You are currently browsing the archive for the MPG category.
A dozen of the contenders for the Progressive Automotive X Prize were on hand in the “Making Green Cool Zone” at SEMA 2009 in Las Vegas. I’ll keep the text short — you know by now that this is a competition to create a buildable, drivable car that gets 100 MPGe with a $10 million purse — so you can peruse the cars below.
While the Toyota Prius gets the Aerius treatment at the official Toyota booth, there’s a way cooler, totally pimped version at the other end of the “Making Green Cool Zone” at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas. Like all the best supercars, the doors on this Prius up, and the gold-and-green flake paint job lets people know you care about looking styling as much as you care about the environment.
Stay tuned for more posts from SEMA, including more on the Prius Aerius and announcements from the X Prize people.
It’s no surprise to learn that people are buying fewer cars these days than they have in years. An article in the Sunday New York Times by Micheline Maynard explores why exactly that is, and it’s pretty encouraging. While the expected reasons rise to the top of the pile, like the awful economy and a turn toward the green side of transportation, there are more nuanced reasons in there.
What Ms. Maynard found, in a nutshell:
The article explores the major shift away from car purchases as an emotional, status-based purchase. Have you given up your car? Are you car sharing? Car pooling? Riding a bike, like 8% of Portland, Oregon, commuters? Do you feel like you have to have a car, given your commute or family situation? Tell us your experience in the comments.
The Kia Forte sedan is zippier than you’d expect from a car that gets 31 mpg on the highway, and it did rate a 7 out of 10 on California’s Global Warming Score (higher is better). But calling it “green” would be a stretch.
The 2.4-liter, 4-cylinder engine and 5-speed automatic transmission go a long way toward making the Kia Forte a fuel sipper rather than a gas guzzler. There’s a green “eco” light that comes on to the right of the speedometer to indicate when your driving style is saving fuel. The problem with the light is that it can blink on and off as you slow for traffic then speed up for a green light. Catching it out of the corner of my eye, I kept thinking I’d left my right blinker on. It also wasn’t enough of a reward to encourage good driving habits.
If you have family or friends who need to trade in a gas hog of an SUV or pickup truck, and they’re not ready to go hippie-dippy hybrid, the Kia Forte would be a good transition car. It’s got lots of pep in the gas pedal — which doesn’t lend itself to green driving — but the engine size and transmission keep you from burning too much fuel, no matter how you drive.
In the end, after a week of driving, I got a combined 26 mpg, with about equal highway and street driving. It sounds odd to say, since that’s a perfectly respectable number, but I expected higher. For about the same price, a person could get a Honda Insight, which gets 43 mpg on the highway but lacks the quickness of the Kia.
2010 Kia Forte SX Info
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
The Environmental Protection Agency published its official gas mileage numbers for the 2010 model year, including the leaders in each segment. Guess who won overall? Yeah, it was no contest, and no surprise: the 2010 Toyota Prius, with its 51 city/48 highway rating beat all the competition.
The other thing to note about the list is that out of ten cars with top fuel economy, only one is not a hybrid, the Smart ForTwo. If you take a gander at the top two cars in each category at FuelEconomy.gov, the fuel type varies a bit more, with Audi and Volkswagen scoring well with their diesel wagons.
Let’s start with what you want to know about the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid: I drove it for one week on city streets and freeways, in traffic and on clear stretches, and got a combined 37 mpg.
There are two things I love about the Fusion Hybrid: the LCD instrument cluster and its car-like appearance. The instrument cluster is as addictive as a video game — even though its designers were asked to tone done the gamey-ness of it. A green box to the left of the speedometer pops up when driving to let you know when you’re using EV mode, and I was obsessed with driving under battery power alone as much as possible. Not just for the good of the environment, mind you. Eco-friendly driving earns you a bushel of leaves over on the right side of the LCD screen. I wanted leaves! More leaves!
The exterior styling might not strike some people as anything to write home about, which is exactly why I like it. Personally, I prefer a bit more adventuresome designs, but the Fusion Hybrid looks like a regular car, not a lunar lander. This is a four-door sedan my mom, or even my grandmother, would feel comfortable tooling around in. The change from electric to gas power and back again is seamless, as is the start/stop technology.
