Wheels Blog: Wheelies: The Inexpensive E.V.’s Edition

General Motors Chevrolet announced Thursday that the Spark EV will be available for lease for $199 per month at some dealerships.

In which we bring you motoring news from around the Web:

• As of Thursday morning, General Motors jumped into the heart of the electric car fray with an announcement from Chevrolet that it would offer a $199-a-month lease for the Spark EV. That puts the tiny all-electric model in direct competition with the Nissan Leaf and Fiat 500e, both offered with $199 leases. General Motors said it expected to have the Spark EV available at some California and Oregon dealers by mid-June. Lower lease prices for battery-electric cars could help automakers meet tightening air quality regulations in California by increasing sales, which have been stymied by customer perceptions that electric models are too costly. (The Los Angeles Times)

• Two Denso executives, Yuji Suzuki and Hiroshi Watanabe, will be spending more than a year in American prison and each pay $20,000 fines after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to fix prices of electronic auto parts. According to the United States Justice Department, the parts in question were heater control panels Denso sold to Toyota. Denso, which pleaded guilty to conspiracy last year, paid $78,000 in fines. (Reuters)

• A developer in Michigan is in the process of buying property once owned by General Motors for a car-themed condominium park. The 80-acre Pontiac, Mich., property was once the site G.M.’s validation center, but the automaker lost it during bankruptcy proceedings. Brad Oleshansky said he was trying to raise $40 million to buy the property, where he would build a park for car enthusiasts to meet and to drive their cars on an on-site test track. Plans call for a garage where owners of classic car could store their vehicles. (The Detroit Free Press)

• The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has begun releasing a series of videos offering a “behind the scenes” look at the crash testing it conducts at its plant in Virginia. The first two explain how crash test dummies work and the mechanics of frontal offset crash tests. In all, I.I.H.S., which is financed by the insurance industry, will release eight videos, each six minutes long. The informative videos provide a clear picture of tests that are often described in confusing proprietary terms. (Autoblog)

• At 7 years old, Scarlett Gurr may be the youngest classic-car owner alive. But her “classics” are pint-sized, just like she is. Scarlett’s father, Stuart Gurr, built the cars for his car-loving daughter. Her collection now includes a mini red Ferrari GTO (the pair’s favorite), a blue Cobra, a Blower Bentley and a diminutive replica of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, among others. Mr. Gurr, who owns a London-area car restoration shop, also takes his daughter to shows and races, where Scarlett drives the cars. As the youngest member of the British Women Racing Drivers Club, she has caught the bug early and will undoubtedly transition into bigger, more expensive cars before father knows what happened. (Huffington Post)

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Wheels Blog: Wheelies: The Luxo-Fisker Lutz Edition

Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency VL Automotive – headed by former G.M. executive and vocal car guy Bob Lutz – made a bid with a Chinese parts manufacturer to buy ailing Fisker Automotive.

In which we bring you motoring news from around the Web:

• What do Bob Lutz and a Chinese auto parts manufacturer have in common? If they have their way, they’ll be the new owners of Fisker Automotive, the struggling hybrid-electric carmaker that laid off most of its workforce earlier this year. Mr. Lutz, a former General Motors executive, runs VL Automotive. The boutique car company teamed up with the parts maker Wanxiang and offered $20 million to buy Fisker, which still owes $171 million in loans to the Department of Energy. Although VL Automotive’s Destino uses a gasoline V-8 in a Fisker Karma, Mr. Lutz has been a vocal advocate of electric and hybrid cars as the way of the future. (Reuters)

• George Michael – the singer, not the character from “Arrested Development” – was injured last week after he apparently fell out of a Range Rover traveling at 70 miles per hour. Top Speed reports that Mr. Michael fell out of his vehicle on a busy highway just north of London, having tried to open and close his door quickly because it wasn’t properly shut. He was admitted to the hospital, but his publicist said the injuries were minor. (Top Speed)

• Facing annual summer production scale-backs, at least two of the Big Three indicated that they would try to minimize this year’s slowdown. Although General Motors hasn’t commented on its summertime production expectations, Ford and Chrysler said they planned to boost production of certain models over the summer. Ford’s typical two-week summer shutdown will be reduced to a week, which the automaker estimates will boost production by about 40,000 vehicles. Chrysler plans to keep three of its factories open through the summer, stepping up Jeep Grand Cherokee and Cherokee, Dodge Durango and Viper production. The automaker’s engine and transmission plants will also operate without a summer break. (Automotive News)

