33Nick

Is the Auto Industry Stuck in Reverse?

We have met with many officers at Ford and found them to not only understand their situation, but also grasp how they were seen by consumers as pickup truck builders. Ford is doing a 180 turn around in order to instill the image of an efficient car builder. To this day, Ford produces the most frugal SUV hybrid that gets 34mpg in city driving.

What impressed us most is their will to fight, how they have updated their entire portfolio of cars and their desire to change their image. We feel they are on the right track. If they continue this way, people will buy their products which will help the financial situation they are in, i.e. paying back of the loans they took out 2 years ago.

The Electricnick.com team with the Electric Car Examiner

Auto Sharing Boosts Green Industry

It will be interesting to see how this develops, especially in congested cities, where it makes most sense. We are hoping it will involve more pure electric cars in the short term future so that it drastically reduces pollution.

p.s., the notion of car sharing is an old one. The French author/singer Boris Viand thought of a similar strategy in Paris where people would leave cars open to anyone with a box to put money for fuel whenever needed. OK, so it isn't exactly ZipCar's business plan but outrageous ideas eventually come about.

The Electricnick.com team.

Why Ford Is a Goner

Mayb part of the answer could come from France that is subsidizing Renault and has the Peugeot/Citroen group on its own. Somehow they both manage to operate.

Ford could become the U.S. Peugeot and continue its lead, IF it reworks intelligently its business model and finds the right investors.

The Electricnick.com team.

Will Green Cars Make Detroit Profitable?

One of our staff member has a 1974 Alfa Romeo Spider with a supped up engine that gets 25mpg and can still hold its own next to bloated Beemers. And who needs AC anyway? We've grown to become such softies.

Electricnick.com


On May 04 09:11 AM john s. gordon wrote:

> i have a small green car (green paint was redone a couple yrs ago).
>
> it has a 2 litre engine.
> it gets 33 mpg if i keep rebuilding the carburetor.
> it has a 5-speed manual xmission (automatics waste gas).
> it has no a/c (they waste gas too).
> i bought it new in 1974. i had to fight off other would-be buyers
> because the dealer couldn't get product from the factory (he would
> have sold it to someone else for 500 over list).
> it was built in japan.
> i think i'll keep it.
> am i ahead of a trend somehow?

What's an American Car These Days?

There is almost no such tings as "Buy American" or "Buy French", or buy anything where almost all products have components part made all around the planet. It's a nice way to keep attention away from more important things happening.

Li-ion Batteries: A Speculative Field of Dreams

Hi John,

The idea is not to find an end in itself but to keep open to new technologies and realize that nothing rests, everything changes. Car companies are not addressing core problems of having a business model that relies too heavily on car maintenance.

We need to look down the road at new technologies. Apparently we are moving more and more into hybrid batteries, which makes perfect sense using lithium/ultracaps for small sports car, while using lead acid based or similar technologies/ultracaps for heavier vehicles.

Electric cars require much less maintenance than gas cars. On the flip side, switching over to lithium means costly battery pack swaps every few thousand miles or so. It seems we are trading one hostage for another.

Li-ion Batteries: A Speculative Field of Dreams

Hi John,

The idea of thinking 20 years down the road is not to find a solution for everything but keep open to the fact that nothing rests, everything changes. If companies adopt that thinking, then we can progress instead of staying stagnant for decades as we witnessed the car industries for past decades and be held hostage. It's a question of using what we have now for the short term while working on solution to get us into the future.

In this sense I like what you wrote about the use of more conventional batteries. It makes perfect sense now to work on hybrid batteries with small sports cars using lithium and ultracaps, while heavier vehicles could used lead based batteries and ultracaps. The idea is to get to work on future systems while using what we have today. And while we are at it, work on a business model that sells car with little maintenance.

Li-ion Batteries: A Speculative Field of Dreams

The problem is that again, no one is looking to solve the core problem, that of building a fundamental business model selling electric cars. In theory, normal battery cars require close to no maintenance and car makers cannot function on that, since they heavily rely on maintenance. They see Lithium batteries as replacing the easily worn out gas engine.

The sad part is that no one seems to be thinking more than two decades down the road. Lithium might be good for some cars, some of the time, but certainly everything seems to be pointing at hybrid batteries. Thanks John for your work :) And did we mention where most lithium metal deposits are? Countries that are not always aligned with the rest of the world.

Incredible how some companies never really fundamentally change.

Nick
Electricnick.com

Toyota, GM, Ford: Showing Off Green Cars Amid Economic Gloom

Beyond dissing Toyota and all, when you say: "Rav 4 in the early part of the decade, but it didn't sell well" Beg to differ. Have you seen the resale values of those things? In fact on our blog, electricnick.com, we quote Toyota management finally admitting they couldn't make money on it, not that they couldn't sell it. They built it too well.

The problem with big companies and hybrids, and electric cars, is that the current business model relies too much on maintenance and after sales service. That won't work well, especially with electric cars that have close to no maintenance. Just google RAV4 EV owners and see what they have to say, nothing until the shocks needed changing at 60,000 to 70,000 miles. Not many gas cars can say the same.

These companies need to figure out the business model before they come out with the technology, which, by the by, is already here...

Bush's Auto Plan Will Test Obama's Union Loyalties

It's really sad that ultimately, beyond the surface, it is yet again another political gang war where people will get hurt. Enough with ideological politics, we need to get a move on now.

UAW Pricing Itself Out of the Auto Market

Why don't they look at France and Renault who somehow managed to become efficient in a country completely overrun by unions? Oh wait, that is also because Carlos Ghosn is in on it, the same person GM refused last year as a major stakeholder. Unions can be made to understand the dead end road they are pushing their subscribers to. What was it I read, only 150,000 unionized auto labor force in Detroit? A force, indeed.

Big Three Lose Again on Limiting Emissions Targets

It's astonishing and doesn't show they get what is being asked of them, nor does it show they are serious about getting out of the mess they, partly created. It shows an entire industry that has lost touch with its consumer base... probably 4 decades ago.

More Federal Money Won't Help the Big 3 Automakers

You know there comes a point where we all have to work together and realize we can't make a profit if it hurts someone else, eventually we will pay for it. I obviously feel strange about bailing companies that offer its workers better health benefits than I have and who produce cars that are more expensive and less reliable than its cheaper to make here in the U.S. foreign competition. Unfortunately, it's very political, the CEOs don't want to be the first want to mention the "bankrupt" name for fear of upsetting the unions. And, nothing happens.

Something has to happen, and come on, we're all in it together. We all feel the pain. I have seen my bills go up, as well as groceries and general salaries not following the same curb. We have to work on a general re-haul of the way we do business if we want to face up to international competition.

The Hypothetical Automaker Bailout Gets Another Supplicant

Hum, wonder in what shape GM would be now if Carlos Ghosn would have had the 25% stake in the company he was after last year when GM screamed bloody murder.

Also, why not let Tesla and AFS Trinity, as well as more innovative and active startup have access to that $25 billion bundle? Surely, they have been quicker bringing out concrete systems out the door, all things considered.

Come to think of it, why not have what makes the back bone of our economy have access to low rate loans, small businesses?

Oh what a tangled web they weaved...

Testimony on the Auto Industry Bailout

It's a good compromise between a free market solution and a push for Congress to take action. Hopefully, Congress will start pushing more intelligent tax incentives for electric car and plug-in hybrid consumers.

Chapter 11 could be the best thing to retool the automobile industry in the U.S., but one question we have is who will take care of the warranty of the vehicles that already have so-so quality to start with?