When you turn the car off, the LCD readouts slide behind the speedometer and a trip summary pops up so you can see the number of leaves you earned and get detailed numbers on your fuel consumption. I delighted in telling everyone things like, “I drove all the way here — 12.5 miles — and only used .2 gallons of gas.” Everyone I told this to suppressed an eye roll, which I appreciate.
2010 Ford Fusion Specs
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
Green Car Journal has released the names of the five cars that made its short list for 2010 Green Car of the Year. The winner will be announced at the L.A. Auto Show in early December.
Without further ado, here are the nominees:
I’ve driven the Honda Insight and VW Jetta TDI (not the new-to-the-U.S. Golf), and reviewed them for Good Green Cars. The Mercury Milan Hybrid is a sister car to the Ford Fusion Hybrid, which I’m testing this week and will write up in a day or two.
What do you think, GoodGreenCars.com readers? Which one would get your vote? Or would you vote for a different car entirely? Leave your nominees in the comments.
Photo by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
Small-car, clean-diesel enthusiasts will be glad to hear that the 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI will be sold in the U.S. next year. Why should you be glad? Well, for starters, it was name the “World Car of the Year.” Here are the deets, if you’re in the market for a fuel-efficient car while you wait for the Nissan Leaf to be available in your town:
The Volkswagen L1 diesel hybrid concept created quite a stir at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show — which despite a slew of high-end exotics was more green than ever this year. Volkswagen says its one-liter concept car would be the most fuel-efficient car in the world. Actually, they say it is the most fuel-efficient car in the world, but I’ll withhold that title until the car leaves the “study” stage and reaches production.
The L1 is light, thanks to a carbon fiber body; compact like a VW Fox, and short, with a height similar to the low-slung Lamborghini Murcielago, according to Volkswagen. The hybrid has an electric motor and a teeny diesel-powered engine, plus start-stop technology for further fuel savings.
The VW L1 Concept by the numbers:
In advance of its German debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Fisker announced that its Fisker Karma will have lower carbon dioxide emissions than any other production car on the street today. The company also released estimated fuel cost for the plug-in hybrid.
Here are the Fisker Karma numbers you need to know:
One of the many criticisms of GM in the past couple of years, as the U.S. auto industry crumbled under its own weight, was that it didn’t listen to what consumers wanted today and instead built and sold what buyers wanted a while back.
No more! GM has launched The Lab, a site where your feedback on its eco cars of the future is taken into account. Right now, the discussion is centered on two vehicles: the Bare Necessity Truck and Bare Necessity Car. It turns out the people want a no-frills, fuel-sipping platform that can be customized by the buyer.
Users who create a profile can log in and volunteer for focus groups, leave comments, and let GM know what you want in a greener car or truck (small diesel engine, anyone?) and what you’ll pay to get it.
Automotive News, and industry publication, recently did a rundown of the upcoming cars from Japanese manufacturers. Here’s the latest in green cars from the Land of the Rising Sun (and Rising Fuel Economy):
Honda:
Infiniti:
Lexus:
Mitsubishi:
Nissan:
Scion:
Subaru:
Toyota:
Image of the I-MiEV by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
The federal CARS rebate program — better known as Cash for Clunkers — came to an early end today, for the second time. The program, which started July 1 despite having no set guidelines for dealers or buyers, quickly ran out of funds. When The Rule, as the government’s Cash for Clunkers clarification was called, was published in late July outlining requirements and restrictions, buyers eagerly hopped on the bandwagon and exhausted the original $1 billion set aside for the program.
Congress acted fast and added $2 billion more to the program before its summer recess, but the money wasn’t enough to sustain CARS through its intended end date in November. As of Sunday night, Cash for Clunkers was over, with no extensions in sight. Thanks to red tape and the sheer number of people who used the program to ditch their old car and buy a shiny new one, many dealerships put the brakes on CARS at the end of last week.
