htc***
04-01-2010, 10:29 AM
Canada, U.S. to team up to restrict tailpipe emissions
01/04/2010 8:24:54 AM
CTV.ca News Staff
The federal government will announce today that Canada will harmonize its auto emissions standards with the United States, CTV News has learned. The move will impose drastic fuel-efficiency improvements.
In a deal worked out with the Obama administration, restrictions will be tightened beginning with models released next year. By 2016, new vehicles will be required to have tailpipe emissions levels 25 per cent lower than 2008 models, said CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife.
"What this means is that beginning next year, there will be tougher fuel requirement for cars and trucks in the U.S. and Canada, so by 2016, cars and trucks will be required to burn fuel at a rate of 35.5 miles per gallon," Fife told CTV's Canada AM Thursday morning.
That's an increase of nearly 10 mpg over current U.S. standards. Converted to metric, this would mean a standard of six litres of gas for every 100 kilometres travelled.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday he looked forward to the tough new standards.
"After decades in which we have done little to increase auto efficiency, those new standards will be completed, which will reduce our dependence on oil while helping folks spend a little less at the pump," he said while making an announcement on offshore drilling.
The announcements will be made at midday in both Washington and Ottawa. At the Canadian announcement, Environment Minister Jim Prentice will unveil the plan at an Ottawa Ford dealership.
In addition, there will be restrictions on tailpipe emissions, such as nitrous oxide and methane, as well as new rules calling for annual reporting, said Fife.
"They're going to require auto companies to put out mandatory reporting every year on how these emission standards are working," he said.
The new fuel standards are expected to save 1.8 billion barrels of oil -- the equivalent of taking 58 million cars off the road in a single year.
But the new restriction could also boost the average cost of a vehicle by about US$1,100 by 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates. However, the agency has also estimated that consumers will save several thousand dollars in fuel costs over the life of a car built in 2016. It said it would likely take three years to pay off that investment in the U.S., where gas prices are typically lower than in Canada.
The EPA will be charged with setting the new emissions standard, the first time it has ever set rules for vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. Standards have usually been set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
It's expected Canada will have an easier time meeting the standards, since Canada's vehicle fleet is already heavily weighted toward more fuel-efficient vehicles than the U.S. fleet. That's because of higher gas prices here and lower disposable incomes. As well, the most popular segment of the Canadian market is compact cars, while in the U.S., it's mid-sized cars.
California is credited with leading the push for tougher tailpipe emissions standards, and the U.S. national standards follow that state's example.
When California wanted more aggressive reductions more quickly, it got into a tug-of-war with the former Bush government, which eventually decided to enact its own regulations, later adopted by several northeastern U.S. states.
Obama, however, scrapped the Bush plan and began negotiating with California last year. The result will be harmonized U.S. and Canadian regulations.
Quebec has already sought to mirror California's guidelines, with new regulations that came into effect in January. But Prentice criticized Quebec's imitative in a speech on Feb. 1, calling it "folly" because Ottawa was still negotiating its own federal regulations.
Prentice first announced the government's plan last April. The draft regulations were released last December to allow for early consultations with provinces, territories and other stakeholders.
http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/contentposting.aspx?feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&date=true&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20100401%2femissions_100401
Japanese start buying affordable electric cars, helped by government incentives
April 1st 2010, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The four-seater bubble-shaped i-MiEV from Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Japan's fifth-biggest automaker, costs 2.8 million yen ($30,500) after government incentives are figured into the price of 4 million yen ($43,000).
Proud i-MiEV buyer Chitoshi Okunuki, 72, placed an advance order at a higher price in August and was thrilled at Mitsubishi's decision Tuesday to cut the price by 620,000 yen ($6,700). That came the same day rival Nissan Motor Co. announced it will take orders for its own electric car, the Leaf.
"I'm so happy," said Okunuki, who runs a convenience store, during a visit to a Mitsubishi showroom. "It's so quiet, and there are no emissions."
With concerns about the environment growing, electric vehicles - long an expensive, experimental technology used in Japan mainly by government-related groups - are suddenly all the rage.
The key to their becoming widespread is certain to be pricing, and that is likely to continue a downward slide as competition intensifies.
Nissan, Japan's No. 3 automaker, said the Leaf, due to go on sale in December, will cost 3.8 million yen ($40,500) but that will fall to 3 million yen ($32,000) with government incentives.
