GM Says No, FedEx Says Yes … and much more Vehicle News

CARB Fallout
Just a month after California Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Resources Board (CARB) voted unanimously to keep the 10 year old ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle) mandate in place, General Motors filed a law suit to overturn the rules. GM claims CARB is ignoring auto makers’ costs and wants to test public acceptance of electric vehicles for five years instead of implementing the 2003 rules. The mandate encourages production of neighborhood EVs (small vehicles like Ford’s Th!nk) which can’t be driven over 35 miles per hour. GM claims this ”raises significant safety issues.” The company also expressed concerns that New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont may adopt the same standards. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the industry’s lobbying organization, in a surprising move, indicated it will work with CARB to implement the rules rather than join in the lawsuit.

The CARB mandate requires that 10% of new vehicles sold in California be clean vehicles starting in 2003. The decision triggers similar legislation in states that have adopted California’s clean air laws – Massachusetts, New York and Vermont. The final rule gives auto manufacturers flexibility in how they meet the 10% requirement. Only two percent must be ZEVs, two percent must be hybrids, and six percent can be Very Low Emission vehicles – a definition now met by just one car, the Nissan Sentra CA, sold only in California. Formerly, all 10% had to be ZEVs – electric cars. This compromise lowers the number of ZEVs we can expect to see on the road in 2003, from 22,000 to 14,000. The final number of ZEVs sold depends on the total number of vehicles sold in the state. About 100,000 very clean vehicles, such as hybrid cars, will be produced in 2003, increasing to more than 400,000 by 2006.

SUVs pickup trucks and vans will be included in the sales figures used to calculate the number of mandated ZEVs in 2007, increasing the number of vehicles used to calculate ZEV requirements from just under one million to more than 1.5 million. More SUV sales will mean more ZEV sales.

Automakers insist there is no customer demand for ZEVs. Yet, as a recent Mother Jones article points out, just the opposite may be true. It may be the lack of supply, not demand, that is holding the market back. Kent Harris, for example, head of Pacific Gas and Electric’s electric vehicle program, says he would purchase 1,500 electric vehicles but they aren’t available. Southern California Edison has 320 electric vehicles and wanted to buy 120 more last year, but could only find a handful. After individuals use electric cars at work they become interested in buying one for themselves. Where will they buy one?

Closing the Loop
According to the Associated Press, auto makers came out of a February 22 meeting saying they will abandon their longtime efforts to freeze vehicle fuel-economy standards and instead focus on getting tax credits for hybrid-electric and fuel cell vehicle purchases. They are looking for credits up to $3,000 for hybrids and $4,000 for fuel cell-powered vehicles. The group reportedly recognizes the political tide is turning against them from the combined concerns of global warming, a national energy crisis and high fuel prices.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection is offering $1,500 to purchasers of hybrid-electric vehicles. State residents, school districts, local governments, corporations, and non-profits are eligible. The state has awarded $17 million so far to fund 165 projects to help buy vehicles, build refueling stations, and develop new technologies.

New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority put in a $77 million order for 200 hybrid transit buses, the largest order in North America to date. The buses and their propulsion systems will be manufactured in NY State by Orion Bus Industries and BAE Systems, respectively. Southern California’s Mobile Source Air Pollution Review Committee ordered over 360 alternative fueled transit buses and heavy-duty vehicles – street sweepers and construction equipment.

FedEx Express and the conservation group Environmental Defense are working together to develop environmental standards for a diesel hybrid truck. FedEx wants to cut delivery truck emissions by 90% and fuel costs by 50% in its fleet of 45,000 trucks. Since much of the hybrid technology exists they expect vehicle designs to be ready by the end of 2001 and pre-production hybrids to be on the road by mid-2003. Production-level models may be for sale by late 2004. FedEx’s 1999-model truck which has a 6,000-pound payload is being used as the model. The vehicle needs to have a minimum range of 400 miles with a cruising speed of at least 65 miles per hour.

Mercury is Still in Cars
U.S. automobile manufacturers are the subject of two recent scathing reports because they continue to use mercury in car components even though there are inexpensive alternatives. Mercury is mostly used in switches for hood and truck lighting and anti-lock braking systems; most releases occur when the scrap is melted in electric arc furnaces. One study estimates these sources emit more mercury each year than all manufacturing sources combined. Toyota, Volvo and BMW stopped using mercury for switch applications in 1993. An action plan, supported by over 50 NGOs, calls on auto makers to immediately eliminate the use of mercury switches in new cars and trucks, label component parts and vehicles that contain mercury, and remove mercury switches in existing vehicles.

Company Announcements
Both Honda and Nissan placed large orders for fuel cells from Ballard Power Systems recently. Honda R&D Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co.) and Nissan purchased Ballard’s Mark 900 Series fuel cell power modules and support services for about US$1.3 million each. This is Ballard’s latest-generation fuel-cell stack, which uses low-cost materials and is designed for manufacturing in automotive volumes. Honda is also manufacturing its own fuel-cell stack, the ”FCX-V3.”

Ford Motor Co. is investing US$114 million dollars into the Norway plant where it is building its
TH!NK City electric vehicles. About $50 million will go toward developing a U.S. version which Ford plans to bring to market in mid-2002. The vehicle currently is sold in Norway and launches in other international markets later this year.
SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. will supply the battery systems for Ford’s first hybrid vehicle, Escape, due out in 2003. Ford says this SUV will be the ”cleanest, most fuel-efficient sport-utility vehicle on the planet.”

Mazda’s Premacy FC-EV and DaimlerChrysler’s NECAR 5 fuel cell vehicles are being tested on public roads in Japan. Both are powered by a methanol reformer fuel-cell system developed by Ballard Power Systems. The Petroleum Energy Center, an affiliate of the Japanese government’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is subsidizing the project.

Orion Bus Industries, the NY company producing NYC’s hybrid buses is owned by Freightliner, LLC, which is a unit of Daimler Chrysler. Freightliner makes 18-wheel trucks and just announced it is getting into the SUV business. Its first entry is called Unimog. It is
almost three feet higher than the highest SUV; passengers use a three-step ladder to reach the six-foot high seat! It’s 20 feet long – beating the Ford Excursion (the longest SUV so far) by a foot. It’s so wide that federal regulation requires it to have truck marker lights on the front and back. At 12,500 pounds, it is double the weight of a Chevrolet Suburban SUV. And it gets about 10 miles to the gallon of diesel fuel, easily winning the position of most fuel inefficient SUV. It will sell for a base price of $84,000 and is being marketed to suburbanites and businesses.

Is the Unimog a car or a truck, or a DaimlerSaurus as environmental NGOs call it? It’s a medium-duty truck when it comes to the federal air pollution standards it has to meet – it’s too heavy to be a “car.” Standards for trucks are much more lenient than for cars. But it can be registered as a “family vehicle” as opposed to a commercial vehicle, allowing it to travel on any road.

What’s the difference between the energy used by an average car and an SUV? It’s the equivalent of leaving a refrigerator door open for 6 years or a bathroom light burning for 30 years.

New York Times article on the Unimog, February 21, 2001: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/21/business/21BIG.html