hybrids

What Will McCain and Obama Do About Plug-In Hybrids?

jplatt — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0400

With four weeks to go until the presidential election, it's time to start thinking about the potential impact that Barak Obama and John McCain will have on the environment over the next four years. One area where both candidates see a future is in hybrid vehicles.

Each candidate has expressed a desire to bring plug-in hybrid cars off the drawing boards and into our garages.

McCain's plan is simpler, and hinges on the thought that plug-in prototypes are not quite ready for prime time. McCain told ScienceDebate2008.org: that he would create a "$300 million prize for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars. This is one dollar for every man, woman and child in the U.S. -- a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency – and curb the dangerous effects of global climate change."

Obama, on the other hand, is ready to start buying hybrid vehicles right now. According to his web site, Obama wants to use government buying power to jump-start the commercial market for plug-in hybrids. He promises to convert all White House vehicles to plug-in hybrids within one year (as long as that doesn't create any security issues). After that, he says he'll mandate that half of all new vehicles annually purchased by the government are plug-ins in just four years.

Obama's energy platform promises a $150 billion investment over 10 years which will, among other things, "accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids." He wants to put a million plug-in hybrids on the road in seven years, and will push for a $7,000 tax credit to help make that happen. He also promises $4 billion in "retooling tax credits" to manufacturers so they can be ready to put plug-ins on the road and repair them.

Interestingly, neither the Green Party nor its candidate Cynthia McKinney appear to have a specific policy about hybrid vehicles.

Rental Upgrades Not So Great

khallgeisler — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Recently, my friend Andrew, a travel writer, was on the job in Ohio (I don't know why, either). He had reserved a compact car to drive from the airport to various cities and towns across the state to report on its vacation hotspots. But when he got to the rental counter, he was cheerfully offered an upgrade to a Jeep Grand Cherokee.The best mileage this model can get, with the smallest 3-liter engine and two-wheel-drive, is 18 city/23 highway.

Andrew had been expecting something more like a Ford Focus, or maybe even a slightly larger Toyota Camry. Certainly not an SUV with a 21-gallon tank. Luckily for him, gas in the Midwest has been hovering right around $4, so a fill-up would have cost a mere $84. Even luckier, in order to sweeten this upgrade deal, the rental company threw in a tank of gas.

Andrew isn't the only one having large cars foisted on him at the rental counter. Car rental companies don't have the compact-car inventory to keep up with demand and so have to convince customers to take the larger car. This didn't used to be a problem; if they could afford it, Americans would gladly take the roomier full-size sedan or SUV. With gas averaging $4.09 a gallon across the country, though, the extra room isn't worth it.

Most car rental companies do have hybrids on the lot, but if you think compact cars are in short supply, Priuses and Escape Hybrids are rare as the Pinta Island tortoise. They're often more expensive, too, thanks to the pesky rules of supply and demand.

What can you do if you're stuck with an upgrade this summer? Here are a few tips:

Threaten to take your business across the lot to another company, but only if you mean it. Small cars are likely scarce over there, too.

Negotiate. I've heard several stories from recent renters about getting a free fill-up for accepting the larger vehicle.

If you have to go big, do it in style. If you're going to pay out the wazoo for gas anyway, see what you can do to get a convertible or luxury car.

Drive that boat of a car from the rental lot to the nearest gas station and check that the tires are properly inflated. This will save you at least a few dollars on fill-up.

Use all the gas-saving tips we've shared here on RiverWired.com, including hypermiling techniques.

Photo by Justin Russell.

VW Enters Hybrid Race

khallgeisler — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Volkswagen will have three hybrids, one of which will plug in, and an all-electric car in dealerships in 2010. The Touareg SUV and popular Rabbit hatchback will be available as hybrids, while the Jetta will be a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.The electric car will be a limited edition of the new up! concept.

