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Ford CEO Alan Mullaly told Detroit radio station WJR that the company is reconsidering whether to bring its smallest car to the U.S. market. Ford officially introduced the second-generation Ka last week at the Paris Motor Show and up until now has not planned to offer the car in the U.S. The Ka is much smaller than even the Fiesta that will arrive in early 2010. The rising demand for small cars in the U.S. market has prompted Ford to reconsider its marketing plans for the Ka. The Ka is available in Europe with a choice of 1.2L gas or 1.3L diesel engines. If Ford does decide to bring the Ka to the U.S., it likely wouldn't arrive before 2010 or '11 at the earliest. The one thing that could make help the Ka arrive earlier would be if federal regulators grant a waiver to allow automakers to temporarily bring in small cars that don't meet current U.S. regulations until they can be modified. If that were to happen, the Ka could arrive sooner. The diesel Ka with a start stop system is rated at 60.3 mpg (U.S.) in Europe.

[Source: BusinessWeek]

And we're off and crawling through the streets of mid-town Manhattan. After getting waved off by actress/model Molly Sims (who?) and Audi ALMS driver Emanuelle Pirro shortly after 9 a.m. from the Tavern on the Green in Central Park, we're now slowly making our way toward the George Washington bridge to get out of town. This is not exactly the ideal operating environment for a big SUV, or any other motor vehicle for that matter. Driving through Manhattan, you quickly realize why most New Yorkers don't bother getting behind the wheel. The Q7 TDI is remarkably quiet and exhibits no signs of being a diesel. It has none of the characteristic clatter most Americans associate with big truck diesels and actually seems quieter than the gasoline V6. Nonetheless, it's too bad that Audi is launching its U.S. diesel push with the Q7 rather than the A3 and the TT. There are a pair of A3 TDIs on the trip but, like most of the A4s and all the Q5s, they are reserved for European journalists. As I write this we're crossing the George Washington Bridge and making our way to Philadelphia for launch and on to Washington for tonight's stopover.


Our travel and lodging for this media event was provided by the manufacturer.

Just over a month ago at the Detroit Grand Prix weekend, Corsa Motorsports announced its intention compete in the ALMS LMP1 class with a hybrid-powered race car built in England by Zytek. The new car was supposed to debut this weekend at the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta. Unfortunately, earlier this week, the Utah-based team decided that the hybrid system wasn't quite ready for primetime. According to a release on the team's website, they are confident in the safety of the system, but the reliability is still a concern. Therefore, Zytek is continuing to exercise the system on its dynamometers until they are confident that the system can run the full race distance. In the meantime, Corsa, which is moving up from the GT2 class where it has been running a Ferrari F430GT, is running the Zytek chassis with a conventional E10-fueled 4.0L V8. Hopefully, we'll see the hybrid system running at the 2009 season opener at Sebring.

[Source: Corsa Motorsports]

While all of the world's major automakers are continuing to develop alternative fuels and drivetrains, the current economic situation very likely means that a massive move toward non-liquid fueled cars is likely a lot further out that many of you many hope. One look at September auto sales will tell you that the entire industry is in trouble including the seemingly all powerful Toyota. As the financial system continues to struggle and unemployment climbs, people are having a harder time getting car loans as well as mortgages. If people can't afford the cars that are available today, it's hard to imagine how they will be able to afford some of the alternatives that will be much more expensive to build for some time to come. Given the current financial position of many automakers, it's hard to see how they will be able to subsidize the cost of new technologies in any significant volumes. At the Paris Motor Show last week BMW Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer said, "There's too much hype about the electric car." Electric vehicles may make up 5 to 10 percent of new car sales in 2020, "but not more," he said.

If the U.S. economic meltdown hadn't spread to Europe the situation might have been different. With sales dropping in Europe, even companies like Volkswagen and BMW are joining Ford and others in focusing more on shifting to smaller more efficient vehicles that will be affordable rather than building alternatives. It's a vicious circle because until alternatives gain some volume, costs will not come down. But in the current climate few will be able to afford to be the leaders. Thanks to Jonathan for the tip!

