Chevrolet’s Cruze is, well, Cruisin’. Since its launch in Europe in the spring of 2009, Chevy’s first global compact car has racked up a total of 270,000 sales in more than 60 countries. Add another 70,000 sales with versions from Holden in Australia and Daewoo in South Korea.

U.S. dealerships will begin sales in September and all models will be produced in Lordstown, Ohio. The Chevy Cruze will be one of the few compact cars built in the U.S. for the 2011 model year.

Pricing starts at $16,995 for the LS model with a long list of standard safety features, including 10 air bags, electronic stability control with rollover sensing, traction control and anti-lock brakes.

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Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid

Volkswagen, along with other European auto companies, has long proclaimed diesels as a better green strategy than hybridization. True, diesels are efficient and practical, but in the U.S., they have a reputation of being noisy and smelly. VW has worked hard to overcome that image with cars like the Jetta TDI but now are apparently changing direction (although they still like diesels).

During a press conference last week at its Electronics Research Lab in Palo Alto, California, Volkswagen chairman Dr. Martin Winterkorn repeated the company’s electrified slogan: “In the future, the heart of Volkswagen will also beat with electricity.” And in an opaque reference to the original Beetle, Winterkorn told the gathered media that “Volkswagen is working on the electric car for everyone.” (We’ll report on VW’s electric car strategy on PluginCars.com later today.) He added that hybrid and electric vehicles will account for three percent of the German carmaker’s global sales by 2018.

The Roadmap

Winterkorn concluded his remarks by laying out the company’s roadmap for hybrid and electric vehicle introductions into the United States. First up is the 2011 Touareg Hybrid, which launches later this year.

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The Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid debuted in Geneva.

Porsche AG’s supervisory board has voted to move forward with production on the Porsche 918 Spyder, which first turned heads at March’s Geneva Auto Show. The plug-in hybrid supercar has a top speed of nearly 199 mph, can accelerate from 0 to 62 in just 3.2 seconds, and comes with an astounding $650,000 price tag. The high-end carmaker says that it has received 2,000 non-binding submissions of interest for the 918—more than twice the required level of interest for the board to vote on production of a new vehicle.

The Spyder’s two drivetrains provide a total of 718 hp, with 218 hp coming from a pair of 160kW electric motors and the other 500 coming from a 3.4 liter V8 engine. One motor will be mounted to each axis, with the V8 powering just the rear wheels. The electric drivetrain will provide about 16 miles of pure electric range when the vehicle’s fluid-cooled lithium ion battery is fully charged—similar to Toyota’s Prius plug-in hybrid.

Like the Prius, the Nissan LEAF and other more modestly priced plug-ins, the 918 will come with a dashboard computerized navigation system that tells drivers how far they can go on all-electric power and where the closest public charging station is.

Porsche says that the car will produce just 79g/km of emissions and get 78 miles to the gallon. (Of course, the method for calculating official fuel economy numbers for a plug-in hybrid remains a major point of contention within the industry and among regulators.) Since the 918 has four distinct modes—with each providing varying levels of performance and fuel economy—calculating its fuel efficiency is an even more complicated task. E-Drive Mode is the most efficient, with Race Hybrid Mode providing the gaudiest power numbers. In Race Hybrid Mode, the electric motors are used only for short bursts of additional passing power—meaning that fuel efficiency numbers plummet.

The Spyder isn’t the only hybrid that Porsche is preparing for release in the near future. The Cayenne S hybrid SUV will be released in the coming months, with Panamera S sedan following next year. Both will be equipped with V6 engines and nickel metal hydride batteries, with the Cayenne yielding 25 mpg and the Panamera nearly 28 mpg.

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Far more cost-effective than plugging in?

The reality of hybrid cost effectiveness

Sure, we’ve pitted the Chevy Volt against the Toyota Prius in the past, but this time we have some real numbers. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t look good. So, if you think the Volt is set to save America, you might not want to read any further.

Since yesterday, many have compared the Nissan Leaf to the Chevy Volt. I don’t believe in such a comparison. Range anxiety is real and a vehicle like the Leaf will never resonate with the masses unless you can cut the price of the vehicle in half, minimally. The Chevy Volt, on the other hand, could easily convert the masses into plug-in vehicles, as long as the Volt is cost-effective.

Cost Comparison

Today, you can lease a Prius for $199.00 per month, while a Volt lease will soon cost $350.00.

The average Prius drivers spends $825 per year on fueling costs. The difference between Volt and Prius lease payments after a year is $1800. Consequently, even if the Volt uses nothing but free electricity, it will still cost $1000 more to lease per year. Of course, perhaps if gas prices hit $6.00 per gallon, then the Volt will be competitive, but considering higher gas prices push the cost of everything higher, will most Americans even be able to afford a new car?

But won’t the Volt cost much less to maintain than a Prius?

Certainly not on a three year lease, and since you can buy two Prius hybrids for the price of one Volt, there isn’t even a reason to compare purchasing cost-effectiveness. When it comes to purchasing, the Prius is a far better deal. Moreover, the battery pack on the Volt will probably not be as reliable, long term, as has been the much cheaper Prius battery pack.

In fact, in terms of maintenance, insurance is easily the biggest cost, and if insurance companies price Volt insurance fairly, it should cost more to insure a Volt than a Prius, a good bit more.

Today, the Volt just isn’t very cost-effective compared to the Prius, and that’s even after a $7500 tax credit that some have reported enables GM to reduce lease costs by $200 per month on the Volt’s 3 year lease option, but what happens after the tax credits expire?

While battery costs will come down, will they drop by $7500 per car in the near future? Likewise, wouldn’t such battery cost improvements also make the Prius cheaper, lighter and more fuel efficient as the king of hybrids could then switch to lithium?

And, yet, that isn’t even the most disturbing Volt news. After a decade on the market, hybrid cars still account for less than 3 percent of market share. Hybrids, such as the Prius, are just not perceived to be cost-effective by most consumers, and the Volt will even be far less cost-effective and much more expensive.

Can this really change the auto industry?

Game changer? Not any time soon

The latest energy bill provides nice tax credits for natural gas vehicles. Honda executive claims, “This could be a game-changer.”

“The Volt is a game-changing product,” recently claimed a Volt executive.

Maybe. Nonetheless, shouldn’t we wait until the game actually changes before claiming a product a “game changer”?

As the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize comes to an end, for instance, one thing appears obvious, just “how difficult it will be to make truly revolutionary improvements to the automobile.” Despite numerous hybrid and plug-in attempts, only one technology has emerged as the most “revolutionary” potential game changer: weight reduction.

Ultimately, the game isn’t really changing, and the only reason there is any change at all has nothing to do with “game-changing” products. Instead, new CAFE regulations are forcing automakers to make a few changes. Of course, not enough changes to have any real impact on oil dependence, or even foreign oil dependence.

Even if every other American commuter drove a Chevy Volt 40 miles or less per day, so that only electricity was used, America would still be heavily dependent upon foreign oil. That’s how little and how slowly the game is actually changing.

One day plug-in vehicles, natural gas and/or many other technologies could become real game changers. Unfortunately, none of today’s “game changers” are set to cause a revolution in the US auto industry any time soon. Likewise, any number of technological breakthroughs across many different technologies could easily make today’s “game changers” irrelevant.

“Game changer?” Sadly, the auto industry still has a long way to go before they can rightly claim such a description.