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Recharge Wrap-up: Smart Fortwo engine fires, Tesla finalist for Extole Advocacy and Customer Experience award

NHTSA has launched a preliminary investigation into complaints of Smart Fortwo engine fires. So far, the agency has received eight complaints about the rear engine compartment catching fire in model year 2008 and 2009 Fortwos and quickly engulfing the car. Six of the fires occurred while driving and were preceded by a check engine light. "The safety of our customers is our primary concern, and we are cooperating with NHTSA in its inquiry," says parent company Mercedes-Benz. "We are not aware of any injuries related to this inquiry." Read more from Automotive News. Volkswagen will pay $1.6 billion (US) in Canada as part of a settlement of its diesel emissions scandal. The funds will be used to fix or buy back some 105,000 affected cars, compensate owners between $3,815 and $4,451 above the buyback price, and pay a $11.2 million civil fine. So far, VW has agreed to spend over $18 billion in North America in connection with its diesel emissions cheating, and is expected to settle on a resolution of its 3.0-liter diesel vehicles in the US soon. Read more at Hybrid Cars, or from Automotive News. Tesla is one of three finalists for the Extole Advocacy and Customer Experience Award. The award recognizes companies that turn customers into brand advocates through referral programs. In Tesla's current program, customers who buy a car using a referral link get $1,000 off the price of their car, while referring owners are awarded prizes including a signed Powerwall 2 and invitations to unveiling events. Referring owners are also entered into a drawing to win a Model S or Model X. "With a disdain for paid advertising, Tesla Motors is leading the trend of reaching new customers through existing ones," says Extole. The other finalists are Hanna Andersson and Ulta Beauty. Read more at Teslarati. Related Gallery Review: 2009 Smart ForTwo View 20 Photos News Source: Automotive News, Hybrid Cars, Automotive News, TeslaratiImage Credit: Copyright 2016 Sebastian Blanco / AOL Government/Legal Green smart Tesla Volkswagen Green Automakers Safety Diesel Vehicles Electric recharge wrapup

Ducati is not for sale according to VW supervisory board

Volkswagen's planned sale of motorcycle brand Ducati and transmission maker Renk currently has no majority backing on the carmaker's supervisory board, with opponents to asset sales feeling invigorated by the group's strong results. Europe's largest automaker has tasked banks to evaluate options for Ducati and Renk including divesting the two divisions as it aims to streamline operations to help fund a post-dieselgate strategic overhaul. Volkswagen has been reviewing its portfolio of assets and brands since announcing in June 2016 a multi-billion-euro shift to electric cars and new mobility services as part of its so-called Strategy 2025. Five bidders have been shortlisted to buy Ducati, including Italy's Benetton family, with offers received valuing the brand at 1.3 billion-1.5 billion euros ($1.76 billion), a source said on Saturday. But VW's labour leaders, occupying half the seats on the 20-member supervisory board which decides on asset sales, resist a sale of Ducati and Renk without compelling financial reasons. "The employee representatives on Volkswagen's supervisory board will neither approve a sale of Ducati, nor one of Renk or MAN Diesel & Turbo," a spokesman for VW group's works council told Reuters late on Saturday. "Everyone who can read the VW half-year results should know: We don't need money and our subsidiaries are not up for grabs by bargain hunters." Six-month operating profit at VW group jumped 19 percent to 8.9 billion euros, the carmaker said on Thursday, as cost cuts and R&D improvements at the core namesake brand earned VW a respite from the billions of euros in costs for fines, vehicle refits and compensation related to its dieselgate scandal. One source at VW said that given strong union opposition, VW is now reviewing the plan to sell Ducati as it doesn't want to risk working with labour on implementing a hard-fought turnaround plan for the VW brand, seen as crucial by investors. Though Ducati is owned by VW's luxury brand Audi, the VW group's supervisory board has to approve a possible sale. Audi declined comment. The billionaire Porsche and Piech families, controlling 52 percent of voting shares in VW and holding four supervisory board seats, do not support selling Ducati or Renk, two other sources at VW group said. A spokesman for Porsche SE, the family's holding company, declined comment.

VW decides against active-cooling system for e-Golf lithium battery

When the 2015 VW e-Golf was introduced at the LA Auto Show last year, VW said it would come with a water-cooled battery. During the Detroit Auto Show, when the car was trotted out again, VW released a new press release that stripped out the "water-cooled" language, but this change went unnoticed. During a recent VW event in Germany, a friend from Green Car Reports realized that the battery on display did not seem to have any water-cooling mechanisms. That set us off on a bit of a sleuthing and we have now learned that VW is not going to include any active cooling in the upcoming e-Golf. In fact, the company is entirely confident that this car - because of what it's designed to do - doesn't need it. "The need for a cooling system wasn't there" - VW's Darryll Harrison VW has been working on an electrified Golf for ages now, and so changes to the plan are to be expected. But battery cooling is vitally important not just to keep the car operating properly but because when things get too hot, there can be serious public relations problems. Nissan began testing a new battery chemistry for the Leaf in 2013 after an uproar from warm-weather EV drivers in Arizona who were experiencing worse-than-expected battery performance. The Leaf has always used an air-cooled battery, which is another way to say that there is no active cooling system (more details here). Tesla CEO Elon Musk once said this approach is "primitive." So, why is VW following the same path? We asked Darryll Harrison, VW US's manager of brand public relations west, for more information, and he told AutoblogGreen that VW engineers discovered through a lot of testing of the Golf Mk6 EV prototypes, that battery performance was not impacted by temperatures when using the right battery chemistry. That chemistry, it turns out, is lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) in cells from Panasonic. These cells had "the lowest self-warming tendency and the lowest memory effect of all cells tested," Harrison said. He added that VW engineers tested the NMC cells in places like Death Valley and Arizona and found they didn't warm very quickly either through operation, charging (including during fast charging) or through high ambient temps. "The need for a cooling system wasn't there," Harrison said.