MPG

While the Americal Le Mans Series has already had a green race-within-a-race for alternative-fuel vehicles, NASCAR is taking baby steps toward eco-friendliness. The final race of the season on Sunday, November 16, had the series’ first-ever hybrid pace car, a 2010 Ford Fusion.

NASCAR isn’t going all tree-hugger on anybody, but it is trying to reduce its carbon footprint, according to a report on NASCAR.com. Organizers also hope the mere presence of a hybrid on the track will help crack the alternative-fuel ice with the sport’s fans, who tend to favor high horsepower and big trucks. But in a year of volatile gas prices and growing green awareness, even die-hard speed freaks can see the advantages in a higher-mpg vehicle.

The hybrid version of the Fusion, and its nearly identical twin the Mercury Sable, will be available to consumers in spring of next year. The official unveiling of the car will happen at the L.A. Auto Show, November 21-30.

Image courtesy of NASCAR.com.

Shorepower Technologies Portland, Oregon, location is the latest in a recent line-up of companies that will convert hybrid cars like the Prius to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs. The company itself isn’t new, but the conversion side of the business is. They’ve just completed and delivered their first conversion — a Prius, of course.

Shorepower uses the Plug-In Supply kit to add 20 lead-acid batteries to the stock battery pack that comes with the car. The extra batteries fit in the rear cargo compartment under the carpet, with a metal lid between batteries and cargo.

• A converted car can go up to 50 mph on EV-only power, as opposed to about 42 mph for an unconverted Prius.
• Car can go an estimated 8-12 miles in EV-only mode
• Fuel economy can be as high as 80 mpg, according to Shorepower’s tests
• $6,700 includes parts, labor, and shipping the kit to Shorepower’s HQ for the conversion

The company also does EV conversions and uses the Hybrids Plus kit to swap out the factory lead-acid batteries for lithium-ion packs in the Ford Escape. Shorepower is also responsible for the new curbside charging stations popping up in the Portland metro area.

This isn’t an endorsement, and I’ve never used a Shorepower product, but it’s good to know who the reputable businesses are as the U.S. switches from a gas-dependent model to having choices in alternative fuels.

Images of the conversion to come.

Good gas mileage, good cause–yup, it’s a good green car! The Green Car Company, which is based in Seattle, is auctioning off a 2009 Prius they’ve converted to be a plug-in using A123’s Hymotion plug-in kit. Proceeds from the eBay sale, which ends November 9, 2008, benefit Plug In America, a group working to shift consumers from gasoline- to electric-powered cars.

The Hymotion kit used in this particular Prius includes state-of-the-tech lithium-ion batteries and has been installed by certified technicians, so Toyota’s warranty is still in effect, according to Plug In America. The new battery pack has its own three-year warranty.

The dark blue car is on display all this week at the Seattle Auto Show for those who want to see it for themselves. The auction site says the new owner will be able to get 100-150 mpg and run on solely on electricity for up to 40 miles. The Prius is fully loaded, and the Green Car Company is throwing in a bunch of extras on top, including classes, shock upgrades, and heavy-duty extension cords for recharges.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized its list of the top low-mpg cars for the upcoming model year. It doesn’t restrict itself to merely small cars or green cars with hybrid systems or alternative fuels, oh no. The EPA lists the most fuel-efficient cars, from minicompacts, like the Mini Cooper, to midsized station wagons, like the Kia Rondo.

The overall winner in the mpg race was–hold on to your hats–the Toyota Prius, with a rating of 48 mpg city and 45 mpg highway. Here’s the top ten, in case you’re in the market for a brand-new car. The kicker is that these cars, with their low fuel usage and emissions, are the hottest cars on the lot these days. Finding one at a reasonable price may be tricky.

To see the full list, visit FuelEconomy.gov.

1. Toyota Prius, 48/45
2. Honda Civic Hybrid, 40/45
3. Smart ForTwo convertible and coupe, 33/41
4. Volkswagen Jetta and Jetta Sportwagen diesels, 30/41
5. Toyota Yaris, 29/35
6. Mini Cooper manual, 28/37
7. Nissan Versa, 26/31
8. Mini Cooper automatic, 25/34
9. Hyundai Sonata, 22/32
10. Honda Accord, 22/31

And for you glass-half-empty, hell-in-a-handbasket types, the EPA lists the cars with the worst mpg as well. That list tends more toward the Lamborghini/Ferrari/Bentley end of the spectrum, though I was suprised to see the Saab 9-3 on the worst list.

In my capacity as an automotive journalist, I have driven the Mini Cooper before. Several times, as a matter of fact. But when the red 2008 Mini with black stripes was delivered on Friday, I had a mission in mind. I was going to put its EPA fuel economy estimates to the test.

The Mini Cooper in my possession for a few days had a standard 1.6-liter, 16-valve, 4-cylinder engine that could turn out 118 hp. It may not sound like much, but in a car this small, it’s enough. It also had a six-speed manual transmission, which would help in the mpg department. The test car did have sport suspension and 16-inch wheels, rather than the regular 15-inchers, but I didn’t think that would affect the fuel economy much. The EPA estimated 28 mpg in the city and 37 mpg on the highway.