No word yet on how many of these four cars will actually hit the market in 2010. German-language car magazine Auto Motor und Sport reported that VW CEO Martin Winterkorn just recently announced the plan to build the green Vee-Dubs. The PHEV Jetta will -- theoretically -- be in good company, as GM is working furiously on the Volt and Toyota will offer a plug-in Prius.

If you were saving up for the VW Golf TDI Diesel Hybrid, rename that account "Rabbit 2010." Volkswagen announced, then pulled the plug on, the Golf project earlier this year. It seems that the Touareg, Rabbit, and Jetta will all have gasoline-electric hybrid systems.

Photo by Deep Frozen Shutterbug.

Chrysler Comes Late to the Hybrid Party

khallgeisler — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Chrysler Co. announced that its 2009 Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango Hemis will be available as hybrids, the first fuel-saving vehicles the manufacturer has offered. The "two-mode" hybrid technology Chrysler uses should, they say, get 25% better mileage than the standard Aspen and Durango.

The EPA estimates that the 2008 Aspen gets 13/17, so a 25% increase over that would be 16/21. The Durango's fuel economy would go from 14/19 for the two-wheel-drive version to 17/24 in the hybrid. Both SUVs will keep their eight-cylinder V8 Hemi engines, so they should have the same towing capacity for slightly better gas mileage.

Chrysler execs say they'll have a hybrid Dodge Ram pickup in showrooms by 2010, and the new Chrysler Journey, another SUV, could get a hybrid version, too.

By way of comparison, the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, a model that's been around the block a few times, gets 34 miles to the gallon in the city and 38 on the highway. Toyota's 2008 Highlander hybrid is slightly less effiecient at 27 city, 25 highway, but those numbers still rank higher than anything Chrysler's got.

It looks like Ford and Toyota showed up early to the hybrid party and brought beer, while Chrysler came late with an open bag of Cheetos.

Sexiest Fuel-Efficient Cars

khallgeisler — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

For the last week of May, the Sexiest Green Car Show returns to the Eden Project, the UK's "living theater of plants and people." Why would a place that features a million plants representing 5,000 species have a car show? The high-mileage and alternative-fuel cars on display May 23-31 are, in theory, even kinder to plants than vegans.

The sexiest car at the show this year by a green mile will be the Lotus Exige Tri-Fuel, which made its debut at the 2008 Geneva auto show. As the name implies, the sporty two-door can run on gasoline, bioethanol, or ethanol. Using any alternative fuels in sports cars is a step in the right direction; decide for yourself how beneficial ethanol, in the form of E10 or E85, is for the planet.

Morgan is bringing its Life Car, which is sexy in the way that piles of money are sexy. This silver bullet runs on hydrogen fuel and gets the equivalent of 150 mpg. Morgan teamed up with RiverSimple (no relation to RiverWired) to develop the system that powers four motors, one at each wheel, and stores braking energy in ultracapacitors rather than batteries.

New car company Axon Automotive will debut its fuel-efficient family sedan, the 2+2 Multipurpose Vehicle, at the Sexiest Green Car Show, but the extreme-close-up images available on the Web make it hard to rate its sexiness. The car uses conventional gasoline, but through aerodynamics and use of carbon fiber, gets better (though unspecified) mileage.

Other offerings at the show include small cars from Ford, Citroen, Peugeot, and others. Most of these tend toward the Easter-egg school of green design: cute but hardly sexy. But with barrels of oil at an all time high and only going higher, drivers will take what they can get, and the sooner, the better.

15 Tips for Better Mileage -- Want to Get 70 MPG in Your Toyota Prius?

khallgeisler — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

In a summer of $4-a-gallon gas predictions and $120-plus barrels of oil, we'll be hearing a lot about hypermiling. But what is it? Who can use it? Does it require a Prius to make it worth the effort?

Hypermiling is a series of techniques -- some obvious and safe, some tricky or of questionable sanity -- that maximize your car's mileage. While a lot of these techniques can be used by anyone, some require a hybrid's electric engine. And a hybrid, like the popular Prius or the Ford Escape, will see better fuel efficiency (more than 70 mpg) using these techniques than a high-mpg gasoline-only car like the Smart ForTwo.