[Source: Bloomberg]

The Audi Mileage Marathon that we first told you about a couple of weeks ago kicks off tomorrow morning in Manhattan. A fleet of 23 new diesel-powered Audis including the Q7, Q5, A4 and A3 will leave from Tavern on the Green at 9 am Monday on a two week journey that ends in Los Angelos to demonstrate the capabilities of modern diesels. Nearly 200 international journalists will be taking part in 4 waves that go from New York, to Chicago to Denver to Las Vegas and on to LA. AutoblogGreen and Autoblog will participating all the way. I'll be your narrator for the first week until we Denver. At that point Sebastian Blanco will hop into a car with Damon Lavrinc until they get to Vegas. The final leg will be covered by Jonathan Ramsey and Drew Phillips. In addition to our on-the-road posts, you can also follow along at the Audi Mileage Marathon site where there is a Twitter feed following the participants as they cross the continent. There is also a live map showing our location on the road along with two blogs including one from Audi of America boss Johan de Nysschen. Stay tuned for updates right here as well.


[Source: Audi Mileage Marathon]

The tenth running of the Petit Le Mans took place on Saturday and along with celebrating a decade of the American Le Mans Series it also marked the debut of the ALMS Green Challenge. For those of you that TIVO'ed the race you can come back later. The rest of you can follow the jump to see who won.

[Source: American Le Mans Series]

The first ever season of the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup wrapped up this weekend before the start of the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta. After eight races at tracks around North America since April, Josh Hurley's second place finish in the last race was enough to put him over the top for the series championship. Hurley captured the pole position for the opening race at VIRginia Internation Raceway and then ran consistently enough, including a win at Portland, to accumulate 260 points. Liam Kenney won the Road Atlanta race and finished second in the championship. The championship means Hurley earns $100,000. If Hurley manages to get a professional racing contract within the next six months, Volkswagen will give him another $250,000 toward furthering his racing career.


[Source: Volkswagen]

Honda this week launched its first blog in conjunction with the debut of the new Insight concept in Paris. If Honda's usual practice and the spy photos we've seen are any indication, the concept Insight that is on the show stand right now will be almost identical to the production model coming next spring. While the Insight's profile undoubtedly shares a lot with the Toyota Prius, it also differs in many design details. The Insight has more surface development than the Prius including the belt-line and rocker panel creases that help catch the light and make the look more interesting. The Insight also has a less distinct peak in the roof than the Toyota giving a sleaker look to the green house. The primary elements that are likely to change in going to production are the lights with the concepts fancy clusters giving way to something a little more conventional. You can check video of the Paris reveal and running footage of the Insight after the jump.



[Source: Honda]

Peugeot's Prologue HYmotion4 concept is in many ways the opposite of the same company's RC HYmotion4 concept. The upright crossover style Prologue is a different animal from the sleek four-door coupe. Both vehicles use the same through the road hybrid architecture but flipped front/rear. The Prologue puts the internal combustion engine up front and runs on diesel instead of gasoline with the electric motor going at the back. The diesel puts out 163 hp while the motor is limited to 27 kW. With both the engine and motor running, 221 lb-ft of torque are available to the front wheels while the rears get 148 lb-ft. As with the other HYmotion4 concepts, the vehicle can be propelled by either the engine, motor or both. In rear wheel drive electric only mode, speeds are limited to about 30 mph by the 36 hp output and the use of a nickel metal hydride battery. Nonetheless, the Prologue generates some pretty impressive numbers. The French automaker claims a combined mileage of 52.3 mpg (U.S.) and CO₂ emissions of just 109 g/km. One interesting performance enhancement that Peugeot mentions is the interaction between the transmission and motor. The 6-speed manual gearbox features automated shifting. The electronic controls automatically activates the electric motor during shifts to fill the gap in power flow smoothing out the process.


[Source: Peugeot]

Land Rover vehicles are not renowned for their fuel efficiency, at least not in a good way. Now that the English SUV builder is owned by India's Tata it has to make do without input from Ford and will have to meet future CO₂ emissions limits without averaging with its former parent. As a step in that direction, Land Rover unveiled a new variant of the Freelander 2 (LR2 here in the states) at the Paris Motor Show. The TD4_e version adds a new "Intelligent Start/Stop" system along with an upshift light in the instrument cluster. When the TD4_e replaces the current TD4 next year, it will also get lower rolling resistance tires.

Because of the high compression ratios of diesel engines, they tend to shudder a bit when shutoff abruptly. Land Rover has incorporated some control changes that ramp down the fuel feed and engine speed before shutting off completely allowing for smoother operation. The engine is shutoff when the vehicle stops, the transmission is in neutral and the clutch pedal released. As soon as the driver presses the clutch pedal, the engine restarts. The bottom line is an eight percent improvement in fuel efficiency from 31.4 mpg to 34.6 mpg (U.S.). Since no Land Rovers are available with diesel engines in North America, we probably won't see the TD4_e anytime soon.


[Source: Land Rover]