The CCX super car, by Koenigsegg Automotive. Not your father's Saab!

Perhaps you’ve heard of Koenigsegg Automotive . They are one of the select few automakers to make a car that goes over 200mph, right off the showroom floor. 806hp will do that for you, you know.

Safe to say that while they deliver spectacular performance, gas mileage isn’t their strong suit. Knowing a business opportunity when they see one, this tiny maker of specialty supercars announced a few hours ago that they had purchased Saab, an automaker that makes around 100,000 cars per year, although that has been dropping of late.

Does that mean the Saab 9-5 will one day beat a 911 around the ‘Ring? Probably not.  Koenigsegg’s big challenge for the present is to make Saab profitable. Known for their quirky, small luxury cars, Saab didn’t benefit from their years under the GM umbrella, as fellow Swedish car maker Volvo has under Ford’s ownership. They cars have been rated mid pack and priced near the top of their segment; not a great recipe for success, unless they have enough intangibles to draw buyers.

We will see if  Koenigsegg can provide those, and restore Saab to the position it once held. Not too long ago, people wanted to drive a car made by a company that also made top of the line jet fighter planes and police cars for the Vail, CO police force.

GM has been looking to unload all it’s secondary manufacturing units, of which Saab was one, and leave itself with only its core brands, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC Trucks, and Buick. Why GM would ax Pontiac and retain Buick, when the former sold many more cars per year is an open question. I would postulate that The Chief’s performance oriented image didn’t sit well with the General’s new bosses in Washington. After all, who needs a V-8 powered sedan with over 400hp?

Americans want small, fuel efficient cars, and Pontiac makes primarily politically incorrect, performance oriented vehicles. If one looks at Toyota Prius sales figures for the first part of 2009, you will see that this isn’t necessarily true, although that’s not what the administration would have you believe. The position that Americans would buy mainly small, fuel efficient cars if given the choice doesn’t hold water if one examines the number of such cars Americans actually did buy when given the chance.

January sales of Toyota’s Prius, poster child for the small, fuel efficient car movement, were down 33.6% in January and 29% in February over the same months in 2008. The Honda Civic Hybrid, a more sporty hybrid than the Prius, experienced declines as well. In January, the Honda Civic Hybrid’s sales were off over 40% year over year, and in March, 2009, only 2,869 Honda Civic Hybrids were sold. All in all, 40.9% fewer hybrid vehicles of all makes were sold than were sold in the same month of 2008. That doesn’t sound like a class of vehicle that is especially popular with American buyers.

When fuel prices are high it is another matter entirely, which is why many are predicting that increasing fuel taxes, or using other means, such as restricting domestic oil production (by limiting new sources of supply from being exploited), will be employed to inflate fuel prices. High fuel prices will force American drivers to seek out more fuel efficient vehicles, such as hybrids, which sales figures amply demonstrate American drivers eschew in other cases.

Will maker of extremely politically incorrect cars, Koenigsegg seek to do what Saab has always done, make mid-level luxury cars, just revitalize the line with exciting, new models? Or, will they take Saab in a new direction, and remake Saab into a producer of smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles, albeit upmarket ones? Perhaps they’ll do a bit of both. If they want to experience a resurgence in the U.S. market, they need to appeal to Americans taste for quirky luxury, with more than a splash of performance, while retaining Saab’s “Green” reputation.

America has a new President, Barack Obama, who has a very different set of ideals and views than those that have come before him. Weather you agree or disagree with him, he is our President, and as was his mantra throughout his election, change is on his agenda.

That change may extend into all facets of your life, including what you drive. President elect Obama has some very ambitious targets. His programs are, to date, a bit short on specifics, yet long on promise. One thing is for sure, the old wheels will undergo a bit of transformation in the coming 4 years if our new President has his way. Just how will those changes affect what you drive to work every day?

A brief glimpse at his agenda sheds some light on the subject (President Obama’s proposals in bold)–

• Increase Fuel Economy Standards.

