Fisker Pushes Ahead With Second Model, Despite Problems

Fisker Automotive is having a helluva time lately, what with one of its cars setting itself on fire in a California parking lot, the Department of Energy backing out on more than half of its $529 million loan promise, and Consumer Reports telling the public that the $100,000 Fisker Karma is "plagued with flaws."

But its new CEO is on the offensive, saying the company is putting those problems behind and moving in to a new era, one which means the company will slow down, focus on quality, and push ahead with plans for a second car.

Tony Posawatz, former head of development for General Motor's Chevy Volt, defended the company, arguing that many of its problems stemmed from a startup company trying to do too much too fast. Five weeks into the job, Posawatz told the Automotive Press Association Monday he's got a long list of things to do. High on that list is remaking the company's tattered public image.

Fisker is "getting the drama behind us," he said, and working toward becoming a publicly traded company. It's also searching for potential alliances with other automakers. Both moves would help Fisker raise the cash needed to fund production of a more affordable model.

The company needs to fix its image quickly. It's next model, the Fisker Atlantic, will be priced at $55,000, still out of reach for most consumers but a more viable option for luxury car customers.

Although plans haven't been finalized for the Atlantic – the start-up automaker is about $150 million short of the cash needed to build it – the company has already figured out what will be under the hood: an engine from the BMW 3-series. Fisker has inked an agreement with BMW to use the current 3-series 4-cylinder turbo engine in the Atlantic. Like the Chevy Volt, is uses advanced batteries to power an electric motor and then kicks in a gasoline-powered engine as a backup when the battery drains.

Although he wouldn't go into many specifics about the marketing and public relations plan, Posawatz said Fisker is going to take a combination of a grassroots approach while leveraging the popularity of some of the celebrities that drive the car. Leonardo DiCaprio is an owner of the $100,000 Karma, and Justin Bieber took his (a present for his 18th birthday) and wrapped it in chrome. The New York Daily News claims Matt Damon, Aston Kutcher and Al Gore are all also owners.

Posawatz said the car will also make appearances in an upcoming movie and on a television show, although he wouldn't say which ones.

But most importantly, the company needs to improve its quality. Consumer Reports complained that the $107,850 Karma the magazine purchased was cramped, loud, and filled with overly-complicated controls.

"The Karma lacks the oomph you expect," said Jake Fisher, director of Consumer Reports Auto Test Center. The ratings group said it doesn't compare well with other luxury cars.

Even though AOL Autos didn't get to test-drive the Karma on Monday, just sitting in it showed the car needs more refinement. The driver's door squeaked loudly when opening and closing (something a little WD-40 could have fixed before presenting the car to a hundred or so journalists). And the trunk lid was slightly askew, leaving a big gap between the trunk lid and the side of the car.

Posawatz said he's working on hiring new stable of executives: They hired a new chief financial officer but still need a new head of business in China, a new head of manufacturing and a new quality person.

"We do not deny there have been some missteps along the way, but with the new management, we will fix these issues in time," he said. "I did not want to let this company not have a fighting chance."

Plug-In Cadillac ELR Confirmed For 2013

All the way back in 2009, General Motors unveiled the sleek, 2-door Cadillac Converj concept at the North American International Auto Show. Converj was set to be based on the same plug-in technology powering GM's extended-range electric Chevy Volt, but wrapped in a more luxurious package.

At the time we felt an upmarket application of the Voltec powertrain might be just the way for GM to increase its margins on the expensive hybrid-electric technology. (The Volt's $40,000 price tag seemed much more appropriate for Cadillac than Chevy.)

Then, in March of 2010, it was reported that GM had suspended its Converj program, leaving us to wonder if we'd ever get to drive an electric Cadillac. However, in August of 2011, GM confirmed that Converj was back--this time called the ELR coupe--but, details remained scarce.

Last month, spy photos of a camouflaged Cadillac ELR began to circulate online, leading some to speculate as to a possible production date.

