Five months after the introduction of the diesel E320 CDI, Mercedes-Benz has hit its 2004 sales target of 3,000 vehicles. Not surprisingly, the company will bring more units to the market. “The great response we are getting from customers clearly confirms that our strategy of expanding the Mercedes-Benz E-Class lineup... Read more →

DaimlerChrysler will fill each new 2005 Jeep Liberty Common Rail Diesel (CRD) vehicle rolling off the assembly line in Toledo, Ohio, with 5 percent biodiesel (B5). The biodiesel is produced from soybeans grown in Ohio. DaimlerChrysler globally has been working hard with biofuels and synthetic fuels in addition to the... Read more →

Thanks to Greg Wright for sending in a very thoughtful piece on basing California’s Vehicle License Fee (VLF) half on the CO2 emissions and half on the car’s market value. The contentious but needed Vehicle License Fee can be rejiggered to serve the important purpose of environmental protection by basing... Read more →

Global oil producers managed to push production up an additional 300,000 barrels per day in August, while the global demand forecast remained flat from the prior month, according to the International Energy Agency’s monthly Oil Market Report. (Click on chart at right to enlarge.) Overall output from non-OPEC producers dropped... Read more →

Maryland is taking a first step toward the hydrogen economy by leasing a fuel-cell powered 5-seat minivan from GM. The GM vehicle will be assigned to a state agency and will run a fixed route in Prince George’s County. Earlier this summer, the US Postal Service leased a similar GM... Read more →

Lexus (part of Toyota Motor) dealers have received more than 9,000 pre-sold orders for the 2006 RX 400h luxury gas-electric hybrid SUV through August month-end. “We’ve received significantly more pre-launch orders for the 400h than we’ve had for any vehicle in our entire 15-year history,” said Lexus Group Vice President... Read more →

Isuzu signed a $1.5 million deal with Westport for the design and construction of two next-generation CNG-DI (Compressed Natural Gas Direct Injection) ELF trucks to be delivered in 2005. Conventional CNG-powered engines use spark ignition—the standard gasoline-engine approach to combustion. Using CNG as a fuel in such an engine makes... Read more →

PSA Peugeot Citroën today introduced its new Stop & Start system for fuel savings and emissions reduction. Such idling stop-and-start is a standard feature of hybrid electric vehicles. Peugeot’s is the first implementation of idling stop-and-start on a standard internal combustion engine vehicle. The big difference between Peugeot’s Stop &... Read more →

The Detroit News reports that Ford is testing an F-350 truck fitted with a 6.8-liter V-10 internal combustion engine (ICE) burning hydrogen instead of gasoline. This is certainly the largest H2 engine Ford has worked with to date, and indicates that Ford’s engineers are really pushing the power output from... Read more →

Honda has rolled out its re-engineered third-generation Odyssey minivan for 2005. Aside from increasing interior comfort, flexibility and safety features, Honda provided a new Odyssey gasoline powertrain that increases performance and fuel economy while lowering emissions. But for all the great improvements in technology, the fuel economy and emissions fall... Read more →

The pace of attacks against the oil infrastructure continues, with 26 attacks since 1 August. (IAGS’ Iraq Pipeline Watch provides an ongoing list of attacks.) The map to the right plots the latest attacks since 1 Sep. (Click to enlarge.) The attack on that day, which disrupted the important Kirkuk-Ceyhan... Read more →

Toyota is entering into a 50-50 joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group to open a new manufacturing facility in Guandong Province—a key automobile market in China. The new plant will have an annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles, with production and sales of the mid-size Toyota Camry sedan scheduled to... Read more →

Cummins Westport Inc is supplying 100 compressed natural gas-fueled (CNG) engines for public transit buses in Metro Manila as part of the Philippine government’s Natural Gas Vehicle Program for Public Transport (NGVPPT). These will be the first fleets of low-emissions CNG buses to be used in the country. The Philipine... Read more →

The Straits Times. China plans to add 27 new nuclear plants by 2020 to its current nine in operation. This would work out to two to three 1,000MW nuclear plants being built annually for the next 15 years, said Mr Zhang Huazhu, chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA).... Read more →

China Daily. The Chinese government is projecting that the country will have 140 million automobiles on its roads its roads by 2020, a seven-fold increase from current numbers. Li Xinghua, deputy director of the Communication Ministry’s Comprehensive Planning Department, predicted that China’s auto population would eventually reach around 250 million,... Read more →

The German auto magazine Auto Bild reports (German) on Volkswagen’s testing of a prototype hybrid Touran (a compact van, or MPV). VW built a test hybrid [gasoline-electric; thanks Jamais!] Touran and compared it to the same model with a production diesel powerplant. The results: the diesel delivered better fuel economy:... Read more →

Sales of hybrids in the US in August were not immune from the general drop in auto sales. Total hybrids sold declined from prior months to 6,232 units—the lowest number since February, but still well above the sales level of last year. The chart below and to the left plots... Read more →

Albuquerque Tribune. Albuquerque, NM, is bringing in 12 new 60-foot articulated diesel-hybrid buses manufactured by Flyer. The Flyer hybrids use the GM-Allison hybrid electric drive and a Caterpillar diesel. Each bus costs some $670,000. Federal Transit Administration grants are picking up 80% of the cost, the remainder coming from city... Read more →

August was a tough month for light duty vehicle sales; even Toyota and Honda felt the pinch, attributed to a variety of factors including the price of gas and hurricane Charley. The chart to the left below plots the change in car and light duty truck sales for each of... Read more →

Analysts expected it, Ford hinted that it was coming (earlier post), but the actual size of the drop in sales in August 2004 from August 2003 has to hurt: 13%. This bumps the decrease in 2004 year-to-date sales to 4.6%. One bright spot for the company was a 15% increase... Read more →