Questions – Fuel economy standards are already set to increase substantially in the next revision of the CAFÉ standards that are due to phase in completely by 2020. The revised CAFÉ standards provide for an increase from the current 27.5 mpg to 35mpg. Is Obama proposing an acceleration, a further increase, or is he just referencing those standards already set to take affect?

Development lead times on vehicles currently 2 – 5 years. That is for vehicles using current technologies. A radical revision of fuel economy standards would require advanced technologies, and subsequently longer development times for vehicles using them.

Americans have shown a propensity to desire larger, safer, more practical (until you have to park them) vehicles. They have also demonstrated a willingness to pay the extra in fuel costs is takes to drive them up to a point. The point was exceeded about late June of this year as drivers fled large SUVs and pickups like voters running away from the Republican Party in November.

This increase in fuel economy will have a negative effect on tax revenue, as I discuss further below.

• Get 1 Million Plug-In Hybrid Cars on the Road by 2015.

This is an extremely ambitious target, especially given the current state of the automotive landscape. The first plug in hybrid on the horizon is the Chevy Volt, set to debut in 12 – 18 months. This should be followed in short order by the Toyota Prius plug in. If you’ve looked at these vehicles, you’ve found they are not inexpensive.

The Volt in particular is far out of reach of the average car buyer, who stands to never recover the $18,000 difference between that and the 4-cylinder Chevy Malibu (by most accounts a pretty nice car). The Malibu gets 25 mpg, so it isn’t really a gas guzzler for a car that comfortably seats 5 adults.

One will note that vehicles rushed through the engineering stage tend to exhibit more flaws, technological glitches and malfunctions than those that have a longer technological gestation period. That’s something to think about when having a target of 1 million such vehicles on the road in only 6 years.

• Create a New $7,000 Tax Credit for Purchasing Advanced Vehicles.

This would doubtlessly offset some of the budget crunch Americans will feel when purchasing the much more expensive advanced technology vehicles. It also brings up another question, to whit – where is the money for this going to come from? There are currently generous tax incentives for such purchases put into place by President Bush. These new ones proposed by Obama are about 90% higher that the existing tax credits. This will cost taxpayers quite a sum of money.

It will assist the development of some new technologies by increasing consumer demand, but at what cost? You could watch for a healthy Federal gas tax increase to both make advanced technology vehicles more attractive to drivers by increasing the price of fuel, and help fund the tax credits. Fuel has a relatively inelastic demand, so revenue tends to rise as tax levels increase.

Hybrid and other advanced, fuel efficient cars will also drain from the nations coffers in another way. Currently, roads are largely financed by users in the form of motor vehicle fuel taxes. That is basically fair. The more you drive, the more you pay, and the heavier and harder on the road your vehicle, the lower its fuel economy, and the more you pay.

President Obama will probably have to push for Congress to increase the Federal fuel tax rate in order to avoid a drop in aggregate motor fuel tax revenues. Many politicians are loathe to do this, especially after the high fuel prices the nation endured this summer. No matter how they feel, the politically astute among them are well aware how raising gas taxes looks when the next election rolls around.

High motor fuel taxes are not conducive to rebuilding the economy, as it costs businesses, and thus consumers, dearly. It will also cost jobs, because when they are confronted by price increases in one area, businesses look to cut costs in others. The largest cost component of almost every business is labor. That means it is also the most likely to be cut when other costs increase.

• Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard.
• A “Use it or Lose It” Approach to Existing Oil and Gas Leases.
• Promote the Responsible Domestic Production of Oil and Natural Gas.

The extent of which this occurs will go a long way to determining three things; maintaining low fuel prices, national security due to increased supply reliability, and the reduction of our dependence on foreign oil.

In addition, does anyone think other areas of the world are actually more environmentally conscious than we are in the US when exploring for and extracting oil? That would mean that the more oil we pull out of the ground here at home, the better off the world is environmentally. In addition to the lower environmental cost of production, there is a lower environmental cost of transporting locally produced oil.