Well, now it's official. GM confirmed Tuesday that production of the ELR will begin in late-2013, assembled at the automaker's Detroit-Hamtramck plant in late 2013.

It's been a long wait, but--given the slow pace of alternative vehicle growth--we're just as excited for the ELR now as we were back in 2009.

Gibbs Unveils Quadski Amphibious Vehicle [VIDEO]

Edging toward the shoreline atop what seemed to be an oversized all-terrain vehicle, the instructions issued by those standing aside were simple enough: Drive into the water.
I tried. My brain disobeyed.

Deploying some innate self-preservation device, my fingers refused to grip the throttle. There's something deeply unnatural about driving a vehicle from the land into the water. Perhaps that's one reason why it's taken the most intrepid of innovators decades to hone amphibious technology.

Finally, with the onlookers watching me idle, I inched ahead with a few spastic squeezes of the two-spring throttle. The Gibbs Quadski left the beach and entered a nameless lake next to a quarry east of Oxford, Michigan.

Sufficiently offshore in about three feet of water, I press a toggle switch below the handlebars and the wheels retract into the fiberglass composite hull. Five seconds later, the ATV completes its transition into a jet ski, and we're skipping across the water.

The Quadski is neither the world's most daunting off-road vehicle nor the most agile of personal watercraft--but it's the first to be enthrallingly adept at both.

Previous attempts to make a useful amphibian inevitably delivered on one surface and failed on the other. In the 1960s, Germans produced the Amphicar, which puttered about the water at about 8 miles an hour.

The Quadski is different. Surprisingly stable on both land and water, it is the first high-speed sports amphibian capable of reaching 45 miles per hour on both land and sea.

Executives with Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Gibbs Sports Amphibians introduced the Quadski to media members Monday. After spending some 20 years and $200 million in development, the single-passenger vehicles are slated to begin production at a nearby facility in mid-November.

Gibbs plans to produce 1,000 units in the first year of production before expanding for a global customer base. The Quadski will likely retail at approximately $40,000.

"With 1,000 units, we want to be careful, and not run before we can walk," said company founder Alan Gibbs.

Or in his case, float.

Gibbs first began experimenting with amphibious vehicles around 1994 in his native New Zealand, where he became frustrated that his boat would often get caught in the forceful tidal fluctuations on Kaipara Harbour.

His first big splash into the amphibious market came a decade later, when his company launched the Aquada, a three-person amphibian that looks like a conventional convertible.

Sir Richard Branson made headlines with the Aquada in 2004, when the Virgin magnate drove across the English Channel in 1 hour, 40 minutes, breaking the old amphibian record across the route by more than four hours. But a key supplier closed, and the Aquada never reached production.

About the same time, the company shifted its focus toward both the Quadski and larger 30-foot transports that hold promise for military and first-responder applications.

In building the Quadski, engineers knew exactly what, at least in theory, was needed to make the vehicle work. The problem, as with the Aquada, was finding compatible parts. They often had to be developed from scratch.

Neil Jenkins, the chairman of Gibbs, said he traveled the globe speaking with aerospace companies about building a jet propulsion system. He said they either told him it couldn't be done or that it required substantial changes.

"I needed it to be one-third the length and half the weight," Jenkins said, comparing it to the conventional marine jets suppliers offered him. Gibbs instead built its own, and the result is enough power and thrust to get the Quadski to planing speed in a matter of seconds--a key hurdle that Jenkins said other amphibious carmakers could not overcome.

Its engine is also lightweight. Gibbs equipped the Quadski with a 175-horsepower, 1.3-liter, four-cylinder engine purchased from BMW, the same one found on the K1300 motorcycle. It is mated to a five-speed transmission with an automated clutch.

In the water, the 1,300-pound craft behaves like a traditional wave runner, and riders can plow through the wake of others' with gleeful abandon. The difference with the Quadski is that its stability is more comparable to a small boat--it's far less likely to capsize.

Promotional materials released by Gibbs show riders taking a break from riding and diving off the side of the Quadski. It never rocks. Considering it was a blustery gray day with temperatures in the 40s, I opted to skip the swim.