What’s next for the auto industry? Let’s hope its an infusion of cash for hybrids, electric cars, trains, public transportation, and — hell, why not? — bike riding safety courses for newbies. That’s my post-CARS dream world; what’s yours? Leave it in the comments.
Enginer, a company based in Troy, Michigan, has given itself a mission: to make 100 mpg technology affordable. To this end, Team Enginer, as they like to call themselves, has developed two systems. One is on the cutting edge of 21st century technology, while the other recaptures some of the energy of the early days of the automotive age.
First, Enginer has two plug-in conversion kits for hybrids like the Prius that start at $1,995 — thousands less than the competition. It can be installed by a conversion pro or a do-it-yourselfer, though the company is hoping to get manufacturers to install the kits at the factory, which would qualify the car for some fat tax credits. And, of course, radically improve gas mileage.
Second, Team Enginer has a steam combustion engine conversion kit for sale. The kit goes into your existing car, captures waste heat, uses it to warm water, then uses the steam to drive the engine. In case you weren’t aware, around 1900, one-third of the cars on the road were gasoline-powered, one-third were electric, and one third ran on steam. Seems that Team Enginer would like a piece of all those pies, though they wouldn’t mind if the gasoline slice were a bit smaller.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard any real news about the Chevy Volt, and now GM has captured our green imaginations by claiming that the extended-range electric car will get 230 mpg. Now the EPA, GM, and of course the blogosphere are saying that number may be too good to be true.
GM used the EPA’s new mileage model for electric cars to come up with that massive 230 mpg. There are two problems with this, though: The EPA hasn’t finalized the electric car methodology; and the Volt isn’t purely electronic. Though the first 40 miles are all electric, the Volt has a small engine that uses gasoline and acts as a generator for the electric motor. The engine never powers the car directly, but this is the kind of hiccup that has kept the EPA from giving its mileage equivalency methods the green light.
That doesn’t take into account the Volt’s carbon dioxide emissions, or if the driver is a pedal-smashing speed freak, or if the power comes from a wind farm or a coal plant, or any number of things. Before the EPA could say, “Hey, wait a minute … ” GM had whipped up a 230 logo with a smiling outlet and a green background.
The Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., has crunched the numbers and declared Cash for Clunkers an economic and ecological success.
The Department of Transportation has calculated that the average fuel economy of the clunkers traded in so far has been 15.8 mph, while the new cars purchased under the program have averaged 25.4 mpg. According to the EPI, this translates to an annual savings of:
Not to mention the shot in the arm it’s given the economy. This kind of government support can’t last forever, but it’s nice to know it worked like it was supposed to. Mostly.
Researchers are Oregon State University (go Beavers!) have found that microcrystalline cellulose, which is made from plant fibers, could be used to reinforce rubber tires instead of silica or carbon black, which just sounds nasty.
Cellulose fiber has been used in other rubbery bits, like belts and hoses, before. Using it in tires reduced the cost of production and the rolling resistance. Lower rolling resistance makes for better fuel economy. The cellulose also upped the tires’ grippiness on wet roads, which is great for safety, especially here in Oregon. Silica, for its part, is a high-energy product to process, and carbon black is made from oil.
The only issue now is the durability of the cellulose-reinforced tires. No company has jumped on the cellulose bandwagon yet, but Yokohama’s dB Super E-spec high-performance passenger tires use orange oil, and Michelin’s Energy Saver tires promise increased fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.
Toyota will release a mass-market plug-in Prius in 2010, with a price tag set at $47,000. The car will be able to charge at a 110-volt or 220-volt outlet, both of which are common in American households. Few details are available beyond this basic announcement that the cars are indeed on the way, and that Toyota will build 20,000-30,000, according to a Reuters report. The car will use lithium batteries and may be a direct competitor for the forthcoming Chevy Volt.
Okay, you’ve heard about the U.S. Government’s “Cash for Clunkers” deal for weeks now; how can you, savvy green consumer, take advantage of the program? First, you should know that it’s official name is CARS, or Car Allowance Rebate System. Clever, no? And you should know that there’s an entire web site devoted to CARS that can answer almost any question about the process you might have.
