Archive for the ‘automotive news’ Category
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. – Huntington Toyota believes it is very important to share information with its customers that they may not be able to get anywhere else. With rumors and news about shortages and increases in prices, Huntington Toyota wants to set the facts out for customers so they know what the dealership knows.
For this reason, this Long Island dealership is offering customers “Huntington Toyota Fast Facts.” These facts include the most up-to-date information about the current Japan crisis situation all easily accessible on the dealership’s Facebook page.
“We know how important it is for customers to have the information readily available with updates about what has been going with Toyota since the start of the Japan crisis,” said Huntington Toyota General Manager Lenny Cafarelli. “Our Fast Facts are a simple and effective way to give our customers the latest information about current events or changes in the industry. We decided to post our Huntington Toyota Fast Facts on our Facebook page because we know that we have the ability to reach a wider audience and share what we know.”
Huntington Toyota keeps the posts short with just the facts so customers can quickly scan for important information. Huntington Toyota posts the newest Fast Facts to its Facebook pages as the news happens to ensure customers get all the news in real time.
“There is no reason why customers should not be informed directly from their local dealerships,” Mr. Cafarelli added, and Huntington Toyota works hard to keep customers in the same knowledge loop.
The newest Huntington Toyota Fast Fact was posted about Toyota and its plans to move forward with Japan car production for most of May. On April 15, Toyota Motor Corp. announced that it had decided vehicle production from May 10 to June 3 will continue at 50 percent normal activity.
Huntington Toyota also is letting customers know the dealership has a full inventory of Toyota vehicles available. Huntington Toyota is also Long Island’s No. 1 dealer rated Toyota dealership, and is planning ahead for the coming months as Toyota production will slow. Also, Huntington Toyota continues to operate with best pricing practices.
Huntington Toyota is proud to continue its customer programs even as the auto industry changes. Exclusive at Huntington Toyota is the Three-Day/300-Mile Exchange Program which offers new owners the option to bring back their purchased vehicle within the time allotted if unsatisfied and exchange it for another. Toyota Care is another available program which delivers customers complimentary preventive maintenance as well as 24-Hour Roadside assistance for the unexpected. All new and qualified pre-owned cars are covered by Toyota Care for 25,000 miles or two years, whichever comes first.
To see Huntington Toyota Fast Facts, connect on Facebook by visiting http://www.facebook.com/ToyotaOfHuntington.
For more information about the dealership, visit http://www.toyotaofhuntington.com/ or call 888-494-9973.
Huntington Toyota is well-known for its excellent treatment of customers and for its service in the community. The dealership stands by its vehicles and its customers in order to make the buying experience a fun and enjoyable one. Huntington Toyota’s main goal is to give customers the most pleasant experience possible when they visit dealership.
Huntington Toyota is conveniently located at 1030 E. Jericho Turnpike Huntington, N.Y. 11746.
DETROIT M.I. – MI Ford dealers may be getting a lot of complaints from owners of the 2011 Ford Mustang as there seems to be a problem with the Chinese-built transmission. According to Jalopnik articles, hundreds of owners are complaining about manual transmissions that are grinding and hard shifting between first, second and third gear.
On one owners Mustang forum comments have grown to 2,700 postings, but Ford Motor Corp is still staying silent.
One owner said, “Being on the highway and losing the ability to shift with 3 lanes bearing down on me was enough to make me realize this: A lemon is one thing… An anomaly. This is not an anomaly.”
Another complained to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration saying, “My car’s shift lever became stuck and wouldn’t go into gear and I had to force it back to the neutral position while coming to a stop light. The manual transmission in my 2011 Ford Mustang GT has been whining and grinding gears since the clutch was replaced due to a design flaw…I shouldn’t be having these dangerous problems, let along taking my brand new car to a dealership to keep getting repaired over and over again because the failing parts are just being replaced with the same parts only to fail over and over again.”
Per the complaints, it seems it’s the V6 and high-powered V8 that are being affected by this problem. Getrag, a supplier, and Ford build the affected MT82 transmission in Nanchang, China.
Jalopnik has said that Ford has offered possible fixes such as replacing bolts or swapping out fluids, but it does not seem that Ford is taking responsibility as owners are spending thousands for new transmissions and clutches at MI Ford dealers and others in owners’ respective areas.