The Leaf gets even cheaper in the U.S. at just over $25,000 because of a $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles.
Mitsubishi says it got about 2,000 advance orders in Japan for the i-MiEV, which stands for Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle. It is based on the company's gasoline-powered "i" minicar.
Also this week, Chinese automaker BYD started retail sales of its new electric car, the F3DM, for the equivalent of $25,000.
Ford Motor Co. is planning an all-electric Focus compact car for sale in late 2011.
Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest automaker, is planning an electric car for 2012. Prices have not been announced, but they are likely to be more within reach than the two-seater Tesla Roadster's $100,000.
Yasuaki Okamoto, auto analyst with Okasan Securities Co. in Tokyo, said Nissan, with partner Renault SA of France, was taking the lead in the pricing war in electric vehicles.
"It's a big trend that has been set into motion," he said. "The two bottleneck issues for electric vehicles are pricing and the availability of recharging stations."
The i-MiEV, with a cruising range of 160 kilometres (100 miles) on a single charge, can be recharged from a regular home outlet but that takes 14 hours.
It takes 30 minutes to recharge from a more powerful charging station. But in Japan there are only 60 nationwide.
All that doesn't bother Okunuki a bit. He was excited trying out the charging outlet on the side of the car, located where the gas cap would be in a regular car.
"It's best if the charging stations were everywhere like a gas stand," he said. "But I don't need to go far. I'm old."
He can't walk off with his car just yet. It is due to be delivered by the end of May.
Mitsubishi plans to sell 4,000 i-MiEV vehicles in Japan for the fiscal year through March 2011 and 5,000 more overseas, mainly in Europe. Sales begin in North America in 2011, according to Tokyo-based Mitsubishi.
Nissan is hoping to produce 50,000 Leafs worldwide in the car's first year.
Tsuyoshi Mizuochi, who manages a Mitsubishi dealership, said the i-MiEV has become a relatively easy sell since owners will enjoy lower costs in the long run because electricity is cheaper than gasoline.
"We would like to push the theme that we are protecting the earth," he said. "We are at a turning point when electric vehicles are going to become more commonplace."
http://autos.sympatico.ca/automotive-news/3557/japanese-start-buying-affordable-electric-cars-helped-by-government-incentives
01/04/2010 8:24:54 AM
CTV.ca News Staff
The federal government will announce today that Canada will harmonize its auto emissions standards with the United States, CTV News has learned. The move will impose drastic fuel-efficiency improvements.
In a deal worked out with the Obama administration, restrictions will be tightened beginning with models released next year. By 2016, new vehicles will be required to have tailpipe emissions levels 25 per cent lower than 2008 models, said CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife.
"What this means is that beginning next year, there will be tougher fuel requirement for cars and trucks in the U.S. and Canada, so by 2016, cars and trucks will be required to burn fuel at a rate of 35.5 miles per gallon," Fife told CTV's Canada AM Thursday morning.
That's an increase of nearly 10 mpg over current U.S. standards. Converted to metric, this would mean a standard of six litres of gas for every 100 kilometres travelled.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday he looked forward to the tough new standards.
"After decades in which we have done little to increase auto efficiency, those new standards will be completed, which will reduce our dependence on oil while helping folks spend a little less at the pump," he said while making an announcement on offshore drilling.
The announcements will be made at midday in both Washington and Ottawa. At the Canadian announcement, Environment Minister Jim Prentice will unveil the plan at an Ottawa Ford dealership.
In addition, there will be restrictions on tailpipe emissions, such as nitrous oxide and methane, as well as new rules calling for annual reporting, said Fife.
"They're going to require auto companies to put out mandatory reporting every year on how these emission standards are working," he said.
The new fuel standards are expected to save 1.8 billion barrels of oil -- the equivalent of taking 58 million cars off the road in a single year.
But the new restriction could also boost the average cost of a vehicle by about US$1,100 by 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates. However, the agency has also estimated that consumers will save several thousand dollars in fuel costs over the life of a car built in 2016. It said it would likely take three years to pay off that investment in the U.S., where gas prices are typically lower than in Canada.
The EPA will be charged with setting the new emissions standard, the first time it has ever set rules for vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. Standards have usually been set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
It's expected Canada will have an easier time meeting the standards, since Canada's vehicle fleet is already heavily weighted toward more fuel-efficient vehicles than the U.S. fleet. That's because of higher gas prices here and lower disposable incomes. As well, the most popular segment of the Canadian market is compact cars, while in the U.S., it's mid-sized cars.