The morning the Mini Cooper appeared in my driveway, I was already late for lunch. I grabbed the keys, reset the mpg counter, threw the car in reverse, and tore off in the direction of the restaurant where I would meet a few friends. I did not drive responsibly. Safety was, as always, my priority, but speed came in a close second. I was surprised, on reaching the restaurant a few miles away, that I had still averaged over 32 mpg, even driving like a jerk.

Over the next few days, I drove in a much more sane way around Portland. Lots of in-town driving, some freeway, some stop-and-go traffic at 5:30. It never dipped below 30 mpg. As you can see, after five days of normal driving, I averaged 33.7 mpg. This is above the EPA’s combined rating for the Mini Cooper of 32 mpg.

I have to give the car back, and it’ll be a while before I get another. BMW, which owns the Mini brand, is pulling back on its press loaners for now. In the meantime, we can all look forward to those precious few electric Mini E models coming to the States for real-world testing.

I’ve been at two auto events recently where the new Dodge Durango hybrid was made available for journalists to drive and evaluate. The first was Mudfest earlier this month, where the Durango hybrid topped the Best Family SUV category, where it competed with non-hybrid vehicles.

The second event was just a few days ago, when Chrysler/Dodge brought a handful of new models to Portland, Oregon, for the press to peruse. The 2009 Dodge Durango hybrid had just that day earned its official EPA fuel economy rating of 20 mpg city, 22 highway, and the company learned that the SUV was eligible for a $2,200 tax credit. The new rating marks an improvement in the hybrid Durango’s mileage over its conventional, petrol-burning Durango sibling by 50% in the city and 40% overall.

The phrase we keep hearing from SUV manufacturers is “no compromises.” Apparently, Joe Buyer is afraid that his new hybrid SUV will be wussy, and the PR folks are working to counter that. The Dodge Durango hybrid still has a V8 engine, though four cylinders will cut out when the engine isn’t under load. It still has 4-wheel drive and eight seats, and it can still tow 6,000 pounds. (The conventional Durango pulls 8,800 pounds; it’s up to you to decide if that’s a compromise.) But it also has stop-start technology and the two-mode hybrid system. The Dodge Durango hybrid and its cousin, the Chrysler Aspen hybrid, will be at dealerships by the end of 2008 with a price tag starting at $45,340.

The curious thing was that despite the tax credit and the clamor for gas-sipping, emissions-lite vehicles, Chrysler still isn’t wholeheartedly embracing the hybrid platform. While the GM rep I spoke with a couple weeks ago said he didn’t see why all of GM’s large vehicles couldn’t be based on a hybrid system like the Yukon has, the Chrysler rep at the more recent event said his company was going to wait and see. There are plenty of reasons for auto companies to take baby steps these days, but hybrid technology shouldn’t be one of the things they hold back on. Especially if there really are “no compromises.”

If you love the safe feeling of driving a Volvo but not the around-town gas mileage (16 mpg in an S80!), do the Swedes have good news for you. Volvo announced at the Paris auto show, where green was king, that it would introduce start-stop technology in some of its 2009 models, with diesel hybrids to appear in 2012 and plug-in hybrids to come sometime soon after that.

The smaller C30, S40, and V50 will get the start-stop treatment first. This relatively uncomplicated technology shuts off the engine when it’s not under load, at stop lights, say, and starts it back up when you’re ready to get moving. Start-stop will make its way into the rest of Volvo’s lineup in the future.

Diesel hybrid systems will be used in the company’s larger vehicles, like SUVs, wagons, and the big sedans. The Volvo setup will have a 5-cylinder turbodiesel engine to drive the front wheels and an electric motor to power the rear wheels. At low speeds, the electric motor will be able to do all the necessary work.

Automotive News mentioned that electric motors and diesel engines have the same shortcoming, namely a lack of horsepower at high rpm. Volvo execs say that they’re more interested in reducing CO2 emissions, and this is the best way for them to do that. I doubt many people were buying Volvo wagons for their sportiness, anyway.

The Honda Insight, called “the Prius fighter” all over the blogosphere, was officially unveiled at the Paris auto show in early October. Honda president Takeo Fukui took the opportunity to run down a few details of the car, like power and price, at the event.

Here’s a quick comparison of the two mass-market hybrids, one already popular in the U.S. and one prepping for the fight. Keep in mind that Toyota’s got a redesigned Prius up its sleeve for 2010, and it’s predicted to have better mileage and a bigger gasoline engine.

2009 Honda Insight

• Under $20,000 (2 million yen is the target)
• 1.3-liter, 4-cylinder engine
• battery type not available
• 40 mpg city, 45 mpg highway
• five-door, five-passenger hatchback

2009 Toyota Prius

• $22,000 base MSRP
• 1.5-liter inline 4-cylinder engine
• NiMH battery pack
• 48 mpg city, 45 mpg highway
• five-door, five passenger hatchback

[Sources: Automotive News (subscription required), Edmunds.com, FuelEconomy.gov, Toyota.com]

Image courtesy of Honda.

Legendary design firm Pininfarina has brought its own little EV to the Paris auto show this year, the B Zero. Actually, the model name is written B0, but the company has helpfully let us know that it’s pronounced “B Zero.” Presumably, they don’t want us Americans running around calling it the “BO.”

