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Such title is a good news for Honda as it had offset the Honda Civic GX’ relatively low units sold every year that only totaled to more than a thousand cars only. In addition to that, most of the sedans sold are now being used by government agencies and corporate fleets around New York and California.

Among the notable auto parts of the 2007 Honda Civic GX, the powertrain system stood out. The precision-engineered engine boasts of utilizing compressed natural gas that results to very low noxious emissions.

The Washington D.C.-based American Council, which gets funding from foundations and other government agencies, looked closely on two aspects- emissions and fuel economy of numerous vehicle models. These factors helped the council to determine which car belongs to the 12 cleanest or the 12 meanest cars sold in the U.S. Posted in the 2008 Green Book Online, Japanese automakers Honda and Toyota dominated the eco friendly list.

1. Honda Civic GX
2. Toyota Prius
3. Honda Civic Hybrid
4. Smart ForTwo
5. Toyota Yaris
6. Nissan Altima Hybrid
7. Toyota Corolla
8. Mini Cooper / Clubman
9. Ford Focus
10. Toyota Camry Hybrid
11. Honda Civic
12. Honda Fit

While Asian car makers were successful to make it to the cleanest cars list, European companies were in the slumps as these took over the council’s mean list.

1. VW Touareg
2. Bugatti Veyron
3. Mercedes Benz GL320 CDI
4. Jeep Grand Cherokee
5. Mercedes Benz R320 CDI
6. Lamborghini Murcielago
7. Mercedes Benz ML320 CDI
8. Mercedes Benz G55 AMG
9. Hummer H2
10. GMC Yukon 2500
11. Bentley Azure
12. Bentley Arnage

The mean list has several diesel-powered cars. While diesel vehicles are good in terms of achieving an improved fuel economy, which is 35 miles per gallon, these tend to produce lots of noxious gases.

Whether a car is green or not, it still depends on the need of the motorists. One cannot exactly use a subcompact to haul or to tow stuff and only bulky and powerful trucks can do the job. These trucks, however, are not so much from the eco friendly side. To make a vehicle greener, getting hold of components from the auto parts warehouse for cat cons can help for now while the council’s making another list of greener choices for the American market.

Source: Wired.

Toyota Motor Company is set to prove that a sports car can have both powerful and green qualities via the leading Japanese automaker’s Future Toyota Hybrid Sports (FT-HS) concept.

According to Toyota, its upcoming car is capable of carrying out real performance minus the noxious emissions. This is made possible because it is equipped with a hybrid engine running on electricity and petrol. Moreover, the automobile company wants to emphasize that the hybrid technology is no longer solely for the regular street vehicles as sports cars can also use and benefit hybrid systems.

“There is a stronger need for hybrid vehicles to be on the market, or much more fuel efficient vehicles,” said Doug Soden, who is the manager of product development of Toyota. “Whichever way you look at it, whether it is a petrol-electric or hydrogen-electric, there needs to be that hybrid interface.”

The FT-HS, which was designed and manufactured by a Toyota team-based in California, has a system that fused the power of electricity via its electric motor with the specially-made 3.5-liter petrol engine. With such power system, the hybrid sports car from Toyota, which looks similar with Kitt of the science fiction television series Knight Rider, can accelerate to 100 km per hour in about four seconds.

“What we’re able to do is use a smaller capacity engine in conjunction with the hybrid transmission and electric motor and give the same performance as a vehicle with a larger engine,” said Soden.

Aside from being powerful and green, Toyota’s FT-HS also put much emphasis that hybrid cars are not necessarily slow or conservative. In fact, Toyota believes that hybrids are actually capable of competing in speed events like the Formula One series.

“Particularly with European customers being very aware of the environment, a hybrid race car is the way to go. We’ve had the (hybrid) Supra win a 24-hour race in Japan, so we can just transfer that technology across to F1,” said Greg Gardner, who is the corporate manager of Toyota.

The FT-HS concept, which is slated to grace the Melbourne International Motor Show this Friday, is targeted to hit the market four to five years from now.

Source: The Age.

As posted at MSN Money, the findings of the magazine showed that ethanol are now replacing fossil fuel. Little did people know, however, utilizing the corn-based ethanol is actually a poor move as it tends to increase emissions of automobiles by as much as 50 percent. Writer Jon Markman of MSN Money also pointed out in his article that ethanol could likely aggravate more the current greenhouse situation in the 30 years. He based his conclusion on the article from Science Magazine that stated that it would take 423 years to even out the carbon debt if Indonesia’s peat lands were converted to palm oil fields.

Automobile makers are exhausting all efforts to produce green cars. These environment-friendly cars, however, will likely defeat their main purpose if these would be filled with this bio fuel ethanol. To produce the bio fuel like ethanol, lands have to be cleared and that translates clearly to lesser forests and habitats - that can help ease out the Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The European Union and the U.S. legislators might want to hold back energy polices that asks for utilizing bio fuels, like the corn-based ethanol.

Source: MSN Money and Autoblog.