On land, the Quadski is a powerful beast. It delivers more power and torque than is necessary, and we charged around the gravel trails on the company's testing grounds. Drivers shift gears with a toggle switch on the left handlebar and automatically downshifts when the brakes are applied.

It's an all-around fun ride on both land and sea, and there's equal exhilaration in circumventing the tedious boat-ramp process.

The entire process feels like something that belongs in the new James Bond movie that hit theaters last week. But mention this to Jenkins, and he replies there's a key difference. The gadgets made famous by 007 are mostly the stuff of science fiction.

The Quadski, on the other hand, is here.

All New Chevy Corvette To Debut In Mid 2013

DETROIT (Reuters)--An all-new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette, the seventh generation of the uniquely American sports car in six decades, will make its debut January 13 on the eve of the North American International Auto Show, General Motors' Chevrolet brand says.

Eagerly awaited by auto enthusiasts, the new Corvette - dubbed C7 by the faithful but known to GM and its suppliers by the development code Y1XX - is widely expected to have a radically restyled exterior, a more upscale interior, a lighter chassis, and a more efficient engine and transmission.

There will be a six-month gap between the 2014 Corvette new C7 and the current C6 version, so the company can retool the Kentucky plant where the iconic sports car is built. GM will stop building the 2013 model in early February, and is due to start producing the 2014 model in volume in July.

The first of the new C7 Corvettes is expected to roll off the line in Bowling Green on June 30 - 60 years to the day that the first 1953 model was produced, according to two suppliers familiar with the automaker's plans but are not authorized to speak on behalf of GM.

The C7's formal unveiling in mid-January also marks the anniversary of the Corvette's debut in January 1953 as a GM Motorama "dream car" concept in New York. Since then, GM has built and sold more than 1.5 million Corvettes, although annual sales have slowed in recent years as higher vehicle prices, rising fuel and insurance costs, and growing competition from Europe and Asia have eroded its once fiercely loyal owner base.

To rekindle interest in the Corvette, especially among younger, affluent buyers who tend to favor imported brands, Chevrolet has completely overhauled the car for the first time since the sixth-generation model was launched in July 2004.

The result, according to chief engineer Tadge Juechter, is "a truly all-new Corvette. There are only two carryover parts from the C6 used in the C7 - the cabin air filter and the rear latch for the removable roof panel." One of the criticisms of recent Corvettes has been using interior parts and pieces from lesser priced GM vehicles, something that is not expected to be repeated on the new car.

Chevrolet even has redesigned the Corvette's familiar crossed-flags emblem for the 2014 model.

Other significant upgrades, according to the supplier sources, include a smaller, lighter aluminum V8 engine displacing around 5.5 liters, advanced features such as direction injection, cylinder cutoff and variable valve timing, and a new seven-speed manual transmission for improved fuel economy.

Prices, due to be announced next summer, are expected to range from just under $55,000 for the base model to nearly $120,000 for the top-of-the-line Corvette ZR1.

Chevrolet said dealers will continue to take orders for the current model until December.

Reporting by Reuters Paul Lienert in Detroit and AOL contributing

Ford Tumbles In Consumer Reports' Annual Reliability Survey

Automakers have made substantial gains in building sturdier engines and transmissions over the past five years, according to a Consumer Reports study on automotive reliability released Monday.

But they ran into substantial trouble adding electronic equipment and computer systems into their vehicles, the Annual Reliability Study also found.

The problems negated the improvements, said Jake Fisher, the director of automotive testing at Consumer Reports. "Overall, reliability is about the same as it was five years ago," he said Monday at a press conference to announce the findings in Detroit.

Toyota swept the top three spots in the reliability rankings. Its Scion brand captured the most-reliable spot for the second consecutive year, while the flagship Toyota brand ranked second and its Lexus luxury brand took third. More than 90 percent of its models tested ranked average or better.

Japanese automakers carried the top seven spots in the rankings.

