You can say what you want about the many proposals to bail out the big three, but I think it’s really bad news that the hard times that have hit Detroit have caused some of the automakers to scale back or cancel some of their more fuel-efficient models. General Motors has delayed the introduction of the new Saturn Vue Hybrid, and Chrysler has discontinued it’s Dodge Durango and Chrysler Apsen Hybrid SUVs. Only Ford seems to be staying the course, with the introduction of its 2010 Hybrid Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan still on schedule. Meanwhile, Toyota is cranking out more and more Priuses, Honda is going ahead with it’s all-new hybrid Prius competitor, and Nissan has announced that it will introduce a new electric vehicle for 2010.

So why is Detroit moving in the exact opposite direction as the Japanese–AGAIN? Why, when the times are hard, do you cancel or delay the very products that have the best chance of leading you out of the wilderness and back to profitability? It’s just more of the same old-fashioned thinking that put Detroit in the hole in the first place.

Along with all the press the last two weeks about the imminent demise of General Motors, Chrysler and possibly Ford, there has also been much written about whether a car like the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, due to go on sale in 2010 for about $40,000 a pop, can save the U.S. auto industry. It’s a fair question to ask, and worthy of a great deal of discussion, but the other day I read a column in the Wall Street Journal that gets the Volt so completely wrong that I have to wonder where this discussion is going. and why.

The columnist, Holman W. Jenkins Jr., writes in his November 12th column, “We’re talking about a headache of a car that will have to be recharged for six hours to give 40 miles of gasoline-free driving. What if you park on the street or in a public garage? Tough luck.” Uh… Mr. Jenkins? The Volt will drive up to 40 miles without using gasoline; that doesn’t mean it’s dead after 40 miles. It means that after 40 miles of driving the gasoline engine kicks in to charge the batteries and keep the car running.

The odd thing is, he seems to know this, because he goes on in the very next sentence to write that “The Volt also will have a small gas engine onboard to recharge the battery for trips of more than 40 miles.” So why does he claim that you would be stuck on the street or a public garage after 40 miles of driving?

This is what irks me about Jenkins’ column. He’s not making a flawed argument based on simple ignorance; he’s making a flawed argument based on a deliberate twisting of the facts. And he’s making it in the Wall Street Journal, where it’s going to influence the thinking of a whole lot of people who could be and should be instrumental in charting our energy future. That’s just a disgrace.

I don’t know if the Chevy Volt can possibly save GM; I don’t know if anything can. But if you’re going to argue that point, Mr. Jenkins, please get your facts straight, and be honest about them.

My last blog entry about the presidential election drew some heated responses, so in this week’s entry I’m going to try to write about something we can all agree on.

Today is Veteran’s Day, and I’d like to thank every man and woman who has ever worn a uniform of the armed forces and served our country, whether in time of peace or war. It’s looking as though many of our troops serving in the Middle East may be coming home within the next two years, and on this Veteran’s Day I’m thinking about what kind of America they’ll be coming home to. There’s no doubt it will be a different country than the one they left; that will be a good thing to many of them, but a difficult adjustment for some. I personally believe that they’ll be coming home to a better place, but it’s up to us to make sure that that’s the case.

One of the reasons we publish Fuel Advantage is to promote the energy security of our country. I’d like to believe that the more we can do to reach that goal, the less we’ll have to ask of our servicemen and women in the future, and the more we can offer them when they return home from their tours of duty.

I know I’m supposed to write about fuel economy issues here, but today is election day and there’s only one thing on my mind! I stopped in to vote in my city’s municipal building at 7:30 this morning, and was gratified to see that the parking lot was full and a steady stream of people was filing in and out of the building. I had to wait in line to vote; not a long line, but in a city of 11,000 even a line of eight people is something unusual.

There are a whole lot of reasons to vote today, but one of the most crucial, in my opinion, is our energy security. I’m proud to say that I voted for Senator Obama, in part because I believe he sees the big picture where energy is concerned. Even in an age of energy scarcity, his energy proposals display a real abundance mentality. Revolutionizing our energy infrastructure and reducing our reliance on oil can and will create jobs and wealth, and Barack Obama sees that. John McCain and Sarah Palin, not so much; “Drill, baby, drill” only increases our reliance on fossil fuels, and takes valuable resources away from the development of alternative energies.

