MSN Promotes Hypermiling for the Untrained, Unassisted
By Justin BerkowitzOctober 6, 2008 -
We’ve got this Green.MSN.com website.
So let’s do something with it! I hear this hypermiling thing is big.
It sure is. What is it?
No idea. Some crap about getting great mileage without having a hybrid.
“When you first start hypermiling, I find, you really wish you had someone to ride along with you to show you the ropes. Sadly, that’s not yet an option for most people. Until then, we can learn from some of the best.” Rather than suggest you not play with fire (like turning off your car while coasting, thus killing your power brakes), MSN asks self-confessed “efficiency nerd” Darin Cosgrove some broad questions and calls it good. I repeat: the article does not contain a single tip (although you now know to avoid Darin Cosgrove at parties). Not only is the article useless, but it is part of the irresponsible practice of telling people they should do something dangerous without even understanding it completely, or having someone “show them the ropes.”
Posted in Green | Hybrid | Media | News Blog | 23 comments 
“Small cars can be bad investments, both for the planet and the pocketbook”
By Robert FaragoOctober 3, 2008 -
First it was “the HUMMER H2 is better for the environment than the Prius.” Now it’s big cars in general are better for the planet– and your wallet– than small ones. “Small cars don’t last,” automotive analyst Dennis DesRosiers tells wordsmith Barbara Righton of Macleans. “They fail to retain value, utility or desirability.” Babs connects the dots. “Small cars are less durable. First off, they are built lighter. Secondly, they are cheaper, so they attract younger drivers who tend to maintain them poorly. They have a lower resale value, which guarantees they won’t trade hands many times before they are scrapped, and they’re more likely to be written off by insurance companies if they are involved in serious collisions. In other words, ‘the useful life of the vehicle’ is as short as their wheel base, according to Erich Merkle, an automotive consultant with Crowe Chizek in Grand Rapids, Mich.” Quite aside from the fallacy of the argument (I’ll let the Best and Brightest make the case), do I detect some kind of weird sneering thing going on? Indeed I do. “Merkle advises consumers to buy a mid-sized car that is a couple of years old and hang onto it. That way they can sit contentedly and watch the parade of tiny cars in their neighbours’ driveways come — and go.” [thanks to rpn453 for the tip]
Posted in Canada | Green | News Blog | 41 comments
VW Unveils “TwinDrive” Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle
By Edward NiedermeyerSeptember 30, 2008 -
Warren Buffet’s recent investment in BYD has conferred a new legitimacy on a dual parallel-serial hybrid drivetrain, which combines features from both systems. And now VW has revealed its own PHEV third way called “TwinDrive.” Ohne transmission, VW’s concept car uses a small electric engine– powered by a 350 lbs. Sanyo lithium-Ion battery pack under the trunk floor– to launch its Golf testbed to 30 mph. (At which point the gasoline engine kicks in.) Electric acceleration helps overcome the limitations of a single high gear; reverse is electric-only. And drivers can engage an EV-only mode. Motor Trend reports that VeeDub’s testing the TwinDrive system with diesel engines, but gas-powered TD’s are destined for production. Production ICE is said to be a 100hp turbocharged 1.05-liter turbocharged triple. A smart navigation-based system will calculate energy use priorities, saving battery capacity if urban driving appears ahead on the planned driving route, thus ensuring battery depletion at the destination and keeping the TwinDrive away from gas pumps unless absolutely necessary). The basic components of plug-in hybrid systems seem to have become fairly standardized. But concepts like the TwinDrive show that there are more development options than simply parallel or serial configurations.
Posted in Diesel | Electric Vehicles | Green | Hybrid | News Blog | 20 comments
CNG Booster Slates Honda For Civic GX Production
By Richard ChenSeptember 29, 2008 -
Pssst. Wanna buy a $25K Honda Civic with a 220-mile driving range and the trunk space of a Miata? Me niether. Since its introduction over a decade ago, the Honda Civic GX has sold between 500 - 1000 per year; production has just been boosted to a mere 1500 p.a. The Civic Hybrid sells more than double that every month. Honda cites parts shortage as a bottleneck, primarily the greenest Civic’s lightweight and costly carbon fiber fuel tank. The Cutting Edge News’ Edwin Black isn’t satisfied with that explanation. In fact, Black claims a conspiracy to suppress production of the GX. Citing the inability of the Spokane, WA school system to secure a fleet of CNG-mobiles, Black chides Honda for milking maximum PR mileage on a car they CLEARLY don’t give a damn about. Even worse (for hardly anyone), the Civic GX is going out of production until June 2009 while production is moving to Honda’s new Indiana plant. Black contrasts this green conspiracy to GM’s promise to manufacture and sell as many hundreds of thousands of Volts and other electrified vehicles to as many as it can as quickly as it can at the best price that it can.” So why isn’t Black giving GM (and Ford) a hard time for discontinuing their CNG vehicles a few years back?