The B0 will roll off the production line in late 2009 as a 2010 model, the Italian company says. The mass-produced car is a collaboration between Pininfarina and Bollore, who will provide the powerplant. The proprietary system will use batteries and supercapacitors to propel the B0 about 150 miles per charge, with a top speed of 80 mph.

If zero emissions and a high-tech lithium polymer battery aren’t enough to float your eco-warrior boat, the car also has solar panels on its roof and even a few on its tiny hood. Right now, the panels will be able to run “some of its equipment,” according to Pininfarina. I assume this means they provide enough power for creature comforts like the radio and maybe air conditioning.

The Northwest Automotive Press Association has released the results, and the first-ever Best Green SUV Award went to the 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid. The field included two hybrids, a diesel, and an SUV with variable cylinder management technology.

SUVs in the green category were judged alongside “regular” SUVs and were scored on the same on-road and off-road handling capabilities, comfort, ergonomics, etc. In addition, the Green SUVs were evaluated on their fuel economy and emissions technologies and innovations.

It’s interesting to note that, because the Green SUVs were run over the exact same courses as the conventional SUVs, they won in other categories as well.

Best Family SUV

• $30,000 - $50,000 price range as tested
• Kid-friendly features
• Winner: 2009 Dodge Durango HEMI Hybrid

Best Luxury SUV

• Above $50,000 as tested
• Advanced luxury features
• Winner: Mercedes-Benz ML320 BlueTec Diesel

Hyundai’s got the blues. Two of them, to be exact. Like Mercedes-Benz, the Korean manufacturer has apparently tired of everything being green and branded its eco-conscious automotive efforts blue, as in the i20 blue and Santa Fe blue Hybrid, both of which debuted at the Paris auto show in early October.

The “blue” designation doesn’t mean hybrid; it means aerodynamic, efficiency, and weight measures have been taken to lower the car’s environmental impact. In the case of the i20, Hyundai took the following steps to lighten its footprint:

• 1.4-liter diesel engine
• six-speed gearbox, rather than a five-speed
• low-friction engine oil
• software to optimize timing, injection, and idle speed
• ISG start-stop system that cuts the engine while the car is not moving and not in gear
• full-length covers underneath the car to reduce drag
• Michelin Energy low rolling resistance tires

All this adds up to 15% lower carbon dioxide emissions and a 15% improvement in fuel efficiency (from 55 mpg to 63 mpg).

The Santa Fe blue, meanwhile, has a 2.4-liter engine mated to a 6-speed transmission and a 30 kW electric motor and a lithium polymer battery. The company says that this parallel hybrid architecture, as they call it, will be the basis for all Hyundai’s hybrids in the future. In the Santa Fe, the system returns 38 mpg. As part of the new blue lineup, it also incorporates many of the features, such as ISG start-stop, found in the i20 blue.

Yet another addition has been made to the online arsenal of tools for the savvy driver: CostToDrive.com. This easy-to-use web app asks for your start point, end point, and year, make, and model of the car you’ll be driving. It can then spit out the amount you’ll pay to fuel your rig for that trip.

I decided to give the calculator a test run, as I just took a drive to Auburn, Washington, for work, and I know what I spent on gas for that little adventure. The first thing I found was that if your car is older than 1999, you won’t find it in the drop-down menu.

Cost to Drive couldn’t find my little red truck in the system, so I entered it free-form style, including the MPG and size of the tank.  It told me I could expect to spend $25.75 on that trip, which was just about right. But I could have figured that out in my head using the information it had me type in.

The builders of the site call the process “galculating,” which is what I did while stuck in traffic on Interstate 5 yesterday. “If I sit here for x number of minutes burning y gallons of gas, how much time and money am I losing?” There’s nothing like a traffic jam to make word problems seem fun.

Cost to Drive may help you decide if a trip is worth it, or it may help you compare the cost of gas to the cost of a train ticket, but the math is pretty easy. I firmly believe you could figure this stuff out without a dedicated web site, but if your brain is having a difficult day, then Cost to Drive may help.

In the past six months, American car buyers have fled from buying SUVs and oversized pickups in favor of small, fuel-efficient cars and hybrids (if they can find one on the lot, that is). But car makers still feel that some small cars are too small for our roads.

Hyundai, for instance, is making a global push to establish itself in the small-car market. But not so much in the U.S. Its tiny five-door hatchback i10 model, for example, won’t be sold on American shores.  They’re looking instead to bring the larger i20 and i30 cars rather than the i10, which was designed with the European market in mind.

Though nothing is set in stone, not bringing the i10 to the small-car-starved dealerships here in the U.S. is a curious move for a company whose sales have been constrained by the limited availability of its current small cars, like the Elantra. Not even the i20, which is slightly larger and makes its debut in Paris next week, is officially set for import to the U.S.

Now that Wall Street and shifty mortgage schemes have the U.S. economy tanking and financing is hard to come by, the American car consumer’s wish for small, inexpensive, gas-sipping cars could become a demand. Everybody stand up and wave what few dollars you have in the direction of the i10 and the Ford Fiesta Econetic.

