Sleuth: Hot off the press

BMW says hydrogen vehicles might still be 30 years away; electric power being considered as a stop-gap: The Sleuth hears that while German automaker BMW is heavily investing in hydrogen technology as a means of reducing or eliminating tailpipe emissions, Jochen Schmalholz, head of BMW’s clean-energy technology, has said that BMW is considering electric vehicles to fill the 15-to-20-year void before hydrogen vehicles will actually be practical. BMW has even predicted that hydrogen cars could still be 30 years out.

Camaro as a gas/electric hybrid?: Word from the spies in Detroit, Mich., is that General Motors has assembled a special team of engineers to apply the automaker’s latest gas/electric hybrid system to the company’s Chevrolet Camaro. The Sleuth’s tipsters don’t yet know which powerplant would be coupled to the electric motor to make the hybrid system, but a V8 seems most likely. The price of V8-powered Camaros, by the way, will be substantially higher than first predicted. And a hybrid would be even higher, but the thinking is that this will be a solution for those looking at green alternatives. It’s odd, for sure, but if Lexus can build hotrod sedans using hybrid systems, why can’t GM?

Will the new Phaeton be any better?: Open up your wallets again, Volkswagen lovers. Pulling the Phaeton luxury sedan from the U.S. market in 2005 was a mistake, Volkswagen of America Chief Executive Officer Stefan Jacoby recently said. Apparently VW’s management is ready to give the vehicle (which was last base-priced around $67,000), another try. The Sleuth has heard that VW is considering a smaller and sufficiently less expensive model to distance itself from Audi models (Audi and VW are related). Still, basic components such as the car’s chassis and transmissions will be borrowed from the next Audi A6 midsize sedan. Sales of the last Phaeton in North America were less than stellar, so it will be interesting to see what happens during the second go-around. The company never sold more than 2,000 Phaetons in a single year on these shores.