Some 145,000 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize trucks are involved in a new GM pickup recall, including this 2012 Chevy Colorado. Some of the trucks are missing secondary hood latches, which can allow the hood to fly open if the main latch isn't fastened. (Courtesy of General Motors/File)

GM pickup recall: Front hood can fly open

By Associated Press / 12.21.12

General Motors is recalling more than 145,000 pickup trucks because the hoods can fly open unexpectedly and block the driver's vision.

The recall affects Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize trucks from the 2010 through 2012 model years. Most of the trucks were sold in North America.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says some of the trucks may not have a secondary hood latch. If the main latch isn't fastened, the hoods can open while the trucks are in motion.

GM said Thursday that it doesn't know of any crashes or injuries caused by the problem. The automaker traced the problem to a parts supplier after getting four reports of trucks with missing secondary latches. ( Continue… )

Ruckersville, Virginia. A crash test is performed at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Ruckersville, Va. More than 10,000 people are seriously injured or killed in small overlap crashes every year, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. (PRNewsFoto/Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)

Are cheap cars safer than expensive ones?

By Philip LeBeau, CNBC.com / 12.20.12

New crash tests replicating some of the most deadly head-on collisions show less expensive midsize cars do a better job protecting the driver and front seat occupants than many luxury and near luxury midsize cars.

"This is a surprise to us," says Adrian Lund, President of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "It shows you don't have to spend a lot of money to get state of the art crash protection." (Read More: Whoa! 1.7 Billion Cars on the Road by 2035.)

The latest IIHS small overlap crash tests measure how well mid-size cars handle accidents involving their front quarter panels. Small overlap crashes are responsible for approximately one out of every four frontal crashes. The Insurance Institute says more than 10,000 people are seriously injured or killed in small overlap crashes every year.  ( Continue… )

A policeman stands guard between a line of New York City yellow taxis and cabs waiting to get fuel from a gas station in Midtown Manhattan in this November 2012 file photo. Following Hurricane Sandy, taxi drivers were desperately trying to get hold of the hybrids, as long lines for gas stations crippled city road transport, Ingram writes. (Adrees Latif/Reuters/File )

Electric and hybrid taxis gaining in popularity

By Antony Ingram, Guest blogger / 12.20.12

For decades, the stalwart of the taxi ranks has been the full-size sedan.

Sturdy, simple and cheap to buy, cars like Ford's Crown Victoria have become part of the landscape in cities like New York. But with rising gas prices and concerns over emissions, things are really changing.

While not yet a dominant force in taxi fleets,hybrid and electric vehicles are increasingly popular as a way of cleaning up city fleets.

Initial concerns over the reliability of hybrids have long passed thanks to taxis still going strong at 300,000 miles, and electric vehicles are proving their worth in the environment to which they're most suited--inner cities.

Already comparatively green, as a method of transportation that foregoes car ownership, we've seen several electric fleets spring up over the last few years.  ( Continue… )

Lines of new cars are seen at a customs depot at the main port of Piraeus, near Athens, in this November 2004 file photo. About 37 percent of auto loans are made to folks with credit scores below 700 and yet delinquencies remain very low, Read writes. (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP/File)

Despite easy credit, a decline in late car payments

By Richard Read, Guest blogger / 12.19.12

One of the major contributing factors to the Great Recession was the U.S. credit crunch. For years, banks had been loaning money to many people who probably shouldn't have been taking on additional debt. When the economy began tanking, a significant number of those consumers defaulted on their loans. As a result, banks became more cautious with their lending, which had a ripple effect on the entire country -- not least of all, the auto industry.

Five years down the line, the U.S. has begun to recover, and, not surprisingly, credit has become much easier to find. That's worried some folks (including us), but so far, Americans are keeping up with their financial obligations -- or at least their car notes.

Speaking to Peter Turek, the vice president of automotive financial services at TransUnion, theDetroit Free press reports that the percentage of Americans who are 60-days behind on their carnotes is projected to reach 0.36% by the end of December. That's near the record low.

Why focus on those who are 60 days late? Because that's how TransUnion defines delinquency. Folks who fall behind 60 days or more on their loans are often unable to catch up and frequently default.  ( Continue… )

Nissan Motor Co. employee Kazuhiro Fujibayashi demonstrates the electric recharge plug-in process of the company's latest LEAF car for photographers in Tokyo, in this November 2012 file photo. One path to improving electric car batteries is to find incremental improvements in today's technology, Ingram writes. (Junji Kurokawa/AP/File )

The future of electric car batteries

By Antony Ingram, Guest blogger / 12.17.12

There are three main paths to improving batteries for future electric vehicles.

One is the development of entirely new technologyreplacing today's batteries entirely with something lighter, more powerful and more energy dense. The next is the greening of batteries--reducing their environmental impact.

The other is simply to find incremental improvements in today's technology--like eliminating some of its current weaknesses.

According to the Ohio State University (viaCleanTechnica), One such weakness has been found in the chemistry of current lithium-ion batteries, and scientists are now looking into fixing that issue.  ( Continue… )

Trey Leavenworth harvests some herbs in Cape Cod, Mass. in this 2011 file photo. Herbs are great for cooking, but studies suggest that Rubia may make car batteries run more efficiently. (Joanne Ciccarello/Staff/File)

Can garden herbs improve your car battery?