In a nutshell, though, here are the points you need to know if you’re considering trading in your old car for a bright, shiny new one — with better mileage and, one supposes, cleaner emissions from the tailpipe.
The Department of Transportation/NHTSA documentation for the program says there is an interactive tool at CARS.gov for determining if your car is eligible and how much your rebate would be, but as of today, that tool isn’t showing up. Maybe it’ll be there later this week; after all, the program went live three weeks before anyone knew exactly how it would even work.
Solar Gard says it’s got the solution for sun-warmed cars: a film that covers the windows and keeps the interior cool. And a cool interior, the theory goes, doesn’t require the air conditioning to run at full blast to make it habitable, saving you gas in the process.
The Ultra Performance film from Solar Gard lets 76% of visible light through, according to the New York Times, while blocking out 99% of UV rays. (Save your skin and gas!) The company’s web site points out that the film can also be used to keep houses cool and lower a/c costs at home.
In addition to saving fuel by not having to blast the a/c, it also saves wear and tear on the cooling system, which means fewer breakdowns, leaks, and replacements, none of which do Mother Earth any favors.
UPDATE: Solar Gard contacted me to make a correction — the Solar Gard film consists of layers of nano particles and a dyed application process in one layer of film. The film doesn’t have to be layered to block out nearly all UV rays, as I had originally written. Thanks for the correction, Bill! – GoodGreenCars.com
I recently bought a new computer, and I noticed that the box the sales associate put in my cart had a sticker reading “SmartWay Transport Partnership.” It had the same leaf-and-road logo as the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay auto certification program, so I thought I’d look into it.
It turns out it’s no big secret, the SmartWay Transportation Partnership. The agency has partnered with the trucking industry to reduce fuel consumption and polluting emissions, including carbon dioxide. The aim is to save 3.3 to 6.6 billion gallons of diesel fuel per year, which amounts to about 150 million barrels of oil.
How can they get there? There are a few strategies, some of which are easier to do than others:
The EPA keeps a long list of SmartWay Transport partners, which includes hundreds of trucking companies. If your green business has grown to the point where you need to get product further than the craft fair downtown, this may be a good resource. Consumers like me notice those little SmartWay stickers, you know.
You’ve heard about the “cash for clunkers” legislation that allows U.S. car buyers to get up to $4,500 in cash vouchers for replacing gas guzzlers with fuel efficient vehicles. If you’ve got an older car or pickup truck with rotten gas mileage, you can replace it with a new car getting 22 mpg or better or a new pickup getting 18 mpg or better and receive a break on the price courtesy of your government.
Which cars should you be looking at? Marketing service Autobytel complied a list of auto makers that have vehicles that qualify for vouchers, and even figured out how many of the cars in each automakers fleet were eligible. Every vehicle offered by Mini and Scion, for instance, could get you some cash toward a new car if you trade in a clunker.
Here’s Autobytel’s top ten cash for clunkers cars, with the percentage of each maker’s fleet that qualifies for a voucher when you buy a new car:
Honda doesn’t receive perfect marks probably because it has that massive Ridgeline pickup truck in the fleet. And Volkswagen all the way down at number 10 was a surprise. Also, keep in mind that Saturn’s future is a bit shaky these days, and Pontiac has received an official death sentence as part of GM’s restructuring.
The latest online app to help drivers track fuel economy comes from Moblu. The site asks for your vehicle’s year, make and model then requires you to create a user name and password.
Where, you might be asking, does the social networking come in? Moblu uses your Twitter user name (no Twitter password required) to share your mileage with other Tweeple. Moblu users can record events that might affect gas mileage, like “Changed Tire Pressure” or “Lots of Highway Driving.” You can also record a fill-up, calculate mileage for a road trip, and find fellow Moblu users on the site.
Clicking on “My Garage” shows fellow Moblu cars, with actual mileage, trends, and number of fill-ups. You can choose to follow anyone who looks interesting, or keep tabs on your friends’ fuel economy.