After Jalopnik’s first article about Ford’s silence, it asked Ford for a comment on the situation. It took two weeks, according to Jalopnik, to get a response.
Ford simply stated:
“We remain absolutely committed to the highest quality in all of our vehicles and are looking into this matter. We remain committed to continuous improvement.”
A recall may be in the best interest of owners, but that would also increase costs for Ford to pay for repairs. Hopefully Ford will take care of the issue and dealers across the U.S., including MI Ford dealers, will get the okay to service the problem at no cost to owners.
MI Auto Times covers all Michigan automotive news all the time, featuring newly released vehicle recall information, relevant Michigan automaker news, vehicle ratings and comparisons, and everything else auto-related Michigan and world readers need to know.
Background
The modern nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) electric vehicle battery was invented by Dr. Masahiko Oshitani, of the GS Yuasa Corporation, and Stanford Ovshinsky, the founder of the Ovonics Battery Company. The current trend in the industry is towards the development of lithium-ion (Li-Ion) technology to replace NiMH in electric vehicles. Some manufacturers maintain that NiMH batteries are important to the commercialization of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV)s and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) because Li-Ion technology, while functionally superior due to its higher specific energy and specific power, is prohibitively expensive and relatively untested with regards to its long-term reliability.
General Motors and the US Auto Battery Consortium
The Ovonics technology was acquired by General Motors for use in its EV1 electric car, but production was ended shortly after the NiMH batteries began to replace the lead-acid batteries of earlier models
In an interview in the 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?, Ovshinsky stated that in the early 1990s, the auto industry created the US Auto Battery Consortium (USABC) to stifle the development of electric vehicle technology by preventing the dissemination of knowledge about Ovshinky’s battery-related patents to the public through the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
According to Ovshinsky, the auto industry falsely suggested that NiMH technology was not yet ready for widespread use in road cars. Members of the USABC, including General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, threatened to take legal action against Ovshinsky if he continued to promote NiMH’s potential for use in BEVs, and if he continued to lend test batteries to Solectria, a start-up electric vehicle maker that was not part of the USABC. The Big Three car companies argued that his behavior violated their exclusive rights to the battery technology, because they had matched a federal government grant given to Ovonics to develop NiMH technology. Critics argue that the Big Three were more interested in convincing CARB members that electric vehicles were not technologically and commercially viable.
In 1994, General Motors acquired a controlling interest in Ovonics’s battery development and manufacture, including patents controlling the manufacture of large NiMH batteries. The original intent of the equity alliance was to develop NiMH batteries for GM’s EV1 BEV. Sales of GM-Ovonics batteries were later taken over by GM manager and critic of CARB John Williams, leading Ovshinsky to wonder whether his decision to sell to GM had been naive. The EV1 program was shut down by GM before the new NiMH battery could be commercialized, despite field tests that indicated the Ovonics battery extended the EV1′s range to over 150 miles.
Chevron and Cobasys
By 2001, the Ovonics technology was owned by the oil company Chevron.
In 2001, oil company Texaco purchased General Motors’ share in GM Ovonics. Texaco was itself acquired by by rival Chevron several months later. The same year, Ovonics filed a patent infringement suit against Toyota’s battery supplier, Panasonic, that ultimately succeeded in restricting the use of its large format NiMH batteries to certain transportation uses. In 2003, Texaco Ovonics Battery Systems was restructured into Cobasys, a 50/50 joint venture between ChevronTexaco and Ovonics, now known as Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) Ovonics. Chevron’s influence over Cobasys extends beyond a strict 50/50 joint venture. Chevron held a 19.99% interest in ECD Ovonics as of a public filing made January 15, 2003. In a later filing on May 17, 2005, Energy Conversion Devices announced that they had exercised an option to purchase back 4,376,633 shares of stock from a Chevron subsidiary, and would cancel and return them to authorized-unissued status. This is the exact number of shares that was listed as owned by ChevronTexaco in the January 15, 2003 filing.
ChevronTexaco also maintained veto power over any sale or licensing of NiMH technology. In addition, ChevronTexaco maintained the right to seize all of Cobasys’ intellectual property rights in the event that ECD Ovonics did not fulfill its contractual obligations. On September 10, 2007, ChevronTexaco (now know as simply “Chevron”) filed a legal claim that ECD Ovonics had not fulfilled its obligations. ECD Ovonics disputed this claim. The arbitration hearing was repeatedly suspended while the parties negotiated with General Motors over the sale of Cobasys back to GM. As of March 2008, no agreement had been reached with GM.
