Tag: paul

Filed under: Technology, Electric

Watts Your Mileage?

Expect to hear the words, “range anxiety,” a lot in the months to come, what with the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt and an assortment of other battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids ready to hit the market.

The first generation of battery cars, like Leaf, will likely deliver an average of only about 100 miles on a charge – not much more than the range at which the typical motorist starts to look for a gas station in a conventional automobile.

Actually, that figure is only a rough approximation, as I learned recently while getting ready for my first drive of the 2011 Leaf. Under ideal conditions, I was advised, Nissan engineers have traveled as many as 140 miles. But on a cold and dreary day, creeping along in traffic with the heater on full, the little battery car might barely clock 70 miles before its batteries are fully discharged. (Similarly, General Motors now cautions that Volt will typically get somewhere between 25 and 50 miles, rather than the oft-quoted 40 on battery power.)

Sure, driving conditions and driver habits have always had a big impact on mileage. Slam the throttle at every light and you might get less than half the fuel economy your new Ford Mustang will deliver on the highway. But while that may cut into your budget, the only other downside is having to fuel up more often.

Continue reading TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein

TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Technology

What Did The X-Prize Achieve?

It took the $25,000 Orteig Prize, as much as the promise of fame and glory, to convince Charles Lindbergh to risk a solo 1927 flight across the Atlantic. Three-quarters of a century later the $10 million Ansari X-Prize spurred the launch of SpaceShipOne, the first privately-funded manned spaceflight.

So, when the Progressive Insurance Auto X-Prize was announced, at the New York Auto Show, several years ago, there was plenty of reason to be excited. And the promise of the project only seemed to increase when fuel prices hit their 2008 peak and the national mindset started to shift steadily more and more in favor of alternative propulsion.

But now that organizers have announced the three winners that will share a significant $10 million purse, I am left wondering what the Auto X-Prize actually achieved and whether it came anywhere near its lofty goals.

Continue reading TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein

TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Budget, Hyundai, Kia, Luxury, South Korea

Even growing up in New York City barely prepares you for the sprawling metropolis that is Seoul, South Korea. Spend a few days wandering the increasingly affluent town and you’ll be hard-pressed to miss the many coffee shops, seemingly at least one on every block. Seoul is a highly caffeinated city, a Seattle on overdrive, and for good reason. Its people seemingly never sleep. Workers in few countries clock more hours on the job.

“We are a driven people,” suggests Hyun-Soon Lee, vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Co. And while he hesitates when I ask what it is that drives the Koreans so much, he admits that, more than anything, it is the need to show they are the equals of the Japanese, who brutally occupied the country for so much of the last century.

Straddling the Han River, the capital city has come a long way since I first visited the so-called Land of the Morning Calm more than a quarter century ago. Back then the wounds from the Korean War were readily apparent in a town that was just beginning to claw its way out of the Third World, its streets largely populated by bicycles, scooters and a small but fast-growing number of primitive Hyundai Pony sedans.

These days, Seoul is a thriving city that is climbing ever skyward, its builders nearly as busy as those in Shanghai and Beijing. And the densely packed streets are overflowing with automobiles, a surprising share of them highline products from Europe, Japan and, of course, Korea, where the country’s carmakers are making a rapid push into the luxury market.

Continue reading TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein

TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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