2012 Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid
2011 Volkswagen Jetta. A hybrid version is due in 2012.
After years of arguing that clean diesel is a better efficiency strategy compared to hybrids, Volkswagen is switching gears. In a statement issued more than a year ago—on the eve of the 2010 Geneva Motor Show—Martin Winterkorn, VW chairman of the board, said, "We will take the hybrid out of its niche status with our high-volume models. In the future, the heart of the brand will also beat with electricity."
A hybrid version of the Jetta will be offered in the U.S. in 2012—followed by Passat and Golf Hybrids in 2013. The Volkswagen press release states with no lack of confidence: “Starting in 2013, the high-volume Golf and Jetta models of the Volkswagen brand are expected to dominate the hybrid and electric vehicle market.” In fact, the company says that hybrid and electric vehicles will account for three percent of the German carmaker's global sales by 2018.
What Do We Know About Jetta Hybrid?
Wrapped in the sheet metal of the newly introduced 2011 Jetta, the gas-electric model will be a full hybrid, using VW's twincharger TSI in-line four-cylinder engine. It's not confirmed if the 2012 Jetta Hybrid will use a 1.4-liter twincharger engine, or larger versions that Volkswagen is developing.
Volkswagen describes the Jetta Hybrid as having “best in class” fuel economy—most likely stacking up against (but probably not reaching) the Honda Civic Hybrid’s 41 mpg—while besting the Civic and other competition for horsepower.
Toyota Yaris Sucompact Full Hybrid Unveiled in Geneva
Toyota Yaris Hybrid concept
A couple of weeks ago, we described the battle between Honda and Toyota for the emerging small hybrid segment. Compacts with battery packs and motors could become the most affordable and highest MPG cars on the road—pushing hybrid technology deep into the mainstream market. Yet, the $19,200 Honda Insight and $20,000 Honda CR-Z are the closest cars so far to attempt a grab of the entry-level affordable compact hybrid market.
Toyota wants those cost- and fuel-conscious customers, especially in Europe where small cars rule. The company debuted the Toyota Yaris Hybrid at this week’s 2011 Geneva Motor Show—showing that it intends to downsize its proven full hybrid technology. The Yaris Hybrid is expected to go on sale in Europe next year. It’s still too early to know if it will come to the United States.
While Honda will utilize a mild form of gas-electric technology for its small hybrids, Toyota’s system is a full hybrid capable of moving the car down the road on electricity alone. According to Toyota, the company plans to bring full hybrid technology to all of its European models in the next decade. “Two years ago, 8 percent of European customers said they wanted their next vehicle to be a hybrid,” said Didier Leroy, President of Toyota Motor Europe. “Today that figure has doubled, to 16 percent.”
Unlike Honda’s existing mild hybrid technology--which might be a more immediate fit for small cars—Toyota engineers will need to work on packaging its electric system into a smaller space. That could mean reducing the size and weight of the battery pack used in current models. All systems will have to be optimized for the smaller format.
Honda Recalls 2006-2007 Civic Hybrids for DC-to-DC Converters
2006 Honda Civic Hybrid
American Honda Motor Co., Inc., will recall 36,656 Civic Hybrid vehicles from model years 2006 through 2007 in the U.S. to replace the DC-to-DC converter, a component of the Integrated Motor Assist hybrid control system. The DC-to-DC converter may experience an internal failure that could lead to engine stalling and malfunction of vehicle headlights. No crashes or injuries have been reported in relation to this defect.
Honda is announcing this recall to encourage all owners of affected vehicles to take their vehicles to an authorized dealer as soon as they receive notification of this recall from Honda. Notification to customers is planned to begin March 18, 2011.
In addition to contacting customers by mail, after March 18, owners of these vehicles will be able to determine if their vehicle requires repair by going on-line or calling. Honda owners can go to www.recalls.honda.com or call (800) 999-1009, and select option 4.
Busting the 40-MPG Myth: Only Hybrids Really Reach 40
In recent months, a handful of small gas cars like the Chevy Cruze Eco, Ford Fiesta, and Hyundai Elantra have hit the market as affordable alternatives for drivers seeking hybrid-like fuel economy without the hybrid price premium. Advertisements from Ford, Chevy, and Hyundai have proudly attached the “40 MPG” badge-of-honor to these models in campaigns that are often geared especially to reach a younger, more urban driving demographic. In truth though, there are currently absolutely zero gasoline-only vehicles available in the United States offering EPA-rated combined fuel economy reaching 40 mpg.
So are the carmakers lying? Not really, but the discrepancy between the numbers seen in the ads and the real-world efficiency of those small gas-powered cars reveals that some auto companies are only telling a half-truth.
If you look closely, the 40-mpg claims made in commercials for cars like the Cruze Eco and Ford Fiesta, refer only to highway driving—which is far less taxing on gas cars than the city. The full truth is that the Chevy Cruze Eco for instance, gets 42 mpg on the highway but just 28 mpg in the city, for a combined rating of 33 mpg.