Chrysler unveiled three EVs this week, one from each of its divisions. There’s a Jeep SUV EV, a Chrysler minivan EV, and a Dodge sports car EV, all slated to go on sale in the U.S. in 2010 as 2011 models. If the automaker can hit that mark, Chrysler’s EVs will beat the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt to market. I bet that fact didn’t escape Chrysler execs.

Chrysler’s EV development team, ENVI, promises that these vehicles will allow drivers to go about their merry way without making major changes to their driving style. The Jeep, for instance, will be a body-on-frame four-wheel-drive vehicle, while the sporty Dodge will be rear-wheel drive.

The vehicles don’t have names yet, but Chrysler has published specs:

Dodge EV:

• 200 kW = 268 hp
• 0-60 in under 5 seconds
• Top speed 120+ mph
• 150-200 mile range

Jeep EV:

• 200 kW = 268 hp
• 0-60 in 9.0 seconds
• Two- or four-wheel drive
• 400 miles (with help from a small gasoline engine)

Chrysler EV:

• 190 kW = 268 hp
• 0-60 in 8.7 seconds
• Seats seven
• 400 miles (with help from a small gasoline engine)

Photo courtesy of Chrysler LLC.

The stalwart Consumer Reports has come up with a list of a dozen or so used cars that get great mileage. The list is divided into two categories, under $10,000 and between $10,000 and $20,000. There’s no mention of tailpipe emissions, so the focus is on the price of gas, not the ecological impact of the vehicles.

The hybrid 2000 Honda Insight tops the fuel economy numbers at 51 mpg for under $10,000, but there were only about 17,000 of these cars in the country even while it was still being produced. Good luck finding one now — especially for that price. You might be better off socking your down payment away in a savings account and waiting for the reincarnated Insight hybrid to arrive in dealerships next spring.

It’s interesting to note that the cars are as old as a 1998 Mazda Protege LX and as new as a 2007 Honda Fit Sport with a manual transmission, but even more interesting is the fact that one lone American car, the 1998-2002 Chevy Prizm, made the list. It can be snagged for less than $10,000, and it gets a respectable 32 mpg.

CR, being the people’s advocate that it is, points out that the older cars on the list lack some safety features common in new cars, like ABS and side-curtain airbags. Check out MSN Autos for the full list.

A little humor for your Monday — GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who’s been touring the country touting the Volt for what seems like decades, was a guest on a recent episode of the Colbert Report (winner of several Emmys last night, by the way).

Host Stephen Colbert grilled Lutz on global warming, man-talk, and 40-mile extension cords, and Lutz mostly held his own. Except, that is, on the global warming question. This is the man who declared global warming to be a “crock of sh*t” in February, but he’s also the man charged with convincing people that GM is looking forward and the Volt is a good idea. Colbert left Lutz hanging a bit when he asked why GM didn’t just call the car the Chevy Gore.

Lutz made his appearance the day after GM’s 100th birthday celebration and the official unveiling of the probable production design of the Volt, and a week after the images of the Volt design leaked to the web. Lutz himself is a speed and power man, and the “adequate” performance of the Volt seems to pain him a bit. He was a good sport about the whole thing, but what would you expect from, as Colbert calls him, a master of the universe?

Greetings from the land of scooter commuters! After two months of sitting under the carport, alone but for the spiders weaving their webs all over her, my scooter, a 2002 Kymco People 50, is finally operational again, thanks to my first-ever at-home repair!

The summer saga began when I took the Kymco out for the first time, in May. I drove it a few miles and parked it while I volunteered at my local humane society. While I was volunteering, the entire contents of the gas tank leaked out onto the pavement. The maintenance guy stood watch to make sure it didn’t burst into flames, then used his forklift to put it in the back of a pickup truck to drive me home.

(Eco-recap: gas on the ground and running into a nearby rainwater grate is absolutely not good for the earth. Neither is strapping a scooter to the bed of a half-ton pickup truck.)

The guy at the shop where I bought my scooter in 2002, which by now has 4,500 miles on the odometer, said that Kymcos of a certain age can have leaky fuel filters. I asked if I could repair it myself, and he said, “You can do anything yourself, just be sure not to strip the rubber gasket when you tighten the filter.”

Cool, I thought, I can do this myself. Except that I’d never repaired anything mechanical before, and I was intimidated by the very idea.

Until last Sunday. I downloaded the repair manual for ten bucks, got out the socket wrenches, and took pictures as I went — kind of like digital breadcrumbs, in case I got lost. I found out that the hose was cracked, not the fuel filter, and bought a replacement part at the scooter shop for another ten bucks. All in all, from start to finish, it took a grand total of about two hours, three tools (socket wrench, allen wrench, and pliers), and $20.

So, if gas prices have you considering a scooter, go for it! They get great mileage (mine gets about 80 mpg) and are simple to repair — by you or your local shop.

Australians John and Helen Taylor are on their way to a new record in fuel efficiency. The couple, who’ve been setting fuel economy records for a quarter-century, are touring the U.S. in a clean-diesel VW Jetta TDI. As of September 10, the Taylors had covered over 2,700 miles and averaged 58.78 mpg. The current record for lowest fuel consumption on a nationwide drive is 51.58 mpg, so the Taylors are in good shape so far.