As part of the German carmaker’s promotional effort for its clean diesel engines, Audi will donate $1 to the Nature Conservancy’s carbon offset program for every Facebook user who joins the program, up to $25,000.
Audi TDI clean diesels reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 20% and increase fuel efficiency by up to 30% over gasoline-powered cars, according to the company. “Audi’s contribution will provide necessary support to our voluntary carbon offset program’s reforestation and forest protection projects, but it will also help us to bring the benefits of the project to a new audience of supporters,” said Zoe Kant of the Nature Conservancy in a press release.
If you’re a Facebook user and you want to take part in the program to offset your own carbon emissions and get that extra $1 donation per person from Audi, visit www.causes.com/natureconservancy.
Remember when I said diesel prices were lower than gasoline for the first time in years? Remember when I wondered if that would change American diesel buying habits? Well, it has, apparently. Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz are both reporting increases in sales of their clean-diesel vehicles.
If you’re in the market for a clean diesel car, here are the 50-state diesels available right now, with their starting MSRP:
Each of these is available from the manufacturer as of today, and are eligible of a federal tax credit of about $1000. Check FuelEconomy.gov for details.
Image of a BMW diesel at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
Michelin has announced its new tire, the Energy Saver A/S, calling it “the most fuel-efficient tire on the road.” It promises up to 8% better fuel economy and reduced carbon dioxide emissions for any car that uses the tire, plus Michelin says its even offers better braking capabilities than other tires.
Here’s the Energy Saver’s claims to fame:
The tires are in the $140-$150 range per tire, depending on the size required for your car. Definitely not cheap, but if you can swing it, they may save on gas in the long run in addition to helping reduce CO2 emissions.
The Chevy Malibu hybrid will see the end of production in 2009, along with the Saturn Aura, as GM slims down its lineup and makes an attempt at building cars people want to buy.
The Malibu and Aura are both mild hybrids, meaning their electric motors cannot power the car alone. The motor can only assist the gasoline-powered engine, which increases the fuel efficiency of the car. The problem is, the fuel efficiency of the Malibu only increased by about 4 mpg — but the hybrid system added $4,000 to the price tag.
According to a report on Manufacturing.net, GM isn’t abandoning gasoline-electric hybrids. It plans on having new models out as soon as summer 2010, but it wouldn’t elaborate on what models or technologies we might see.
GM has affirmed its commitment to building the extended-range electric Chevy Volt/Opel Ampera, despite its economic woes.
Image of the 2009 Chevy Malibu Hybrid at the Detroit Auto Show by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
I’ve long said that the future of the automobile won’t rest on any one new technology. Volvo apparently took this to heart and threw several of the latest alternative-fuel technologies into one model, which could appear on the market as soon as 2012.
There were few details released, but here’s what we know about the first model to embody Volvo’s “Drive towards Zero” mission:
Photo of the concept Volvo hybrid courtesy of Volvo Cars.
Diesel prices are, on average, lower than gasoline prices for the first time in two years. The question is, will it matter to Americans?
In the wake of crazy high gas prices last summer and the collapse of the U.S. auto industry over the past nine months or so, all three Detroit car makers shelved plans for new diesel engines slated for pickup trucks. Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen forged ahead with their clean diesel plans, but sales haven’t been as peppy as they had hoped.
Now, with cheaper diesel and tougher CAFE standards in the future, will U.S. car buyers flock to clean diesels? Or will the stinky stigma remain while we save our pennies for the Tesla S electric sedan or the Chevy Volt, which GM has promised not to abondon despite bankruptcy?
I’ve driven a couple of the clean diesels on sale in the U.S. and had pleasant experiences. You can revisit the Mercedes Blue-Tec and VW Jetta TDI posts for the scoop.
The Internets are buzzing with a quote from an unnamed Honda spokesman who says the company is planning to produce a Honda Fit Hybrid as soon as the 2010-2011 fiscal year. The accelerated timetable for the hybrid model may be a response to the accelerated CAFE standards announced by the White House last month.