‘Dusc’ is a four-year solar car masterpiece of the students from the Engineering department of Durham University in England. This solar car, which can muster up to 45 miles per hour (mph), has to endure the 2, 400-mile race from Dallas, Texas to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. According to Ben Derrick, who is Dusc’s project head, the Durham-built car is equipped with a set of solar panels that is the likely similarity for every entry. An aerodynamics expert Dr. David Sims-Williams, who was also part of the Durham team, personally thinks that the technology used to create such car could be applied in the future vehicles.

The solar car from Durham is currently showcased in the Science Museum of London. Dusc joined fellow solar car christened ‘SolarFox’ from the University College London (UCL). The UCL car, which has a ceiling speed of 60 mph, was a participant of last year’s World Solar Challenge held in Australia. Clocking in at 63 hours and 43 minutes, it successfully pocketed the 11th spot out of the 38 competitors of the 1, 689-mile road rally. The creators of Dusc hope to follow the tracks of the SolarFox for next year’s World Solar Challenge.

For the arduous nine-day 2008 NASC race, Durham University’s Dusc will head on against 30 other solar cars from July 13 to 22.

Source: The Press Association.

A piston engine is behind this vehicle powered by air. Not just any air, however, for the 350 kg OneCAT will only run with an ample amount of compressed air. Getting in refills of the compressed air costs about £1 and the car is back on the road for another good 200 to 300 kilometers, according to the company. When the driver steps up to accelerate, a very minimal amount of regular gas is used by the vehicle. Tata Motor’s latest car, however, promises zero emission of any sort while at a low speed. Such futuristic car technology was the result of the partnership between Tata Motors and France’s Moteur Development International (MDI) for the last 10 years.

“The engine is efficient, cost-effective, scalable, and capable of other applications like power generation,” a spokesman of MDI said.

With such powertrain, the OneCAT is capable to muster 100 km with 60-horsepower. Moreover, a tank full of compressed air allows the car to operate for 10 hours with a ceiling speed of 70 miles per hour. This car is so green that even the engine’s emission is used as a cabin air conditioner. As part of the OneCAT’s maintenance, oil has to be change after accumulating 30, 000 miles and up to continuously enjoy a fully operating vehicle.

The unique engine technology of OneCAT may seem all that but the car will still have to pass the scrutiny of analysts on total environment impact and practicality. Moreover, the far-fetch figures given by the maker of this ‘air car’ will surely keep automobile industry glued on its progress.

“What counts is how much energy all the processes involved require - from manufacturing the car to compressing the air,” said Vivek Chattopadhyaya of Center for Science and Environment, which is based in New Delhi.

Nonetheless, Tata and MDI are confident that OneCAT, which can accommodate three adult passengers, is competent enough to go against potential green car rivals and energy efficient autos such as the hybrid, bio-fuels, and electric vehicles. The ‘air car’ is targeted for release this year with a base price of around £2,500.

Source: Times Online.

Based on the post-game study done by Nielsen Online MegaPanel Survey and comScore, the ad of the automobile company for its Hyundai Genesis pocketed 43 percent and 45 percent, respectively. Nielsen’s survey results showed that Hyundai topped in the automobile advertisements category, while comScore’s numbers hailed the Genesis commercial ad as the number one advertiser for Super Bowl.

“Our goal was not necessarily to entertain, but to inform, build awareness and position the car. We wanted to be thoughtful,” said Joel Ewanick, who is the vice president of Marketing for Hyundai Motor America. “The ads needed to breakthrough the clutter, give the viewer a quiet moment and differentiate Hyundai from what the other companies were doing and it clearly worked.”

The Goodby, Silverstein & Partners was the team behind the successful “Think About It” Super Bowl advertisement of Hyundai Genesis. The campaign of Hyundai Motor America debuted last September. It focuses on the rear-wheel feature of the luxury car from the Korean carmaker Hyundai.

From the Online MegaPanel Survey Post-Game done by Nielsen, the Hyundai Genesis ad that came out in last Sunday’s Super Bowl boosted greatly the opinion of the respondents on the Korean automobile company to as much as 43 percent. The commercial also successfully informed the viewers and garnered a good 57 percent, while 45 percent of the respondents think that that the Hyundai Genesis was believable. These numbers placed Hyundai on top of the heap of all automobile companies’ ads showed in the Super Bowl.

For those who watched the Super Bowl via the worldwide web, the Hyundai Genesis ad also received positive feedbacks based on the post-game study done by comScore. The automaker even bested other ads, regardless of the category.

Source: Hyundai Motor of America via Autoblog.

The automobile industry once again braces for another innovative car model that is described as a vehicle capable of running both on land and under water christened as “sQuba” on next month’s Geneva Motor Show.

Concept convertible car sQuba is somewhat inspired by the amphibian-like Lotus Esprit, which Roger Moore practically drives on land or under water, that took center stage in the 1977 James Bond movie ‘The Spy who Loved Me.’ The Swiss designer Rinspeed Inc. is the one behind the Concept sQuba that is slated to be unveiled in the annual auto show in Geneva, Switzerland. Frank Rinderknecht, who is the chief executive officer of the company, confessed that he is indeed a fan of the popular movie franchise and waited for three decades to witness a similar car of the Bond movie.

