2011 Chevy Volt in Texas.

General Motors is still trying to keep its upcoming Chevrolet Volt in the news even as other models, including the Chevrolet Cruze, take center stage. For most of the past three years GM has used the Volt as its way to convey that the automaker is a smarter, greener and more environmentally responsible car manufacturer. Still, the Volt launch seemed more of a dream than a reality.

Volt Basics

Unless you’re totally disconnected from the news, the Chevy Volt is GM’s latest attempt at vehicle electrification, a car equipped with a lithium-ion battery pack and offering a pure-electric range of 40 miles between charges. That won’t take you far, so GM has also included a 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine with the Volt in a bid to extend its range and to make certain that you are never left stranded.

GM calls it an electric vehicle; you may consider the Chevy Volt as some sort of hybrid. In any case, GM wants to get this car built and in the hands of as many consumers as possible.

Launch Prep

To that end, GM has updated its product release information. The retail launch of the Volt will begin in Austin, Texas and New York City late this year with other markets getting the car in 2011.  The Volt will also be available for sale in California, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., markets and with the exception of most of the Golden State are known to have some rough winters.

Indeed, rolling out the Volt where weather can be at its worst demonstrates GM’s confidence that its electric sedan won’t conk out if you hit the road fully charged and encounter a snowstorm. That is important, because not too many people are certain that the Volt will survive, let alone thrive in frigid conditions.

Whitacre Speaks

Speaking to members of the press on July 1 in Austin, Ed Whitacre, General Motors chairman and CEO said, “We can add markets as diverse as Texas and New York because the Chevrolet Volt can handle both urban commuting and longer trips, in Austin summers and Manhattan winters.  The Volt can be your primary vehicle, giving you the freedom to drive gas-free without the stress of planning every trip around the battery’s charge level.”

Expect vehicle range to be GM’s theme with the Volt as it hits the market. While the Nissan Leaf will have the ability to run on pure electric power for approximately 100 miles, it doesn’t have an alternative source of power. Estimates of the Volt’s range vary, but the minimum amount seems to be 340 miles and at least drivers can head to the gas pump if they need to go further.

Chevrolet Volt production will commence later this year at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck facility.  Pricing has not yet been published.

Source: General Motors

As much as the Toyota Motor Corporation desires to move beyond its recall issues, the Japanese automaker finds that there are enough hurdles in front of it to slow down its efforts.

Sales are down, customers are worried, and a recording device found in most Toyota, Lexus, and Scion models may hold important clues as to how these accidents happened. Unfortunately, Toyota has not been willing to share data found in these so-called “black boxes” mini and simpler versions of technology found in today’s jet airliners.

Black Boxes

Black box data is important because it often sheds light on what happened just before a car got into an accident. In this case, all of the runaway Toyota problems can be examined closer if Toyota would make its data available to federal regulators or law enforcement personnel.

General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have black boxes too, but their data can be read by third party sources including via a tool developed by the Robert Bosch Corporation.

Those tools are used by the police, accident attorneys, and investigators to help determine why a car crashed. Ford, GM, and Chrysler provide licensing to third parties such as Bosch which increases transparency. Toyota, however, uses a proprietary system which means that their data can only be shared and analyzed with their permission or by court mandate.

Event Data Recorders

In the Aug. 23, 2006 issue of “CNN Money,” Peter Valdes-Dapena explained that black boxes, which are also called event data recorders (EDR), can be found in most new cars. In fact, the NHTSA requires that car manufacturers tell owners in their manuals if an EDR is present.

Unlike an airliner black box an EDR does not record voices, but it does record what was going on with a car the few seconds before and after an accident. That information may be just enough to help investigators determine exactly what caused an accident.

New York Accident

In the Jan. 27, 2010 issue of the Syracuse “Post-Standard,” accident investigators were eager to get at one particular black box as a result of a fatal November 2009 accident in Auburn, N.Y. That car, a 2010 Toyota Camry, raced out of control injuring the Toyota’s driver, while killing a driver who was hit by the runaway Toyota.

