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At a press conference in Lordstown, OH this afternoon, GM CEO Rick Wagoner officially announced that the Chevrolet Cruze would be built at the plant alongside the existing Cobalt. Wagoner alluded to this in June during the company's annual meeting. GM will invest $350 million in the Lordstown plant to tool up for production of the new compact sedan that will also spawn numerous other small cars. An additional $150 million will also be spent launching the Cruze including a new line to build the 1.4L turbo four cylinder engine in Flint MI. Cruzes will also be built in Europe and Asia for sale in those regions. It's expected that the Cruze with the new engine and 6-speed automatic transmission could achieve as much as 40 mpg on the highway.


[Source: General Motors]

During a media event in Ann Arbor, John Krafcik, the VP for product development at Hyundai Motor America, revealed some interesting plans about they have coming to this market as well as something that isn't. Hyundai's first hybrid destined for this market will debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show as a mid-sized sedan. The new Sonata hybrid will appear first at LA but won't go on sale until 2010 as a 2011 model. The Sonata will use an in-house developed strong parallel hybrid system with a lithium ion battery. It's not known if this is the same system that Hyundai has been field testing in government fleets in Korea for some time or if the battery will be a new lithium polymer type developed by LG Chem.

Krafcik also revealed some news about Genesis variants unlikely to see the light of day. He said the company has "no plans" to build a rear drive hybrid system for its new luxury sedan. He also indicated that while the company is looking at installing its 3.0L diesel V6 in the Genesis, it is unlikely to happen. The combination of the high cost of after-treatment systems to meet U.S. emissions standards and high diesel fuel prices make it a tough business case.

[Source: Green Fuels Forecast]

Click above for high-res gallery of the 2011 Chevy Cruze

Chevrolet has just released official photos of the first car to be based on the company's next generation Delta platform, also known officially as the Global Compact Car platform. The Chevy Cruze will get its official debut at the Paris Motor Show in October and will be available globally starting in Europe next March. The U.S. market should get the Cruze about a year later with initial sales alongside the existing Cobalt, though eventually the Cobalt goes away in favor of the Cruze. At its European launch the Cruze will have 1.6L and 1.8L gas four-cylinders with variable valve timing and a new 2.0L diesel good for 150 hp. The U.S. market Cruze is expected to debut with the new 1.4L direct injected turbo four that will be built in Flint, MI. Cruzes for North American drivers will be built at GM's Lordstown, OH plant alongside the Cobalt.

The Cruze platform will ultimately spawn a whole plethora of small vehicles in the GM family, including the next generation Astra and a compact MPV to replace the Zafira. That MPV is planned to be built in Detroit alongside another member of the Delta family, something called the Volt. The Volt will have different styling and a hatchback body style along with a normally aspirated version of the 1.4L to charge its lithium ion battery pack. The Volt will also share many under-body components with the Cruze. More details on the Cruze are after the jump.


[Source: General Motors]

Contrary to reports the other day, it is almost certain that Hyundai will not be bringing its tiny i10 hatchback to the U.S. market, at least not in its current form. During a media drive for the new Genesis sedan, Hyundai America VP John Krafcik was asked about the i10. He responded that the U.S. branch is always looking at all the models in the Hyundai worldwide portfolio to see what would be suitable for the U.S. market. Krafcik called it "extremely unlikely at this point" that the i10 will come to the US and "that's all I'd like to say about that." He declined to provide any further comment on the matter.

[Source: Hyundai]

About a year from now, General Motors will face a very interesting conundrum. The company will already be producing a version of its full-size pick-up trucks with a Two-Mode hybrid system. For the 2010 model year, another new engine will be added, a 4.5L diesel V8 that meets Tier 2 Bin 5 emissions requirements in all 50 states. The hybrid system gives a 30 percent boost in fuel efficiency over a 5.3L V8. The diesel should also offer a similar boost. The hybrid is a very expensive system to build. The diesel may be less expensive. The hybrid system works well in warm weather but not nearly as well in cold temperatures. The diesel should do much better in cold climates. The diesel should also provide better payload and towing capacity. It will be very interesting to watch how GM markets these powertrain options and how the fuel efficiency compares in the real world between the diesel and hybrid drivetrains. In the meantime there is a good video from the GMNext website with Charlie Freese, executive director of diesel engineering at GM, in which he describes the design of the new 4.5L Duramax. You can check out the video after the jump.

