VW Fights the 2025 CAFE Law

Of all companies, it’s Volkswagen (home of the Beetle) that’s fighting the recently acclaimed-by-all-hands 54.5 mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard for 2025. Why? VW makes mostly cars and diesels, and the proposal as loopholed favors trucks and disses diesels.

Surely, VW will sell a lot of fuel-efficient Jettas and Passats with this deal, right? Sure, but it also won't get much credit for the green diesels it produces. I’ve got some respect for VW’s stance here, which reminds us that the process isn’t over just because automakers, regulators and Obama held hands and sang “Kumbiya” at the White House. The actual final number won’t be announced until September, and then there’s a comment period.

VW’s U.S. CEO Jonathan Browning told Ward’s that the company has “a dialogue going with the administration in terms of how we think the policy needs to be adjusted.” Something tells me that other automakers, some of whom (looking at you, Ford) fought down to the wire to get the best possible deal, won’t like the idea of backroom negotiations after everyone agreed to the current loopholes and adjustments.

In a statement, Tony Cervone, a VW vice president, was pugnacious, “Volkswagen does not endorse the proposal under discussion,” he said. “It places an unfairly high burden on passenger cars, while allowing special compliance flexibility for heavier light trucks.

"Passenger cars would be required to achieve five percent annual improvements, and light trucks 3.5 percent annual improvements. The largest trucks carry almost no burden for the 2017-2020 timeframe, and are granted numerous ways to mathematically meet targets in the outlying years without significant real-world gains.”

That’s actually totally true, and it’s the price Obama paid to get a deal with the Big Three. VW is coming at this from the left, claiming that it wants the proposals to be greener, encouraging more diesels and closing truck loopholes. It seems to be calling for all vehicles, including trucks, to make a five percent fuel economy improvement. Those tweaks would totally encourage automakers to produce more hybrids and electrics, since they’d find it harder to reach 54.5 any other way with the loopholes closed.

Some VW models in the U.S. market are 80 percent diesel, and a Passat so-equipped gets 43 mpg. But VW complains that the laws as written offer “no consideration” for offering diesels. That shows how U.S.-centric the CAFE rules are, since European governments (especially France, where they’re 70 percent of the motor pool) bend over backwards to encourage diesels.

It wouldn’t surprise me if some kind of diesel incentive comes out of these smoke-filled-room discussions. But the incentives for the trucks and SUVs, those are going to stay in place. It’s a loophole big enough to drive a gas guzzler through, and that’s just what Detroit is going to do.

There are other things that need reforming as part of CAFE, including the fact that the test procedures date, incredibly, to the 1970s, and actually give cars credit for 25 percent more fuel economy than they actually offer. It's confusing, because the window sticker tests are separate, and actually much better than they used to be. For CAFE, they have cars running at a steady 48 mph (on the highway!) with no stopping and no air conditioning or radio. It's simulated in the lab, so the conditions are even better than that indicates.

The Sierra Club is incensed about the testing procedures, though it may have a hard time getting much traction on the issue. Congress would have to approve any reform, and that's the furthest thing from its collective mind at the moment.