But the biggest story that emerged from the findings was Ford's plunge. The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker finished 27th of 28 brands ranked. Only two years ago, Consumer Reports had hailed Ford as a "poster child" of reliability. Fisher attributed Ford's rapid descent to problems in new versions of the Explorer, Fiesta and Focus as well as widespread hiccups with its MyFord Touch and MyLincoln Touch infotainment system.

"Ford had a really bad year this year," Fisher said.

He said customers reported problems that were not minor. Often, cars equipped with the infotainment systems needed to go back to the dealerships to get the car computer completely rebooted.

Consumer Reports' bases its study on information collected from car owners on the Consumer Reports National Research Center database, and is based on the three most recent model years, so long as the models were not redesigned for 2013.

That exception could hurt Ford further in the years ahead, because the '13 Escape was not included in the rankings--a vehicle that has already been recalled three times since its launch.

Sixty-percent of Ford-branded models and 50-percent of Lincoln models fared below average in predicted reliability, and none fared above average, according to the study.

Ford said the Consumer Reports results matched internal data the company had received, although officials added that the company made major improvement earlier this year, and that the survey lagged behind current trends.

"Consumer Reports is hugely important to Ford; you can't dismiss Consumer Reports in any way," said Ford spokesperson Mark Schirmer. "We offered a major improvement to MyFord Touch in the spring and began offering new transmission calibrations this summer. Unfortunately, there are still some bugs in the system that we are working through."

It was bleak news overall for American automakers. No American brands finished in the top 10, and there are no new models offered by Detroit's Big Three that fell on Consumer Reports' recommended list. Cadillac was perhaps the lone success story, jumping 14 places in the rankings to No. 11, the first American car on the rankings.

Its CTS coupe ranked as the most reliable domestic car. Several other GM nameplates – Buick, Chevrolet and GMC – also moved upward. The Chevy Volt continues to have above-average reliability (significant since there is so much technology in the Volt), according to Consumer Reports, while the Chevy Cruze, improved to average.

Other notable items from the survey: Audi earned the biggest climb in the rankings, rising eighteen spots to No. 8 overall. Consumer Reports says that Mazda, fourth overall, is "hot on the tail" of the three Toyota brands ahead, and lauded the all-new CX-5 crossover as "much better than average." Subaru's standing improved, with a redesigned Impreza boosting its status.

Investigation Reveals Hyundai And Kia Overstated Fuel Economy

An investigation conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed that Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia had overstated the fuel efficiency of several of their cars by as much as 6 miles per gallon.

The two companies will be forced to lower their mileage estimates for many models in their vehicle lineups and face millions in federal fines – not to mention irate motorists.

"I sincerely apologize to all affected Hyundai and Kia customers, and I regret these errors occurred," said W.C. Yang, chief technology officer of Hyundai and Kia's joint research and development center.

Both companies have heavily touted their fuel efficiency compared to competitors in their marketing, most notably Hyundai's well-advertised 40 miles-per-gallon claim on its Elantra sedan. The EPA audit found the Elantra received 38 MPGs on the highway.

The most-affected vehicle, though, was the Kia Soul. On its window sticker, executives touted the car's 35 MPGs in highway conditions. But it only actually received 29 MPGs during the EPA's audit, conducted in Ann Arbor, Mich. Sales of the popular Soul had climbed 18.1 percent so far this year, reaching 101,344 units through October.

Executives of Kia and Hyundai said 35 percent of the cars they've sold since 2010 are affected by the investigation, which amounts to approximately 900,000 vehicles. They plan to reimburse affected car owners with debit cards.

Fuel economy has become the No. 1 consideration for prospective car buyers, according to a Consumer Reports survey released earlier this year, as gas prices have risen and become more volatile over the past eight years.

"Consumers rely on the window sticker to help make informed choices about the cars they buy," said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation. "EPA's investigation will help protect consumers and ensure a level playing field among automakers."

Although the agency did not specify how many, EPA officials said they received "a number" of complaints about the fuel-economy discrepancy between what customers saw on the window stickers and received in real-world conditions. Those complaints sparked an investigation.