They began their latest record-breaking attempt to drive across the lower 48 in Chantilly, Virginia, and will end it September 26 in Beckley, West Virginia, after looping through Vermont, Montana, California, Louisiana, and points in between. The Taylors are using fuel-saving tacticts of the sort they teach in their fuel economy workshops, like avoiding idling and high speeds, plus all the GoodGreenCars.com faves like checking tire pressure and planning your route.

Check out Fuel Academy, the Taylors’ web site, for posts from the road and more information about their efforts to reduce oil consumption and CO2 emissions. They hold 46 speed driving world records and 36 fuel economy world records, so it sounds like they know how to have fun while reducing their impact on the planet.

We Americans have it pretty good — freedom of speech, religion, and the press; pursuit of happiness; pulled-pork sandwiches — but not when it comes to green cars. Here’s a rundown of the latest models we want, but can’t have:

• Diesel-powered Ford Ka This little number will get 56 mpg from it’s 1.3-liter engine, and put out 75 horsepower. At the Ford presentation I recently attended, someone asked speaker and powertrain expert Dan Kapp about Euro-spec clean-diesel Fords coming to the U.S., and he said not in the foreseeable future.

• Ford Fiesta ECOnetic Another small, diesel-powered Ford. This one, which goes on sale in the U.K. in November, gets 65 mpg and would be priced similarly to the Toyota Prius, if it ever made it to these shores. Which it won’t. Ever, according to Business Week.

• Honda Fit Hybrid So Ford says it won’t bring its diesels to the U.S. because we’re all about hybrids, so why has Honda decided not to go forward with its Fit Hybrid? Competition with itself. It wants all the hybrid love to go to its new Insight, due next spring. So no one gets the Fit Hybrid until the next redesign, a Honda spokesman told Edmunds.com.

• VW BlueMotion Diesel Golf The latest TDI-powered Volkswagen to come down the pike is a quick little four-door hatchback that gets 52 mpg, according to a VW press release, while still achieving 103 hp and a top speed of 117 mph. Luckily, VW did deem the U.S. worthy of the new Jetta SportWagon TDI, which gets 40 mpg on the highway and emits a mere 6.4 tons of CO2 annually.

The 2008 Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes have been released, and the Automobiles crown goes to Miss Germany: BMW. The report is labyrinthine and multi-partite, so I’ll try to break down the auto section to give GoodGreenCars readers an idea of what makes BMW so sustainable.

The review is produced annually by Dow Jones Indexes and SAM, a sustainability investment specialist. They analyze corporate economic (i.e., risk management), environmental (climate change mitigation), and social performance (labor practices) in 57 industries. BMW scored well enough in all three categories to be the leader in the Automobiles sector.

SAM and the DSJI aren’t in it for the love — they’re in it for the money. And the money says that investors are demanding sustainable practices from industries.

But this is not an endorsement of BMW vehicles as particularly green. The popular 3-series gets about 21 mpg combined and emits a middle-of-the-road 8-9 tons of CO2 annually, while the company’s MINI lineup is rated at 29 mpg and 6.3 tons of CO2 annually. At the other end of the spectrum, the top-of-the-line M6 gets 13 mpg and releases 14.1 tons of CO2 annually (it also starts at $101,000).

BMW has complained loudly about how difficult it will be for it to meet the new CAFE standards in the U.S., and has paid millions in fines for CAFE violations in the past few years. So while their manufacturing processes may be sustainable enough for the Dow Jones, they’re a little lacking where the rubber meets the road.

After giving us coy pictures of front corners and rear decks of the design concept, GM says they will unveil the Chevy Volt in all its production-trim glory at the company’s 100th birthday party September 16. Preproduction models will be built in 2009, with sales of the real deal expected to begin in 2010.

GM chair Bob Lutz told Automotive News Europe that the production Volt will be the “next generation global compact architecture.” For those who don’t speak Auto Industry as a first language, that means the U.S. version of the Volt will use many of the same underpinnings as GM’s upcoming world-market offerings. For examples of this design, keep an eye out for the Opel Astra and Chevy Cruze at the Paris auto show this year.

Meanwhile, according to Motor Trend, GM and the EPA are debating whether the Volt is a hybrid or an electric vehicle. The outcome will decide how fuel-economy numbers will be calculated. The car has an electric motor with a combustion engine that acts as a range extender when the batteries run out.

GM wants the car to pass the EPA’s tests using the electric motor 85% of the time, which would give it a rating of 100 mpg or more. The EPA wants the Volt to pass the tests with its batteries near full charge at the end, which would require the gasoline-powered engine to run most of the time. This calculation would drop the fuel economy to about 48 mpg. When fuel economy is your sales tool, a Prius-like 48 mpg might hurt sales of the $40,000-plus Volt.

If you want to try sharing a ride — to work, to school, for spring break — look no further than the magical Internets. There are several sites out there for hooking up with a driver or riders, whether you want a daily commute into the city or a one-way from New York to San Francisco, Kerouac-style. Here’s a round-up for easy reference:

• Roadsharing This site skews toward Europe, but what a way to get around the Continent. It’s way more reliable than sticking out a thumb and hoping for the best. Terms and conditions, as of this posting, are only in Italian.