One more thing to examine is the tremendous number of different environmentally required gasoline blends currently in use throughout different areas of the United States. That incurs increased transportation costs, poses a greater environmental impact, and lowers delivery efficiency. It also drives up fuel prices and causes localized availability problems. This is one area that stands to be looked at and in the spirit of the new Obama administration, changed.

So, how will President Obama change what you drive? Who can tell for sure, but here’s what it could be like:

It will get much better fuel economy, possibly through much more advanced hybrid technology.

Power plant for the Obama car – A very small, algae-biodiesel fueled (this would help meet his targets for lower carbon emissions) turbo diesel that would run constantly at its most efficient RPM and be used only to charge batteries. In many cases it wouldn’t run at all and the car would be driven solely by its advanced electric motors. They would be used for greater efficiency and lower weight. Advanced technology batteries could be charged from a standard 220 or 110 volt wall socket if needed.

Weight is the enemy of fuel economy so look for advanced materials in everything from power window motors (rare earth magnets) to body panels (fiber composites). In addition, you’ll be leaving your boat at home, since vehicles large enough to tow them may be levied a special tax in order to help consumers decide not to drive them. Such a tax exists now, but isn’t applied to trucks and SUVs, only cars. This policy could change.

Look for tires and wheels to get lighter in an attempt to reduce rolling resistance and rotational inertia. This will help increase fuel economy, vehicle performance, and ride quality.

Cars will get smaller, but safety targets won’t, so look for advanced safety technologies to be used, as long they don’t substantially increase the weight of the vehicle. Radar and Lidar proximity sensors will be coupled with stability control, inertial sensors, and GPS systems to help avoid crashes.

Advanced materials will be required to maintain the structural integrity of the passenger safety cage, while reducing the size of heavy, energy absorbing crumple zones. The crash energy will still have to absorbed and dissipated before reaching the hapless passengers trapped inside the vehicle, or deaths and injuries will rise.

The light weight vehicles and high torque electric motors could give us greatly enhanced fuel economy with pretty spritely 0-40 times. This will be great fun around town, but it’s possible that the heavy hand of government knowing what’s good for us may step in to limit our fun – in the name of fuel economy, environmental responsibility, and safety, of course.

We will drive some advanced vehicles, but we’ll probably live in interesting times.

What is a hybrid car? Even with the myriad new coverage and the copious advertising for hybrid vehicles, the fact is that many people are unsure what one really is or how hybrids work. As the name suggests a hybrid car (or any other hybrid vehicle) is one that uses a combination of two power plants to increase fuel economy and reduce emissions.

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In the majority of cases hybrid vehicles use a gasoline engine and one or more electric motors. Some manufacturers are developing hybrids that use a small, high efficiency, turbo diesel engine in lieu of the gas engine. Using a turbo diesel as part of the hybrid power train will have advantages in efficiency, emissions, and the ability to use renewable biofuels. The manufacturers developing diesel / electric hybrids are principally European, which makes sense given the popularity of diesel vehicles in Europe. So far Citroen, VW, Opal, and Peugeot have all showed prototype vehicles that have strong production possibilities.

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The hybrid’s electric motors draw their power from a large battery bank in the vehicle. This is recharged either from a generator connected to the gasoline engine, or by a process known as regenerative braking. The regenerative braking is merely recapturing the energy contained in the vehicle because it is moving. Any object that is moving required energy to get it moving at the speed that it’s traveling and maintain that speed. To slow it down, the energy must be removed.

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With a normal vehicle, friction brakes are used for slowing and stopping. These transform the energy contained in the moving vehicle into heat, which is then dissipated into the air. If that seems like a complete waste, it is. The hybrid’s regenerative braking systems actually recapture that energy and store it in the batteries used to power the electric motors for later use. There are one or more generators that are coupled to the wheels under braking. The drag created by the generators when turning the car’s spinning wheels into electricity provide much of the stopping power. This has two benefits; greatly increased brake life, and capturing energy that would have been wasted as heat (and that you already paid for).