For a number of reasons—such as the use of electric power for low-speed driving and the use of regenerative braking to recapture energy lost while coming to a stop—most hybrids achieve better efficiency in the city than they do on the open road. The Toyota Prius for example, gets a 51 mpg / 48 mpg split, for a combined rating of 50 mpg. Another example: The Honda Civic Hybrid, without waving a banner of some kind of breakthrough, gets 43 mpg on the highway, and 40 in the city.
With more than 80 percent of the U.S. population residing in cities or suburbs, most drivers find that the real-world efficiency of their car more closely resembles its city and/or its combined ratings than its highway number. And as gas prices rise, that difference is becoming significantly more valuable.
February 2011 Dashboard: Hybrid Sales Outpace Growing Auto Market
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Renewed consumer interest in buying cars and a jump in gas prices combined to revive hybrid sales in February. The hybrid market is up 39 percent from a year ago, compared to an annual jump of 27.2 percent for the overall car market. As usual, the Toyota Prius dominated hybrid sales, tallying 13,539 sales—a 70 percent jump compared to last February (when Toyota was in the midst of its public relations nightmare over safety issues.) Year-to-date hybrid sales increased by 25 percent, while Toyota’s hybrid sales increased by 29 percent.
The Prius stands alone as the clear leader in hybrid sales—while the rest of the market divides between the modest sellers from Ford and Honda, and the “me too” set of low-sellers from General Motors and various German automakers. Ford saw decent gains with the Fusion Hybrid and Escape Hybrid compared to last month—42 percent and 53 percent hikes respectively—while Honda holds firm to its second-place position for hybrids. That’s despite modest Honda Civic Hybrid sales, as the automaker phased out the current model and prepares to bring in a redesigned version with improved lithium ion batteries.
The rise in hybrid sales compared to overall market is interesting because the growth in general auto sales was driven by at least two factors: (1) the growth in the economy; and (2) the growth in incentives. These incentives were of course focused on a much broader base of vehicles than the hybrid market, thus putting the hybrids at a modest disadvantage. Nonetheless, hybrid growth exceeded the overall market, indicating the strength of consumer interest in gas-electric vehicles.
Toyota Prius V
All the benefits of a Prius, with more space.
The Toyota Prius has racked up nearly 1 million sales since its introduction in 2000, and is now Toyota’s third-best selling passenger car. Yet, the familiar 50-mpg Prius gets crossed off the shopping list of many consumers who say the quintessential hybrid is just not quite big enough. They want stellar fuel economy packaged with more space.
In response, Toyota will introduce the Prius V for “versatility” as the second model in a new Prius family of cars that will also include an economic compact version and a plug-in model. The Prius V will go on sale in summer 2011. Pricing has not yet been announced.
“The Prius V looks a lot like a Prius, but it has an extended roofline, giving it nearly 60 percent more cargo room than the existing Prius,” said Doug Coleman, Toyota’s Prius product manager, in an interview with HybridCars.com. “That’s more than many small SUVs.” Coleman said that Toyota has been studying the idea of a larger Prius for a number of years, and decided that it was the right time to introduce the model.
On MPG, Beats All SUVs, Crossovers and Wagons
Toyota estimates that the Prius V will be rated at 42 mpg in the city, and 38 on the highway—putting in the exclusive club of vehicles with 40-mpg average, not just on the highway. That’s a better fuel economy rating than any SUV, crossover, or wagon on the market. The 134-horsepower drivetrain—with a 1.8-liter gas engine, electric motor and nickel metal hydride battery pack—for the Prius V is nearly identical to the one used in the current Prius model.
The Prius V is a segment-buster that has been difficult to describe by consumers in Toyota research. “They were perplexed. Some called it a wagon. Some called it a crossover. Some called it a hatchback,” Coleman said. “We said it’s really not any of those things.” He mentioned that the EPA is going to classify it as a midsize station wagon. “That doesn’t do it justice. It’s not a crossover, because it doesn’t have a high enough ride. And it’s not a minivan certainly, because it’s not going to have sliding doors. It has seating for five.” To be clear, the U.S. version of the Prius V will not seat seven and will not have a third row of seats.
2011 Grice Price Spike, By the Numbers
Here we go again. Three years after oil peaked at $147 a barrel, and gas prices zoomed past $4 a gallon, the price of oil has returned to triple digits. The numbers provide a snapshot of our current situation.
$3.29 a gallon
The average price of a gallon of gas on Friday, up from $3.11 a month ago and more than $0.60 compared to a year ago. Many forecasters see $4 a gallon by summer.
$97.88 a barrel
Where oil futures ended in New York last week, jumping $12 for the week, resulting in the highest level since October 2008.
$1 Billion
The amount of money taken out of consumer’s pockets, as a rule, with every 1-cent increase in the price at the pumps.
1 percentage point
The level of reduction in the global economy, over two years, with every $10 increase in the price of a barrel of oil.
Exclusive Interview: Honda Plots Its Green Car Roadmap
A hybrid badge will be applied to an expanding portfolio of Honda cars.