• Zimride This ride, carpool, and cabshare finder is also available as a Facebook app, a widget, and, as of September 2008, on your mobile phone. Free registration.

• Carticipate Get this rideshare app for your iPhone via iTunes. Free.

• PickUpPal An ticker at the bottom of the homepage tells you how many potential tons of CO2 have been kept out of the air thanks to the site’s bidding system for rides. Free registration.

• Ridester A clean, simple web interface for finding a commute buddy. Ticket Fee, Driver’s Fee, and Processing Fees.

• Divide The Ride Carpooling for families who have to deal with soccer, ballet, Little League, the school paper, etc. The same people have launched CarLine Manager for after-school pickup, too. Free.

Many communities also have local rideshare boards online (like San Fransisco’s rideshare.511.org), so search for sites in your city for a local commuting option to save gas and seriously cut down on traffic and emissions.

NASCAR has become the latest partner of the Driver $marter Challenge, a campaign to increase awareness about the little steps we can all take to increase our fuel economy, no matter what we drive. (Readers of GoodGreenCars.com know all about these tips — the tires, the excess weight, the speed limit obeying.) Other partners include 3M, Con Edison, and Exxon Mobil.

NASCAR will give the challenge props on its reality show, “NASCAR Angels,” on its weekly radio show “NASCAR Performance Live,” and in podcasts by the likes of Sam Hornish Jr., driver of the Mobil 1 Dodge.  Driver $marter calls NASCAR “a leader in promoting conservation messages,” which I’m not sure is the most apt description of the race organizations eco-efforts.

But race teams would do well to improve their own fuel economy. As I mentioned a few months ago, they’re feeling the pinch of fuel prices — if not the pangs of guilt at sucking up the earth’s resources — at the track, in testing, and in team transportation.

Photo: Robert Laberge/Getty Images for NASCAR

The National Automobiles Dealers Association — the same people who print price guides for everything from new cars to snowmobiles — is urging new car and truck dealers to to offer free Green Checkups to anyone who drives onto the lot.

The association’s new web site, Green Driving USA, lists the spots dealers will check for you, all of which focus on fuel economy. Here’s a smattering of the dozen or so points they’ll take a look at:

• Tire inflation
• Air filter
• Motor oil
• Excess weight
• They’ll even check up on your driving habits

The site has green driving tips, sales figures for hybrids and small cars, and a glossary of green terms, from “acid rain,” which is so 1980s, to the latest buzzwords, like “xeriscape.”

Staffers at The Boston Globe recently put five Toyota Prius hybrids to the test in the Great Prius Mileage-athon. They had to drive from friendly territory — a Whole Foods — to enemy territory — a Hummer dealership — from an old-school, F1-style standing start in the parking lot. Best gas mileage wins.

As narrator and Globe columnist Alex Beam puts it in the video, “You don’t get there very fast, but you feel better about getting there.” I hope he felt great at the finish line — he was the race’s biggest loser, at just over 50 mpg. To see the winner, take a 3-minute coffee break and watch the video. It’s no Michael Phelps, but it’s inspiring nonetheless.

At a press event in Portland, Oregon, Dan Kapp, Ford’s director of powertrain research, said that the company has plans to become the number-one hybrid  producer in the country next year. By adding hybrid versions of the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan to the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids already on the market, Ford will double the number of its hybrids on the road.

Kapp laid out Ford’s long-term strategy, from today to 2050. The company plans to migrate its advanced fuel-saving technologies, like hybrid systems and the new EcoBoost engine, across the product line by 2012, so at least a few Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles will get a little better gas mileage. By 2020, Kapp said Ford will fully implement current technology and begin to delve into more gasoline-electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and more. After that, the plan is to roll out hydrogen fuel-cell cars, biofuel-powered vehicles, and whatever other new technologies have developed by then.

Kapp was eager to point out the advantages of Ford’s new EcoBoost engine, which uses gasoline direct injection and turbocharging to raise fuel efficiency by as much as 20% and lower tailpipe emissions by as much as 15%. The physically smaller engine will be able to deliver the same or greater power as traditional Ford engines, and will be available first in the 2009 Lincoln MKS sedan.

Kapp pointed out that while Ford was not pursuing hydrogen-powered cars as quickly as Honda, nor was it chasing Chevy’s PHEV Volt with any conviction, it does have the first driveable hydrogen fuel-cell PHEV in the Edge HySeries. The fleet of 30 cars is still very much in the test stage, and Kapp noted that hydrogen fuel has “monumental infrastructure problems.”

When fielding questions about bringing clean diesel cars from Europe (answer: not any time soon), a fellow journalist mentioned that he ran his diesel-powered Ford truck on B99 every summer. Kapp nearly choked on his coffee when he heard that one of his trucks was being powered by 99% biodiesel a few months out of the year. I was surprised that he was surprised — he was in eco-conscious Portland, after all.

Inspired by Willie Nelson’s commitment to biodiesel and the cross-country races of the ’60s and ’70s, Nik Bristow and a partner will bomb non-stop from New York to L.A. in a biodiesel-powered Jetta starting September 22. The trick? They’re going to do the Willie Run, as they call it, on one tank of Bio Willie fuel.