Honda will also produce the sporty CR-Z hybrid in 2010 — and that’s a definite. The Fit will follow, Honda says. The current Honda Fit already gets 27 mpg city, 33 mpg highway. John O’Dell, senior editor at Green Car Advisor, speculates that the Fit Hybrid could get fuel economy numbers somewhere around 50 mpg and a price tag in the neighborhood of $20,000.
Image of a gasoline Honda Fit by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
More than 60 new engines have entered the race for 2009 International Engine of the Year, a title which has gone to BMW for the past four years running. Hybrid engines from the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight have won in the past, and with new incarnations on the market this year, one of them may win again. Diesel engines from Mercedes-Benz and Renault are on the slate, along with non-green engines like BMW’s V8 in the 750i and Jaguar’s 5-liter V8.
The overall winner will be chosen by an international panel of 65 auto journalists (alas, I was not invited). There are also categories divided up by engine size, along with Best New Engine, Green Engine, and Performance Engine. Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive engine has taken the Green Car (formerly Fuel Economy) prize every year since 2004, when it wrested the title away from Honda.
This year’s winners will be announced in Stuttgart, Germany, at the Engine Expo, held June 16-18.
Photo by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
Well, anyone can visit the site to learn about Volkswagen’s TDI clean-diesel engines, but it’s aimed at U.S. car buyers, who are still a bit leery of the technology.
The first hurdle in America is cost. In Europe, gasoline carries a heavy tax, making diesel vehicles the cheaper choice in the long run, despite higher initial cost. VW wants to convince us here in the U.S. of the value of fewer fill-ups and great gas mileage — like the nearly 40 mpg I got in the Jetta TDI Sportwagen.
Second is the lingering perception that diesel is stinky and gross. Thanks to strict emissions standards in the U.S. — and stricter standards on the way — diesel is no longer the sooty, smelly mess of a fuel that it used to be. Clean diesel pretty much lives up to its name, and VW rival Mercedes has a tail-pipe treatment in the BlueTec system that cleans the emissions further.
Don’t forget the benefits of biodiesel, especially when it can be made from post-consumer oils. VW has long been on the biodiesel wagon, even allowing customers to use it without violating the warranties on their new diesels.
I was at a meeting with Stefan Jacoby, CEO of VW North America, last week. He said VW is leaning heavily on its clean-diesel and improved gasoline technologies to improve fuel efficiency by as much as 50% in the next few years rather than investing heavily in hybrids and EVs. We’ll find out in the next decade how that strategy plays out for VW, versus the likes of GM’s Chevy Volt extended-range EV or Mitsubishi’s i MiEV.
Image by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
The much-anticipated Tata Nano, the world’s least-expensive new car, has already made a splash in its native India, where 203,000 orders have already been placed.
According to the New York Times’ “Wheels” blog, the company is only capable of building 100,000 units in the first run of the Nano. Tata will draw the names of those lucky first hundred thou from the pool of applicants. Surprisingly, only 20% of the orders placed were for the least-expensive model. Half of the orders were for the Nano LX, which for $3,300 adds power front windows, a heater, fog lamps, and exclusive Sunshine Yellow paint.
Image courtesy of Tata.
Last week, a team of Ford engineers, hypermiler Wayne Gerdes, and NASCAR driver Carl Edwards pushed a new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid to its fuel economy limit, racking up 81.5 mpg–and $8000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
The foursome traveled over 1400 miles of highway and city streets in the greater (much greater) Washington, DC, area in about 48 hours. The Ford Fusion, a full hybrid, is rated at 41 mpg city, 36 mpg highway, and can get 700 miles on a tank of gas. This team, with careful driving but no modifications, doubled that.
I’ve been in the new Fusion hybrid for a short jaunt, and I was impressed with its capabilities as a gas-sipper and a comfortable sedan in the little time I had with the car. With the right drivers and a good-gas goal, it seems to be capable of more than I suspected, though real-life numbers are likely to be closer to the EPA estimates.
Image of the team breaking the seal on the gas tank at the end of their 1447-mile run on a single tank courtesy of Ford.