[Source: GMNext]

Veteran interviewer Charlie Rose has done a two-part look at General Motors in the wake of the company's recent losses and its pending centennial celebration. In the first part, Rose sits down with Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner to discuss all manner of issues surrounding the ailing automaker, including the Volt. Aside from reiterating that the engineering teams are making excellent progress on the Volt and are on track to meet the late 2010 Job 1 date, Wagoner was asked about price. He replied that they haven't worked out final pricing yet but expects the initial cars to come out in the mid to upper 30s. That's clearly more than they would have liked but it is the reality of battery costs. Wagoner said the company hopes that the government will implement tax incentives that make the end price more palatable to consumers. On the subject of incentives he said that GM doesn't expect the government to pay for the development of vehicles like the Volt, but would like to see the government encourage the demand side to help build volume. That would be a combination of incentives to buy, and also allowing fuel prices not to drop too much. The company is already realigning its production capacity to the reality of high gas prices and they would hate to see a reversal in demand for trucks at this point. You can check out the video after the jump. A second part, featuring an interview with Bob Lutz, hasn't been posted online yet.

[Source: Charlie Rose]

Peugeot has just released a group of teaser images of the new concept it will be unveiling at the Paris Motor Show in October. The RC is a four door, four seat coupe that features a hybrid powertrain. Peugeot hasn't provided any other details yet, but the previous RC Spade and RC Diamond concepts from 2002 and the 908 RC from 2006 were all diesel powered. Considering that Peugeot runs diesels in the Le Mans Series and previously showed a 308 diesel hybrid, it seems a safe bet that the new concept will also use a similar setup. Peugeot claims an output of 313hp and carbon dioxide emissions of 109 g/km when running in hybrid mode.


[Source: Peugeot]

Video game players are used to force feedback controllers that provide a haptic response to user inputs. German automotive supplier Continental is now introducing an accelerator pedal that provides similar feedback to drivers in cars. The Accelerator Force Feedback Pedal (AFFP) is being initially branded as a safety device with interfaces to stability control and adaptive cruise control systems. The idea is when other active safety systems in the vehicle detect a hazardous situation where the drive should slow down, the pedal vibrates or buzzes to provide a signal to the driver to back off. The system can also be used monitor the driver's acceleration behavior and provide warnings if they are accelerating too hard or too often. Much like the efficiency gauges now being installed in many new cars, the active pedal can help the driver learn the most efficient driving techniques. An electric motor on the underside of the pedal pushes the pedal back against the driver's foot, but the driver can still push through if they decide they really need to accelerate.

[Source: Continental Automotive]

Click the 2009 Honda Fit Sport for a high res gallery

When Honda introduced the first generation Fit to the North American market in mid-2006, its timing couldn't have been better. The entry level hatchback appeared just as fuel prices in the U.S. were heading skyward. Ever since then, the Fit has been selling as fast as Honda can bring them in from Japan. The Fit (or Jazz as its known in some markets) debuted in 2001 and the second-generation model went on sale in Japan last fall. Honda showed the new U.S.-spec Fit at the New York Auto Show last spring and we had our first opportunity to drive it on the roads north of Ann Arbor MI last week.

As is typically the case with new models, the updated Fit has grown a bit (about 4 inches in overall length) but it's only about 44 lbs heavier than the outgoing model. Also in the usual fashion, Honda strove to increase the refinement of the Fit while not losing any of the fun-loving qualities of the original. In the process, Honda has had to deal with rising raw material and shipping costs while keeping the price from getting out of hand. Read on to find out if the spiritual descendants of Soichiro Honda have succeeded.


Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Like other automakers, Ford has been doing considerable research into so-called "Smart Intersections." Smart intersections fall into the realm of vehicle-to-infrastructure technology, AKA telematics. While this is generally considered safety related, both vehicle to infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle communications can also play a major role in reducing fuel consumption and pollution. One of the major causes of excess emissions and fuel use is vehicles stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, often caused by accidents or by drivers in urban areas blocking intersections because they tried to get across and ran out of time. Ford, along with a number of other automakers and government agencies, is working to develop common standards and architecture for these active traffic safety systems. One of the first privately-funded smart intersections that sends signals to cars when a light is about change has been installed near Ford's Dearborn development center. If signals can be sent to vehicles giving advanced warning of light changes or stop signs, drivers could potentially avoid trying to run yellows or doing excessively hard braking and acceleration. The Texas Transportation Institute's "2007 Urban Mobility Report" estimated that three billion gallons of gas are wasted every year due to congestion and this could technology could help reduce that significantly.

[Source: Ford]