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- BNET Author Biography
Jim Motavalli is the author of Forward Drive: The Race to Build Clean Cars for the Future, among other books. He has been covering the environmental side of the auto industry for more than a decade, and writes regularly on those topics for the New York Times.- more about Jim Motavalli »
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- Kicking Tires: Marketing the New Prius
- You might think that the 2010 Toyota Prius would sell itself. After all, it gets an estimated 50 miles per gallon from a larger (1.8-liter) engine than its second generation predecessor. And it offers such neat innovations as an optional sunroof with a built-in solar panel that ventilates the interior...
- Blog posts 2009-02-06
- Pricing the Prius: A Delicate Balancing Act
- ORLANDO, FLORIDAâ€"More than 2,000 engineers under the direction of Akihiko Otsuka worked for four years on the new Toyota Prius. The hybrid drivetrain, featuring a 1.8-liter engine working on an Atkinson Cycle, is 90 percent new.  “We wanted Prius...
- Blog posts 2009-03-26
- Needed: A Really Cheap Hybrid (Listening, Honda?)
- The path to profitability with hybrid and battery electric cars may not be at the top of the marketâ€"as Fisker and Tesla are assumingâ€"but at the bottom. Take a look at the price wars developing between Honda and Toyota over, respectively, the Insight and Prius. And that’s only the beginning....
- Blog posts 2009-05-10
- Used to Success, Toyota Now Copes With Major Losses
- The Big Three would love to have Toyota’s troubles. No one’s talking about the Japanese automaker declaring bankruptcy, though it posted a $7.7 billion 2008 loss last weekâ€"even more than General Motors. Although Toyota has a lineup that most car buyers would find attractive in a recession,...
- Blog posts 2009-05-14
- A 170-mpg Prius Conversion? Don't Bet on It, Says Toyota
- There are a range of plug-in hybrid conversion kits on the market, all making extravagant claims of 100 miles per gallon equivalent, seamless operation and zero impact on the warranty of the Toyota Prius donor car. Well, forget 100 mpg. Plug-In Conversions Corporation PICC, founded in 2007, claims 170+ mpg,...
- Blog posts 2009-06-11
- High-Tech Lexus Hybrid Goes After the Young and Restless
- TARRYTOWN, NEW YORKâ€"Lexus likes the concept of luxury hybrids so much that it now offers four of them. The fourth, with a tongue-twister of a nameâ€"HS 250hâ€"was shown to the press today. Lexus calls the HS 250h the world’s first dedicated luxury hybrid, which means designed from...
- Blog posts 2009-06-24
- Toyota's Third-Gen Prius a Sales Bright Spot
- Every automaker is looking for bright spots as the dog days approach, and Toyota can take heart in the strong advance orders it has for the third-generation 2010 hybrid Prius. In April, as pre-production began, Toyota said it had received 40,000 pre-orders and would be increasing global...
- Blog posts 2009-06-29
- Auto Brand Loyalty Isn't What it Used to Be
- According to a new study from CNW Marketing Research, only about 20 percent of new car shoppers stay with the auto brand they grew up on, reversing decades of assumed loyalty. Gone, apparently, when men and it was usually men would jingle the change in their pockets and pronounce themselves...
- Blog posts 2009-10-21
Additional Resources
- Hybrid Sports Cars From Honda and Toyota?
- In an idea with considerable synergy, Toyota is said to be considering a new version of the popular MR2 sports coupe with a version of the Prius’ drivetrain under the skin. As first reported in the UK-based Auto Express, the Prius-on-steroids will have rear-wheel drive, paddle shifters,...
- Blog posts 2009-03-18
- Dear Jim Letters: The Electric-Car Future
- The two Jims have been friends for 20 years, but that doesn’t mean they agree on everything: Jim Motavalli thinks that environmental factors loom large and the EV revolution is right around the corner; Jim Henry thinks the inherent conservatism of American consumers will keep it a niche market for...
- Blog posts 2009-06-22
- Meet Toyota's New Hybrid, the Auris
- REYKJAVIK, ICELANDâ€"In 1967, Toyota produced its first hybrid. Yes, the company has a long history in hybrids before the Prius. The car was a variant of the Sports 800 GT, and its gas turbine engine connected to a generator like the Chevy Volt, and supplied an electric motor and two-speed...
- Blog posts 2009-09-15
- BlueMotion VWs to be Made in the U.S.A.?
- Volkswagen is investing $1 billion in a state-of-the-art car plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Stefan Jacoby, president of VW Group of America, said at a Washington, D.C. forum May 6 that the cars coming out of the plant could include one of the very economical BlueMotion diesels. In Polo form,...
- Blog posts 2009-05-06
- Toyota's Problem With Plug-in Hybrids
- NEW YORK CITYâ€"The “Meeting of the Minds,†an international city planning conference held in the most urban of settings (the 60th floor of a JP Morgan Chase office tower) was perhaps an unlikely setting for a tutorial on the inherent problems of plug-in hybrid PHEV cars, but Toyota was the...
- Blog posts 2009-06-02
- Detroit Auto Show: Toyota Cautious on Battery Cars
- Bill Reinert, Toyota's grizzled national alternative-fuel vehicles manager, isn't afraid to describe himself both as "an old hippie" and as an ardent environmentalist. And yet he's inherently cautious when asked at the North American International Auto Show about the company's volume plans for a production battery car similar to the...
- Blog posts 2009-01-13
- Cash for Clunkers: Automakers (and the Environment) Benefit
- The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is very positive about the “Cash for Clunkers†CARS legislation, and for good reason: It is not only stimulating sales, but also getting people thinking about buying cars again. Especially clean ones: Results so far show a clear shift from gas-guzzlers to smaller cars. ...
- Blog posts 2009-08-03
- Toyota Hedges its Bets on Plug-In Hybrids (Part Two)
- My post earlier this week on Toyota’s problems with plug-in hybrid cars apparently hit a nerve with a lot of readers. Yes, some influential voices in the American branch of the company question whether plug-ins make senseâ€"largely because they add weight, cost and complexity. But Toyota spokesman...
- Blog posts 2009-06-05
- Unlike Toyota, Ford is Bullish on Plug-In Hybrids
- Ford, the only one of the Big Three not to declare bankruptcy, is nonetheless still in a fairly big hole. For all of 2008, Ford’s sales were down 21 percent. There’s a slight hint of a turnaround in the reports from May: although sales were still way down (24.2 percent)...
- Blog posts 2009-06-17
- EPA Transportation and Air Quality Chief Talks to BNET Autos About 35.5 MPG
- Margo Oge , a Toyota Prius driver, is the director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s office of transportation and air quality, and she sat down with BNET Autos just after a public hearing on the EPA and Department of Transportation’s proposed standards mandating that cars sold in the U.S. reach...
- Blog posts 2009-10-23
- Honda's Affordable Hybrid: A Cure for the Sales Slump?
- Americans love hybrid cars, but in a recession they don’t love hybrid car prices. The premium of $2,000 or more typically asked of hybrids is a factor in a steep drop-off of sales. A key to success in today’s economic tsunami may be smaller, more affordable hybrids. And...
- Blog posts 2009-03-16
- Marketing the Tesla S: Letterman and Parties for the Faithful
- The Tesla S is going to a gala party in New York tonight, after which it will sprint across town for a quick appearance with Tesla founder Elon Musk on David Letterman’s showâ€"the first drivable car so honored. The road to that party and that TV appearance...
- Blog posts 2009-04-29
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