• Automobile Magazine has named its all-star vehicles for 2013. In alphabetical order, they are: the Audi A7; the BMW 3-Series; the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1; the Ford Focus; the Honda Accord; the Mazda CX-5; the Porsche Boxster; the Ram 1500 pickup; the Subaru BRZ/Scion FR-S; and the Volkswagen GTI. The publication called the current era “the golden age of sports cars,” highlighting driver-oriented models like the Toyobaru twins and the snarling Camaro ZL1. And the V-6 Honda Accord coupe? Automobile’s staff swears the soul of an NSX lives in there somewhere. (Automobile Magazine)

• In other awards-related news, Toyota has been named by BrandZ as the world’s most valuable automotive brand for 2013, edging out BMW. The list’s top three spots were claimed by Apple, Google and IBM; McDonald’s and Marlboro also made the top 10. The closest marques behind 23rd and 24th-ranked Toyota and BMW were Mercedes, in 43rd place, and Honda, in 71st. Volkswagen took the 100th spot in the annual survey. (The Green Car Website)

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Wheels: Wheelies: The Joint-Venture Edition

Toyota/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Akio Toyoda, left, the president of Toyota, shaking hands with Norbert Reithofer, the BMW chairman, after they announced a partnership in January.

In which we bring you motoring news from around the Web:

• Something is brewing between Toyota and BMW, in the form of a four-part joint venture aimed at using lightweight materials, fuel-cell technology and batteries to bolster vehicle efficiency. The companies announced their intentions to collaborate in January, but had apparently come closer to agreeing upon what they would like to do with their pooled resources. Motor Trend reported that a joint concept vehicle might be unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show this year. At this point, what that vehicle will be is pure speculation, but Motor Trend surmises that it may be a hybrid sports car. Whatever it is, Toyota and BMW have already engaged in feasibility studies, all very hush hush. (Motor Trend)

• Three former Saab executives have been arrested by Swedish authorities for fraud and tax evasion. Although Olof Sahlgren, a Swedish prosecutor, would not name the executives, he said that they had been accused of falsifying the company’s financial records from 2010 to 2011. Skypker, the automaker, had bought Saab from General Motors in 2010, filing for bankruptcy in December 2011. It is now owned by a consortium of Chinese and Japanese investors who plan to build electric cars under the Saab brand. The three Spyker-era executives face four years behind bars if convicted. (The Boston Globe)

• Don’t expect to see too many Renaults for sale in America soon, but if there were a dealership in the neighborhood, the driving enthusiast might consider taking the new Renault Mégane RB8 for a spin. Production of the hot hatch, the styling of which was inspired by Renault’s Formula One partnership with Red Bull Racing, will be limited. Mechanically, the RB8 is the same as the Mégane 265 Cup, sporting a 265-horsepower, 2-liter 4-cylinder engine. But it will have 19-inch wheels, Recaro seats and a few other goodies the other car does not have. But again, we will have to watch the fun unfold from afar on this side of the Atlantic. (Piston Heads)

• Sergio Marchionne, Chrysler and Fiat’s Italian chief executive, came under fire from an Italian-American anti-bias advocacy group in New Jersey for comments he made at the Detroit auto show in January. He had told reporters there that if a new Alfa Romeo model was sold in the United States, it needed to have a “wop” engine. Although putting an Italian-designed engine in an Italian car may sound fine to most, using the word “wop,” a pejorative for Italian-American, attracted the attention of the the Italian-American One Voice Coalition, which pursued Mr. Marchionne until he issued a public apology for the slur. (The Detroit Free Press)

• A 20-year-old woman was killed Saturday when a Jeep demonstration in Edmonton, Alberta, went awry. Two Jeeps were parked in such a way that one Jeep had its front tire on top of the front tire of the other Jeep, ostensibly to show off the S.U.V.’s climbing prowess. When the top Jeep’s driver got out to pose for pictures, his vehicle moved forward, rolling to its side. A young woman standing nearby was knocked down by the tumbling Jeep and later pronounced dead at the hospital. (CTV News)

• Audi is now India’s top luxury brand, having outstripped BMW of the title. Sales of BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars in India fell by 9.5 and 5.4 percent, respectively, while Audi sales there rose by 43 percent over the last year – a total of 9,350 vehicles. Audi said it owed its success to focusing outside of the city centers typically aimed at by top carmakers in India. The automaker expanded its sales outside urban areas. S.U.V.’s are the company’s primary focus in the country, particularly in smaller cities that tend to have more rough roads. (Automotive News Europe)

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