The Biggest Technological Failure of This Decade

Each on their own the engineering teams of BMW, Chrysler, General Motor and Mercedes have produced some amazing products over the years. In a rare case of teamwork, cooperation and perhaps desperation the four diverse brands teamed up on the Dual Mode Hybrid System in a project called the Global Hybrid Partnership. The combined engineering synergy resulted in a much hyped hybrid powertrain too complex to explain yet one promising the world. As with many overhyped projects the Global Hybrid Partnership began to dissolve literally as soon as the first models hit dealerships and saw some of the brands sell fewer hybrids than Ferraris Enzos.

Plug In Sports Cars Rated by the EPA

No long ago a hyper car's EPA fuel economy was nothing more than a specs footnote. These days however the owner and fan bragging rights might extend beyond acceleration and lap times and into EPA ratings. Earlier this year the Porsche 918 Spyder became the first plug in hyper car to be rated by the EPA to the tune of 20 mpg city and 24 mpg on the highway along with a gasoline equivalent of 67 mpg while operating solely on electricity. No longer is the 918 Spyder the only (almost) million dollar member of the plug in hybrid club as the McLaren P1 is now also officially rated by the EPA. The P1 is good for 16 mpg city and 20 highway and 17 in combined driving. It appears that while you can get up to 19 miles of plug in assisted driving from the battery, the benefits are so tiny that you will end up averaging only 1 mpg better driving as a plug in. For reference the McLaren 650S that uses a lower output version of the same 3.8 twin turbo V8 is good for 16 city and 22 highway, but of course the P1 blows it away performance wise. Thus the P1 does pretty well for greatly increasing performance while minimizing fuel economy loses. More impressive mpg wise, is the BMW i8 which is officially good for 28 mpg in the city and 29 on the highway as a hybrid and will deliver a combined gasoline and electricity usage rate of 76 mpg as a plug in in its first 15 miles. Of course the i8 is playing in the minor leagues performance wise compared to the 918 and the P1 but it's fun to compare regardless. It's unknown yet how well the last plug in hyper car, the Ferrari LaFerrari will do, but Ferrari has been able to harness the efficiency of the turbo to achieve an EPA rating of 16/23 for the California T. It's a decent improvement over the 14/19 rating of the original California.

Porsche 918 Is Officially Rated by the EPA

The official EPA fuel economy numbers are in for the 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder and not unexpectedly it scores quite a bit lower than other plug-in hybrids like the Volt, ELR, Accord and Fusion. Of course  it's not competing with those models but the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and to a lesser degree the BMW i8 have not been rated yet so the comparison set is not perfect. The EPA predicts the 918 Spyder will be good for 12 miles on electricity and will consume it at a rate of 67 MPGe. This actually bests the 11 miles of the Prius Plug-in and just one short of the 13 of the Accord but all others have about double to triple the electric range. For what it's worth the four times I have seen the 918 around town it was always rolling silently on battery power. The 67 MPGe equivalent also trails all other plug-ins aside from Porsche's own Panamera and the Karama. Once the juice runs out the 918 is good for 20 MPG in the city and 24 on the highway as a hybrid, unimpressive for a hybrid until you consider that the gas engine is not a small 4 cylinder Atkinson cycle but rather a high revving 4.6 liter V8 good for 608 horsepower on its own. Still the hybrid numbers are better than the 20/21 that the Fisker managed. While somewhat arbitrary it will be fun to see what the P1 and the LaFerrari end up with if only to see which million dollar hypercar owner will have the most MPG bragging rights.

Best Green Car Designs

Over the past few years the number of green cars on sale has increased dramatically with new hybrids, mild hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure electric cars available for sale. While styling still remains form follows function the automakers are finally starting to spice up their green designs with additional details and styling elements. With that in mind let's take a look at the best hybrid/electric designs out for sale today. To keep out mainstream sedans we will only be looking at vehicles that are available only as hybrids, no Camry/Fusion/Altima hybrids here.

Sixth: Honda Insight

The car that invented "hybrid" hatchback styling (the first Prius was a sedan) is back but looks stale in comparison to its competition. Having grown in size compared to the original Insight the second generation model looks like a dead ringer for the second generation Prius. While both derive their shape from the aerodynamic kammback styling the newest Insight lacks the sharper styling of the newest Prius.



Fifth: Nissan Leaf

Using a more conventional hatchback/wagon shape than its Japanese competitors the Leaf looks more like a regular car. Nevertheless the big headlights upfront and swoopy design lines throughout give the Leaf distinct styling. Overall the design is interesting and lets people identify the Leaf as an electric car but it's also an electric car that does not look particularly great.




Fourth: Lexus HS 250h

If Toyota kept its second and third generation Prii as sedans the end result would have likely been very similar to the HS. Looking like a mix between the Japan only Toyota Allion and the Europe only Toyota Avensis the HS is by far the most ordinary looking pure hybrid available for sale in America. While the overall shape is fairly clean it lacks the overall design impact one would expect from a luxury oriented brand like Lexus.



