Autoblog

General Motors has certainly been pumping out a greener message for the last few years, but, on the eve of its likely emergence from bankruptcy, it looks like it might be ridiculously difficult to miss the company's shift to a new and very public eco-mindset: The General's traditional blue square logo could become green. No, really.

While no official decision has yet been made, insiders are saying that the background color change is being considered, "in an effort to show consumers that it is leaner and greener, more focused on fuel efficiency and better able to make quick decisions," says MSNBC.

The fuel efficiency meaning of a possible new green logo is easy to understand and the "quick decisions" part reflects a new GM that will likely have 35 percent fewer executives to go along with fewer employees overall. More announcements on these issues and the fate of the Spark minicar could come tomorrow, when GM is expected to emerge from bankruptcy.

The real color change that GM needs to make, of course, is a shift from red to black – but that's significantly harder than swapping pixels in a logo.



[Source: MSNBC | Logo Image: Adam Morath/AOL]

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Volkswagen has struck a deal worth "at least 10 million euros" with Wilhelm Karmann GmbH to keep the insolvent coachworks and specialty builder alive so it can reorganize a new company and "focus on building electric-powered cars." That's according to an unsourced report in the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung that can be found on Bloomberg. A separate report on HLN.be says that the EV deal is worth 20 million euros, the fruits of which are expected to go on sale in 2011.

Earlier this year, Karmann showed off an EV concept called the E3 Limosine, co-developed with utility company Oldenburg Energy Group (EWE). Last October, Karmann said it would help build some of DuraCar's Quicc! DiVas EVs. Thanks to Frederik for the tip!



[Source: Bloomberg, HLN.be]

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Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford and AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson were just two voices that spoke out in favor of a higher gas tax earlier this year. While we took the Cato Institute's Alan Reynolds to task for muddying the waters of the "Toyota-licensed hybrid Fusion", there's reason to look deeper at his argument (published in The Wall Street Journal) which maintains that a higher gas tax isn't just a good way to encourage sensible car purchases, it also stands to be helpful in saving troubled domestic automakers like General Motors. Reynolds writes:

The federal fuel tax is highest on the most efficient fuel (diesel) and below zero on the least efficient fuel (ethanol). Cars get about 30% better mileage on diesel than on gasoline, and cars running mainly on gasoline get about 30% better mileage than they would using 85% ethanol.

To stop distorting consumer choices, simply apply the same 24-cent-a-gallon federal tax to gasoline and ethanol as we do to diesel. This would add funds to the depleted federal highway trust. More importantly, it would remove an irrational tax penalty on buying diesel-powered cars -- arguably the most cost-effective way to improve mileage without reducing car size or performance.

Since GM, already on the government dole, sells (proportionally) so many large vehicles, it will need to sell more smaller or diesel-powered vehicles to offset its truck fleet and to meet upcoming CAFE standards. Reynolds doesn't think CAFE is a good idea, and claims there's a better way to make sure GM survives. Reynolds says that a higher gas tax would allow the Detroit automaker to keep building the cars it builds best ("midsize and large sedans, sports cars, pickup trucks and SUVs"). Only by upping the gas tax and totally scrapping CAFE, Reynolds says, will GM not be forced to take even more money to survive – and to pay the CAFE fines it's sure to acquire. Doing so would also allow The General to not waste "more taxpayer money on 'retooling' to produce unwanted and unprofitable subcompacts and electric cars."



[Source: Wall Street Journal]

What's the most common Pavlovian response to the name "Porsche?" Thinking of people running on treadmills, right? If you had a different thought, consider that treadmills were front and center at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this past weekend, where 12 runners set a new world record for the longest distance covered in 48 hours: 539.86 miles. The previous world record of 495.76 miles was set in back in April 2008.

This weekend's event was organized by sports scientists at the Porsche Human Performance Centre, a name that prompted us to make sure it wasn't April 1. This is a real thing, though, and their "careful preparation" and special Adidas shoes helped each runner complete their 45-mile shifts – at an average speed of 11.3 mph – over the weekend. We appreciate what Porsche is trying to do here, but we'll take an electric 911 and just suck down a few Gatorades when it's ready. Thanks. Check out the high-res gallery below and the official press release after the jump.



[Source: Porsche]

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The Smart ForTwo isn't for shy people. Even though Smart USA has sold about 30,000 of these tiny two-seaters in the U.S., the little rollerskate attracts a lot of attention. On the road or in America's parking lots, the ForTwo is a conversation piece, and people don't hesitate to come up and talk to you. Some will tell you about the Smart they saw in Europe. Others will ask if it has the guts to make it onto the highway. Most will assume it gets great gas mileage (it doesn't). But one thing's for certain, during our week with the ForTwo, there was a 100-percent conversation rate wherever we went. Anthropophobes, be warned.

Follow the jump to see what it's like to spend wheel time with a Smart ForTwo Cabriolet.



Photos Copyright ©2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.

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How many barrels of oil do you think you could steal in a month, y'know, if you were into that sort of thing? Ten people in West Texas have been arrested recently for stealing about $2 million worth of oil and gas condensate, and a local sheriff said that the thieves were able to steal 8,000 barrels of oil during a single month. That's good for a lot of trips to the grocery store.

Actually, the thieves were not stealing the fuel to use themselves. Instead, the men stole the barrels and then sold them the "oil and gas to buyers who didn't know of the theft," according to The Associated Press. What, did they say the barrels just happened to fall off the back of a truck? We'll probably learn more soon, as the men were arrested following a seven-month investigation. There's got to be some good information in upcoming court filings, right?

[Source: The Associated Press | Image: AFP/Getty]