Earlier this year, a consumer-advocacy group charged that Hyundai had misled consumers about the fuel efficiency of the Elantra in its advertising and publicly complained to the EPA. It was pleased with Friday's announcement, but questioned whether enough is being done to monitor the auto industry.

"I'm shocked that Hyundai would say this is procedural," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. "This is a significant development. This has to open the question of whether the EPA should be doing the testing or the automakers."

The EPA typically tests about 15 percent of possible vehicles each year, and relies on automakers to supply their own data for the rest of their fleets.

Consumer Watchdog has filed a lawsuit in Sacramento (Calif.) Superior Court against Hyundai, alleging deceptive advertising practices involving its 40-mpg claims surrounding the Elantra. Court said he felt Friday's developments bolstered the organization's case. 

Kia and Hyundai conduct joint-testing operations in Korea, and in a statement said the overstatement was not intentional, but that it resulted from errors in measuring "coastdown," testing that simulates aerodynamic drag, tire rolling resistance and drivetrain friction loss.

"Given the importance of fuel efficiency to all of us, we're extremely sorry about these errors," said John Krafcik, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor America, in a written statement.

Cars that are currently on dealership lots will be re-labeled with revised window stickers, the EPA said.

Overall, the companies said the sticker changes reduced the fuel economies of their respective fleets by about 3 percent, falling from 27 MPGs combined to 26 MPGs combined.

While the Soul featured the most egregious overstatements, several other models were affected. Several trims of the Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Rio had overstated by 4 miles per gallon, and the Hyundai Accent was over-touted by 3 miles per gallon.

From Hyundai, other affected models included the Veloster, Sonata hybrid, Tucson, Genesis and Azera. Other affected Kia models are the Sorento, Sportage and Optima. For more details on the automakers' plans to reimburse customers, visit HyundaiMPGinfo.com and KiaMPGinfo.com.

For a complete lo

Aging Drivers Present New Transportation Challenge

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Baby boomers, that giant population bubble born between 1946 and 1964, started driving at a young age and became more mobile than any generation before or since.

When the 74 million boomers started building families, they acquired "his" and "hers" cars and helped spread a housing boom to the fringes of the nation's suburbs. Traffic congestion spiraled when boomer women began commuting to work like their husbands and fathers. And with dual-earner families came an outsourcing of the traditional style of life at home, leading to the emergence of daycare, the habit of eating out more often - and the appearance of more and more cars and SUVs.

Now, 8,000 "leading edge" boomers are turning 65 every day, and will continue to do so for the rest of the decade. That, too, could reshape the landscape of transportation in the U.S.

How long people in this population group continue to work, whether they choose to live in their suburban houses after their children leave home, or whether they flock to city neighborhoods where they are less likely to need a car, will have important ramifications for all Americans. If boomers stop commuting in large numbers, will rush hours ease? As age erodes their driving skills, will there be a greater demand for more public transportation, new business models that cater to the home-bound or automated cars that drive themselves?

This generation "has been the major driver of overall growth in travel in the United States, and that has had a tremendous impact over the past 40 years in how we have approached transportation planning," said Jana Lynott, co-author of a new report by AARP, an advocacy group for older Americans, on how boomers have affected travel in the U.S.

The report is an analysis of national surveys by the Federal Highway Administration of Americans' travel patterns since 1977. The most recent survey, conducted in 2009, included over 300,000 people in 150,000 households.

As a result of changes over the last four decades, driven in part by baby boomers, the number of vehicles in the U.S. has nearly tripled, the report said, and total miles traveled has grown at more than twice the rate of population growth.

Since 1977, travel for household maintenance trips - a category that includes doctors' appointments, grocery shopping, dry cleaning, and the like - has grown fivefold. The average household ate out once a week in 1977. By 2009, the average household was eating out or getting meals to take home four times a week.

But what really caught transportation planners flat-footed was the soaring growth in traffic congestion in the 1980s after large numbers of women started commuting alone in their cars, said Nancy McGuckin, a travel behavior analyst and co-author of the AARP report.