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Because internal combustion engines such as gasoline and diesel engines exhibit increased efficiency during different operating conditions, the vehicle can be operated on the optimum power source for a given load condition. At times such as peak acceleration, both power sources can be used in combination. Electric power is typically used when starting out and at low speeds when electric motors are most efficient. The internal combustion engine takes over at higher speeds or when the batteries are discharged.

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There are different types of hybrids. Pure hybrids can move completely on electric power. This can be kind of weird if you’re not expecting it. The first time I experienced this, a Ford Escape hybrid pulled away from a stop as I was standing next to it. It was eerie as the truck silently glided away from the curb, as if by magic. After it was moving about 10 mph, the gas engine kicked in and it motored (engined??) away.

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The stored energy in the batteries let the hybrid’s engine be completely shut down when stopped. The engine is only restarted after the vehicle’s electronic control unit decides it would be better to let the gas engine handle things. More efficiency is gained by using this method. This is similar to the technique used by your internal combustion powered golf cart, but far more sophisticated.

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In fact, the sophistication of engine and control electronics are one of the reasons that practical hybrid vehicles are on the road today. Juggling the optimum mix of power between the two power systems, and recapturing the heretofore lost energy from the moving vehicle would have been impossible to accomplish affordably and practically a few years ago.

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So, that’s what a hybrid car is and kind of how it works. My favorite is the Honda Civic hybrid, followed by the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, but I’m waiting for someone to make a really cool sports car hybrid, which reportedly Toyota is doing as a replacement for the dear, departed Supra. Toyota probably has more experience than any other manufacturer with hybrids, so they should be well equipped to handle such a task.

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Not to be outdone, Honda is reportedly releasing their CR-Z in about 2011. The CR-Z is a sports coupe in the same vein as the Honda CR-X of 15 years ago, but with a sexy, modern body, great handling, and the hybrid power train from the new Civic hybrid.

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Until next time……..

Making the best gas mileage cars is at the forefront of every auto manufacturer’s agenda these days. Big trucks and full sized SUVs languish on auto dealer’s lots throughout the country, as consumers look for something that will save them money on gas, rather than draining their 401k to fill their tank. Car manufacturers have responded as best they can but lead times on new vehicle models are measured in years, not months.

Developing and implementing new gas saving technologies and staying within the ever changing regulatory framework takes time, and there’s not much the manufacturers can do about it. Those of you thinking that the Big 3 passed on the 100-mpg carburetor because it was too expensive, or that it was suppressed by the oil companies should take this time to remove your cranium from which ever bodily orifice in which it’s buried.

General Motors alone employs over 6,000 power train engineers in an attempt to develop powerful, efficient, quiet and smooth engines and transmissions that consumers want to buy. You should ask yourself why:

A) None of these bright star engineers have stumbled on the formula for the esteemed, 100mpg carburetor?

B) GM has squandered hundreds of millions of dollars developing fuel delivery, engine management, and other technologies that deliver increased fuel mileage, reduced emissions, and smooth running engines if they could have just cut a deal to fast track the 100mpg carb?

C) The whole 100mpg carb idea just doesn’t pass the smell test. You’re not going to get 100mpg, good power, a smooth running engine, and low (actually almost non-existent these days) emissions by simply swapping a carburetor. Also consider that no carburetor equipped vehicles are manufactured by major auto manufacturers any longer, and haven’t been for about a decade. There’s a reason for that.

Since the 100mpg carb isn’t going to be around to increase the fuel economy of vehicles, let’s take a look at the new technologies that are being used to save you gas on your daily slog to work.

The Top Technologies Used to Get Better Fuel Mileage 6 -

Cylinder Deactivation – This is the technique of cutting off certain cylinders when the power isn’t needed. In many cases the valves are closed to reduce pumping losses. There are many different names for this; Chevy calls theirs Active Fuel Management™, Chrysler marketing gurus came up with Multi-Displacement Engine, and Honda likes Variable Cylinder Management™. This is a very nice way to use modern engine management systems to really manage the engine in a quest or better fuel efficiency. Depending on how you drive, you’ll save about 10% – 15% on your fuel bill over a comparably equipped vehicle without cylinder deactivation technology.

