Yamaha Unveils Sport Ride Concept In Tokyo.

Yamaha has a long and distinguished career in the automotive world. It was an integral part of the Toyota 2000 GT that starred in the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice in 1967. Its prowess at building high revving motors brought it into contact with Ford in the 80’s, when it was tapped to assemble the high performance V-6 engine that first appeared in the Taurus SHO. It has also been involved with Gordon Murray in the Motiv city car that appeared at the Tokyo motor show 2 years ago.

The Motiv used Murray’s proprietary iStream carbon fiber construction, which bonds two thin carbon fiber layers around a honeycomb core. Murray says the result is a strong, lightweight chassis that can be manufactured for far less than the cost of a traditional carbon fiber shell. According to Car And Driver, the Gordon Murray Design iStream is “the first affordable high-volume carbon-fiber chassis structure, bringing Formula 1 materials and technology within reach of the everyday motorist.”

Yamaha says the two seater Sports Ride Concept sports car is “designed to express a driver-machine relationship close in feeling to the world of motorcycle riding.” Gizmag say the concept is approximately the size of a Mazda Miata but weighs a scant 1,653 pounds. That’s about 900 pounds less that Mazda’s popular roadster. Powered by any number of zippy Yahama motorcycle engines, the Sports Ride Concept could offer scintillating handling designed to excite the passions of any driver who is not a ham fisted amateur.

Yamaha has declined to give any details about what engine it has in mind for the car or whether it even intends to produce it. Often, auto shows are used to gauge reaction from the public and members of the press before proceeding to examine whether a business case can be made for putting a car into production. Concept cars are also used to showcase a company’s talents. Sometimes there is more money to be made being a specialty supply house than in building an entire car yourself.

In this case, enthusiasts are hoping this car gets built no matter who takes credit for manufacturing it. To paraphrase a line from a famous movie, “If you build it, they will come!”

Gordon Murray Design iStream carbon fiber chassis via Gizmag.

Chevy Bolt: GM Commits to 50 State Rollout

There’s been a lot of speculation about the upcoming Chevy Bolt electric car in recent days, with various predictions being made about the eventual launch of the long-range electric car. While it’s perhaps hard to make solid predictions while we’re still this far out from launch, the Manager of New Product and Public Policy Communications at GM, Shad Balch, made some comments at the recent 2015 AltCar Expo in Santa Monica that may help in that regard.

The GM manager noted that the new electric vehicle (EV) was essentially being fast-tracked by the company following the positive response received at the Detroit Auto Show, and that the company was “committed” to rolling it out in all 50 states all at once at the the time of launch — the aim being for the Bolt to be a high sales volume car for the company.

“GM leadership has essentially fast-tracked this car into production. It’s very safe to assume that this car is going to be here sooner rather than later,” stated Balch. “We’ve also committed that it’s going to be a 50-state vehicle at launch. That’s to show our commitment to the technology. Our hope is that it becomes a high-volume-selling car, and that it’s not just for the coasts, it’s not just for a certain income level, but it is a long-range EV that anybody can get themselves into. … (This is) a good alternative to the luxury long-range EVs that are available now. It’s something that people can see themselves actually affording to get into. That’s the message from this car.”

With GM’s access to the federal tax credit for EVs (following 200,000 in cumulative EV sales) likely to be ending sometime around the time of the Bolt launch, there are some questions being asked about the model’s affordability, sensibly. As it stands, the Chevy Bolt is expected to retail for around $30,000 after the $7,500 federal tax credit (this is before state-based EV rebates). Presuming that the company does indeed lose access to the credit, will the Bolt be able to compete with models that are still receiving the tax credit?

Balch noted: “Well, we would sell fewer cars,” he said. “It’s pure and simple. … We need the incentives to remain. We know that they’re critical. Unlike any of the other car companies, we have data that shows that, because when the Volt first came out, it didn’t qualify for (California state) incentives. When it did qualify on top of the federal incentive with the state incentive, we sold five times as many.”