By Antony Ingram, Guest blogger / 12.15.12

However you choose to enjoy herbal products, the last place you'd expect to find them is in your electric car battery.

Thanks to a new discovery though, the Madder plant, also known as Rubia, could prove useful as a natural cathode in batteries.

Madder has long been used as a source of purpurin, an organic dye used since ancient times to color fabrics.

As ScienceBlog reports, scientists at Rice University and the City College of New York have discovered that purpurin also makes a good natural cathode for lithium ion batteries.

Unlike many other future battery technologies, this one isn't aimed at improving charging time, increasing capacity or reducing weight--it's simply tasked with making batteries greener.

While the battery toxicity and rare earth metal arguments from electric car naysayers are often exaggerated, finding a renewable alternative to lithium and cobalt cathodes certainly couldn't hurt.

“Green batteries are the need of the hour, yet this topic hasn’t really been addressed properly,” suggests Arava Leela Mohana Reddy, author of the study.

"[Lithium-ion batteries aren't] environmentally friendly. They use cathodes of lithium cobalt oxide, which are very expensive. You have to mine the cobalt metal and manufacture the cathodes in a high-temperature environment. There are a lot of costs."

While current lithium-ion batteries are recycled and reused in huge numbers (and lead-acid batteries are the world's most recycled product), Reddy also explains that extracting the cobalt from batteries, during the recycling process, is quite energy-intensive.

The discovery that purpurin was a suitable alternative came during testing different organic molecules for their ability to interact with lithium ions.

Purpurin turned out to be most suitable. 20 percent carbon is added to increase conductivity, and the cathodes can even be made at room temperature. Better still, some of the purpurin used in future could be harvested from agricultural waste.

In addition to the organic cathodes, the team is working on finding organic materials suitable for anodes, and an electrolyte that doesn't break the molecules down. A working prototype of a completely organic battery could be completed in only a few years.

As with other battery technologies, we await the team's results with interest. It's good to see that, in addition to improving a battery's performance, work is still being done to make them greener, too.

A Nissan Leaf charges at a electric vehicle charging station in Portland, Ore., in this August 2011 file photo. Some of electric cars' biggest gains in reducing emissions and running costs are likely to come from vehicle fleets, Voelcker writes. (Rick Bowmer/AP/File)

Electric municipal fleets? Indianapolis thinks so.

By John Voelcker, Guest blogger / 12.14.12

There's a lot of discussion about hybrids and plug-in electric cars being sold to private buyers.

But some of the biggest gains in reducing emissions and running costs are likely to come from vehicle fleets.

While individual car owners may suddenly have to take a car 100 miles instead of their usual 25, that's far rarer for municipal fleets.

And the cost savings from greener, more fuel-efficient vehicles can be properly evaluated by savvy fleet managers.

It's in this light that the city of Indianapolis announced a goal to convert essentially its entire municipal fleet--excluding police and fire vehicles--to hybrids or plug-ins by 2025.  ( Continue… )

The 2014 GMC Sierra debuts in Pontiac, Mich., Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012. General Motors unveiled new versions of its top-selling Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, which will go on sale by early spring or summer. (Paul Sancya/AP)

2014 GMC Sierra: a more upright, robust look

By Bengt Halvorson, Guest blogger / 12.13.12

General Motors has pulled the wraps off extensively refreshed versions of its full-size pickups, offering new (stronger and more fuel-efficient) engines, improved refinement, more advanced safety technologies, and up-to-date connectivity and infotainment systems – as well as some innovative cargo-bed and utility features.

While the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 – first shown here at a special event at Michigan Motion Picture Studios in Pontiac, Michigan, aren’t radically different from a styling standpoint, what we see here are two mainstream trucks that have been updated to fit in with the increasingly upright, imposing style of rivals like the Ram 1500 and Ford F-150 – as well as the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 2500 and 3500 HD (heavy-duty) models, which were redesigned for 2011.

On the outside, these new trucks stand out for their tall detailed grilles, twin power-dome hoods, and projector-beam headlamps (in some trims), along with flared fenders and more sculpted sheet metal in between. Big 22-inch wheels are indeed available as an accessory. ( Continue… )

The Nissan Leaf electric car is displayed for media in Tokyo, in this November 2012 file photo. Globally, Nissan Leaf electric car drivers have driven 113.7 million miles, while Chevy Volt drivers have covered 106.8 million miles, Voelcker writes. (Junji Kurokawa/AP/File)

Nissan Leaf electric car drivers hit 100 million miles mark

By John Voelcker, Guest blogger / 12.13.12

Two weeks ago, we noted that drivers of theChevrolet Volt had covered 100 million electric miles.

What we neglected to note at the time was thatNissan Leaf drivers are keeping pace, having covered more than 100 million electric miles as well.

And it's appropriate to note that total today, just one day after the two-year anniversary of the first Nissan Leaf delivery to take place in the U.S.

As of today, in fact, both cars are comfortably over 100 million electric miles.

The actual number is 113.7 million for Leaf drivers globally, and 106.8 million for drivers of the Chevy Volt range-extended electric car.  ( Continue… )