gasoline-powered cars.
Critics say the companies should have focused sooner on fuel efficiency.
The new Ford Fiesta will get 40 miles per gallon on the highway. (Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company)