Oregon-based HumanCar Inc. made some big announcements recently — including the fact that the company plans to build its HumanCar neighborhood electric vehicle and sell it to the public. The open-topped car may not seem too practical in rainy Oregon, but its lead-acid batteries can store energy to be used at home, should you need a little extra juice.
Where, you might ask, does the human come into play in the HumanCar? While the batteries can be charged at any standard 110-volt outlet, they can also be topped off by people power. The car seats up to four humans, and each seat has an oar-like handle. The occupants can “row” the car for a bit to generate energy that can be stored in the cells and used later.
The HumanCar NEV is limited to 35 mph, but the FM-4 is limited only by your good health. It’s powered solely by people.
The brand-new Honda Insight is a big improvement, design-wise, over its predecessor. Granted, the aerodynamic shape has become familiar to us by now, thanks to the original Insight (with its covered wheels) and the uber-popular Toytoa Prius. But it’s got some moves of its own worth noting.
First is the informative dash. How do you want your information? Honda allows the driver to select what kind of input he receives, from current average miles per gallon to fuel economy for the last few trips. A glowing backlight behind the heads-up speedometer ranges from bright green to bright blue, depending on how hard you’re pushing the engine.
The Honda Insight isn’t a “true” gasoline electric hybrid, though it does have both a gasoline engine and a battery-powered motor. The difference is that the electric motor can only assist the gas engine; it can’t run on electric power alone, as the Prius or the Ford Escape can. Still, I managed a respecatble 44 mpg over about 100 miles of all-city driving.
Granted, the car itself helped me toward better fuel economy. I had the “Econ” button pushed nearly the entire time, which maximizes mpgs by regulating engine power and accessories. When I turned off the “Econ” mode, the gains in power and zip didn’t outweigh the gas-saving measures.
My only real complaint about the car is the split rear window. In the week I had the Insight, I never got used to the clear top window, pink-tinted lower window, and wide plastic bar between the two. A zippy car it’s not, but with a starting price just below $20,000 (not including destination charges or any federal or state incentives), it could be a game-changer in consumer’s minds.
Photos by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
Daimler’s Car2Go program, which it launched in Germany last week, may come stateside — to Austin, Texas, no less, where they like to keep it weird. The company plans on bringing 200 Smart ForTwos to the Texas town and making them available to subscribers 24-7.
Cars can be prebooked or used on-the-spot, if it’s not already spoken for. Car2Go members use a smart card and PIN to access the cars, then pay about 25 cents a minute to tool about town, which includes gas. Hourly and day rates are available too, according to a post in the New York Times’ Wheels blog.
Austin city employees will get first crack at the system this fall.
Image of the Smart ForTwo at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
On March 26, President Barack Obama pushed new fuel economy regulations for 2011 through the Department of Transportation. The regulations give some teeth to an initiative begun by the Bush administration to reduce emissions and our dependence on foreign oil.
The new standards were drafted quickly to give automakers time to retool production lines to meet the requirements. The 2011 model year was targeted so that the accelerated standards could be implemented quickly while not affecting the aggressive plans Obama has for future fuel economy and emissions standards.
Here’s how the mpgs will play out in 2011:
These are small increases — smaller even than in the Bush proposal — that are expected to be met with little drama by embattled U.S. auto makers. Keep an eye on California, though, as it’s allowed to set its own fuel economy standards in the next few months, along with any other state that should fancy cleaner air and less time at the gas station.
The 2009 Nissan Versa 1.8 S hatchback I tested for a week was cute, bare-bones, fairly cheap — and it got fantastic gas mileage. Really. Here’s how my week went:
The car was a bright-blue hatchback, with bubbly corners and lights. The first thing I noticed was that I had to use the key to get in. No remote keyless entrey here. Seats were manual, windows were manual, locks were manual. It had a basic stereo with decent-enough speakers, and enough room for me but the knees of tall passengers were up against the glovebox. We didn’t try the rear seat.
Without a couple extras like the ABS package, this car could be had for $13,990. As tested, it cost $15,200, which seemed a tad spendy to me for such a Spartan little econobox.