Highway engineers, who hadn't anticipated the consequences of the women's movement and dual-earner families, had just finished building the interstate highway system only to find it insufficient to meet the demands of the new commuters, she said.

Now that boomers are beginning to move into a new phase of life, their travel patterns and needs are expected to change as well.

People tend to travel the most between the ages of 45 and 55, but taper off after that. "With this immense slug of the population sliding off their peak driving years, we would have to expect total travel might go down a bit," said Alan Pisarski, author of the Transportation Research Board's comprehensive Commuting in America reports on travel trends.

If millions of baby boomers start driving less, it would reduce gas tax revenues, which is used to help states maintain highways, subsidize public transit, and fund other transportation repairs and improvements. Federal gas tax revenue is already forecast to decline as mandatory auto fuel economy improvements kick in.

There are signs boomers may already be slowing down. The rate of growth in travel in the U.S. began slowing in 2006. Actual miles traveled dropped sharply during the 2008 recession and now appear to have leveled off.

But boomers could defy expectations again by remaining more mobile into their retirement years than past generations.

"It doesn't matter whether they were in their 20s and 30s or approaching retirement, they (boomers) are still traveling more than those who came before them or those who came after them," Lynott said.

Most boomers live in the suburbs and are expected to remain in the homes where they raised their children even after they become empty nesters. The housing bust has also trapped many older boomers in large homes whose values have fallen, sometimes below the balance of their mortgages.

A shift in the housing market with long-term implications may already be occurring as leading-edge boomers appear less interested in age-restricted communities than their parents, according to a recent report by the Urban Land Institute, a land use think tank.

"They are not looking to retire early, and are not seeking to isolate themselves among the elderly," the report said.

Baby boomer Diane Spitaliere, a 58-year-old who recently retired after working 38 years at the Federal Aviation Administration, said the idea of moving to a retirement or assisted living community "is just very unappealing to me."

If there comes a point when she is no long able to live alone in her single-family home in Alexandria, Va., she'll probably move close to family members in New York, she said.

Stuart Peskoe, an engineering manager, said he and his wife also want to continue living in their single-family home in the Boston suburbs after they retire, even though their children are grown and live in other states. They don't want to leave their friends and they want to keep the extra rooms for when the kids visit.

But he's not sure how they would get around once they lose their driving skills. There's no nearby public transportation.

The Internet and delivery services may help the couple cut back their driving trips, said Peskoe, 58. "UPS and FedEx have this pretty good deal going with Amazon and Netflix," and the local grocery store delivers online orders, he said. "More and more we don't have to leave the house if we don't want to."

Automakers are banking on boomers being able to stretch out their driving years with the aid of safety technologies- like adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning systems and blind-spot monitoring - that are becoming more common in cars. The transportation needs of millions of boomers aging in the suburbs may build greater public acceptance of automated cars that drive themselves. Some states already permit road testing of these vehicles.

"Baby boomers have always been an active generation who want to go places, so we don't see them sitting in porch rockers upon retirement," said Gloria Berquist, vice president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. "They will want the freedom and mobility of a vehicle."

Demographers have noted an uptick in retirees moving to central cities where they're less dependent on being able to drive. Because there are so many boomers, if a significant number move to central cities, it could drive up housing costs and force cities to make greater accommodations for the elderly, such as more benches at bus stops or a slowing of the timing of pedestrian crossing lights.

But the history of boomers has been that they often do the unexpected.

Charles and Pamela Leonard, both 65, recently gave up their careers and traded their home in downtown Atlanta, where they could walk to restaurants, grocery stores and public transportation, for a small farm near Lexington, N.C., where they grow organic medicinal herbs.

Pamela Leonard said the couple isn't sure what they will do when they are no longer able to drive except, "I will not drive until my children have to take the car away. That was an issue with my mother, and I hope I've learned from that."

"It's very hard to know how you will deal with old age until you get there," she said. "But I think more options, creative options, are going to become available."