Posted in Fuel Economy | Future Vehicles | Green | News Blog | 5 comments
Toyota Draws First Blood; Scores DOE Grant
By Robert FaragoSeptember 29, 2008 -
Chrysler, Ford and GM await the President’s signature on the bill authorizing $25b in low-interest federal loans to retool old factories to produce new fuel misers. And then face an uphill political battle to get the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to loosen its loan requirements and give them the goddam money. Meanwhile, a Toyota press release reveals that the transplant’s just landed a share of $15m in DOE grants to “speed the adoption of energy-saving building and facility technologies” at ToMoCo’s U.S. dealerships. “Being named part of this program is a tribute to those dealers with the vision and commitment to develop environmentally sensitive buildings in conjunction with Toyota’s Image II Eco design program,” said Toyota Prez Jim Lentz. “We will continue to work with dealers and the DOE to develop energy efficient facilities and guidelines that will benefit the entire industry.” Talk about rubbing it in… And what’s the bet Toyota gets the money before 2010? TTAC’s investigating.
Posted in Green | News Blog | 17 comments
Toyota To Build CNG Hybrid Camry
By Edward NiedermeyerSeptember 25, 2008 -
While Chrysler jumps headlong into the concept car vaporware EV game, Toyota is taking its usual evolutionary approach. Bloomberg reports that ToMoCo will stick with its Prius strategy, augmenting it only with a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) burning hybrid version of its Camry sedan. The CNG Hybrid is a response to lower natural gas prices in the US compared to normal gasoline, and the modest success of Honda’s CNG Civic. No pricing or efficiency information is currently available for the CNG Hybrid Camry. Meanwhile, Toyota is still driving down the replacement cost of its Prius-powering NiMh battery packs, which now set first and second-gen Prius owners back $2,299. Calling the Prius “as close to a silver bullet as you’re going to get,” Bill Reinert, national manager of advanced technology for Toyota Motor Sales claims “the reason the Prius was such a successful car is that the customer didn’t have to do anything to it.” And to those who say that hybrids are a “transitional technology,” Toyota will be selling a million Priora per year by 2010, before Chrysler and GM even start selling their highly-touted EVs. Slow and steady, as they say…
Posted in Green | Hybrid | News Blog | 10 comments
Wal-Mart Ripe For The Pickens?
By Edward NiedermeyerSeptember 18, 2008 -
Say what you want about oil tycoon-cum alt-energy evangelist T. Boone Pickens, the man has some instincts on him. Wal-Mart has been studying ways to reduce its energy usage (for purely altruistic reasons, of course) and Pickens smells blood in the water. Reuters reports that the Texan CNG honcho has convinced Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott to consider retrofitting its entire diesel truck fleet with CNG power as an energy-saving, cost-cutting measure. Wal-Mart currently operates some 8,500 diesel trucks in its supply-chain network, and a presentation by Pickens to a Wal-Mart associates meeting has convinced Scott to consider the retrofit. According to a weekly Pickens email, Scott was “impressed by the Pickens Plan.” The email continues, “to have America’s largest retailer looking into shifting their trucking fleet to run on natural gas is a major step towards our country’s energy independence.” And a major step towards making Mr Pickens a boatload of cash. Pickens has invested his oil fortune in wind power and CNG, and a Wal-Mart retrofit could mean a huge contract and increased media exposure for CNG as a transportation alternative. Like Pickens though, every decision at Wal-Mart comes down to dollars and cents. We still don’t know how much a CNG fleet conversion would cost or save Wal-Mart. Until we do, there’s no telling whether Pickens’ CNG revolution will get off the ground.