While biodiesel does get good mpgs, it doesn’t get 3,000 miles per tank. That’s why, according to Autobloggreen.com’s interview with Bristow, the Jetta has been outfitted with a huge spare fuel tank, just like the Cannonball Run guys used to do.

The Willie One, as the Jetta has been dubbed, has plenty of room for sponsors’ names. So if you’ve always wanted to see a car with your name on it but don’t have the $300,000 to slap a sticker on Dale Jr.’s car, this is your chance. Sponsorship of the Willie One starts at five bucks.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has teamed up with Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado to unveil the ecoDriving campaign. [WARNING: When you click on that link, the Governator immediately starts talking to you, with nary a stop or mute button in sight.] Auto manufacturers and dealers, along with industry leaders and politicians, have aimed the campaign at drivers who want to increase the fuel efficiency and reduce the emissions of the car they already drive.

The site offers tips like keeping tires properly inflated and “riding the green wave” — maintaining a steady speed to hit all the green lights on a long street. I have an uncle who is the king of this maneuver; I thought he was anal, but it turns out he’s a natural-born ecoDriver. The site also recommends keeping the gas cap tight to reduce evaporation.

There’s a clever ecoCalculator to tell you, based on your yearly mileage, mpg, and driving habits, how many pounds of CO2 you could be saving by adopting a couple new habits. If I kept the tires on my little red truck inflated, for instance, I’d save $68 a year on gas and keep 76 more pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

The site has games, resources, and will help you send a message to your governor asking him or her to sign on to the ecoDriving campaign. In a related measure, the National Automobile Dealers Association is recommending that its members give free green checkups in the month of September, along with child safety seat inspections.

The NY Times reported last weekend on a dozen autos you might not expect to get such great gas mileage. Among their picks was a Corvette, which I can tell you first-hand gets better gas mileage than you’d expect, at 26 mpg on the highway — if you drive it reasonably and responsibly. But who does that in a Corvette?

Here’s the Times’s list with combined miles per gallon, but you’ll want to read the whole list on the newspaper’s Web site. Reporter Lawrence Ulrich includes everything from tiny econoboxes to full-size SUVs and pickups. He purposefully left out the obvious, like the Prius and Honda Civic, to focus on overlooked models in broad categories.

• Toyota Camry Hybrid, 34 mpg
• Volkswagen Jetta TDI, 33 mpg
• Mini Cooper, 29 mpg
• Nissan Versa, 27 mpg
• Honda Accord coupe, 24 mpg
• Toyota RAV-4, 24 mpg
• Mazda 5, 23 mpg
• BMW 328i, 22 mpg
• Toyota Tacoma, 21 mpg
• Chevy Corvette, 19 mpg
• Ford Flex, 19 mpg
• Mercedes-Benz GL320 Bluetec, 19 mpg

The Cobalt XFE has done so well for GM in these days of expensive gas and carbon-consciousness that it’s expanding the fuel-efficient XFE measures to the much larger Silverado, Tahoe, Sierra, and Yukon this fall.

The XFE models get 5% better mileage on the highway and 7% better in the city, which in trucks and SUVs as big as these is still a pretty small difference. All four models will get 15 city, 21 highway, as opposed to the vanilla varieties, which get 14 city, 20 highway. Huzzah!

The difference the XFE tweaks make is more noticeable in a small car like the Cobalt, where the company first used them. The regular-issue 2008 Cobalt with an automatic transmission gets 22 mpg city and 31 mpg highway; the 2008 FXE trimmed Cobalt gets 25 in the city and 36 on the highway.

The XFE designation means the vehicles were lightly redesigned with more fuel-efficient engines and better aerodynamics. The four new trucks all have:

• 5.3L Flex-Fuel engine
• Aluminum cylinder block and heads to reduce mass
• Lowered suspension to improve aerodynamics
• Aluminum wheels and spare to reduce mass
• Low rolling resistance tires with higher tire pressure

I don’t mean GM has found a way to turn corporate bluster into a fuel source, though that would ease the burden of the price of gasoline. A while back, the Department of Energy issued a challenge to automakers. It asked them to improve fuel economy by 10% using nothing but wasted exhaust heat to help power the vehicle.

GM, with BMW close on its heels, has developed a thermoelectric generator that could create enough electricity to augment or replace the usual alternator in a gasoline-powered car. Thermoelectric devices can use temperature differences to create electricity. When one side of the generator is heated, electrons move to the cooler side. The movement creates a current, which is collected by electrodes and converted to electricity.

The GM prototype is set to be tested in a Chevy Suburban next year, where a 10% fuel economy boost would mean a 1-mpg improvement. In a small car like the Chevy Aveo (the Suburban’s exact opposite), the boost could be enough to put its combined economy over 30 mpg. BMW and its research partner Ohio State University will run tests of its prototype next year, too.

Cadillac’s first-ever hybrid, the 2009 Escalade Hybrid, will cost a whopping $71,685, including destination charges. The green-ish Escalade turns in 20 mpg city and 21 mpg highway, same as the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon hybrids, but it costs $20,000 more than either of its stablemates.