I was only a teenager when the Arab Oil Embargo made the country energy aware, and energy insecure, for the first time, back in 1973, but I knew even then that our country’s response to that crisis seemed suspiciously weak and tentative. We should have learned our lesson then, but we didn’t. Maybe today we will.

What’s your take on things? Which candidate do you think has the better energy policy? Have gas and diesel prices influenced your voting decision?

I try to stay away from technical topics here in the blog, but some tech news that came out yesterday is worth mentioning, because it has a really good chance of showing up in your fleet someday soon. Yesterday, in a live webcast from their Atlanta headquarters, UPS announced the purchase of seven International delivery vans powered by Eaton hydrualic hybrid systems. This is remarkable news for a couple of reasons. First, up until now hydraulic hybrid systems were usually seen in the intense stop-and-go world of refuse collection. Second, up until now hydraulic hybrid systems have been largely designed to store and re-use braking energy.

What’s different about the new systems being rolled out by Eaton & Navistar is that hydraulic pressure is built up by the diersel engine, not by braking activity. To quote Eaton’s press release, “The vehicle uses hydraulic pumps and hydraulic storage tanks to capture and store energy, similar to what is done with electric motors and batteries in a hybrid electric vehicle. In this case, the diesel engine is used to periodically recharge pressure in the hydraulic propulsion system. Fuel economy is increased in three ways: vehicle braking energy is recovered that normally is wasted; the engine is operated more efficiently, and the engine can be shut off when stopped or decelerating.” Like I said, pretty technical, and pretty fascinating.

The really exciting news is that the initial test truck has achieved a fuel economy improvement of between 40 and 50 percent, and a 30 percent reduction in emissions. Multiply those improvements by seven, and you’re talking about making a real difference.

Congratulations to UPS, Navistar and Eaton; we need more of this kind of thinking!

Last week at the meeting of the Hybrid Truck Users’ Forum (HTUF) in South Bend, IN, there was a lot of talk about the fact that current tax incentives for the purchase of hybrid trucks will expire at the end of 2009, and a lot of talk about what to do about it. Fortunately, HTUF has launched a “Hybrid Truck Incentives Working Group” to address the situation. Unfortunately, they are tackling a very difficult task and have very little time to work with.

The Environmental Protection Act (EPAct) of 2005 established a $6,000 tax credit for the purchase of a Class-6 hybrid and $12,000 for the purchase of a Class-7 hybrid. While this doesn’t even come close to covering the incremental cost of a hybrid work truck compared to a gasoline- or diesel-powered equivalent, it has been instrumental in getting hybrid trucks into the hands of many fleets around the country. The number of fleets taking advantage of this incentive might have been higher, except for the fact that the IRS took so long to communicate to fleets how they could qualify for the credit that 18 months were lost. Now, with the credits due to expire in a little over a year, many more fleets could miss out.

One of the priorities of the new Incentives Working Group, therefore, is to launch an effort to get the tax credits extended 2012. The group has convinced a number of U.S. Senators to sponsor an extension of the credits, but time is short. I’d like to think that extending the credits is a no-brainer for Congress, but since members of Congress often act as though they have no brains, I’m not confident that the “extender” will pass in time to keep the momentum in the hybrid work truck market going, and that would be a devastating blow to this growing segment of the industry.

We’re making some changes to Fuel Advantage Magazine, and we want you to be part of the process. You may have noticed that our regular Winter issue hasn’t come out in October as it usually does; we are instead mailing it out in December, and going back to both a print version and a digital version.

Because the alternative fuel & vehicle market is changing so dramatically, we are refocusing our editorial content in coming issues on the topics that are having the greatest impact on the transportation industry today. In the coming year, we’ll be looking into the resurgence of natural gas vehicles, the latest anti-idling regulations, strategies for getting the best mpg out of hybrid vehicles, new innovations in cab heating & cooling, and much, much more.