The Top Technologies Used to Get Better Fuel Mileage 5 –

Multi-Speed, electronically controlled automatic transmissions and Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVTs) – The advent of extremely sophisticated vehicle management systems have allowed electronic control of your vehicle’s transmission to the n’th degree. The greater amount of transmission control and coordination with the engine, coupled with the increased number of ratios offered by many transmissions (an infinite number, in the case of the CVT), allows large increases in gas mileage. As an example, the new 2009 Chevy Impala 4-cylinder went from an EPA 30mpg highway to 32mpg with the change from a 4-speed automatic transmission to a 6-speed unit.

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Turbocharged, small engines – Turbocharging technology coupled with smaller displacement engines has experienced a resurgence in the last couple of years. Acura for example has offered their first turbo engine, the turbo 4-cylinder found in the new Acura RDX small SUV (You’ve got to love a vehicle named after the explosive that’s the basis for the military plastic explosive C-4).

The increased capability of sensor and engine management, fuel delivery, and ignition systems, combined with better materials technology and improved combustion chamber designs, have breathed new life into the turbocharged engine. The added expense and weight of the turbo and its’ associated plumbing can’t really be justified when gas prices are low, but if they stay over $3.50 a gallon, expect to see the turbo / small engine combo stick around for a while.

The Top Technologies Used to Get Better Fuel Mileage 3 –

Engine cut off / restart – Your car never gets better mileage than when it’s not running (infinite mpg), and it never gets worse mileage than when it is running but not moving (0 mpg). Now, what’s good enough for your golf cart moves into the realm of automotive normalcy with the adoption of auto engine cutoff / restart technology.

Used by most hybrids, this changes your vehicle from living in the domain where it gets the absolute worst mileage to the one where it gets the absolute best. That change adds up to increased gas savings and better overall gas mileage with the improvement coming in city driving, the bane of most vehicle’s fuel economy profiles.

The Top Technologies Used to Get Better Fuel Mileage 2 -

Direct fuel injection – As I mentioned earlier, there hasn’t been a non-fuel injected car sold in the U.S. for about 10 years. Most cars now use port fuel injection, where fuel is injected into the intake port, right behind the intake valve. With direct injection, the fuel is injected directly into the cylinder using high pressure fuel injection systems. This gives three big advantages; The cooling effect of the fuel allows higher compression ratios for increased engine efficiency, more precise fuel timing and delivery is possible, and better fuel atomization is realized. These add up to an additional 10% – 15% in fuel economy, often coupled with better drivability and more power.

The Top Technologies Used to Get Better Fuel Mileage 1 -

Hybrid power train technology- You probably saw this one coming a mile away. With the Hybrid Prius’ popularity (even though I personally prefer the Honda Civic hybrid) of late it’s hard to Escape (hey, isn’t that another hybrid) the conclusion that combining both an internal combustion and electric power plant with some of the technologies mentioned above will lead to much improved fuel economy, especially in city driving. Looking at most manufacturer’s best gas mileage cars, it’s fairly obvious most of them are some variation of hybrid.

The hybrid’s ability to recapture heretofore lost energy through the use of regenerative braking, it’s ability to move at lower speeds purely on electric power and the ability to shut off the engine completely when stopped really deliver far better city gas mileage. Soon hybrids will be implemented with small, common rail diesel engines to deliver even greater fuel economy, possibly on the order of 60 – 70mpg in the city.

These are the technologies used to make the best gas mileage cars. There are certainly improvements coming as these technologies are refined. In addition several promising, new developments are on the way in the not too distant future that will make the best gas mileage cars in the next decade fairly embarrass even the best hybrids of today. In fact the vehicles that do burn fuel probably won’t burn gas at all, but some sort of biodiesel.

Until next time…….