Cobasys contracts demonstrated that the company was willing to sell smaller NiMH batteries (less than 10 amp-hours) for use with hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). For instance, in March 2007, GM announced that it would use Cobasys NiMH batteries in the model year 2008 Chevrolet Malibu hybrid. Toyota uses NiMH batteries in all of its HEV models. However, Cobasys’ sales policies raised questions about its willingness to sell larger format batteries for use in EVs and PHEVs.
In her 2007 book Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, Sherry Boschert argues that large-format NiMH batteries (i.e., 25 amp-hours or more) are commercially viable but that Cobasys would only accept very large orders (more than 10,000) for these batteries. The effect is that this policy precludes small companies and individuals from buying them. It also precludes larger auto manufacturers from developing test fleets of new PHEV and EV designs. Toyota employees complained about the difficulty in getting smaller orders of large format NiMH batteries to service the existing 825 RAV4 EVs. Since no other companies were willing to make large orders, Cobasys was not manufacturing nor licensing any large format NiMH battery technology for automotive purposes. Boschert quotes Dave Goldstein, president of the Electric Vehicle Association of Washington D.C., as saying this policy is necessary because the cost of setting up a multimillion dollar battery assembly line could not be justified without guaranteed orders of 100,000 batteries (~12,000 EVs) per year for 3 years. Boschert concludes that, “it’s possible that Cobasys (Chevron) is squelching all access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses in order to remove a competitor to gasoline. Or it’s possible that Cobasys simply wants the market for itself and is waiting for a major automaker to start producing plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles.”
In an interview with The Economist, Ovshinsky subscribed to the former view. “I think we at ECD made a mistake of having a joint venture with an oil company, frankly speaking. And I think it’s not a good idea to go into business with somebody whose strategies would put you out of business, rather than building the business.” In the same interview, however, when asked, “So it your opinion that Cobasys is preventing other people from making it for that reason?”, he responded, “Cobasys is not preventing anybody. Cobasys just needs an infusion of cash.”
Critics also argue that historical evidence demonstrates the willingness of the oil industry to engage in such anti-competitive behavior. In 1949, the U.S. Supreme Court found Chevron (then known as Standard Oil of California) guilty of conspiring to buy and dismantle the Los Angeles electric street car system, in what became known as the Great American streetcar scandal. In an effort to prevent the passage of California’s zero emission mandates in late 1993 and early 1994, oil companies also funded a series of ads that questioned the viability of electric vehicles.
Cobasys’ problems with other potential customers also raised questions about the company’s sales policies. In October 2007, International Acquisitions Services, Inc. and Innovative Transportation Systems AG filed suit against Cobasys and its parents for refusing to fill a large, previously agreed-upon order for large-format NiMH batteries to be used in the Innovan electric vehicle. In August 2008, Mercedes-Benz sued Cobasys for again refusing to fill a large, previously agreed-upon order for NiMH batteries.
Current status of the Ovonics battery technology
Multiple companies have tried to develop NiMH battery technology without making use of Ovonics’ patents. Electro Energy Inc., working with CalCars, converted a Toyota Prius from a hybrid electric vehicle to a PHEV using its own bipolar NiMH batteries. Plug-In Conversions uses Nilar NiMH batteries and the EAA-PHEV open source control system in its Prius PHEV conversions. These organizations maintain that these developments are allowable because their NiMH battery technologies are not covered by Cobasys’ patents. However, these batteries did not become commercially available until late 2007. The technical capabilities of current bipolar NiMH technology are also significantly more limited than those of the ECD Ovonics technology. For example, the operating temperature range for ECD Ovonics NiMH batteries, an important consideration for their use in consumer road vehicles, is -30 to 70 degrees celsius, while the operating temperature range for Nilar’s bipolar batteries is a more limited -6 to 52 degrees celsius.