Despite its investment in hybrids, electric cars, fuel cell vehicles and the compressed natural gas Civic GX, Honda has earned a reputation for a string of green car missteps. The Accord Hybrid flopped; the redesigned Honda Insight didn’t go mainstream; and the Honda CR-Z coupe’s sporty-efficient combination was panned by auto critics.
Yet, the company is tenacious—taking a hard study of each shortcoming, and applying those lessons to new and improved green strategies. We spoke with William Walton, manager of product planning for Honda’s lineup of cars from Fit to Accord, to see if Honda might have finally set out on the right course.
1Mild Hybrids for Small Cars—at Right Price
Honda’s hybrid system has been criticized because it’s a mild form of gas-electric technology that uses electricity to assist the gas engine, rather than to power the wheels on its own. According to Walton, the ability of that same system—known as Integrated Motor Assist (IMA)—to significantly boost MPG at a relatively low cost makes it perfectly matched to small cars. “A lot of people are accepting of hybrids,” said Walton. “But do they put the money down when it’s time to purchase? That’s a whole another subject.”
Finding the right combination of cost and hybrid benefit is about applying the right kind of hybrid technology to the right vehicles and to a specific type of customer, according to Walton. He likes the three models in Honda’s current small hybrid portfolio: the Insight for the environmentalist; the Civic Hybrid for the more mainstream buyer; and the CR-Z for buyers looking for a sportier ride. “We’re not one size fits all. We have different characters for different types of consumers.” The Insight and CR-Z both start under $20,000.
Honda CR-Z Delivers MPG and a Dose of Fun
By Larry E. Hall
Last year, HybridCars.com staffers drove a CVT-equipped Honda CR-Z on a 125-mile loop to see how the sporty hybrid coupe fared. The drive consisted of a broad sampling of road conditions: highways, town streets, and sweeping country roads. At the end of the run the coupe tallied 35.3 miles per gallon—three tenths more mpg than the EPA city rating of 35 mpg in the city, and nearly 4 mpg shy of the 39 highway rating. The conclusion: maybe a little too raucous during in-town driving, but overall what most drivers will experience.
A few weeks ago, I checked out a manual shift CR-Z EX with navigation for a week. Logging 379 miles during the seven days, fuel mileage was recorded in three segments: 73 miles of normal running errands and shopping in town; 132 mile drive from Olympia, Wash. to Seattle during morning and late afternoon brake lights and gridlocks; and 174 miles of hey, let’s flog this thing and see just how sporty it is, and oh yeah, how much gas did the little four-banger guzzle.
No one has ever accused me of having a light foot on the go pedal, although I have changed my driving habits the past several years. I just didn’t know how much until I looked at the mpg numbers of the CR-Z that said, “Oh no, you’re becoming a greenie!”
Great MPG, With Some Work
During my drives about town the colored ring around the speedometer was primarily green, but I didn’t need it as a reminder that mode selection was Econ. The word slug best defines the forward motion of the CR-Z in this setting, and following the shift-up and shift-down indicator arrows was foreign even to my changed driving habits. Really Honda, upshift from 1st to 2nd at 15 mph, and from 2nd to 3rd at 18 mph? But, it works; fuel economy averaged 43.3 mpg—12.3 more than the government’s 31 mpg. Makes one wonder how those EPA folks come up with their numbers. Oh please, don’t tell me I have succumbed to hypermiling.
In Global Move, GM to Offer Diesel-Version of Chevy Cruze
In a year or two, a diesel-version of the Chevy Cruze could become available on both sides of the pond.
According to GMInsideNews.com, an independent website, General Motors will begin selling the Chevy Cruze with a diesel-engine option for the 2013 model year. It will be the company’s first diesel-powered passenger car in U.S. in decades. Workers at the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant where the Cruze is built were told about the diesel model last week.
Because the Cruze is essentially the same car worldwide, GM could utilize its 2.0-liter diesel engine already sold in several markets. According to specs from Australia, where the diesel Cruze is currently sold, the model delivers 41 mpg with its 5-speed manual and 34 mpg with the 6-speed automatic—using the Australian test cycle. It’s too early to tell, but a U.S.-based diesel-powered Cruze could compete on efficiency with the current gas Chevy Cruze Eco manual (28 city and 42 highway)—while offering much better performance.
With well over 200 ft-lbs of torque (compared to less than 150 in the Cruze Eco), a model powered by a 2.0-liter turbodiesel could handily beat the performance of the 1.4-liter turbo gas in the Cruze Eco model, though at a likely cost premium of several thousand dollars. The key to the added cost will be the route GM takes to reduce diesel emissions in order to meet California standards and sell the model nationwide.
Think Global
Car companies are increasingly leveraging global assets to create common worldwide product portfolios. Toyota and Honda, as well as Ford and Nissan most recently, are using the best technology from their far-flung centers of expertise, bringing high-volume cost-savings along with the latest features. In Toyota's case, this has led to a global push for hybrid vehicles. Nissan is leading an all-electric campaign, and Ford is championing its EcoBoost engines as the most cost-effective path the building cars that consumers will want to buy.