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Submission + - Automakers meet rules with 'compliance cars' (asme.org)

Submitted by jehan60188
jehan60188 writes: FTA:

Automakers are in the uncomfortable position of building mostly at a loss a class of small electric cars that garner a lot of attention but few sales just to satisfy rules imposed by one state, California.

As a result, they've acquired the name "compliance cars."

They include electric versions of such familiar models as the Chevrolet Spark, Honda Fit and Toyota RAV4.

Most are being produced primarily or solely to meet California's mandate that large automakers sell a percentage of zero-emission cars in order to sell traditional cars in the state. Hybrids and natural gas cars aren't considered good enough, and hydrogen fuel-cell cars are still a ways off, so battery cars are the quickest way to comply.

Though automakers have held splashy unveilings of these electrics, they often are selling by the hundreds in an industry where tens of thousands determine profitability.

Limiting losses on the cars, not making a profit, has become the carmakers' initial goal. The state requires them not just to make but to sell the cars, and that has meant taking losses to bring down sale or lease prices on the relatively pricey cars to move them.

Last month, Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne said his company would limit production of the electric Fiat 500e because it will lose $10,000 on each. "Doing that on a large scale would be masochism to the extreme," he said.

The Fiat 500e, at $32,500 before subsidies, is almost twice the price of the base model of a conventional base Fiat 500, but the company has discount-lease and other plans to add to government subsides and cut the final cost.

Like many of the other such cars, the 500e will be sold only in California when it rolls out this summer.

The California rules apply to automakers that sell at least 60,000 vehicles a year in the state, which means the Detroit makers, plus Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

Analisa Bevan, sustainable-technology chief for California's Air Resources Board, says 10 other states also will adopt California's zero-emission mandate.

Hybrids, CNG cars and clean-burning gas engines don't count. "They don't get us far enough" to meet air quality and climate-change goals like electrics, she says.

The compliance cars stand in contrast to the electric Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model S, which are being promoted nationwide with the goal of commercial success.

Some automakers are trying to straddle the line. Ford says, for instance, that its $39,200 Focus electric is being sold at select dealers in all states except Wyoming and West Virginia. Even at that, Ford sold 566 through April this year, compared with 84,455 conventional Focuses.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.

Comment sounds like someone just wants a kickstarter (Score 0) 96

by jehan60188 (#43247701) Attached to: CS Faculty and Students To Write a Creative Commons C++ Textbook

$5000?!
the great thing about kickstarter is there's no accountability.

You want to get funding to write a C++ book? Start doing some grant writing.

Your school doesn't provide any hosting space? Why can't you put it up there?
Also, there are already tons of online resources for c++. What will make yours unique?

Comment Re:Already exists, its called The Web (Score 1) 96

by jehan60188 (#43247655) Attached to: CS Faculty and Students To Write a Creative Commons C++ Textbook

Agree'd

learning the syntax of a language is easy. the challenge lies in learning concepts like linked lists, or object oriented programming
if you want to do something useful make a 2-page cheat sheet on the language, and then host a website with coding challenges (or just donate to project euler)

Comment what do you want to do? (Score 1) 7

by jehan60188 (#42979447) Attached to: Help me find a new hobby

if you can't think up stuff that you want to do, maybe you should reconsider your desire to get a hobby? i mean, I can think up a dozen things I wish I had time/money to explore!

taking an adult education class, and learn how to cook, dance, paint, throw clay pots, etc.
learn how to work different tools in a machine shop, then get a part time job (or just rent time) in a machine shop and make cool stuff
learn to sail
take up drinking
start an herb garden

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