Equipped with electrical motors and salt water-resilient interior, the sQuba can go as deep as 30 feet. The passengers, however, have to gear up with wetsuits because of the roofless car. An integrated tank of compressed air, which is comparable to the ones used in scuba diving, is also needed for the individuals to breathe through.

“For safety reasons, we have built the vehicle as an open car so that the occupants can get out quickly in an emergency,” said Rinderknecht.

On land, the sQuba can run for 77 miles per hour (mph), but decelerates 3 mph on the water’s surface and 1.8 mph is taken when fully submerged. Making this futuristic car work are electrical motors that replaced the original combustion engine of a sports car.

“We always want to do cars that are outrageous, which nobody has done before. So we thought, ‘Let’s make a car dive,’” said Rinderknecht. “The real challenge, however, was to create a submersible car that moves like a fish in water,” he added.

The unique car from Rinspeed, however, receives lukewarm feedbacks from automobile analysts. These vehicles may sound so innovative but the practicality and inconvenience are put into question on the sQuba.

“Other than some kind of a movie situation, for Bond-like stuff with lots of gimmicks, I can’t imagine it will have any practical value,” said John Cabaniss in a meeting by the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers in Washington. “Maybe people will need to go from land to water, and traverse a body of water, but underwater? Especially as it gets your suit wet.”

According to Rinspeed’s CEO, the sQuba needed $1.5 million dollars to finish but with other manufacturers showing interests, this car goes down a 2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom’s tag price of $400, 000.

Source: Associated Press.

Four years from now, a special version will be available in dealerships all over Europe. Aside from being affordable, the European Nano will also be designed and manufactured with essential auto parts that will make it comply with the exhaust and safety standards like the exhaust emissions rules.

“Tata Motors is “going to develop a successor that will respect Euro-5 rules on exhaust emissions and European requirements in terms of safety standards,” said Girish Wagh, who is the small vehicles department head of Tata Motors.

Last January, the Indian automaker launched Nano in the New Delhi-based Indian Auto Expo. With only a base price of $2, 500, the then new find from Tata Motors had both good and bad reviews from the press people as well the motorists in India. Because the Nano is that inexpensive, many have marveled if the Nano could really live up to the other regular-prized vehicles in terms of automobile technology and safety and emission standards.

The initial production of the Nano car starts at 250, 000 unit and goes up to about a million every year. Tata Motors may be releasing the line in Europe by 2012 but the company is still conservative in a way that it wants to focus on the Indian car market for a couple years or so. This will further prepare the Nano car for export to countries in South East Asia, Latin America, and Africa in the future.

With the decent success of Tata Motors’ Nano, other automobile companies have shown interests and plans of coming out with an affordable car of their own. The fusion of French and Japanese car ingenuity will be put to the test as the tandem is looking into creating an affordable car that has a tag of $3, 000 or less. American automakers Ford and General Motors, Japanese companies Toyota and Honda, Italian carmaker Fiat, and German auto company Volkswagen are all planning to release a compact and an inexpensive car soon.

As of post time, Tata Motors has not given the price for its upcoming European version of the Nano. This future model is set to join the limited models of the Indian car maker available in Europe.

Source: International Business Times.

The forecast seem all far-fetched if compared to the conservative predictions of other automobile companies and analysts. Other car makers provided a safe 15.5 million units for 2008 while the American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA only gave an estimate of 15.7 million vehicles in America. Japanese company Toyota, however, remained confident that such number is attainable for this year. During a San Francisco-based meeting of the American International Automobile Dealers Association, U.S. Sales Chief of Toyota gave a brief sentence as to why such goal was projected by the company.

“We are very bullish,” said Jim Lentz.

Last fiscal year’s total units sold only amounted to 16.1 million cars and light trucks. This, by far is the lowest record since 1998. The year 2000, on the other hand, the automobile business amassed the highest with 17.4 million cars and light trucks. Even Toyota suffered a low time last year, but U.S. Sales Chief Lentz still believes that things will go back on track.

“When good Toyota dealers tell me that their traffic is down 60 percent, I know things are off-kilter a little bit,” said Lentz.

Source: Bloomberg.

Dodge Challenger is ready to hit the streets again. The Challenger’s more than three-decade hiatus is now a thing of the past as this rejuvenated muscle car heads on today to its very first stop since its absence–that is this year’s Chicago Auto Show.

The vehicle, which will be manufactured in Brampton, Ontario, may be sporting its trademarks color and look but there are several new auto parts for this 2008 model. For starters, the revamped Dodge Challenger is now equipped with a keyless entry, a navigation system, and a hands-free communication system. Aside from those techie components, the pony car has the 6.1-liter HEMI V-8 engine that is capable of as much as 425-horsepower. According to Chrysler LLC, this model can run from zero to 100 km per hour in five ticks, while it takes 12 seconds more for a zero to a 160-kph acceleration. This will be the sole engine option for this model compared to the original that had nine power plant choices.

Source: The Canadian Press.