Coming to grips with the taxing nature EVs can have on a residential power grid is causing some car companies to explore products more akin to the housing market than the auto industry.

BMW is the latest company to announce special plans and research designed to counteract that burden by rethinking how homes use electricity. The German automaker expects to have a demo home as part of their Mountain View, Calif. technology office, completed by the end of March.

The home is designed to efficiently charge their EV, the ActiveE, which is a variation on their 1-Series while maintaining flexible power consumption to compensate for increased consumption during charging times.

Toyota introduced something similar in October, 2010 called the Toyota Smart Center, which they said would be commercially available in 2015… Do you love your Camry enough to let the same person style both your car and home? In Japan, Nissan built a demo house called Kan-kan-kyo for the same purpose.

As for BMW, they’ve paired up with Tendril, an energy management company that is helping provide data to fully examine how an EV changes household power consumption.

“We’re keen to understand how utilities will gain benefit from a program like this,” Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck said to the New York Times. “The car guys don’t want to have 3,000 relationships with all the different utilities.”

Tuck also said that even a small number of EVs charging at once could actually create demand peaks. While we’re still a long way off from having electric vehicles in every driveway, or even more than a handful per city, it could feasibly create a problem.

The auto industry is not known for sharing ideas between competitors, in fact that behavior routinely rips contracts between car companies to shreds, but keep your eye out for some serious copy cat strategy down the road.

Chevrolet is offering Volt owners a service via their OnStar system and a smartphone app that will show sources of renewable energy. That sort of power is at its peak availability during otherwise off-peak hours, encouraging Volt owners to charge off-peak.

Perhaps a similar service will be available in the future from other companies as well. For now, there are only 700 BMW ActiveEs available by lease, so it seems unlikely that they will actually market streamlined home services any time soon.

GALLERY: BMW ActiveE

[Source: New York Times]

Acura closed the year on a sour sales note with the new year resolution to move on with their brand despite most car companies being on the rebound.

This year, Acura fans and new customers alike can look forward to a refreshed and redesigned Acura, less focused on competing with the luxury segment and more focused on a mid-market segment between what Honda already offers and the premium car market. So why the change?

The Acura MDX only sold 4,588 units this year, down more than 22 percent over last year. Total sales also dropped eight percent, marking a bad year for the brand.

Honda has often been criticized for stepping too closely within their comfort zone with the Acura variations on their cars, as many owners felt like they were driving slightly fancier Civics.

That doesn’t mean the horse is ready for the glue factory just yet, though. Honda has a plan to make Acura more competitive, including a new NSX, set to debut at next week’s North American International Auto Show.

While supercars are nice, they have never sold in high volume and can’t come close to rescuing a lame duck brand. However, writing Acura off as a lame duck, despite comparatively poor sales, is probably rash. The company plans to debut a line of totally redesigned cars starting this spring in an effort to rethink the brand.

“Acura will start off 2012 strong with the debut of three all-new products at the North American International Auto Show. Although we still had low inventory in December, our production levels are now back to normal. With a great line-up of products and all-new ILX and RDX models coming in the spring, 2012 will be a very good year for Acura,” said an Acura representative.

Stay in touch with us next week as we unveil more details about Acura’s new models and their plan for the coming year.

Slow sales by Fiat are causing layoffs for workers in Chrysler‘s Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance Plant in Dundee, Mich., responsible for building the 1.4-liter FIRE engine used in the 500.

The actual numbers behind the layoffs are, however, in dispute. Tom Zimmerman, the plant’s unit chairman for UAW Local 723, said in an interview with Automotive News that more than 25 percent of the plant’s 400 hourly workers were laid off.

Jodi Tinson, a Chrysler spokesperson, said that only 30 people had actually been laid off, and that another 35 were assigned different jobs in the plant.

Regardless of which figure is accurate, there is no denying that Fiat sales failed to meet expectations in the U.S. The company originally projected 50,000 units annually, but had sold less than 32 percent of that by October 31.

Chrysler will unveil the North American version of the Fiat 500 Abarth at this week’s Los Angeles Auto Show, featuring a 160-hp turbocharged version of the 1.4-liter engine.

Gallery: 2012 Fiat 500

[Source: Automotive News]

In recent years, sales of Mitsubishi vehicles have been on a global decline. Some feared that this Japanese automaker could one day be forced to close its doors for good, if demand does not increase.

In recent years, Mitsubishi has been given a lifeline by the PSA group, which owns Peugeot and Citroen. Both of these French companies have made their own versions of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and the Outlander SUV.

Now is the turn of the Outlander Sport to put on some new clothes. For 2012, buyers in Europe will be able to pick up a Peugeot 4008 (pictured) or a Citroen C4 Aircross. Both these French models are identical to the Mitsubishi under the skin, but the skin is radically different, and also quite attractive.

Hopefully this continued partnership with the French will keep Mitsubishi afloat for a long time, so it can work on bringing us the next Evo model.

