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Honda, SolarCity expand sun-powered partnership with new $50 million fund

It must be solar-power announcement time. The DOE is ready to throw $25 million at concentrating solar power and New York State just announced $94 million for solar projects. At the broadly green-minded South By Southwest Eco festival in Austin, TX this week, Honda announced an expansion of its work with SolarCity to include a new fund that could finance up to $50 million in solar projects for dealerships and homes. Well, the homes of people who have purchased a Honda or Acura vehicle, at least. Stop us if this all sounds familiar. Honda and SolarCity announced back in early 2013 that they would work together on a $65-million fund to partially subsidize the installation of solar-panels at Honda dealers and on homes of Honda and Acura drivers. The new $50 million will be used to pay for not only the equipment but also the installation, which means that if you can get access to the money, you're looking at a pretty sweet 20-year lease deal to get solar energy for your home and could make it a bit more like the Honda Smart Home in Davis, CA (pictured). How sweet a deal? Well, there's zero down payment required and a 3-kW system starts could cost you just $25 a month, according to the fine print. Rates will vary, for sure, but if that sounds like something you're interested in, check out the Honda SolarCity site. The new fund builds on the previous work that, the two companies say, created enough solar capacity to offset "more than 400 million pounds of CO2 over a 30-year lifecycle." There's more in the press release below. SolarCity and Honda Announce $50 Million Commitment to Provide Solar Power to Honda and Acura Customers and Dealerships SAN MATEO and TORRANCE, Calif., Oct. 8, 2014 – Today, at the SXSW Eco conference in Austin, TX, SolarCity® (Nasdaq: SCTY) and Honda have renewed their partnership with a new fund expected to finance $50 million in solar projects. The new commitment will make solar power more affordable and available to Honda and Acura customers and dealerships in the U.S. The companies have completed or initiated a range of solar projects for homeowners, dealerships and corporate facilities that total more than 12.5 MW of solar generation capacity. The two companies have already brought enough solar capacity online to offset more than 400 million pounds of CO2 over a 30-year lifecycle . The $50 million fund is a follow-up to a $65 million fund the companies created in 2013.

Honda's hot new Civic Type R finally hatches in production form [w/video] [UPDATE]

UPDATE: A previous version of this article incorrectly indicated that the vehicle in question is the most powerful hot hatch ever made. As some commenters pointed out, the Ford Focus RS500 was more powerful by some 40 horsepower. We've updated the text below accordingly. Takanobu Ito may be stepping down as president and CEO of Honda, but as far as performance machinery is concerned, he'll be leaving the company in good shape. Not only has he ushered Honda back into Formula One – reviving the legendary partnership with McLaren – but he's also brought back two performance icons: the NSX and the Civic Type R. The former is making its European debut here at the Geneva Motor Show after its premier in Detroit, but alongside it we're seeing for the first time the production version of the latter. Not that it's exactly our first look at the new hot hatch. We've seen it testing, seen a couple of concept versions and even drove an early prototype. But after that whole lengthy process, it's finally here. (Or there, we should say, because it won't be coming to America. At least not in its current form.) What we're looking at, according to the manufacturer, is not only the fastest and most powerful front-drive hot hatch it's ever made, but on the market altogether. It packs a 2.0-liter VTEC turbo four kicking out 306 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque – the most powerful production engine the company has ever offered – said to be enough to propel the new Civic Type R to 62 in 5.7 seconds and on to a top speed of 167 miles per hour. That's a whole lot of muscle to channel to the front wheels, but Honda's surely done its best to keep it all under control. It's got an old-school six-speed manual transmission, electric power steering, 19-inch wheels, Brembo brakes, adaptive dampers and a suspension designed to combat torque steer and tuned to enhance high-speed stability and support hard cornering. In addition to extensive testing at locations including the Nurburgring, Suzuka and the company's own Takasu test track, the new Civic Type R has also undergone considerable CFD and wind tunnel testing to tune the aerodynamics. The resulting appendages may be toned down slightly from the concepts, but still make quite a visual impact – to say nothing of generating much-needed downforce to keep this sucker glued to the road or track.

Foreign automakers pay from $38 to $65 per hour to non-union workers

As leaders for the United Auto Workers gather in Detroit for their Special Convention on Collective Bargaining to work out the negotiating stance for this year's new labor agreements with the Detroit 3 automakers, what they most want to do is figure out how to eliminate the two-tier wage scale. However, the lower Tier 2 wage has allowed the domestic automakers to reduce their labor costs, hire more workers, and compete better with their import competition. As it stands, per-hour labor rates including benefits are $58 at General Motors, $57 at Ford, and $48 at Fiat-Chrysler – a reflection of FCA's much greater number of Tier 2 workers. The Center for Automotive Research released a study of labor rates (including benefits) that put numbers to what the imports pay: Mercedes-Benz pays the most, at an average of $65 per hour, Volkswagen pays the least, at $38 per hour, and BMW is just a hair above that at $39 per hour. Among the Detroit competitors, Honda workers earn an average of $49 per hour, at Toyota it's $48 per hour, Nissan is $42 per hour, and Hyundai-Kia pays $41 per hour. The lower import wages are aided by their greater use of temporary workers compared to the domestics. Automotive News says the ten-dollar gap between those foreign camakers and the domestics turns out to about an extra $250 per car in labor, which adds up quickly when you're pumping out many millions of cars. That $250-per-car number is one that, come negotiating time, the Detroit 3 will want to reduce, as the UAW is trying to raise both Tier 1 and Tier 2 wages. Another wrinkle is that the domestic carmakers are considering the wide adoption of a third wage level lower than Tier 2. Some workers who do minor tasks like assembling parts trays kits and battery packs already make less than Tier 2, but the UAW will be quite wary about cementing yet another wage scale at the bottom of the system while it's trying to fight a bigger battle at the top. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req., BloombergImage Credit: AP Photo/Erik Schelzig Earnings/Financials UAW/Unions BMW Chevrolet Fiat Ford GM Honda Hyundai Kia Mercedes-Benz Nissan Toyota Volkswagen labor wages collective bargaining labor costs