Posted in Big Oil | Fuel Economy | Green | News Blog | 25 comments
NYT: Drill, Baby, Drill
By Edward NiedermeyerSeptember 15, 2008 -
From a crowd-pleasing chant at the Republican National Convention to op-eds at the New York Times, the refrain “Drill, Baby, Drill” is looming large in the American psyche. In the Gray Lady’s pages, Robert Hahn of the American Enterprise Institute and Peter Passel of the Milkin Institute (motto: Milkin’ The Issues) investigate the idea of penetrating mother Earth for more of that sweet, sweet dino juice. Opponents of drilling offshore and oil extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve (ANWR) argue that the benefits would be marginal. Hahn and Passel don’t necessarily disagree. They reckon 7b barrels could be pulled from ANWR, with another 11b available offshore, Hahn and Passel estimate the U.S. could thusly increase output by six percent, resulting in a 1.3 percent drop in worldwide prices. Meh. But the two argue that at $100/barrel, that oil would be worth nearly $2t not including the benefits of reduced pump prices for consumers. Development costs including environmental clean-ups would cost only $400b, making drilling an “economic no-brainer.” Hahn and Passel estimate the “non-use value” of ANWR at “only” $11b. The authors could “imagine a political bargain in which several hundred billion dollars went into a fund with a charter to preserve wilderness in the United States, or climate-stabilizing rainforests in Africa and Latin America.” In short, to protect the environment we must defile the environment. In reality, drlling is one of those idealism vs. pragmatism issues where win-win is a no-no. As long as the “Drill, Baby, Drill” refrain is still echoing out of St Paul, this kind of compromise is a long way off.
Posted in Big Oil | Fuel Economy | Green | News Blog | 32 comments
Report: Hybrid Taxis Save Gas, Unsafe For Occupants
By Justin BerkowitzSeptember 10, 2008 -
It was only a matter of time until someone had something negative to say about the ever-expanding fleet of hybrid taxis in New York City. While I’m not in the hybrid car fan camp generally, they make perfect sense for a place like Manhattan. Driving takes place nearly exclusively short of 30 mph (except for costly interboro trips), meaning the electric motor really gets a workout. They’re quieter, and considering the traffic density in Manhattan, the reduced emissions actually are appreciated. Not to mention, hybrids need high intensity field testing. What better than 24-hour a day abuse? Well, not everybody agrees with me. C. Bruce Gambardella, P.E., an engineer that claims to be nothing short of a world renowned expert in the field of taxi cabs, thinks the hybrids totally suck (paraphrasing). Mr. Gambardella’s report was funded by a lobbyist organization called the Metropolitcan Taxicab Board of Trade. We’ll give you one guess who they represent - the taxi owners. The report claims that the modifications required for hybrid taxis make them inherently unsafe. Among the charges: plexiglass partitions between the drivers and passengers will interfere with side airbag systems (how often do those go off when everybody drives under 20 mph?), that hybrids are unsafe as taxis because they aren’t built for heavy duty driving (Manhattan potholes apparently better the Rubicon), and because hybrids are horrible, terrible vehicles. Also, Gambardella reports, hybrids are for grandmothers and liberals. Taxicabs need to be robust Panther platform cars that get 11 miles per gallon. Oh, and the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade filed a lawsuit yesterday against the City of New York, fighting the requirement that all cabs switch over to hybrids in the next several years.
Posted in Alternative Energy | Green | Hybrid | News Blog | 35 comments
Berlin Hearts Electric Smarts
By Martin SchwoererSeptember 9, 2008 -
Londoners know (because a fleet of almost 100 is already running): the electric Smart fortwo is an big improvement on the original. It’s economical and smooth, without the wheezy engine and the miserable, jerky transmission of the gas-powered (or God forbid, Diesel) version. Greeny Berliners think: electric cars would be the zero-emission way to go, if you could just charge them somewhere (who has a garage in the city?) Bringing both factors together and hoping that they gel, the German government has started a project with the generic-sounding name “e-mobility Berlin”. It will be the world’s biggest e-car pilot project, involving Daimler and RWE, a utility, which will install 500 public charging stations. The charging stations will have token solar cells, but are basically about coal-derived electricity (take that, global-warming activists!) Daimler’s main motivation is to field-test its e-Smarts, scheduled for massive roll-out in the magic year (guess!) On TV, I saw Angela Merkel, Germany’s often dour, physicist-by-training head of government talk about the project with bright eyes: “It only takes two hours to re-charge the batteries? Just the time you need to go shopping!” As they say, some ways of thinking die hard.
Search Results 1. Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (Germany) »
Posted in Alternative Energy | Electric Vehicles | Europe | Germany | Gizmology | Green | News Blog | 11 comments
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