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Toyota, Ford not interested in FCA merger

Sergio Marchionne will preach the benefits of mergers to anyone who'll listen, but his calls for industry consolidation may be falling on deaf ears. At least, that is, the ears of those who the Fiat Chrysler chief would most like to bend. Not only is General Motors uninterested, but according to The Detroit News, neither are Toyota or Ford. "It's something we would not be interested in," said Toyota's North American chief Jim Lentz, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Toyota Technical Center. "At 10 million (vehicles) we have enough scale right now to do what we need to do. There really would be no advantage for us." Toyota isn't the only one unenthused by the prospect of merging with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The Detroit News also reports that Ford, though it may yet to have been approached by Marchionne, wouldn't be interested either. "We're not a suitor for FCA," said Ford CFO Bob Shanks. "We don't see that type of opportunity as one that applies to us." With GM, Toyota, and Ford expressing disinterest in Marchionne's merger idea, the FCA chief will likely start looking elsewhere – or look for other ways to compel his primary candidate to reconsider. He may eventually find a partner – more likely in the Far East or within Europe – but it may not take the form of the major player Sergio has hoped for. News Source: The Detroit NewsImage Credit: Bill Pugliano/Getty Chrysler Fiat Ford Toyota Sergio Marchionne FCA merger fiat chrysler automobiles

In Jamaica, it's not easy to sell or buy hybrid cars

Jamaica's mellow reputation and Rasta vibe contributes to an international reputation of an island nation that moves at a leisurely pace. And the term "leisurely" certainly applies to the rate of sales of hybrids there. And we thought Mitsubishi i sales in the US have been slow. The country's Toyota dealership is still in the process of explaining hybrid technology to many of its prospective customers, with the widespread perception remains that a standard Toyota Prius needs to be plugged in for electrical charging, the Jamaica Gleaner reports. Because of such slow exposure, Toyota has only sold about 10 hybrids in Jamaica since the Japanese automaker started selling them there in 2010. And we thought Mitsubishi i sales in the US have been slow. Toyota dealers in Jamaica continue to tout hybrid technology that can boost fuel economy by about 30 percent but are going up against the fact that Toyota's hybrids now need to be pre-ordered and aren't kept in stock because of sluggish demand. There's also the fact that Toyota's Japanese operations insist on an approval process that ensures the hybrids sent there can handle Jamaica's road conditions, and it typically takes three to four months for a Prius to get to Jamaica once ordered. Island locales provide a curious dichotomy for advanced-powertrain vehicles. On one hand, the driving distances tend to be relatively small, lengthening the amount of time it takes to pay back the original cost premium. On the flip side, importing fuel to islands makes gas prices skyrocket and can prove costly for the economy in island nations. Late last year, for instance, the government of another Caribbean nation, Barbados, estimated it spends about $250 million a year on gas used for personal vehicles. That's why the government there is pushing for more electric-vehicle adoption, though the number of EVs on the island was in the low double-digits as of mid-2013.

EPA says automakers ahead of schedule for 54.5 MPG by 2025

Remember, the target is 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Today, the CAFE level is a little over 30. How we get from here to there is something the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is monitoring closely. Thus, the EPA just released an annual flash report on how the auto industry is progressing towards meeting the nation's fuel economy goals. Overall, the industry is doing almost 10 grams per mile (equivalent) better than the rules require. The good news is that the industry is a bit ahead of schedule. In the report (see page iii), the EPA breaks things down by automaker based only on MY12 numbers. Tesla is at the top of the list (which is ranked by over-compliance with 2012MY CO2 standards), but for our money, the real leader is Toyota. The Japanese automaker built the second-highest number of vehicles (2,020,248, after General Motors' 2,364,374) but racked up the most net 2012 over-compliance credits (13,163,009 metric tons). That's an average of over 6.5 metric tons per vehicle. The next closest is Honda, with just over five metric tons of credits per vehicle. Given the MPG fiasco with Hyundai and Kia, the EPA says, "we are excluding Hyundai and Kia data because of the ongoing investigation into their testing methods," but overall, the rest of the industry has credits worth 25,053,168 metric tons of CO2, which means it's doing almost 10 grams per mile (equivalent) better than the rules require. Go team. For now, the numbers in this report (and there are a lot more of them – get the 59-page PDF for yourself here), can't really be used to understand everything from the first year of the new CAFE program. The EPA writes, "Because the program allows credits and deficits to be carried into future years, at the close of the 2012 model year no manufacturer is considered to be out of compliance with the program. ... Compliance with the 2012 model year standards can't be fully assessed until the end of the 2015 model year." There are a more interesting tidbits in the report, such as the fact that Fisker produced 1,415 model year 2012 vehicles, Tesla made 2,952. Remember, too, that CAFE numbers don't equal the fuel economy you see in your daily drives. In the real world, the 54.5 CAFE level will be about 40 mpg, and the average fuel economy today is around 25 mpg, so we have a ways to go, no matter how you measure it. EPA Report: Data Show Automakers on Track in meeting Greenhouse Gas Standards WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S.