Northwest group convertes cars to electric power

Why should it be any surprise that the nation's biggest club of guys like Al Swackhammer is in the Pacific Northwest?
Visiting his home in Edmonds, with a 220-volt plug hanging from the garage ceiling, he proudly shows off the metal baby that he put together himself.
It's a car that packs 60 lithium-ion batteries that weigh in at 410 pounds total. There are 48 stacked in the back seat and 12 more in the trunk.
It's a gas-to-electricity conversion project that has set him back $23,000.
Sure, these days you can buy yourself the showroom electric $35,270 Nissan Leaf (with a $7,500 tax credit), the $48,700 electric-gas hybrid Chevy Volt or the $100,000-plus Tesla. Not for guys like Swackhammer.
For decades, they personally have put together all kinds of electric moving vehicles — cars, bikes, pickups, tractors.
They've done it by stringing together old-fashioned and heavy lead acid batteries; or by using lighter, but more expensive, lithium-ion ones.
In 2005, they even put electric motors on half a dozen La-Z-Boy recliner chairs and raced them at Pacific Raceways in Kent.
Steve Lough, 67, has seen it all up close for 30 years as president of the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association. The club has 140 members, the largest chapter in the country of the group.
On the first Tuesday of every month, at 7 p.m., some 60 to 80 club members meet at the Seattle First Church of the Nazarene. The church parking lot is right behind the Dick's burger joint in Wallingford, an appropriate place for electric-car buffs as they begin gathering at 6:30 or so to show off their cars.
This area does like technology, Lough says, what with Microsoft and Boeing.
"We love things new and unique," he said.
And they're conservation-minded.
"We want to show our neighbors and the world in general how to get around cleanly on one-fifth the amount of energy or money to move around in a gas-powered vehicle," Lough said. "There are white papers out there that show that making those batteries in no way compares to what has happened to our environment with fossil fuels over the last 100 years."
Being at the forefront often means dozens, if not hundreds, of hours tinkering in the garage.
It means ordering and putting in several hundred pounds of stacks of batteries; and often not having a back seat in the vehicle, because, well, all those batteries are occupying that space.
"I've lived, breathed and loathed these things," Swackhammer said of his electric car. "It's a passion."
Hours that he spent on the project?
"I never attempted to count them," said Swackhammer, 60, a hospital maintenance mechanic. "Three full years of working every weekend. My vacation a couple of years."
He finally completed the conversion last year.
Besides the $23,000 that Swackhammer spent on the electrical conversion, he also spent another big chunk — $19,000 — to restore the body of the German-make 1960 Auto Union 1000S that has become his electric car.
He started out as a fan of Audi, the company that absorbed Auto Union, when he lived in Anchorage in the 1980s; he loved how well the cars handled in the elements. He had picked up the skills to restore the body of a car.
But Swackhammer didn't know anything about electric conversion.
"I had to go to the Internet and research it, and find manuals, and blogs from people who had done them," he said.
The finished conversion resulted in a car that, on a full charge of eight hours, could go for 60 miles, reaching speeds of 75 mph on the freeway.
Like just about every electric-car owner, Swackhammer talks about the silence of driving to and from work.
"And I pass by gas stations every night, and I don't have to stop," he said.
Asked again to explain all the time and money he spent, Swackhammer said, "One person at a time. My effort, although it cost me more than it needed to, is going to make a difference. It's a passion knowing that I have made a small contribution to not using fossil fuel. I sleep good at night. I want to leave this world knowing that I tried."
Oh, about the La-Z-Boy recliner chairs that were raced with electric motors.
"You have enough people with disposable income and they do crazy things," Steve Lough said.
He says the electric recliner chairs were doing 60 mph near the finish line. And he says the chairs were safe enough.
"One had roll bars, and they all had seat belts, steering and brakes," Lough said. "I don't think they had directional signals."

Govt set to promote cheaper ‘green’ cars

The government is working on a policy to promote low-cost environmentally-friendly cars.

The “low-cost and green car” policy will be issued in the form of a government regulation, Coordinating Economic Ministry industry and trade chief Edy Putra Irawady said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

“We will continue to deliberate [on the draft regulation] and streamline it with existing programs and policies next week. Hopefully the regulation can be issued in April,” Edy said, as quoted by kompas.com.

Among points to be deliberated, he said, were fiscal and luxury goods sales tax incentives that would likely be provided for the cars to boost their competitiveness in the market.

Reportedly a number of automobile manufacturers had already expressed their interest in the plan.

Annual River Classic Car Show coming to IRSC

Car enthusiasts will want to put their best polish and shine on their custom or classic ride and get ready for the eighth annual River Classic Custom Car Show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 13 on the IRSC Main Campus in Fort Pierce.
Participants in the competition may register between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Admission and parking for the public is free.
Car enthusiasts can enter cars and trucks for competition in 32 categories including: classic, muscle cars, ladies ride, low riders, trucks and the newest green cars category. The event will also include a Sound Challenge from noon to 3 p.m. Those wanting to display their car or truck in a non-juried competition can participate in the Park-n-Shine display with a $15 entry fee. All proceeds from the event go towards funding IRSC Automotive Technology scholarships.
The rain date for the show is March 20. For information on vehicle registration or for a complete list of juried competition categories, visit www.irsc.edu, call 1-866-792-4772 or e-mail acordary@irsc.edu.
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just help to announce it to the world