California is credited with leading the push for tougher tailpipe emissions standards, and the U.S. national standards follow that state's example.
When California wanted more aggressive reductions more quickly, it got into a tug-of-war with the former Bush government, which eventually decided to enact its own regulations, later adopted by several northeastern U.S. states.
Obama, however, scrapped the Bush plan and began negotiating with California last year. The result will be harmonized U.S. and Canadian regulations.
Quebec has already sought to mirror California's guidelines, with new regulations that came into effect in January. But Prentice criticized Quebec's imitative in a speech on Feb. 1, calling it "folly" because Ottawa was still negotiating its own federal regulations.
Prentice first announced the government's plan last April. The draft regulations were released last December to allow for early consultations with provinces, territories and other stakeholders.
http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/contentposting.aspx?feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&date=true&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20100401%2femissions_100401
Japanese start buying affordable electric cars, helped by government incentives
April 1st 2010, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The four-seater bubble-shaped i-MiEV from Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Japan's fifth-biggest automaker, costs 2.8 million yen ($30,500) after government incentives are figured into the price of 4 million yen ($43,000).
Proud i-MiEV buyer Chitoshi Okunuki, 72, placed an advance order at a higher price in August and was thrilled at Mitsubishi's decision Tuesday to cut the price by 620,000 yen ($6,700). That came the same day rival Nissan Motor Co. announced it will take orders for its own electric car, the Leaf.
"I'm so happy," said Okunuki, who runs a convenience store, during a visit to a Mitsubishi showroom. "It's so quiet, and there are no emissions."
With concerns about the environment growing, electric vehicles - long an expensive, experimental technology used in Japan mainly by government-related groups - are suddenly all the rage.
The key to their becoming widespread is certain to be pricing, and that is likely to continue a downward slide as competition intensifies.
Nissan, Japan's No. 3 automaker, said the Leaf, due to go on sale in December, will cost 3.8 million yen ($40,500) but that will fall to 3 million yen ($32,000) with government incentives.
The Leaf gets even cheaper in the U.S. at just over $25,000 because of a $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles.
Mitsubishi says it got about 2,000 advance orders in Japan for the i-MiEV, which stands for Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle. It is based on the company's gasoline-powered "i" minicar.
Also this week, Chinese automaker BYD started retail sales of its new electric car, the F3DM, for the equivalent of $25,000.
Ford Motor Co. is planning an all-electric Focus compact car for sale in late 2011.
Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest automaker, is planning an electric car for 2012. Prices have not been announced, but they are likely to be more within reach than the two-seater Tesla Roadster's $100,000.
Yasuaki Okamoto, auto analyst with Okasan Securities Co. in Tokyo, said Nissan, with partner Renault SA of France, was taking the lead in the pricing war in electric vehicles.
"It's a big trend that has been set into motion," he said. "The two bottleneck issues for electric vehicles are pricing and the availability of recharging stations."
The i-MiEV, with a cruising range of 160 kilometres (100 miles) on a single charge, can be recharged from a regular home outlet but that takes 14 hours.
It takes 30 minutes to recharge from a more powerful charging station. But in Japan there are only 60 nationwide.
All that doesn't bother Okunuki a bit. He was excited trying out the charging outlet on the side of the car, located where the gas cap would be in a regular car.
"It's best if the charging stations were everywhere like a gas stand," he said. "But I don't need to go far. I'm old."
He can't walk off with his car just yet. It is due to be delivered by the end of May.
Mitsubishi plans to sell 4,000 i-MiEV vehicles in Japan for the fiscal year through March 2011 and 5,000 more overseas, mainly in Europe. Sales begin in North America in 2011, according to Tokyo-based Mitsubishi.
Nissan is hoping to produce 50,000 Leafs worldwide in the car's first year.
Tsuyoshi Mizuochi, who manages a Mitsubishi dealership, said the i-MiEV has become a relatively easy sell since owners will enjoy lower costs in the long run because electricity is cheaper than gasoline.
"We would like to push the theme that we are protecting the earth," he said. "We are at a turning point when electric vehicles are going to become more commonplace."
http://autos.sympatico.ca/automotive-news/3557/japanese-start-buying-affordable-electric-cars-helped-by-government-incentives