Auto News for the week ending September 2, 2011.
Auto News for August 29th, 2011
Volkswagen to Manufacture an Amazingly Efficient One-Seater
Volkswagen is on the precipice of releasing an electric one-seat experimental car. The automaker is planning to unveil the concept car in Berlin in the beginning of September. According to VW research head Juergen Leohold, the car is supposedly better than the XL-1 Super Efficient Vehicle that yields an impressive 261 mpg.
A 261-mile journey on a motorcycle is cool. A 261-mile bike ride is cool (but daunting). A 261-mile trek on a horse is cool. But a 261-mile jaunt in a single-seat car? That’s just sad. The whole notion of this car is a little sad. What’s the point of buying a one-seat car when you can buy something with, at the very least, the option of taking someone with you?
Purchasing a single-seat automobile for anything other than criminal purposes suggests a tinge of maladjustment and awkwardness. At least we can throw babes on the back with us (or dudes, depending on, um, well, a few things) on motorcycles and horses, and experience the smell and feel of the countryside. There are no plus ones with the one-seater.
Cubicles and single-seat cars are transforming our society into one of pod people. Beware the consequences of chosen isolation.
Auto News for August 30th, 2011
Portland: “Idled at the Green Light of Opportunity”
Long known as the hipster epicenter of the Northwest, the institutional pillars of Portland seem intent on keeping it this way. A coalition of government officials, carmakers, academics and local utilities are trying to integrate all forms of electric transportation into the city. The New York Times details the preliminary plans, including discussion of Electric Avenue, a one-block stretch downtown devoted to electric cars, and how electric charging stations will be installed in the city.
Portland’s hipster culture has been satirized through the IFC series Portlandia. The series doesn’t limit its satire to Portland’s idiosyncratic hipster tendencies, as the following clip about bicyclists conveys (because this is an accurately caricaturized depiction of bikesters everywhere):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3nMnr8ZirI
The point here is that it almost makes too much sense for Portland to be green vehicle-leading. There’s something else in this story that just fits too well. Portland State is one of the academic institutions partnered with Electric Avenue. The Times took quotes from a manager in the Office of Research and Strategic Partnerships at the University. His name?
Mr. Beard.
(For those out of touch with the hipster culture, facial hair is ubiquitous.)
Auto News for August 31st, 2011
Auto News from France
French auto-maker Peugeot is set to debut its HX-1 at the Frankfurt auto show next month, but the New York Times has pictures of the new sedan/wagon/diesel/hybrid. There’s also a coffee machine in the marble-trimmed center console. Those French sure are wild and wacky.
Over the weekend I met a girl named Valerie in a friends’ backyard set up as an outdoor art show. Valerie was obviously French with her rolling accent, complemented by a pair of deep-set blue eyes. I’d already introduced myself as Steve before remembering my little-used and mostly forgotten French language knowledge from high-school. I thought I was being suave when I said “je m’appelle Etienne. That’s Steve in French.” She turned, laughed, and said, “no it’s not. Steve is Stefan, or just Steve. Etienne is Etienne.”
Mrs. Sortito, my Nonnewaug High French and Spanish teacher, told me Steve in French was Etienne when I was 15. I’ve lived saying “je m’appelle Etienne” with a particular elegance, with confidence in the power of its romantic diction.
Valerie shredded that ideal.
Auto News for September 1st, 2011
Have some more open. Have some more air. Have some more sun. Have some more stars.
In a very real contradiction to the isolated nature of Monday’s entry about the one-seat car, the Detroit News reports about the burgeoning market for panoramic sunroofs that can go back two or three rows in family-style SUVs. High adoption rates (50% or more for many models) for a prohibitive elective feature (the roofs cost anywhere between $1000 and $2000) suggest that people may still want to be connected to the natural world. And even to people, considering there’s no true safe way to put a panoramic roof in a one-seater, leaving them for, and in, cars with passengers.
This is a refreshing trend away from focused attention on DVD players during a drive. Staring upwards on a long journey at a star-swept expanse has to be more calming for children than taking in cartoons.
Let those minds wander.