We think we have a pretty good handle on the issues that matter in this industry, but we also want to hear what you’re thinking about! You’re the ones with the headaches and the budget woes; what issues do you want to learn more about on our pages? How can we make your work a little easier? Write to me at editor@fleetmag.com and tell me what you want to see in Fuel Advantage!

As soon as I got the invitation from Isuzu Trucks I was intrigued… The company was asking me to fly to Japan to take part in a fuel economy program, and I couldn’t say no. Whatever this initiative was, it had to be pretty spectacular if they were willing to fly me to Japan!

As it turns out, visiting Japan was spectacular (and the sushi was fantastic), but the Isuzu Fuel Economy Challenge was simplicity itself… which was actually the point. What Isuzu wanted to demonstrate to me and the other American journalists in attendance was that you can use very simple driving techniques to dramatically improve your fuel economy. Each of us took two spins around the Isuzu test track in manual-transmission Isuzu Class-5 ELF (N-Series in the USA) box trucks. The first time out we drove the way we would normally drive; the second time we used the driving techniques that Isuzu taught us to improve our mileage.

Our new & improved driving behaviors included: light acceleration, upshifting at 1400-1700 rpms, maintaining a lower top speed, staying in the top gear as much as possible, gentle braking, and proper use of the engine brake. Amazingly, all 15 drivers saw a remarkable increase in fuel economy between the two runs. My personal mileage improved 26.8 percent, with a final mpg of 17.39, but the biggest improvement was nearly 60 percent, and the top mileage was over 22 mpg! Sure, it wasn’t “real world,” but, hey, if amateur drivers can show such impressive results on a test track, there’s no reason why professional drivers couldn’t wring more mileage out of their trucks by changing their behaviors.

Hats off to Isuzu Trucks for making fuel economy such a simple matter, and for proving that you don’t have to invest a fortune in new equipment or technology to improve your fleet’s mpg. Domo arigato, Isuzu-san!

Do you need to green your fleet, but you’re not sure how to start? Have I got news for you. This Friday, October 3rd, is the date of Odyssey Day 2008, a nationwide alternative fuels education and information event. If you know you need to make changes in your fleet fueling strategy but don’t where to get answers, this event is for you.

At 88 different sites throughout the country, Odyssey Day events will bring together alternative fuel experts, educators, trainers and end-users to share their knowledge and advice with the public. Interested in biodiesel? Curious about ethanol? Wondering about natural gas? Chances are, there will be someone at an Odyssey Day event near you who will be able to tell you what you need to know.

This is the fourth Odyssey Day (the event is put on every two years by the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium), and this year’s event promises the previous three in the number of host sites and the number of participants. To find out if there’s an event close to you, go to http://www.nationalafvdayodyssey.org/ and click on the map (Note that, although Odyssey Day is officially Friday, October 3rd, some sites are holding events earlier or later in the week).

I can’t say enough good things about this program and the people who run it. I urge you to go to an Odyssey Day event, learn all you can, and then get back to work and start making changes! Oh, and come back to this blog and tell us what you learned!

From the very start of Fuel Advantage magazine back in 2005, we’ve believed that fleets needed to take a closer look at what they can do to achieve better fuel economy with the resources they have on-hand. For instance, if you can’t afford to install APUs on your trucks, maybe you can start saving fuel by lowering your fleet speed limit, or teaching your drivers more fuel-efficient driving behaviors. The point is, you don’t always have to make a major investment or raically change the way you operate to realize new efficiencies.

That’s why I’m encouraged to see that Ford is now going to offer a “Superior Fuel Economy,” “or SFE,” version of its new 2009 F-150 pickup truck. According to the Detroit News, the F-150 SFE “incorporates low-rolling resistant tires, a six-speed transmission, rear axle improvements and other technology upgrades to reach 15 mpg in the city and 21 mpg on the highway for the V-8 pickup.”

Of course it’s not a new idea (does anyone remember when Ford brought out special high-mileage “mpg” models of the Pinto, Maverick and Mustang II models in response to the 1973 Arab oil embargo?), but it’s a sign that the vehicle OEMs are now taking a kitchen sink approach to improving fuel economy: new, fuel-efficient models are still months or years away, so what can we do with what we’ve got now? I hope the new SFE F-150 is a sign of more good things to come.