Finally, a diesel hybrid!

XL 1 looking bad-assed. Photo via Daily Mail.

And, one that looks very cool to boot.

Volkswagen has just thrown the gauntlet down in Toyota's face with the XL 1. It claims this baby can get up to 313 miles per gallon, and it will have production models by the end of this year.

A few more specs on this baby:

It can also cover a distance of up to 31 miles (50km) in all-electric mode where it emits zero carbon dioxide.

Overall emissions are a mere 21g/km - less than a quarter of the amount produced by the ultra-green Toyota Prius.

So, there you go!

Now, it's just producing 50 production models for now, and prices have not yet been released. But, still, this is something whose time has come, at least for Europe, with fuel prices around $10 per gallon. It's also given Toyota a design challenge.

Sure, 50 cars isn't quite mass-market, but Japan doesn't do diesels. Until Ford changes its stubborn refusal to bring a prototype diesel-hybrid to market (and yes, it has one) then, we have to rely on VW or another Euro company to do the lifting. 

Toyota ready to kick butt with new hybrids

A visitor looks at Toyota Motor Corp's Prius hybrid car
at the Toyota Motor Corp showroom in Tokyo in this
August 2010 file photo. (Reuters/Christian Science Monitor)

Even as GM is dropping more hybrids, except for the very-costly-to-build Chevy Volt, to which it's chained its future like a lead anchor, Toyota is ready to kick some fuel economy butt.

It has announced it's rolling out 21 new hybrids. No, that's not a typo. Even the base-level Scion division of the company looks like it's going to get at least one hybrid. And, not some long distance away, but in 2015.

And, since Toyota, on moderate volumes, is now profitable on the Prius, the story is right on that aspect. Profit margins may be smaller, in general, but with enough volume, these new hybrids will be profitable soon enough.

The New York Times, on its Wheels blog, notes that Honda is also going to expand its hybrid offerings.

Now, as Ford has moderate hybrid offerings, GM has pledged to basically have none, and Chrysler has none now, with no real word of future developments, will the formerly Big Three do what Ford did with its hybrid Escape and buy hybrid technology from Toyota (or Honda) for licensing? And, with EPA fuel economy requirements set to hit 54.5 mpg by 2025 (ignoring the various loopholes in there, such as for flex-fuel vehicles), will Toyota or Honda be willing sellers?

Volt doesn't make a lot of sense

That's the word of Consumer Reports, which notes that the model it bought for testing, after a $5K GM markup (which eliminates federal tax breaks — way to go, company that's been on the federal dime!) costs twice as much as a Toyota Prius AND, if driven enough to have to switch to its gas motor, can actually get lower mileage.

The Big Three? No, the Dirty Three

Among the top eight automakers, the formerly Big Three are the bottom three on "green" ratings from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Toyota's No. 1, right? Nope, its Priuses can't pull up its entire fleet. Honda is No. 1; Toyota ties with Hyundai - yep, Hyundai - for No. 2. (To be fair, Hyundai sells no pickups.)

Other details are no shock, like Chrysler just making minimum efforts and GM using its light hybrids more to boost horsepower than anything else.

Honda Insight 2.0 a bit below hype

I normally agree with Dallas Morning Snooze auto writer Terry Box about once in a brilliant Republican idea, especially because he seems to have a quasi-paranoid animus against hybrids, but, his Honda Insight 2.0 review looks like it’s dead on the money.

In exchange for making the new version of the Insight cheaper than the Prius 2.0, let alone the Prius 3.0 that’s on its way to the U.S. after a smash opening in Japan, Honda did a couple of things. One, they used a simplified, even dumbed-down version of the full-blown hybrid drive that something like a Prius has. In pre-release hype, Honda claimed it was still something competitive with the Prius in this area. Wrong.

The fact that the Insight 2.0 gets better highway than city gas mileage makes clear this baby isn’t a “full” hybrid at all. Plus, and even worse from a marketing standpoint, Box says from a dead stop, the hybrid system is rough to engage.

And, it gets much of its gas mileage from being more underpowered than the Prius 2.0, let alone the 3.0. Read the full review for details; when it’s time to buy my next vehicle, I’ll look for a used late-generation Prius 2.0 over this.

