As Trump Tries to Roll Back Emissions Standards, GM Pushes National Electric Car Plan
General Motors is calling for the federal government to start a nationwide program that would put more electric vehicles on the roads and turbocharge innovation.
Trump has proposed taking away the so-called California waiver, a move certain to cause lengthy court fights. GM's plan would be modeled on California's Zero Emission Vehicle program. Automakers would be required to sell a certain percentage of zero emissions vehicles, which are usually electric powered, or pay credits to other companies that make such vehicles.
Read the article at CNN.
New Safety Technologies Can Increase Minor Collision Repair Costs by $3,000
New safety systems, such as blind-spot detection and forward collision warning, can help motorists steer clear of trouble, but when a collision does occur, warns a new AAA study, the cost of making repairs is likely to skyrocket.
“Advanced safety systems are much more common today,” said John Nielsen, AAA’s managing director of Automotive Engineering and Repair. “It’s critical that drivers understand what technology their vehicle has, how it performs and how much it could cost to repair should something happen.”
Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.
A Guide to the Confusing Hybrid Electric Vehicle Landscape
Are you having a tough time trying to figure out what kind of hybrid vehicle best suits your fleet?
By Andrew Boada, Editor at Large
It’s no wonder. Since Toyota introduced the first mass-produced hybrid car in 1997 – the Prius -- the variety of hybrid types has proliferated, and the field is so littered with an attendant profusion of acronyms, jargon and auto industry market-speak that sorting out the features, advantages and disadvantages can be a mind-numbing experience.
So, what we offer here is a kind of a cheat sheet that describes the kinds of hybrids in the hope of providing you with a clear vision of the current hybrid universe. We’ll start with a basic definition: What is a hybrid electric vehicle?
Aversion to Oil is the Industry’s Biggest Threat
Competition between energies has gathered momentum, even in previously untouchable markets such as transportation.
In China, the sales of electric vehicles has jumped by 75 percent. Pollution in Chinese cities has decreased and encouraging renewable power and electric vehicles as well as natural gas makes sense.
Unlike the U.S., China isn’t an oil and gas powerhouse. Its strength is in manufacturing, not extraction. China's aversion to oil is constraining investment in new oil and gas production.
Read the article at The Detroit News.
EU Fleet Managers Need to Take Pro-active Approach to WLTP or Face Rising costs, Warns FleetVision
EU Fleet managers need to take a pro-active approach to vehicle selection following the introduction of the new Worldwide Harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) or face escalating fleet costs.
That’s the warning from FleetVision, the fleet and mobility consultancy arm within TÜV SÜD Group, which says that fleets could face additional costs of several hundreds of Euros per vehicle per year if they do not make the right vehicle selections now within their fleet choice lists.