That investigation has been delayed because NHTSA intervention is necessary to get Toyota to release its black box data.

Resources

The Wall Street Journal: Toyota Woes Put Focus on Black Box

Hyundai Motor America unveiled the HCD-11 Nuvis concept during a world debut news conference at the New York International Auto Show this week. The four passenger crossover vehicle features gull-wing doors and hybrid technology.

New York International Auto Show Runs Through April 19th

The New York International Auto Show opens today and will be running daily through April 19 including this Sunday which is Easter. The NY show together with shows in Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit, comprise the four largest shows of the year, the usual venues where automakers introduce new models and concepts.

This year’s show has a host of new vehicles on display from automakers across the globe. Among the important releases at this year’s show are the following models:

Jeep Gran Cherokee — Long the flagship vehicle in Jeep’s fleet, the Gran Cherokee is do for a major overhaul, one which will powered by the automaker’s new Pentastar V-6 engine. That engine will eventually replace as many as seven V-6 powerplants in the Chrysler fleet while allowing the Jeep to have a more fuel efficient standard model. A Hemi V8 will still be available, but Chrysler is pinning its future on the V-6. Look for the 2011 Gran Cherokee to roll out next year.

Kia Forte Koup — Previously introduced at the concept Kia KOUP, the all new Forte is Kia’s newest small car and is scheduled to go on sale late this summer. Powered by a 2.0L I4 engine and resting on standard 16″ wheels, the Forte is expected to get 25 mpg city, 34 mpg highway.  Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but given Kia’s propensity to surprise, expect it to be very competitively priced.

Scion iQ — Currently sold as the Toyota iQ elsewhere, the iQ concept will most likely become a reality and hit US streets next year. This micro mini mover holds three adults and a child with the US spec car expected to be given a 1.3L I4 engine.  If that is the case, it could deliver a whopping 59 mpg, gas not diesel.

Hyundai Nuvus — The design direction for the Hyundai’s Tucson and Santa Fe crossovers will likely incorporate much of what the Nuvus concept represents which is to say a radical departure from its current look. An upswept grille and sweeping lines announce the Nuvus, a four passenger vehicle that will incorporate Hyundai’s hybrid technology.

Subaru Outback — Subaru may not be a big seller in the US, but it is one of the few full line automakers whose sales numbers have been fairly stable even through the current economic crisis. The Outback, which is powered by a 2.5L I4 engine, will also offer a powerful 3.6L flat-six, giving it plenty of power, matching the Legacy in size too.

Lots of other vehicles can be seen at this year’s show including an all new Subaru Legacy, Volkswagen Golf and GTI, and the Acura ZDX a four-door sports coupe concept.

Photos are the credit of the respective automotive manufacturers.

Related Reading: Kia’s Kool Koncept Koup

I had to shake my head in disbelief several times yesterday as I previewed pictures of the PUMA “vehicle” — Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility — that GM rolled out with Segway yesterday at the New York International Auto Show. Suddenly, I felt quite sad realizing that once Mighty GM has been reduced to a shade of its former self, a pitiful government managed automaker who has clearly lost its way.

Granted, the idea of the PUMA might work well in some markets, especially crowded Asian cities whose citizens are used to driving around town on motorcycles, climbing onto overcrowded buses or what have you. Still, for GM to pursue this avenue in the face of a catastrophic restructuring seems ill-advised on the surface, but downright stupid when you consider that several brands of the automaker will soon be sold or closed down.

Taking Segway To The Next Level

PUMA for a lack of a better definition is an electrically powered, two-seat prototype based on Segway’s Personal Transporter “vehicle” itself an innovation that was introduced at the beginning of this decade. The PT, as it is called, is favored by campus police, city security personnel and others who need to get around small geographical areas fast. Likely, you’ve seen  these “scooters” which sit on two wheels and can move fairly fast.