Third: Lexus CT 200h

The first hatchback Lexus is clearly designed with Europe in mind as the Audi A3, BMW 1 series and the upcoming Mercedes A-class competitor would look more at home in Europe. Nevertheless the smallest Lexus hybrid has a nice design that does a good job combining an aggressive front end with curvy lines elsewhere.



Second: Toyota Prius

While the second generation Prius achieved instant recognizability as a hybrid and was the first (and essentially only) hybrid to achieve significant sales it is the third generation Prius that finally brought some styling to the table. The Prius gained sharp creases with the third generation and overall looks significantly better than the second generation blob.




First: Chevrolet Volt

Using a fairly conventional sedan styling the Volt looks like a smaller yet better designed Lexus HS250. Overall clean styling already puts the Volt ahead most of its competition but unique elements like the faux grille that looks real, sharp headlights and taillights give the Volt a unique design. The Volt takes first place by having the best combination of goods looks while still looking different enough to stand as an alternatively powered vehicle.

2011 Audi A8 V8 Offers Better Fuel Economy Than BMW and Mercedes Hybrids

The 2011 Audi A8 with the 372 horsepower V8 engine will offer exceptional fuel economy of 17 city and 27 highway. These ratings place the A8 far ahead of its BMW and Mercedes V8 powered competition. Surprisingly, the A8 with its conventional V8 engine and 8 speed gearbox also tops its German rivals' hybrid efforts fuel economy wise. The BMW 7 series ActiveHybrid trails the A8 by 1 mpg on the highway and the Mercedes S400 hybrid comes up 2 mpg short.



Audi A8: 17/21/27

BMW ActiveHybrid: 17/20/26
MB S400 Hybrid: 19/21/25
Lexus LS 600hL: 20/21/22
Mercedes S550: 15/18/23
BMW 750i: 15/17/22
BMW 740i: 17/20/25

Honda Hybrid Struggles

Honda released the second generation Insight hybrid with expectations that its under 20,000 dollar starting price would result in good sales. However, things haven't gone according to Honda's plan with the Insight having only moderate sales success. Even worse, the Insight sales have come at an expense of plummeting Civic Hybrid sales, as low as 152 sales in the past few month. In fact the Civic Hybrid has the second highest sales decline for the year behind the S200. The Insight itself has also lost some of its sales momentum from its introduction. Overall the situation doesn't look promising for a brand that has deserted performance aspirations for hybrid sales.

BMW ActiveHybrid X6 Delivers 20% Fuel Economy Improvement

BMW's 480 horsepower X6 ActiveHybrid has been rated by the EPA and the results are in, 17 city and 19 highway for a combined fuel economy of 18 mpg. The X6 ActiveHybrid combines the xdrive50i's twin-turbo V8 with electric motors to improve fuel economy. The nonhybrid X6 xdrive50i has EPA ratings of 13 city and 18 highway, and 15 combined. This means that the hybrid powertrain increases city fuel economy by nearly 31% while only giving a 5% boost on the highway. Overall drivers should expect a 20% improvement in fuel economy compared to the regular V8. A better example of the fuel economy improvement is the fact that the ActiveHybrid X6 has a higher combined fuel economy rating than the six cylinder X6 xdrive30i. However, BMW's focus on performance is evident as the ActiveHybrid's improvement in fuel economy is smaller than that seen by General Motor's SUVs which feature similar hybrid technology. Both companies took part in the Global Hybrid Cooperation. Only time will tell if BMW's focus on extra performance will pay off.

BMW X6 xdrive50i, 400 horsepower: 13/18 (15 combined)
BMW X6 ActiveHybrid, 480 horsepower: 17/19 (18 combined) 20% improvement

Cadillac Escalade 2WD, 403 horsepower: 14/20 (16 combined)
Cadillac Escalade 2 WD Hybrid, 332 horsepower: 21/22 (22) 37.5% improvement

Chevrolet Tahoe 4 WD, 320 horsepoer, 15/21 (17)
Chevrolet Tahoe 4WD Hybrid, 332 horsepower: 21/22 (22) 29% improvement

First Official Lexus LF-Ch Photo

Lexus has released the first official photo of its upcoming hatchback concept. The hybrid powered concept will preview a Lexus vehicle that would compete with the Audi A3 and BMW 1 series. Expect the actual production car to have a normal rear bumper, bigger rear window and perhaps different taillights.

2010 Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid Will Achieve 26 MPG

The EPA has released the fuel economy ratings for the 2010 Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid. The EPA predicts that S400 drivers should achieve 19 miles per gallon in the city and 26 on the highway. The S400's fuel economy is significantly better than the V8 powered S550 that only manages 14 city and 22 highway. Even the smaller C350 only gets 17 city and 25 highway. Will Mercedes S class buyers trade the performance of the V8 S550 to get the fuel economy of the S400 Hybrid?