We Obsessively Cover the Green Scene…

Your Monday green-car buzzkill is brought to you buy University of Michigan research professor John DeCicco, who says more electric vehicles won't do much to slow global warming if energy-production methods aren't addressed.

DeCicco, who's with the university's Energy Institute, says the government's subsidies for advanced-powertrain technologies and the tax credits for plug-in vehicle buyers are "not warranted." That's because average fuel economy is already increasing at about four percent a year, while emissions levels from electric-power generation remains virtually unchanged.

That means more emphasis must be placed on the "well" and less on the "wheel."

That means, DeCicco said, when it comes to a "well-to-wheel" analysis of emissions from grid power all the way to vehicle efficiency, more emphasis must be placed on the "well" and less on the "wheel" to effectively take on global warming.

DeCicco's comments echo those of Didier Stevens, Toyota Europe's head of government affairs and environmental issues, who recently said more electric vehicles won't help the environment much if electricity continues to be produced largely from coal. So, if you were feeling too positive about EVs, put on a Smiths record and check out the University of Michigan article below.

Ford has used efficiency gains related to water use, waste and painting processes to cut its factory emissions per produced vehicle by 37 percent between 2000 and 2012.

The US automaker, in its 14th annual Sustainability Report, adds that more changes are in store that will allow an additional 30-percent drop in CO2 emissions per vehicle between 2010 and 2025. Furthermore, Ford's tailpipe emissions, per vehicle, are down 16 percent since 2007. The company has sold more than 600,000 vehicles with its gas-saving EcoBoost engines, and it's pretty proud of its regenerative brakes, too. Additionally, through May, Ford increased green car sales fivefold from a year earlier on more sales for models like the Fusion Hybrid and the more-recent introduction of plug-in models like the C-Max and Fusion Energi vehicles. Check out Ford's press release below.

Some might say $9 million is a drop in the zero-emission bucket when it comes to federal funding of hydrogen fuel-cell advancements, but it does beat a sharp stick in the eye.

The US Department of Energy has announced a $9-million grant that will be directed towards speeding up hydrogen fuel-cell technology, which some view as the best of all worlds because it allows gas-tank-type mileage ranges for vehicles without the harmful local emissions (fuel-cell vehicles emit water vapor).

Specifically, the grant will be earmarked for technologies that advance drivetrain technology for medium-duty trucks, cut costs for refueling components and speed up rooftop installations for hydrogen fuel-cell backup power systems.

Toyota and Hyundai are among the automakers that plan to debut production fuel cell vehicles in the US by 2015. Earlier this month, Hyundai delivered its first 15 Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell vehicles (which will be known as the Tucson Fuel Cell when it arrives in the US) to the city of Copenhagen. And earlier this year, Automotive News estimated that Toyota has brought down the per-vehicle cost for its fuel cell vehicles to between $50,000 and $100,000.

Check out the DOE's press release below.

It is an era of $11 gallons of gas. Somewhere, apparently, someone has run out of fuel. To the rescue will come a personalized Matte Graphite Tesla Model S, ready with a frunk full of gas cans. Watching the Tesla drive away on cheap electricity, the stranded motorist out there will be able to continue his gas-powered journey, wondering if perhaps next time will be the right time to get plugged in.

At least, that's one potential plot line for a new video of a modified Model S with a fresh paint job and 22-inch Vossen CV1 concave wheels and rims. The video, a promotional tool for Vossen, doesn't have any words and we were confused at first why the all-electric Model S would need to pull into a gas station in the first place. This is our made-up answer. Check out the video below and then share your idea in the comments.

People have been making the North American transcontinental trip from sea-to-shining-sea ever since Lewis and Clark cleared the first path to the Pacific back in 1806. The journey has been managed on horseback, covered wagons, trains, planes and automobiles. Now, it's been done by electric motorcycles. Twice.

Last week, both the Moto Electra Racing expedition and Terry Hershner's solo effort traveled the length of the Interstate 10 – in opposite directions – to view both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans within the span of a few days. With the ultimate goal of finishing first, and secondarily, fast enough to set an enduring record, the race was on.

Each team took decidedly different approaches.

Each team took decidedly different approaches. Moto Electra towed a generator behind its chase vehicle to make up for the lack of charging infrastructure and keep the classic-looking Norton replica well fed. Hershner, on the other hand, took more of a hunter-gatherer approach, harvesting electrons for his streamlined 2012 Zero S from whatever source he could find, typically RV parks and charging stations.

This gave the Moto Electra guys an obvious advantage, since there was no need to track down charging stations that might be occupied, or worse, out of service. Still, out on the road, anything can happen and there could be no guarantee of success.

Anyone looking for a chilling plug-in vehicle warning tale should check out this detailed Reuters article, which digs into the financial history of Fisker Automotive and reveals that the company lost around $35,000 per vehicle.

That number comes from "internal financial statements and interviews with former Fisker executives," Reuters reports, quoting a former executive saying the luxury plug-in hybrid, "cost far more to produce than we could ever charge for it." All told, between 2008 and 2012, Reuters estimates Fisker lost $1 billion.

The losses were due, in part, to those many production delays two to three years ago as well as a reduction in the number of cars it was going to make and sell. Remember when the company said it would sell 15,000 units a year? Eventually, the company sold around 2,000 vehicles, total.

There is a lot worth reading in the source article, including how the Karma's forward-placed exhaust – which hurt the vehicle's performance and was too loud – was fixed using a metal "pizza box" that cost millions extra. Throw in salaries of around $600,000-$700,000 for co-founders Henrik Fisker and Barny Koehler, even while Fisker was laying people off, and you have a recipe for not succeeding. Here's a taste of what Reuters has to offer:

In May 2011, the company co-sponsored a pre-race grand prix party aboard a 146-foot yacht moored in the Monte Carlo harbor. Guests drank glasses of champagne served with flecks of gold. Clad in a dark pinstripe suit and open-neck white shirt, Henrik Fisker navigated a crowd that included Prince Albert of Monaco, whom he described as the inspiration for the Karma. ... The Monaco weekend, according to several sources familiar with the event, cost Fisker between $80,000 and $100,000. That wasn't lavish by auto-marketing standards, but by this point every penny mattered. Within weeks, the Energy Department stopped payments on its loan.

You can read the whole thing here.

Sometimes, you have to go across the border to get the skinny on what's happening in the US. For example, did you know GM might be testing electric cars with batteries that have about three times the energy density of today's EV?

That's could be the case, since during the recent Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association conference in Canada, The Windsor Star reporter Chris Vander Doelen spoke with J. Gary Smyth, General Motors' executive director of Global Research and Development. Smyth told Vander Doelen, "Today there are prototypes out there with 400 Watt-hours per kilogram."

We have to assume Smyth was talking about batteries made by Envia, which announced it had developed just such batteries last year (and sent along the nifty cartoon image you see above). GM invested $7 million in the company in 2011 and also made a separate licensing deal to use those advanced packs in its vehicles. While we don't know the details of what kinds of vehicles are being tested with the 400 wh/kg packs in – Smyth would not even mention the brand – but we have previously calculated that that kind of power could mean 300-mile EVs. And earlier estimates put the cost of such a car with Envia's technology at just $20,000, giving more heft to Smyth's statement to Vander Doelen that, "Innovation is exploding right now. The industry is in a period of rapid transformation."

Consumer Reports isn't wearing quite as rosy a pair of sunglass as the federal government is about the savings prospects for US drivers once stricter fuel economy standards take effect in model year 2017. Still, the publication says drivers will save a few thousand dollars worth of gas during the lifetime of their vehicles.

CR, in a 27-page report that can be viewed here (PDF), estimates that drivers will save about $4,600 with the recently adopted Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards in place. CR basically figured that the average cost of a new car would rise about $2,000 but fuel use would drop enough to save $7,300 during the car's lifetime (higher taxes and maintenance will eat up the $700 difference between the gross savings of $5,300 and the stated figure of $4,600). The publication also took note of additional benefits like a lower dependence on foreign oil and the multiplier effect of needing less money for fuel and having more to spend on other goods and services.

So, how do the feds see the situation? Last year, when the new CAFE standards were made official, the federal government estimated that new standards – which have to ramp up starting with model year 2017 and get to a 54.5 miles per gallon average in 2025 (with a real-world average that will be closer to 40 mpg) – would save the typical new car owner $8,000 in fuel costs over the lifetime of the vehicle. Trouble is, that number didn't factor in the higher costs of producing (and buying) the more fuel-efficient vehicles.

No matter how you slice it, the Toyota Prius and the Smart ForTwo are two of the "cheapest" cars to own. The Automotive Science Group (ASG), in its first-ever survey measuring a car's economic, environmental and social costs, put both the Prius and the ForTwo atop two of its nine vehicle classes, marking the only repeat leaders among the approximately 1,400 model-year 2013 vehicles surveyed.

The ForTwo Coupe and ForTwo Passion cabriolet topped the coupe and convertible sectors, while the Prius C and standard Prius ranked first in the compact and mid-size segments (for good measure, the Prius Plug-in came in at No. 2 for mid-size). Filling out the top of ASG's lists, the Toyota Avalon Hybrid won the full-size category; the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport topped the crossovers; the Mazda CX-5 led all mid-sized SUVs; the Honda Pilot was the "cheapest" full-size SUV; and, finally, the Nissan Quest won the minivan category.

ASG went beyond mere economic factors like price and cost of ownership by calculating in environmental measurements such as the raw materials required to make the vehicle; then, ASG attempted to calculate in a social element, somehow taking a factor such as the civil rights of the people making the vehicle and calculating that aspect into the total "cost." You can read more in ASG's press release below.

As Coda Automotive goes through bankruptcy proceedings, related companies are not escaping the turmoil. Both Lio Energy Systems Holdings and Miles Electric Vehicles asked this week to have their bankruptcy cases jointed administered with Coda's, since they're all tied together.

Miles Automotive is the electric vehicle company that came before Coda. The producer of small, low-speed EVs, Miles announced it was working on a highway-speed EV called the XS500 years before it evolved into the Coda Sedan.

The way all these companies are connected is somewhat convoluted. We know that Miles Rubin was the force behind Miles Automotive, which he started in 2004. Later, in 2009, he co-founded and was for a while chairman of Coda. Reuters says that Lio Energy Systems is a direct subsidiary of Coda Holdings (it was a joint venture with China's Lishen Power Battery). Miles Electric Vehicles is now a direct subsidiary of Lio. Got it? Good, because you can shortly forget it when all these companies go through the bankruptcy grinder in the coming weeks.

At that time, you might need to learn a new name, Fortress Investment Group. Fortress is trying to buy Coda's assets for just $25 million. By the looks of things, this deal will go through.

It was clear early on that the story of Paul Scott spending a lot of his retirement savings to try and speak to President Obama at a private fundraiser was going to be a contentious topic. After a big public outcry and a rejection from the Democratic National Committee, Scott took a step back to figure out his options. He has now told Plug In Cars that the $32,400 he was originally going to spend on two minutes with the President will now be used to buy two used electric vehicle for his family.

Scott is a Nissan Leaf salesman (as well as a co-founder of Plug In America, which has been active for years, as the archival image above shows, and a friend of the site), so you can probably guess which EVs he plans to purchase. He told PIC that, "My intention is to buy two used Leafs from my lot and give one to my daughter and one to my sister. Both are driving old beater ICE cars, so I'd be removing a small percentage of the oil industry's income stream forever."

Scott may be good at getting the word out about electric vehicles, but he's not exactly a good secret-keeper. He told PIC, "My sister knows, but my daughter's gift is going to be surprise." Not any more, it's not.

Historically, the intersection between electric vehicles and drag racing has been really small – or so we guess, at least. But the advent of Tesla in the auto marketplace, and the subsequent performance offered up to drivers by way of battery-powered cars, has caused even racy publications like DragTimes to get in on the action.

Having posted several YouTube videos featuring the Tesla Model S doing pulls at the local strip, DragTimes encountered questions about just how many races that car might be able to run before needing to re-juice its battery pack. The publication monitored the energy being used by the Tesla during full-throttle, quarter-mile runs, and determined that the net use (after energy from the regen braking was added back in) amounted to just 0.5 kWh per go. Considering that the full battery capacity is 85 kWh, DragTimes figured that the Model S is good for a remarkable 170 races before needing a recharge. By that math, and using electricity costs in DragTime's home state of Florida, each race would cost just a nickel and a penny's worth of electricity.

With respect, that theoretical number is probably way too high. For starters, the car would expend some energy getting to and from the starting line between races. Perhaps more critically, the system is designed to not allow for a completely full charge or deletion of charge, so the car can't use all 85 kWh. Still, 100 runs is in the realm of possibility. In the video below, the narrator makes mention of 150 runs, which is optimistic but more likely. Cheap thrills, in any case (once you've paid for the car).

Earlier this year, an ExxonMobil pipeline oil spill dumped around 5,000 barrels of heavy crude oil in suburban Mayflower, AR. It was a mess, and prompted a discussion about oil pipelines in the US, most notably the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Yesterday, the US Department of Justice and the state of Arkansas filed a joint lawsuit against the oil company over the spill, claiming Exxon violated state pollution laws, according to Reuters. ExxonMobil declined to comment on the matter to Reuters, saying it needed

Reading the joint complaint (PDF), the DOJ and Arkansas allege that there was an "unlawful discharge of heavy crude oil" from the 850-mile Pegasus Pipeline, which was first built in the 1940s and runs from Illinois to Texas. It usually transports 95,000 barrels of heavy Canadian crude oil per day, but have been closed since the spill.

The spilled oil "caused and continues to cause pollution to waters of the State," the complaint says, and the parts that ExxonMobil was supposed to have cleaned up remain a mess. The state and the DOJ are seeking civil penalties of "$1,100 per barrel discharged ... or if the violation is the result of gross negligence or willful misconduct, no more than $4,300 per barrel discharged," among other fines. You can see a video of the spill below.

Ford is taking the time to trumpet technology that's let drivers go further by stopping gradually. Specifically, the Blue Oval says the various versions of its regenerative braking systems have generated enough energy to offset the use of 100 million gallons of fuel, Wards Auto writes.

Ford's first production car with regenerative braking was the 2004 Escape Hybrid, but regen brakes have been used on various Fords for decades. Trial versions of the feature, which captures kinetic energy generated from slowing down and saves it in the vehicle's battery, dates back to the 1990s with Ford's limited production Ranger and Ecostar (pictured) electric vehicles.

Ford's spent the past couple of decades cutting weight off of those systems while boosting their efficiency. The automaker now says that it can recapture as much as 95 percent of the braking process' kinetic energy, though stresses that a driver who brakes slow and steady will let the system store a lot more energy than one that tends to slam on that left pedal.