The Escalade will hit dealerships in September and will likely appeal to the same people who were buying the top-end luxury SUV in the first place, but now it comes with eco-cachet. That little green “H” logo looks good no matter which aftermarket rims and grilles you choose.

In contrast, the standard-issue 2009 Escalade without the two-mode hybrid system gets 12 mpg in the city and 19 on the highway with gasonline or 10 mpg/14 mpg if you get the E85 Flex Fuel version. The hybrid has puts out 9.2 tons of carbon annually, according to the EPA, while E85 emits 10.1 tons and gasoline emits 12. 2 tons.

New online app Fuelly allows users to record mileage, track it over time, share it over the network with other Fuelly users, and compare fuel economy to EPA numbers. Do it from your desktop or take on the go with your iPhone or other mobile, Web-lovin’ technological wonder.

There are currently, as of the minute I’m writing this post, 1,981 cars registered with the site. Interesting note: there are more Jettas using Fuelly (71) than Priuses (34), and more Civics (157) than any other model. There’s one Ferrari Testarossa listed, but right now it says it gets 200,000 mpg after one fill-up. I find that hard to believe.

The site also offers gas-saving tips, most of which I’ve covered over at sister site RiverWired.com, but they always bear repeating. And there’s a forum for asking questions and posting your own fuel-saving tips.

You, Citizen Driver, are not the only one who cringes every time you fill the gas tank or feels  a pang of guilt when your car belches those nasty emissions out the tailpipe. The American Le Mans Series of racing professionals knows your pain. That’s why it’s instituting the Green Challenge at its signature event, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, scheduled for October 4.

Three factors will be considered in naming a winner of this race-within-a-race:

• Performance (of course — this is a race)
• Fuel Efficiency
• Environmental Impact

Cars will be ranked by the amount of energy they use, the greenhouse gases they emit, and the amount of gasoline they displace over the course of the race. Which boils down to going as far as they can, as fast as they can, with the least environmental impact.

ALMS has been taking steps all season to lessen the environmental impact of racing. GM, Audi, and others have introduced race cars running on alternative fuels like E85 and clean diesel. You can bet those teams will be vying for the Green Challenge title. Race fans and consumers are winners in this event, too, as technological innovations on the track often trickle down to cars on the showroom floor.

Even NASCAR is dipping a toe in the clean-and-green waters. Michigan International Speedway, which hosts two NASCAR events during the season, stepped up its recycling efforts this year. During the Lifelock 400 weekend in June alone, MIS collected 15.3 tons of aluminum, plastic, and cardboard. They’re even recycling construction materials from some recent upgrades to the facilities, and they’ve instituted an office recycling program.

Eco-friendlier fuels, recycling … What is auto racing coming to? Oh, right. Its senses.

Nissan announced that a new device called the ECO Pedal will be available on some of its 2009 models. The pedal will let the driver know that he may be using more fuel than necessary by pushing back on his foot a little. There’s also a little green “ECO” light in the dash to help you learn to use fuel wisely rather than wastefully.

Nissan says the ECO Pedal can earn a driver as much as 5-10% better fuel economy. They didn’t say which models will receive the new technology, or even which countries might get it.

In the meantime, U.S. car buyers can count on the Nissan Altima hybrid for 2009, which was named one of the top 10 green cars by Kelly Blue Book. The company just announced pricing for the hybrid at $26,650, and the EPA rated it at 35 city/33 highway.

Plug-In Supply in Petaluma, California, is selling plug-in conversion kits for the Toyota Prius for the low, low price of $4,995. How can they sell it so cheap? First, that’s the price of the kit only, no shipping or installation included; second, they’re using CalCars Open Source Prius+ Technology as the basis of the conversion.

For you do-it-yourselfers and engineers out there, the kit includes lead-acid batteries and the box to hold them, charger, and wire harness. There’s also a switch you can flip to operate your Prius on battery power up to 52 mph — 10 mph higher than an unmodfied Prius. The converted PHEV can then run 10-15 miles on electricity before the gasoline engine kicks in, giving you 100+ mpg. Plug-In Supply even designed the kit to be upgraded to lithium-iron-phosphate batteries for longer range, when they become available.

There are currently only a handful of dealers where you can buy the kit and lug it home, but Plug-In Supply is looking for more. Those nine dealers already on board stretch from California to Florida and New Jersey, though, so you might be able to find one not too far from home.

Automakers have dreamed up a new all-green event to coincide with the wildly popular Woodward Dream Cruise. They call it NextCruise, and it will debut in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, with a public preview Friday, August 15 and activities Saturday, August 16.

Nine automakers have signed up — General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Volkswagen — plus Bridgestone and the the IndyCar and American Le Mans racing series. All the participants aim to prove that green technology is clean, comfy, and cruise-worthy with displays and free 15-minute test drives.

Hybrids and clean diesels will make up the bulk of the event, in contrast to the cars rolling along Woodward Avenue at the14th annual Woodward Dream Cruise. Classic and muscle cars both pristine and hot-rodded will cruise from Ferndale, Michigan, to Pontiac in one of the largest vintage car cruises in the country. If anybody needs to be convinced of the fun to be had in low-emissions vehicles, it’s these guys.