Alternative Fuel Vehicles

The city has purchased 13 variable-fuel vehicles as part of a State Energy Commission pilot program that seeks to promote the use of alternative fuels. The vehicles--eight sedans and five vans--are powered by a combination of 85% methanol and unleaded gasoline. They were purchased with state grant money and city funds. The vehicles are used by a number of city departments. Officials said they also plan to use the vans as part of the city's employee car-pooling program.

Solo drivers of certain low- and zero-emission cars would have free access to carpool lanes, even if they're converted to toll lanes, under a bill that passed the California Assembly on Thursday. There are a number of projects in the state to make solo drivers pay to use the lanes, no matter what they're driving. Under the bill, those lanes will be free to solo drivers of cars with Clean Air Vehicle stickers. But in Southern California, there will be two exceptions, at least for a year.

Lance Melnik peered into the powder blue hydrogen car and turned to his 9-year-old daughter. By the time she drives, he told her, "These will be the cars on the road." His wife, Maria, wasn't buying any of it. The source of her skepticism? A yellow power cord hanging out of the next bumper over. The cars -- fuel cell, electric, hybrid, biodiesel -- were on display Saturday at the Alternative Energy and Transportation Expo, held at Santa Monica Airport.

EVENTS The coolest green cars since Steve McQueen's Mustang will be on display at the sixth annual AltCar Expo, where attendees can ride in, test-drive and purchase alternative-fuel vehicles. Highlights include the Nissan Leaf, Toyota's plug-in Prius, the Chevy Volt and the Mercedes B-Class F-Cell. Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main St., Santa Monica. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Free. (310) 390-2930. http://www.altcarexpo.com.

From a Chevrolet fueled by a mixture of garbage and cheese whey to an electric-powered Porsche, makers of alternative-fuel vehicles will show off their wares today in what is billed as the nation's first all-non-gasoline-powered auto show.

At a remote 12,000-acre test track in the Sonoran desert here, the almost neurotically secretive Toyota Motor Co. recently had a coming-out party of sorts. Amid the cactuses and desert blooms, the Japanese auto maker candidly revealed its lineup of alternative-fuel vehicles--an electric sport-utility vehicle, a natural-gas sedan and a low-emission hybrid-powertrain car. It even showed off fuel-cell technology and discussed future plans.

Ford Offers Incentives for Alternative-Fuel Vehicles: In an aggressive push to increase alternative-fuel vehicle (AFV) sales among retail buyers, the auto maker said it will institute cash incentives. They range from $1,220 on the F-Series natural gas-fueled truck to $3,225 on the Crown Victoria natural gas-fueled sedan. Ford Motor Co.

Alternative-Vehicle Task Force Reports to Clinton: The Federal Fleet Conversion Task Force--set up last April by executive order to use federal purchases of alternative-fuel vehicles as leverage to increase their use by state, local and private fleets--delivered its first report to the President. It recommended federal support for a locally directed program to build refueling facilities, make large-scale purchases of alternative vehicles and provide other incentives.

Rental-car drivers in California can help reduce air pollutants by opting for alternative-fuel vehicles as they begin to enter the marketplace. One car-rental company has launched a pilot program in the state, and two others expect to introduce the new vehicles into their California fleets this fall. These low-emission vehicles, known as variable fuel vehicles (VFVs) or flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), are equipped to run on M85 or unleaded gasoline, or any combination of the two fuels.

Uncle Sam's Road Rally: More than 50 alternative-energy vehicles are expected to compete in the 1995 U.S. Department of Energy Clean Air Road Rally, scheduled to take place Thursday through Saturday. The competition will stretch across nearly 100 miles of streets and freeways through 31 Southern California cities. The event, produced by the Seal Beach-based International Electric Grand Prix Assn.

Drivers of electric and other alternative-fuel vehicles enjoy a special perk: They can drive solo in California's carpool lanes. But under a controversial plan proposed by local traffic agencies, those drivers will have to pay to use two heavily used carpool lanes that are being converted to toll roads. It has riled electric-car shoppers and alternative-fuel-vehicle advocates who worry that this is the first step in chipping away at a California tradition of letting solo drivers of autos with new technology and low emissions onto carpool lanes.

Rival Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. unveiled prototypes of upcoming electric cars as alternative-fuel vehicles took center stage Wednesday at the start of the Los Angeles Auto Show. Amid buzz about General Motors Co.'s multibillion-dollar initial public offering, major automakers scrambled to show off their latest electric car offerings to hundreds of reporters gathered for a preview of the annual event at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The show opens to the public on Friday.

Express mail giant FedEx Corp. is preparing to roll out the first of four new all-electric delivery trucks in Los Angeles next month, but Chief Executive Frederick W. Smith said there were still significant barriers to bringing large numbers of zero-emission and low-emission commercial vehicles into service quickly in the U.S. "We would like to significantly expand the number of vehicles we have in this category," Smith said. "But the capital costs are 50% higher than regular vehicles.

Anyone strolling about the exhibition floor of the L.A. Auto Show this week can be forgiven for thinking that the battle for the green car has been won, and the plug-in electric hybrid is the victor. Scads of major automakers unveiled models that are within a year or two of showroom readiness, with the Chevy Volt (projected to run for 40 miles on a household charge before switching to gasoline) drawing perhaps the most buzz. Irvine-based Fisker Automotive Inc. took a booth to promote its forthcoming $88,000 Karma, a plug-in luxury hybrid.

Who could resent the attention being showered on electric cars? Stylish and clean, they're the darling of the renewable-energy crowd, which is hailing the scheduled rollout of several e-powered models next year as a major blow against global warming. Well, Eduardo Leao, for one. He's executive director of the Brazil's largest sugar industry association, called UNICA, and he insists that cane-based ethanol produced in massive quantities by his members is a better alternative fuel for the environment than electricity.

I was listening the other day to a couple of American automobile executives complain to the president of the United States about emission regulations and all their other burdens -- high wages, government safety mandates, unfair foreign competition. You know the list. They said this stuff was killing the industry. "We are in a downhill slide, the likes of which we have never seen in our business," one remarked. The Japanese, he said, "are in the wings ready to eat us up alive."

Chrysler Corp. will have the capacity to build 100,000 cars annually that can run on methanol, gasoline or both beginning in mid-1992, company officials said Friday. The announcement made Chrysler the first auto producer to disclose its plans for satisfying a requirement in the new federal Clean Air Act that car makers make alternative-fuel vehicles available for sale as part of a pilot program in California.

Perhaps you've seen oilman T. Boone Pickens on television advertising the "Pickens Plan" for alternative energy, urging Americans to wean themselves from foreign fuel by adopting natural gas and wind power. Pickens has another plan he isn't advertising and from which he also stands to profit. He wants Californians to borrow $5 billion to invest in natural gas and alternative energy by voting yes on Proposition 10 on the November ballot.

With his blue button-down shirt, neat khaki pants and rimless glasses, Mike Lewis doesn't look like much of an evangelist. But that's what he is: an advocate for alternative fuels -- and their profit-pumping potential. Lewis is co-owner of Pearson Fuels, a gas station on El Cajon Boulevard just east of Interstate 15 that sells biodiesel, two kinds of natural gas, vehicle-grade propane and ethanol alongside the usual pumps for gasoline and diesel.