Prius 3.0 a hit in Japan

In fact, the third generation of Toyota’s hybrid is a waiting list hit, giving the nation an economic boost with overtime work at car plants, battery factories, etc.

Coming now to the U.S. as gas prices continue to meander on the far side of $2.50/gallon, the flying wedge should do well here, too, especially if gas gets back over $3.

Prius 3.0 ready for rollout

It DOES get 50mpg per official EPA estimate. And can easily get 70mpg in town if you practice pulse and glide.

Also, being built on a Camry frame, stretched slightly and other things, it’s supposed to be a better ride than the second-gen Prius.

Prices? Not officially announced yet, but allegedly targeted to start at less than $23K. Stand by in May.

Move over, Prius

That beep-beep you hear in your rearview mirror is the new Honda Insight 2.0 blurring past you in Japanese auto sales. The new Insight, due for American sales rollout Tuesday, could well do the same here.

It’s priced less than $20K, below the current Prius 2.0 and surely below whatever Prius 3.0 will hit market at. Honda does this by simplifying its hybrid drive, vis-à-vis the Prius, and by building the new Insight as essentially a Honda vehicle, and not something new from the ground up.

That said, the simpler technology sacrifices about 2mpg on the highway to the Prius 2.0 and about 4, it’s expected, to Prius 3.0. it will also give up room to the third-gen Prius.

BUT, gas prices are low enough right now a couple of mpg within the hybrid world won’t matter for the price tag.

Toyota knows that, itself, and is supposedly bringing out a lower-priced hybrid in response.

Meanwhile, both companies continue work on lithium-ion batteries.

And the Chevy Volt? Maybe it will stick its nose out of a garage sometime before the end of the year, see its shadow,and go into permanent hibernation.

I agree with the analysis part of the story. All-electric cars are probably as dead as a doorknob for the foreseeable future. Once again, GM will strike out.

And not just GM. Euro carmakers are also way behind the curve on hybrids. Honda has done more look at passenger diesels than has Toyota. If it can drop a diesel Insight on Germany, boom, it gets a definite Euro foothold.

Toyota officially unveils the new Prius

Calling it important at the North American International Auto Show, Toyota officially unveiled Prius 3.0 at the Detroit auto show today. As blogged here before, it’s as expected – slightly larger, bigger tires, tighter front suspension, a few more ponies at 134, and yes, 50mpg.

Prius 3.0 spotted!

Read all the basics about the third generation of the Toyota Prius. Click the Prius tag on this blog for several previous posts about the new Prius, including how Toyota says it will have more room, more horses AND better MPG than the current version.

And Toyota has an official Prius 3 website now up.

Dallas Morning News autowriter now GM fluffer

In the Sunday business section of The (Fast Hemorrhaging) Dallas Morning News, auto writer Terry Box goes into full fluff mode about GM’s 100th anniversary, coming up on Tuesday, and the tie-in with GM’s plant in Arllington (home of sucker citizens and rich sports team owners).

Among the fluffery from Box, who regularly bashes hybrids as “underpowered” in his Automotive section scrivenings, is this:

In addition, GM offers hybrid versions of several of its SUVs, its full-size pickups and the Malibu. While continuing to develop fuel-cell vehicles — a small fleet of which are already on the road — GM expects to bring the Chevy Volt to market by 2010. The Volt's electric motor can go 40 miles before it needs a recharge from its small on-board auxiliary gas engine.

Beyond fluffing GM for the number of light, and not true, hybrids it builds, Box worships at the ethanol-guzzling god of flex fuels and is, per CCR, “blinded by the Volt.”

That got this response from me:

In the Automotive section, you have no power bashing hybrids for being underpowered. Then, you fluff GM for all the hybrids it builds …

While completing the hypocrisy trifecta for not reporting that most of them are “light” hybrids that don’t offer that great of gas savings, just an investment in, ahem “greenwash,” which seems to have returned a good dividend.

As for Volt? It’s going to get its ass kicked.

First, I think Toyota’s right that most people won’t pay for a plug-in hybrid’s cost.

Second, in case Toyota’s wrong on that count, its plug-in version of the Prius is expected to release before the Volt.

Third, the Honda Insight, version 2.0, will release later this year at $19K

Sayonara, GM.

And, sayonara to the idea of an insightful auto writer.