BMW's announcement this week that its ActiveHybrid X6 crossover utility vehicle will carry a U.S. sticker price of nearly $90,000 was disappointing, but even more disappointing is the fact that the model isn't alone among hybrids priced well out of reach of most people. Toyota offers a Lexus LS 600h L for $107,300. The 7-Series Hybrid from BMW will surely be a six-figure car when it becomes available this spring. The Cadillac Escalade Hybrid starts at $73,425. The list is frustratingly long. Our hawk-eyed colleagues at Edmunds' AutoObserver.com picked up on the trend and wrote about it in a piece that's as well written as it is informative. We encourage you to use your turn signal, pull to the side of the road and give it a read

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Another High-Priced Hybrid Won’t Do Much to Hybridize the Automotive Market

Several Plans Involve Greater Cooperation With Taiwan in EV Developmen t Here's a roundup of news out of

BMW announced today that its U.S.-bound 2010 ActiveHybrid X6 crossover utility vehicle will carry a base price of $89,725 and reach American showrooms early next month on the heels of its North American debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show . The maker-described “one-of-a-kind Sports Active Coupe” (yes, BMW calls its

Concern among some taxpayer and environmental groups that Chrysler's recent decision to downplay development of fuel-efficient electric vehicles violated a pledge used to gain federal bailout funds are unfounded, an administration official says. ———- Chrysler, which based part of its federal bailout on promised development of electric vehicles such as this “EcoVoyager” concept, has pulled way back on electrification plans since emerging from bankruptcy. ——— “We obviously would be very happy if Chrysler and GM were making lots and lots of high mileage cars [but] it's not a prerequisite. It's not an obligation” of the bankruptcy bailout funding, auto industry restructuring task force chief Ron Bloom said

Engineers at General Motors Co. working on the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle yesterday told the media development remains on track and that the start of production for GM's game-changing, fuel-saving 4-seater now is less than a year away. When GM unveiled the Volt at the Detroit auto show in January, 2007, the promise of production seemed tantalizingly far-flung – and improbable, given the myriad technical problems GM admitted had to be solved. But chief engineer Andrew Farah says the accelerated development program is on schedule and GM will begin producing the Volt in less than a year's time. And despite the recent drama involving the proposed sale of GM's Adam Opel AG European

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Chevy Volt Less Than One Year Away

Are you in the LA area with the desire and ability to spend Tuesday, December 1 becoming more enlightened about the automotive and energy industries? The first five people to send an e-mail to pr@edmunds.com noting the make and model of their vehicle and their age (or age range if preferred) will receive a free ticket

Volt plug-in hybrid (right) and Cruze compact sedan will be featured at Chevrolet's 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show display . Got a Chevrolet Volt on your car-shopping list but don't know where to get one once they become available? General Motors Corp. says it will announce in two weeks – at the upcoming 2009 Los Angeles International Auto Show on Dec. 2 – the first markets in which it will be selling the extended-range rechargeable hybrid starting very late in 2011 or early in 2012. The automaker also will unveil the U.S. production version of the fuel-efficient Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan, for which it is claiming highway fuel economy of close to 40 miles a

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GM To Annnounce Initial Volt Markets, Show Production Cruze at LA Auto Show

The 335-horsepower, dual-motor Mercedes-Benz ML 450 Hybrid has landed on our shores, but the German luxury vehicle maker says we can't buy 'em. The new hybrid is only being offered on a factory lease: $659 a month for 36 months, or $549 a month for 60 months. The hybrid package – using the dual-mode transmission system jointly developed with BMW, General Motors and Chrysler – marries a 3.5-liter, 275-horsepower V6 to a pair of electric motors for a combined 335 ponies and a diesel-like 381 lb.-ft. of torque. Mercedes says the lease-only decision was made because of concerns about limited future battery supplies and the company's desire to keep a tighter rein on customer satisfaction – in the event, for instance, that appropriate replacement batteries weren't available a decade from now – than outright sales would allow. The ML450 Hybrid is capable of traveling for short distances – under two miles – at speeds of up to 34 miles an hour in all-electric drive with juice from its 2.4 kilowatt-hour nickel-metal hydride battery pack, which is recharged with power generated by the

With governments at home and around the world vigorously pushing development and deployment of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, Japanese battery manufacturer GS Yuasa says it plans to build a new lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant to increase its output. The company already is aligned with Mitsubishi in the Lithium Energy Japan joint venture to supply the Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric city car and with Honda through the Blue Energy Co. joint venture for hybrid batteries. It also has designs on becoming a global supplier to a variety of automakers, the Nikkei business news service reports. The new plant is expected to cost about 50-billion yen ($559 million) and could supply companies such as PSA Peugeot Citron, which recently announced a pair of electric city cars – one for the Peugeot brand and one for Citroen – based on the i-MiEV (right) . GS Yuasa also has said it is talking EV and PHEV battery supply deals with automakers in the U.S. The company has said it expects its lithium-ion battery sales to top $1 billion a year by 2016, up from around $34 million this year.

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Japan’s GS Yuasa Plans New Lithium Battery Plant on Expectation of EV Growth

A coalition of utilities, battery manufacturers and automakers today unveiled a plan to put more than 120 million plug-in vehicles on U.S. roads by 2030 – an ambitious proposal that comes with a federal price tag of more than $120 billion over the next eight years. Top executives from more than a dozen companies – including NRG Energy Inc., PG&E Corp., battery maker A123Systems Inc., venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Nissan Motor Co. – announced they were partnering to form the Electrification Coalition to advocate for increased federal investment to spur both supply of and demand for electric cars and trucks. In a 170-page “Electrification Roadmap,” the group outlined how the federal cash would be used to provide tax credits for the installation of advanced automotive batteries in stationary applications – seen as a way to drive scale and bring down cost – and for both public charging stations and home charging equipment. A portion of the cash would also be used to provide loan guarantees to help retool auto plants to produce plug-in vehicles, similar to an existing $25 billion Energy Department loan program that was created in 2007 energy law. The group said the investment would help the market hit the critical mass necessary for exponential growth, estimating that the cash would help put 700,000 plug-ins on the road by 2013, 14 million by 2020 and more than 120 million by 2030. By 2040, under the plan, 75 percent of …

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Coalition Outlines Plan for 120 Million Plug-in Vehicles on U.S. Roads by 2030