The GM-Segway PUMA will seat side by side sitting adults. Think electronic rickshaw when trying to wrap your mind around the PUMA, but also think satellite technology when trying to figure out how this might work. With a top speed of 35 mph and a 35 mile range, the PUMA could transport occupants across town with satellite technology (as in OnStar) helping to get people where they’re going.

Leave The Driving To Them

And that’s the difference between PUMA and your automobile: GM will do much of the driving for you including helping you to avoid accidents. What’s more, the government will know where you are at all times, not to say that OnStar and similar programs don’t already offer such feedback.

Like I said earlier, GM’s timing with the PUMA is off, unless there is someone in the federal government now encouraging the automaker to pursue this avenue, given that the president recently had Rick Wagoner booted as GM Chairman and CEO.

If that is the case, then the direction that GM will be taking over the next few years could be a radical one, ditching trusted brands for urban transportation technology.

Related Reading: The Saturn Flextreme: Now That’s Unusual!

Cites Rollover Danger As Main Reason Opposing New Taxis

A New York tradition is to hail a bright yellow cab and have the cabbie take you to where you want to go around the Big Apple. New Ford Escape Hybrid cabs offer fuel savings, but are they safe? A New York City limousine board argues that they are not.

New York City has tens of thousands of taxis plying the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island at any given time. New Yorkers, commuters, and tourists rely upon taxis to transport themselves to different parts of the city in these bright yellow cabs.

For many years the Ford Crown Victoria was the vehicle of choice for cabbies, but pressure from the mayor’s office to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is forcing owners to choose hybrids, particularly the Ford Escape Hybrid as their taxi of choice.

A recent crash in the city involving a Ford Escape Hybrid saw the vehicle roll over, occupants severely injured, and the car destroyed. That incident, along with two others, has led to the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade to investigate the Escape where they found that the hybrid has only a three-star rollover rating while the Crown Victoria has the industry’s highest with five stars.

“In all my work as an accident reconstruction expert over the past 26 years, I cannot recall a single case where a Crown Victoria or a Crown Victoria-like vehicle has rolled over in a vehicle-to-vehicle crash,” said C. Bruce Gambardella, P.E. before the New York City Council on June 3, 2008. In a comprehensive report on hybrid taxi safety issued last month, he noted that, “the Ford Escape Hybrid is more likely to roll over than the Ford Crown Victoria” and attributed the problem to the Escape’s “high C.G. (Center of Gravity) and relatively high seat positions” and he also noted that due to “far from perfect” New York City streets, “discontinuities in the road surface will help to trip SUV-type vehicles and increase the potential for rollover.”

The Board of Trade also determined that if a Crown Victoria was involved in the rollover accident instead of the Escape, it wouldn’t have rolled over. Moreover, the commission concluded that the accident would have been a simple fender bender for the bigger and wider Crown Victoria.

The report found several other safety hazards, many of which can be attributed to the unintended use of the Ford Escape Hybrid — a standard passenger vehicle — as a New York City taxicab. In analyzing the rollover accident, Mr. Gambardella found that:

• The side-curtain airbag did not deploy normally due to insufficient space between the partition and the top of the car.

• The L-shaped partition interfered with the 3-point unibelt because it changed the anchoring position of the belt.

• The partition did not stay in place during the crash and may have resulted in a violent head strike against the hard partition if there had been a passenger in the right front seat.

The limo board has brought a federal lawsuit against the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) and the City of New York to stop its 25/30 mpg taxi mandate, which would force owners to abandon purpose-built stretch Crown Victorias and purchase Ford Escape Hybrids and other untested and unproven standard non-commercial passenger vehicles and place them into service as taxicabs. The mandate, which was set to take effect on October 1st, 2008 has been delayed because of the ongoing court case. Arguments were to be heard in Manhattan federal court on this past Friday.

(Source: Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade)