Wired Autopia’s Damon Lavrinc got the chance to drive the Volkswagen XL1 in Germany. Lavrinc, who has a wealth of experience writing about automotive technology and alternative powertrains, gives us a good picture of what it’s like to drive the XL1, from the awkward entry/egress, to the seemingly underpowered air-conditioning system to the lack of a simple iPod connector (because that adds weight, natch). Check it out over at Autopia.

In three weeks, Bertel will return to the scene of his crimes at Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, and will drive the XL1 on the same Wolfsburg-to-Berlin trip as Wired, maybe even the same XL1 as Wired. Check it out when he returns. If he does.

Ford is “seeking to challenge Toyota Motor Corp.’s dominance in gasoline-electric vehicles,” says Bloomberg.

According to the report, Ford “has rolled out the new C-Max hybrids and electric versions of its redesigned Fusion sedan in the past year to take on Toyota, which has dominated with its Prius hybrids since the early 2000s.” Some say, Ford already subjugated Toyota.

Ford left Toyota in the dust, says Seekingalpha, which reports that in April, Ford delivered “35,034 Fusion hybrids compared to the 3,257 Camry and 19,889 Prius hybrids Toyota moved. “ That of course is complete baloney.

Nobody keeps better track of hybrid sales than our sister publication Hybridcars, which runs a monthly report. According to Hybridcar’s tally, Ford is far away from taking on Toyota. However, sales of Ford’s Fusion hybrid are up, whereas Toyota’s hybrid sales are mostly down.

Toyota’s Americas chief Jim Lentz blamed falling U.S. gasoline prices and said last month that Toyota may not reach its U.S. sales target for Prius hybrids of about 250,000 this year.

The Feds will get an additional 10,000 hybrids over the 10,672 they already have, lifting the federal hybrid market share from 5.3 percent to over 10 percent, the Detroit News says.

According to the paper, the GSA will fund the incremental cost to replace eligible vehicles with new hybrid sedans.

Allegedly, the move will save 1 million gallons of fuel per year for the life of these vehicles.

It was not released what badges the division-strength hybrids will carry. Seeking Alpha presumes that “General Motors and Ford will receive some home field advantage.”

Volkswagen has been tinkering with hydrogen for longer than I can remember. Yesterday, CEO Martin Winterkorn said it was all for naught. Hydrogen fuel cells are unlikely to become a cost-effective way to power cars in the near future, Winterkorn told Automotive News at Volkswagen’s press conference in Wolfsburg. He said it’s not Volkswagen’s fault:

“I do not see the infrastructure for fuel cell vehicles, and I do not see how hydrogen can be produced on large scale at reasonable cost. I do not currently see a situation where we can offer fuel cell vehicles at a reasonable cost that consumers would also be willing to pay.”

Automotive News takes that as an indicator that VW won’t join a list of global automakers that want to roll out fuel cell vehicles in the 2015-2020 time-frame, among them Toyota allied with BMW, a Nissan-Renault-Daimler-Ford alliance, Hyundai, Honda, and more.

Instead, VW is seen to embark on a somewhat belated diesel plug-in hybrid strategy, while hybrid pioneer Toyota does not have a problem envisaging fuel cell vehicles at a reasonable cost. Two years ago already, Toyota’s chief engineer Satoshi Ogiso told TTAC that an affordable hydrogen-powered car in this decade is “his job.”

Last month, we suggested that PSA’s new compressed air hybrid system was a good way for PSA to drum up some investment into its ailing new car business. Now comes word that PSA wants to talk to other car makers, including alliance partner General Motors, about pooling the R&D cost of the new tech.

Given that PSA spent an estimated $4 billion on R&D in 2011, the $650 million cost to develop the new technology is a relatively modest sum. Yet PSA is still looking for a partner (or partners) to help bear the burden. PSA is looking to get cars using the technology, dubbed HybridAir, on the road by 2016, a very short timeframe for a new technology, especially one as radical as this.

PSA is also looking for a partner for the technology in China. Meanwhile, GM issued a statement claiming that the new hybrid system “is not part of the alliance discussions”. Bosch, which has assisted PSA with the initial development of HybridAir, previously warned of “unspecified technical challenges” with the system, throwing further doubt on the viability of the technology as a real automotive solution. Evidently, it doesn’t seem to be doing much to bring some badly needed money in either.

Afew years after its debut in concept form, Volkswagen is readying the ultra-efficient XL1 on a limited production basis. The XL1 could cost as much as 70,000 pounds (or $106,000), and return as much as 314 mpg (according to European test protocols).

The heart of the XL1 is an 800 cc 2-cylinder diesel engine making 47 horsepower, along with a 27 horsepower electric motor and a lithium-ion battery along with a 7-speed DSG transmission. Curb weight is a mere 1752 lbs thanks to extensive carbon fiber usage.

A drag coefficient of 0.189 aids in achieving superb fuel economy, while other tricks like covered rear wheel arches and a pair of cameras in place of mirrors also help the XL1. The XL1 will be built in limited numbers and sold only in left-hand drive, as a sort of green halo car. But the powertrain will eventually be ported into their Up! city car as a new, ultra-efficient model.

Imports led the majority of the government’s green car purchases last year, with 54 percent of the nearly 1,800 green vehicles purchased by the federal government coming from Hyundai, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Honda. The federal government’s most-purchased hybrid wasn’t a Big Three product either. Instead, it was the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.

Sales of green vehicles were down for the third year in a row, while the almost-exclusively domestic fleet has grown to feature far more imports.

Bloomberg outlines the breakdown of the government’s green fleet below

The GSA purchases in fiscal 2012 included 904 Sonata hybrids, followed by 372 Fusion hybrids, with General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric model accounting for 163 purchases. The Sonata purchases represented 5.1 percent of the hybrid’s model’s U.S. sales for 2012.

The GSA purchased about 300 other hybrids from GM and Ford as well as five Toyota Prius hybrids and three of Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV electric car. The GSA also reported buying 49 Honda Civics powered by compressed natural gas that are built in Greensburg, Indiana.

The Korean-built Sonata Hybrid unseated the Ford Fusion Hybrid as the previous champion of federal fleet sales. But with a new Fusion Hybrid and the C-Max now available, 2013 could look different.

NHTSA is proposing to make it mandatory that hybrid cars and EVs have the ability to emit a sound when traveling below 18 mph on electric power, as a means of warning pedestrians and cyclists. The system is said to add about $30 to the cost of each vehicle, and will no doubt tie up bureaucrats for months as they debate just what kind of tone will best protect the public from the horror of low-speed injuries. So why don’t we make life easier for them and decide ourselves?

I”m going to nominate the weird burping noise made by a koala as my own favorite; koalas, like hybrids and EVs, are slow and non-threatening, but few know that the koala actually makes a strange, low bellowing noise.

Compare that to the higher-pitched chirp or the low humming seen on cars like the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius. It’s a bit more masculine and menacing, isn’t it? Yet at the same time, it won’t really give anyone a fright like it would if you used a sound clip from a Norwegian death metal concert.

Swedish clothing store H&M offers a generous 30-day return policy that urges customers to Buy It Now, Return It Later. Looks like Vauxhall will be following suit.

Customers in the UK will have the opportunity to return the Vauxhall Ampera, aka the Chevrolet Volt, after 30 days if they’re not satisfied with the car. Vehicles with 1,500 miles or less will be eligible for the program and any damage must be paid for.

Chevrolet runs a similar scheme for the Spark supermini, although buyers are allowed 4,000 miles and a maximum of 60 days. Nevertheless, the program is an interesting way to promote a technology and a vehicle that many motorists are weary of to begin with. Now close your eyes and imagine if this program were put in place in the United States.

One of the most conspicuous absences from GM’s full-size truck reveal was the lack of any hybrid variants. The highly-touted but slow selling hybrid full-size trucks and SUVs were never intended to be the darlings of America’s truck space, but they played an important behind the scenes role for the company.

A hybrid truck may have been as appealing to the average truck buyer as a camouflage tutu, but under the arcane CAFE rules, there were plenty of credits to be had by producing a hybrid truck or large SUV. For the nitty gritty details, a longer summary is available here. For those with an aversion to long, complex explanations of government regulations, let’s just say that the “credits” applied to every hybrid truck or large SUV produced would help a given auto maker reach its CAFE target, because the credits can not only be applied to the trucks themselves, but to other “underperforming vehicles” – or retained for use in later years.

But with GM cutting its R&D budgets, the “two-mode hybrid” system is set to die. In its place is a new Gen V small-block V8 with direct injection, variable valve timing and cylinder-deactivation. Final fuel economy numbers aren’t available yet, but we do know that GM is going at it alone with their “two truck” strategy, offering the large trucks alongside a smaller pickup with superior fuel economy. Unlike Ford and Chrysler, the V6 Silverado/Sierra won’t play such an important role for the General.

Toyota dropped out of Formula One in 2009, and said it won’t come back, claiming that the sports is “too elistist” and out of touch with Toyota’s customers. Now, the company is dropping hints that the door is not closed forever. Asked by The Nikkei [sub] whether Toyota might come back to the sport, Toyota Managing Officer Kiyotaka Ise was much less dismissive than in the past:

“ First, we’ll need to raise the profile of our hybrid vehicles through the WEC races and accumulate more technological expertise. Next year, we want to win the WEC’s Le Mans 24-hour race in France. We’re preparing for that now.”

Toyota won three out of eight races at this year’s World Endurance Championship. Its hybrid-race car uses a capacitor that can quickly charge and discharge electricity, which is created when the driver hits the brakes. The stored power helps accelerate the car when the driver turns around corners.

This sounds like the perfect system for 2014, when Formula One increases the capacity for Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) from 60kw to 120kw, while fuel consumption is restricted. That “greener” Formula One appears to be made to measure for hybrid-heavy Toyota. Said Ise::

“We withdrew from Formula 1 races in 2009 and needed to clearly define ourselves when it came to motor sports again. And we have zeroed in on hybrid vehicles.”

So does Formula One.

In addition to its WEC engagement, Toyota plans races with its hachi-roku, and possibly “a similar event for our luxury Lexus line.,” Ise said.

A Detroit court found a former GM engineer and her husband guilty of conspiring to steal hybrid car trade secrets. Their lawyers unsuccessfully argued that there were no secrets to steal. Ed Niedermeyer had said that for years.

Shanshan Du and her husband Yu Qin face lengthy prison sentences. Sentencing will occur in February 2013.

In 2010, the couple was indicted on charges including conspiracy for allegedly stealing GM hybrid technology between 2003 and 2005. According to the indictment, Du copied thousands of pages of GM trade secrets onto a portable computer hard drive five days after accepting a buyout offer.

When we covered this story in 2010, our now Editor Emeritus Ed Niedermeyer wrote:

“The real story here is just how stupid Du and Qin were for targeting The General’s hybrid technology between 2003 and 2005.

To this day GM still has yet to develop a commercially successful hybrid drivetrain, and at the time of the alleged theft, only the highly unsuccessful BAS “mild hybrid” system (production start in 2006), the PHT truck mild hybrid system (production in 2005), and expensive, complicated “two-mode” hybrid system (production in 2008) were on track for eventual production. What Chery, Du or Qin saw in that technology is utterly baffling… and their attempt at industrial espionage may well have been the greatest compliment ever paid to GM’s long-abortive attempt to catch up with Toyota and Honda in the area of hybrid technology.”

As proof, Niedermeyer entered the video which we play again above. At the four minute mark, a former top executive at GM testifies that back then, there was nothing worth stealing.

The couple’s lawyers used the same line of reasoning, but could not convince the Detroit jury. When the matter goes to appeal, possibly the attorneys can call Lutz as a witness. Or Niedermeyer.

Fisker put production of its Karma plug-in hybrid on hold. Reason: It is running out of batteries. Bankrupt battery manufacturer A123 Systems has cut its output.

According to a Reuters report, Fisker has enough lithium-ion batteries on hand in case an owner needs a replacement, but that’s it.

A123 will be auctioned-off on December 6, and Fisker hopes to receive more clarity and hopefully batteries from the new owners.

Johnson Controls and China’s Wanxiang Group seem to be the main bidders. Other interested parties may be NEC of Japan and Germany’s Siemens. Says Reuters:

“The U.S. government said this week that A123 could not be sold without its consent. Fisker and A123 have both received funding under a federal program designed to create an advanced vehicle manufacturing base in the United States.”

The Chinese government already approved the purchase on A123 by Wanxiang.

Earlier in the year, GE bought 12,000 Chevrolet Volts, and the company was promptly accused of “crony capitalism” and of “forcing its employees” into unwanted cars. The subtext was that the GE purchase propped up GM’s Volt sales. Now GE does the same with Ford, but at a smaller scale.

GE will buy 2,000 C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid vehicles for its corporate fleet, Reuters reports. In turn, Ford will market GE’s alternative fuel infrastructure technology, including charging stations and natural gas fueling stations.

GE wants to convert half of its global fleet to alternative fuel vehicles.

Hmm. Fox News has the story about a bolt-on kit that converts just about any car into a plug-in hybrid that gets “ 50 percent to 100 percent better mileage” at a cost of only $3,000. But will it qualify for the tax credit and the HOV sticker?

As a student project, the DIY kit was developed under the guidance of Dr. Charles Perry, a  professor at the Middle Tennessee State University. The Rube Goldbergish system consists of 27 electric magnets attached to the hub that promise to turn into an in-wheel motor..

Fox loves this story. It already  had it in August, but sold it as new two days ago.

General Motors is looking to sell 500,000 vehicles with electrification technology by 2017, but the bulk of its focus will be on EVs or plug-in cars rather than conventional hybrids.

While hybrid technology is considered “important” to GM, product chief Mary Barra told Automotive News that ”…we think plug-in technology will play an increasingly important role over the years to come.”

GM will hedge their bets on plug-in vehicles with their eAssist mild hybrid system. Meanwhile, the Chevrolet Spark EV and Cadillac ELR will both launch next year as part of GM’s push to meet 500,000 electrified cars annually, which will account for roughly 6 percent of the 9 million vehicles sold by GM each year.

Apparently, Honda invited some journalists to Japan so they could go check out new technology carefully packaged into existing cars, lest anyone reveal super-secret things like what the next Acura RL looks like. No matter, we’ve got everything below.

1. The 2014 Honda Fit will get a new EarthDreams/CVT combo. Only a few specs were released, but we do know that it’s good for a 6 percent bump in torque and a 10 percent boost in fuel economy. The proof will be in the pudding, since 112 lb-ft of torque doesn’t sound like much of an improvement over the current Fit’s wheezy engine.
2. Another Fit mule was outfitted (hehe) with Honda’s next-gen hybrid system; a 1.5L gasoline 4-cylinder with an electric motor and a 7-speed dual clutch gearbox. The new system is said to deliver a 30 percent gain in fuel economy. Maximum EV-only range is 3 km, with top speed in electric mode coming in at 70 km/h.
3. The next-generation Acura RLX will come in front or all-wheel drive. The AWD version will use Honda’s new hybrid system to power the rear wheels, with a gasoline engine at the front. The FWD version will get 4-wheel steering, just like the Preludes of yesterday. Apparently, this technology might filter down to other cars as well. Who knows, maybe we’ll see the return of digital dashboards and motorized seat belts.

The cars were insured, and Fisker expects “no impact from a business or a financial point of view,” Ormisher said.

More than 10,000 vehicles were damaged during the storm at Port Newark. Toyota lost 4,500 cars at the port.

The Ford C-Max’s first full month on sale was a fruitful one for the Blue Oval – the C-Max managed to beat its arch rival, the Toyota Prius V.

Toyota managed to move 2769 Prius V’s in October, compared to 3182 C-Max’s. According to AutoGuide, 25 percent of C-Max sales occurred in California.

GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant will get a $35 million investment to build the Cadillac ELR, a luxury coupe that uses the Chevrolet Volt’s gasoline-electric drivetrain.

Automotive News reports that the announcement was made by GM North America President Mark Reuss at an SAE Conference in Detroit. The ELR will bow at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show resemble the Cadillac Converj concept. With the Voltec powertrain in use, performance and range statistics should be similar to the Volt, while providing Cadillac with a reasonable facsimile of a Tesla Model S or Fisker Karma competitor. But hey, plug-in cars count for more than regular cars under CAFE (but not as much as a pure EV) so why the hell not?

A presentation held Monday saw Fisker announce a delay for their smaller sedan, dubbed the Atlantic. The Atlantic will hit the market in late 2014 or 2015.

The beleagured automaker needs the $55,000 Atlantic to generate cashflow and provide underpinings for future offerings. Fisker execs have also discussed sharing their technology with other OEMs. Readers of TTAC are have been familiar with Fisker’s foibles for some time. The timing of the announcement, combined with A123′s bankruptcy, is an ominious sign.

The latest from USA Today suggests now is a good time to buy a Chevy Volt, if that’s what you really want.  I checked in with former(?) TTAC scribe Captain Mike Solo, currently helping someone lease a Volt, and he says about the same: lease for $270 a month, with $1500 down.  Which includes the government tax credit built into the residual…probably. So what does this all mean?

So far this year, the Volt’s outsold half the cars currently on sale.  And while a $40,000 Chevy (that isn’t a Vette or a truck) is a hard sell, cash on the hood gets everyone hot and bothered. Especially truck buyers, regularly seeing discounts of $10,000 or more. Sales rise, then fall.  A dealership’s floorplan falls, then rises once again.  Automakers calm down, then heat things up. And now we know that it’s no different with the Volt. Surprised?

Unless you have Ferrari’s rabid customer loyalty, this is just the game in action. No matter the Volt’s cutting edge technology, no matter what was sold to us in Washington by people no longer in play, it all comes down to the Money, Honey.  And this incentive cycle is just business as usual, so you can decide if the Volt is a success…or a flop.

Off to you, Best and Brightest.

Honda has developed a new, simple, gasoline-electric hybrid system which “will set a new standard for fuel efficiency and recapture the success of the CVCC engine 40 years ago,” writes Reuters.

The CVCC engine was a technological breakthrough that allowed Honda to meet U.S. emission standards without a catalytic converter.

“We believe we have reached a point with hybrid technology … where we can provide game-changing technology and products,” Honda CEO Takanobu Ito told Paul Ingrassia and Norihiko Shirouzu of Reuters today in Tokyo.

Not much more is known about the engine, but Reuters says it will power the next generation of its cars and could be introduced in the remodeled Fit subcompact car by late 2013 in Japan. For North America, the new Fit will be built in Mexico and will go on sale in the spring of 2014.

Developing new drivetrains costs money, and the hybrid-premium still slows success.  That can be cured with mass production. For the necessary scale, Honda ” absolutely won’t reject an alliance if we can work together with another company in a way that leads to our customers being more impressed with Honda’s products,” Ito said.

In a devastating blow to fans of contrived displays of ecological sensitivity and ostentatious displays of consumption, Range Rover will apparently not sell their diesel-powered Range Rover Hybrid from the American market.

Despite the seeming slam dunk Range Rover has on their hands (really now, every single celebrity in Southern California would be driving one), it’s not as cut and dried as it would seem. America’s diesel emissions regulations make the diesel Range Rovers unsaleable in the United States due to the cost of homologating the powertrains. The unpopularity of diesels doesn’t help much either.

Americans will get the familiar 5.0L V8 in either naturally aspirated or supercharged versions. Automobile Magazine claims that Jaguar’s new supercharged V6 could be a fixture as well sometime down the road. Hopefully, Jaguar will find a way to bring the diesel engine and 1.7 kWh battery pack into one of their cars as well.

The Nikkei [sub] detected a brand-new trend: Cars with an internal combustion engine. In Japan, 20 percent of new cars sold are hybrids. Elsewhere, especially in China and Europe, hybrid cars have a bit of a hard time. “Although being environmentally friendly is important, saving money is tops,” an unnamed Nissan exec told the Tokyo wire, and added that consumers in these markets look more closely at how much they can save on fuel costs in relation to vehicle prices. Now this trend is reaching Japan.

Volkswagen has always been a hybrid skeptic and instead did bet on making engines smaller. “Sales of Volkswagen vehicles reached 33,414 units in the January-July period, leaping 22% on the year,” in Japan, the Nikkei notes. (Closed market propagandists take note: If you give the Japanese what they want, that allegedly closed market suddenly opens…)

Nissan will sell a new Note subcompact next month that “is equipped with an engine that has been slimmed from 1.5 liters to 1.2 liters. A supercharger keeps output the same as the current model,” The Nikkei writes. That car gets 25.2km per liter, says The Nikkei, “almost on par with Honda’s Fit hybrid, but is some 150,000 yen cheaper.” That’s nearly $2,000, and you can buy a lot of gas with the savings.

If The Nikkei is right with spotting this trend, then there might be hope for Mazda and its Skyactiv technology.

Even in the U.S. the trend veers back to the lowly ICE. In its July 2012 market round-up, Hybridcars says:

“The take rate for hybrids of 2.7 to 2.8 percent has been consistent the last three months and below the 3.4 percent achieved in March and April when fuel prices were higher.”