Here are tips anyone can use:

1. As soon as a red light or stop sign comes into view, take your foot off the gas and coast.

2. When you restart, take it easy on the gas pedal. "No jackrabbit starts," as they said in the '70s.

3. On the highway, use cruise control. The more constant your speed, the better mileage you'll get. And don't speed.

4. If your newer car has a mileage gauge, use it. Look at it often. You'll find that knowing your fuel efficiency moment by moment becomes a challenge you can't refuse.

5. Keep tires properly inflated. If you're feeling a bit daring, and your tires are new or in excellent shape, push the psi past the rating a little.

6. Park at the highest point in the parking lot and coast as long as you can when you leave.

7. Lose the weight -- yours and your car's. Every pound counts when you're trying to ease the burden on your engine, so get rid of the tent and sleeping bags in the trunk from last weekend's mini vacation, or the box of files and paperwork that you never get around to lugging inside, or the unholy loads of garbage in the unused back seat.

If you've got a hybrid, try these:

8. Warp Stealth: Hybrid drivers are well aware that at low speeds, the electric motor alone powers the car. The "warp stealth" technique involves finding the sweet spot where the electric motor is doing all the work while the gasoline engine spins freely, but the car still travels at 42 - 55 mph. For a detailed, science-y explanation, click here.

9. Pulse and Glide: Press the accelerator pedal, nice and smooth, until you reach about 40 mph (the gasoline engine kicks in at 42 mph). That's the "pulse." Now let 'er ride on electric power to about 30 mph, then pulse again. This technique works with conventional cars, too, if you pulse then glide in neutral. Another super-geeky link to a detailed hybrid explanation here.

10. Use all-electric mode for the last mile or so of your trip to allow the batteries to recharge more quickly on your next start-up.

11. Similarly, if you're only stopping for ten minutes or less, push the "Park" button. Turn off all accessories -- radio, lights, etc. -- and let the electric engine idle. Turning the car off requires a little gas on restart. This is exactly the opposite of the tip for conventional gasoline engines above.

If you don't mind looking weird or tempting fate, try these:

12. Drafting requires you to be nose-to-tail with a semi. Close-ish won't cut it. Check out NASCAR races; that's how close you have to be to make this work. Hugging the rear end of a tractor-trailer at 75 mph seems a bit dangerous, but it saves gas for you and the truck driver.

13. Throw it in neutral on the downhill, and coast as far as you can up the next rise. Every traffic officer and safety expert will tell you that driving a car with the engine disengaged, especially with the idea of building up speed while you have minimum control, will tell you not to do this. Hypermilers will tell you to do it. Believe whom you will.

14. Improve aerodynamics by adding wheel skirts, folding in rearview mirrors, and blocking out your grille. Keep in mind that not having rearview mirrors or cooling air circulating around your engine are probably bad ideas.

15. Wear an ice vest, normally only seen in nuclear power plants, like veteran hypermiler Wayne Gerdes rather than entering the windows-down vs. AC-on debate.

For more information, check out:

The Hype About Hypermiling

Two Wheels Are Greener Than Four

Honda Civic GX Tops List of Greenest Cars

Driving Green = Fewer Greenbacks

Five Tips to Find the Cheapest Gas Near You

Top 10 Most Fuel-Efficient Cars: Save Gas, Save Money

Record Month For Selling Gas -- Saving Cars Getting Better Than 30 MPG

Top 10 Green Things to Do While Stuck in Traffic

kbutler — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

If you live anywhere in the country where your closest neighbors don’t moo, odds are you deal with traffic. So next time you’re stuck on the freeways contemplating suicide or a move to Alaska, remember these options to pass the time.

TOP 10 GREEN THINGS TO DO WHILE STUCK IN TRAFFIC

10. Walk up to the guy in front of you and begin an interesting, innovative lecture on the positives of recycling.

9. Lay on your horn and scream out the window “Your emissions are killing me!” See if it helps get things moving.

8. Ask the person driving the vegetable oil-powered Mercedes if the smell makes her crave French fries. Then offer her French fries.