On July 28, 2009, Automotive News reported that Cobasys would be bought from Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices by battery maker SB LiMotive, a joint venture of Bosch and Samsung. At the time of the 2009 Cobasys sale, control of NiMH battery technology transferred back to ECD Ovonics. In October 2009, ECD Ovonics announced that their next-generation NiMH batteries will provide specific energy and power that are comparable to those of lithium ion batteries at a cost that is significantly lower than the cost of lithium ion batteries. It is unclear whether ECD Ovonics will continue to adhere to Cobasys’ prohibitive minimum order sales policy.[citation needed]
References
^ a b Boschert, Sherry (2007-02-01). Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers. ISBN: 9780865715714. http://www.newsociety.com/bookid/3934.
^ “5 Things You Need to Know About Nickel-Metal-Hybrid Batteries”. 2008-03-07. http://www.greencar.com/articles/5-things-need-nickel-metal-hybrid-batteries.php. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aI7Ov7Jyo2nU
^ a b c d e Shnayerson, Michael (1996-08-27). The Car That Could: The Inside Story of GM Revolutionary Electric Vehicle. Random House. pp. 194-207. ISBN: 978-0679421054.
^ Coker, M. (2003-05-15). “Dude, Wheres My Electric Car!?!”. Orange County Weekly. http://www.ocweekly.com/2003-05-15/features/dude-where-s-my-electric-car/4. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ “US SEC Form 8-K, Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.”. 2004-07-07. http://www.ovonic.com/PDFs/Financial_Reports/form_8k/8k_mbi_patent_infringe_settlement_7july04.pdf. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
^ Roberson, J. (2007-03-14). “Supplier Cobasys Exploring More Hybrid Batteries”. Detroit Free Press. http://www.oesa.org/publications/articledetail.php?articleId=6398. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ “ECD Ovonics Definitive Proxy Statement”. 2003-01-15. http://investor.shareholder.com/ovonics/secfiling.cfm?filingID=32878-03-4. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ “ENERGY CONVERSION DEVICES, INC. Form 8K Current Report”. 2005-05-17. http://investor.shareholder.com/ovonics/secfiling.cfm?filingID=32878-05-58. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ a b “ECD Ovonics Amended General Statement of Beneficial Ownership”. 2004-12-02. http://investor.shareholder.com/ovonics/secfiling.cfm?filingID=950134-04-18744. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ “ECD Ovonics 10-Q Quarterly Report for the period ending September 30, 2007″. 2007-09-30. http://investor.shareholder.com/ovonics/secfiling.cfm?filingID=32878-07-93. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ a b “ECD Ovonics 10-Q Quarterly Report for the period ending March 31, 2008″. 2008-03-31. http://investor.shareholder.com/ovonics/secfiling.cfm?filingID=32878-08-30. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ http://www.cobasys.com/news/20070313.shtml
^ Greenberg J. (2008-10-14). “The Edison of our Age: Stan Ovshinsky and the Future of Energy [Video Interview Part 1"]. The Energy Roadmap. http://www.theenergyroadmap.com/futureblogger/show/1030-stanford-ovshinsky-and-the-future-of-energy-interview-part-1. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ Hicks, Robert Eldridge (1973) Politics of land: Ralph Nader’s study group report on land use in California, pp. 410412, 488. Compiled by Robert C. Fellmeth, Center for Study of Responsive Law. Grossman Publishers.
^ http://wot.motortrend.com/6278400/auto-news/mercedes-sues-cobasys-battery-supplier-ml450-hybrid-suv-delayed/index.html
^ CalCars news “Electro Energy announces CalCars project”. 2005-10-20. http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/175.html CalCars news. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ Sebastian Blanco (2007-12-11). “EVS23: Kim Adelman’s Plug-in Prius with Nilar nickel-metal hydride batteries”. autobloggreen. http://green.autoblog.com/2007/12/11/evs23-ken-adelmans-plug-in-prius-with-nilar-nickel-metal-hydri/. Retrieved 2009-11-18.
^ http://www.ovonic.com/PDFs/ovonic-materials/Ovonic-Fetcenko-2008-Wolsky-Seminar.pdf
^ http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1403
^ “Battery venture buys Cobasys”. 2009-07-28. http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10296368-48.html. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
^ Michael Fetcenko (2009-10-01). “Ovonic NiMH trong Now, Room for Growth”. Ovonic. http://www.ovonics.com/PDFs/Batteries2009OctoberNiceConference.pdf. Retrieved 2009-11-18.
^ http://www.ovonics.com/PDFs/Batteries2009OctoberNiceConference.pdf
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