[Source: Car and Driver]

Gallery: Mitsubishi Outlander

The last two years have been very tough on Toyota. After dealing with safety issues last year, its production took a hit this year due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan earlier this year.

Through thick and thin, Toyota has soldiered on and has managed to retain the title of the world’s number-one automotive brand, according to Interbrand. This global brand value evaluation makes Toyota the most top-rated car brand, and 11th overall in Interbrands annual study.

Interbrand, which is one of the World’s leading branding consultancy service highlighted Toyota’s achievements, despite its internal and external hardships.

Interbrand based their rankings on overall brand value, financial performance, the role of the brand on purchase decisions and the strength of the brand in securing earnings for a company.

Toyota’s ability to adapt to ever changing conditions in an uncertain market also puts it ahead of its competition.

Toyota‘s new styling chief, Dezi Nagaya, wants to abandon the company’s previous conservative design language for a new direction that is “…more dynamic, more masculine, sportier, with a more obvious design theme and a face to represent the company and the brand.”

Nagaya’s challenge comes with creating a unified styling language that can span everything from the Land Cruiser to the Camry to the upcoming Scion FR-S, which will be sold as the Toyota FT-86 in Japan. Nagaya said that Toyota will adjust how aggressive their vehicles look, with volume models sticking to a relatively conservative direction while models like the FT-86 would be much more exciting.

Nagaya was previous responsible for the second generation Toyota Prius and the Lexus L-Finesse design language.

[Source: Automotive News]

It’s only been a mere six months since Japan was devastated by earthquake and tsunami, but on September 13, 2011, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing Executive Vice President Steve St. Angelo proudly announced that all Toyota models in the North American line-up have finally returned to 100 percent production.

Just weeks after the quake hit on March 11, Toyota tentatively forecasted the recovery to take as long as November to complete. St. Angelo remarked, “The recovery is a testament to the dedication and commitment of our North American team members, suppliers and business partners… I have no doubt that our team continues to be focused on building high quality vehicles for our customers.”

Thanks to the quicker than expected recovery, Toyota’s main priority now is to start replenishing dealer inventories by running overtime and weekend shifts for particular plants. Production for the fourth quarter is now estimated at 15% higher than the initial forecast.

BMW has for a fifth straight month, held the top spot in its sales lead over Mercedes-Benz and Lexus, delivering the most luxury models in the U.S. BMW has been able to hold this position thanks to the deliveries of the new 5-Series and X3 SUV. The German automakers U.S sales rose 6.5 percent last month compared with a year earlier, to 20,815. This accomplishment has allowed to automaker to move in closer to being 2011′s top-selling U.S luxury brand. Lexus currently holds that impressive position and has done so for 11 years straight.

Both Mercedes-Benz and Lexus have both dipped in sales but for different reasons. Mercedes-Benz fell 1.9 percent to 18,477 in August but Lexus dropped seven percent to 18,103 due to continuing inventory disruptions caused by the March earthquake and tsunami.

“This has been a very strange August for our industry with both difficult news and unfortunate events — consumer confidence down and an earthquake, hurricane and floods in the Northeast,” Jim O’Donnell, head of BMW of North America, said in a statement.

So far, BMW has increased sales by 12 percent through August to 155,929 and Mercedes-Benz is up 6.1 percent in U.S sales to 148,409. Lexus has dipped 17 percent to 120,652 but the March disaster must be taken into account.

[Source: Automotive News]

“All we know so far is what included in the agency’s statement,” said Toyota spokesman Liu Peng in an interview yesterday. “We are looking into the issue and will try to clarify the facts.”

Automobile ownership is steadily increasing, causing China’s government to increase efforts to control vehicle quality. Collisions have also spiked 36 percent to 3.9 million accidents in 2010, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

[Source: Left Lane News]

The Mazda CX-5 will enter the highly competitive compact crossover segment in the U.S when it debuts in early 2012. The CX-5 prototype was equipped with 165-hp  2.0-liter engine producing 150 lb-ft of torque and is mated to a six-speed manual transmission and the American version will likely use the same setup.

A diesel variant available in the U.S, equipped with a 2.2-liter, twin-turbo direct injection engine. The diesel will produce over 160-hp and about 310 lb-ft of torque.

The CX-5 will compete against the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Volkswagen Tiguan and Kia Sportage. The CX-5 will be 178.7 inches long, making it more than five inches shorter than the CX-7. The 106.3 inch wheelbase also makes it two inches shorter than the CX-7. The diesel will be added to the crossover in 2014 and will make its North American debut at the Los Angeles auto show in November. Mazda has yet to confirm pricing for the U.S market but Mazda reps say that the base model will sell for around $20,000.

GALLERY: 2012 Mazda CX-5

Click here to read AutoGuide’s drive of the new Mazda SkyActiv prototype and see after the jump to watch the video:

Continue Reading…