7. Hide under the open car windows of smokers. When they toss their cigarette butts out the window, throw them back.

6. Plow into a Yukon and see if it’s true that they "react" like a tank.

5. Collect road kill for tonight’s dinner. After all, it’s recyclable.

4. Harness a team of trusty street rats to the car. Explain to curious passer-bys that you’re just taking sustainable living to an awesome new level.

3. Ask the person next to you if this is the line for cheap gas.

2. Walk around asking hybrid car owners just how silent is their silent running.

1. Turn the car off, get out and push. You’ll get there faster anyway.

800-Hp Hybrid to Race at Nurburgring

khallgeisler — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

According to a recent post on Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur's web site, its Apollo hybrid supercar will take on the 24-hour race at the legendary Nurburgring track in Germany May 22-25.

The car that will take its turn around "the Green Hell," as Formula One racers dubbed the track years ago, is based on the production Apollo. It uses a 100-kw electric motor and a 3.3-liter V8 gasoline engine that alone can churn out 630 horsepower. According to the gearheads over at Popular Science, the motor and engine can deliver 800 horsepower combined. That should be enough, even for the world's longest race track.

If a supercar hybrid isn't green enough for you, check out this weekend's fourth annual Green Grand Prix, which begins and ends in Watkins Glen, New York. Entrants run the gamut from hybrids to Flex Fuel to a converted Isuzu Trooper that runs on wood chips. It's the only SCCA-sanctioned rally for hybrids and alternative-fuel vehicles -- and you don't get much more alternative than wood chips.

All-Hybrid Taxi Fleet on Its Way in NYC

khallgeisler — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

In May 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that all NYC taxis would be hybrid by 2012. The city is on its way toward that goal a year later, though a bit off the pace, with 1020 hybrid hacks in the city, or about 8% of the 13,150 cabs on the streets.

Almost all (845) of the hybrid taxis are Ford Escapes. The next model on the list is the Toyota Highlander, another SUV, with a mere 92 ferrying people around town. The rest of the hybrid vehicles currently in use by cabbies, including the otherwise popular Prius, have only a few engines idling silently at airports.

According to an article in the New York Times, the switch has made more than an ecological impact for the early adopters. The cabbie who talked to the reporter says his Escape saves him $25 a week in gas over the Crown Victoria he proviously drove.

New York is no stranger to avant-garde taxi technology: in 1896, the city had an all-electric-powered fleet. And appropriately enough, the first-ever speeding ticket was issued to a New York cabbie in 1899. Jacob German of the Electric Vehicle Company was stopped for tearing ass around the city at 12 mph. Retrospectively, he was doing all right, since the current average speed in cross-town Manhattan traffic is 6 mph or so.

Photo credit: Edward Reed

Definition of Irony: Hybrid Truck for Pit Mining

khallgeisler — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

I was innocently surfing the Internets, like I do every day, looking for the latest in alternative-fuel advancements. Electric scooters, breakthroughs in cellulosic ethanol, greener race cars. The usual. But I was stopped in my tracks on the information superhighway when I found the post on GE's Global Research Blog detailing its experimental hybrid pit-mining haul truck. I was struck momentarily dumb by the very idea.

I rallied myself, though, and read the post. The truck, one of those oversized dump trucks that crawl around open pit mines, has a 600-hp battery pack that captures energy from the brakes to "save fuel and increase productivity." Saving gas to rip more ore or what have you from the earth -- well, that just makes sense.

The truck that was tested in Arizona was jointly developed by GE and the US Department of Energy. A diesel engine spins an alternator that generates electricty to power motors in each wheel hub. The motors are then able to recapture the energy from braking these behemoths and release it when the dump truck needs to, say, climb a hill.

Maybe next someone can figure out a way to power off-shore oil rigs by harnessing the energy of ocean waves.

Photo by wasabicube.