Autoblog provided some more on that:

Balch said that GM is working with regulators and policy makers to show them this data and is making the case that the incentives need to be extended and maybe expanded. Having a point-of-sale cost reduction instead of a tax rebate would help too, he said. “It’s very difficult to keep everybody up to speed and for dealers to even know what the incentives currently are. It ebbs and flows. I mean here in California, we’ve had to have our dealers get up to speed on IOUs from the state, to all of the sudden, the cash is back so we can give you a rebate check here. We need continuity. We need a consistent policy to incentivize these cars to be purchased, at the volume and at the level that will help us sell and meet (the efficiency) standards. Because what we do know, and what we’re hearing from the regulators is that they would agree that this needs to be a market-based approach.”

As noted by “Steverino” on the GM-Volt forum, though, it should be noted that access to the federal tax credit doesn’t cease immediately following the passing of the 200,000-vehicle mark. Rather, it is phased out over the course of the year following the milestone.

October 2015 EV Sales In US Salvaged By New Chevrolet Volt

Next Generation Chevrolet Volt Saves The Day In October

Sales of electric vehicles in the United States for October came in at just under 10,000 units (~9,943) – about equal to September’s result, and also a year ago’s sales level.

However, there was no hiding the disappointment in the lower than expected numbers. The failure of the upgraded 2016 Nissan LEAF and Tesla Model X to launch during the month, coupled with the complete disappearance of the Toyota Prius PHV solidly held the market down.

The one solid bright spot during the month was theChevrolet Volt which sold 2,035 units – more than double September, and 41% better than a year ago.

Behind the Chevy’s numbers was the arrival of the next generation, 2016 model mid-month – which despite only about 2 weeks of sales managed to still sell outsell the 2015 edition – 1,324 to 711. New inventory continues to pour out of GM’s Hamtramck, Michigan facility, so we expect November’s results for the Volt to only improve.

Looking ahead, the 107 mile, 2016 Nissan LEAF is now (finally) on sale, and we expect first deliveries of those car to begin mid-November, while Tesla also confirmed during its 3rd quarter earnings report that the Model X will indeed be delivered in some sort of volume before year’s end; although our own research shows that the earliest date for any first deliveries would be at the very end of November at the earliest.

2015 Monthly Sales Chart For The Major Plug-In Automakers – *Estimated Tesla NA Sales Numbers – Reconciled on Quarterly Totals, ** Fiat Does Not Report Sales Directly, Estimate Based on State/Rebate Data

Other happenings of interest during the month was the resurgence of the Volkswagen e-Golf, despite wider ’emission’ issues of the brand, selling almost 600 copies, a new record high. And also the arrival of the BMW X5 xDrive40e – which makes 4 consecutive months that the US has received a new EV offering after receiving exactly nothing in the first half of the year.

The trend of “what’s new this month” in EVs will continue throughout the rest of the year, as the Audi A3 Sportback e-tron(from $37,900 – details) just landed this week for November, and the Hyundai Sonata PHV (with 27 miles of EPA AER) has been promised by the end of December.

Current PHEV Offerings In US (with EPA range, post federal credit pricing)

Some other Points of Interest from October

Before October’s Balancing Out, The BEV/PHEV Split Favored The All-Electric Vehicles (chart through Sept)

Manufacturers Of Plug-In Vehicles:

1. General Motors – 2,294
2. Tesla* – 1,904
3. Ford – 1,670
4. Nissan – 1,238
5. BMW – 1,135

Pure Electric Car Market Share vs PHEV In October*

1. BEV – ~5,044 – 53%
2. PHEV – ~4,900 – 47%

New 2015 Highs Set In October By Model (previous 2015 high in brackets)

• Chevrolet Volt – 2,035 (1,619)
• Volkswagen e-Golf – 596 (410), new all-time high
• Porsche Cayenne S e-Hybrid – 125 (105), new all-time high
• Mercedes S550 PHV – 25 (17), new all-time high

(*) estimated/Tesla North America