Then, the night before the Versa was to leave my hands, I pulled into the gas station to top it off. I’d driven just over 100 miles almost entirely on surface streets, which used about a quarter tank’s worth of gas. I took my receipt, did the math, and came up with a whopping 32 mpg — on streets! No highway trips this week, no cruise control. With stops and starts and traffic included (though no serious snarls), I got the EPA’s upper estimate for the Versa.
This is the car for people who don’t care what they drive as long as it’s cheap, it’s safe, and it sips gas.
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
The American Le Mans Series will revive its Green X Challenge Award with Michelin tires as the sponsor for 2009. The prototype and GT cars that acheives the best performance and fuel efficiency with the fewest emissions will win the award.
Lest you doubters think Michelin is jumping on the green bandwagon, they’ve been rewarding eco-friendly innovations for a while now. Eleven years ago, they created the Challenge Bibendum for clean vehicles, then in 2006 sponsored the Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. In 2008, it extended the Energy Endurance Challenge to all European Le Mans-series races.
For its part, ALMS has been making the most inroads into green racing, with hybrid, biofuel, and clean diesels at the starting line. ALMS President and CEO Scott Atherton has applauded President Barack Obama’s green auto initiatives, and sees the track as a proving ground for new consumer technologies.
Racing will probably never be as clean a sport as, say, competitive tree planting, but initiatives like the Michelin’s Green X Challenge can help sate our need for speed and our preference for breathing cleaner air.
Photo of the E85-powered Corvette at the last ALMS race of 2008 courtesy of American Le Mans.
This poor 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI SportWagen got a real workout during the week I had it. I had made plans to stay at the Oregon coast, about 100 miles from my home. Then I got roped into a meeting held near Olympia, Washington, about 120 miles from home. All told, I put nearly 500 miles on the odometer — and used almost exactly one full tank of gas.
The diesel engine was quiet, started immediately, and smelled like nothing. It took the hills and curves over the Coast Range like it was a game, and both my short self and my tall husband were comfortable during the ride. The EPA estimates for the Jetta TDI SportWagen are 29 mpg city, 40 mpg highway. I ended up doing quite a bit of highway driving — more than I intended, actually — and was happy with my 37 mpg at the end of the week.
One word of caution to potential buyers: there was no indication on the gas cap that this car required diesel fuel. Drivers are not allowed to pump their own gas in Oregon (or New Jersey), and the attendant had the regular gasoline nozzle in his hand and was about to fill ‘er up. “No! No! Diesel!” I screamed inside the car. Luckily, he heard me and switched to good old B5 (that’s 5% biodiesel, suitable for winter driving). Close call, and one to be aware of if you’re not filling your own diesel tank.
Images by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
The 2009 Honda Fit five-door sport is indeed go. I had a Revolution Orange number this week, and I tooled around town quite happily. There was enough punch for merging onto the highway, and it was as easy to park as a Mini Cooper. It was also impossible to park it in, though a UPS truck tried its hardest outside the coffee shop. Those short, rounded front corners can skirt just about anything.
The test car I had was fitted with a nav system that flipped open to reveal the slot for the CD player. Creature comforts were few, but it did have power windows and door locks. I’m not sure the little wing at the top of the hatchback kept the rear tires stuck to the road, but it added to the car’s sporty looks.
Surprisingly, the car didn’t live up to its EPA fuel economy estimates while it was in my hands. I’m not a crazed driver, but I also didn’t make an effort to drive in a fuel-friendly way (the Fit doesn’t have the eco-nanny feature that the new Insight has). There was an mpg minder in the dash, but it was small and I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to it.
After a week of mostly in-town driving, I got 22.1 mpg. The EPA estimates the car a 27 mpg city, 33 highway. I fell far short of its combined rating of 30 mpg, probably thanks to the 30-minute traffic jam I ran into outside Adidas headquarters. All that idling wrecked my mileage.
Images by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
The three finalists for World Green Car of the Year have been announced, and while none of them are widely available, none of them are big surprises, either:
Only the Clarity is available in the U.S., and it’s only leased to a select few customer in certain markets. The i MiEV is sold in Japan, and the iQ is sold in both Japan and Europe. The iQ, in case you’re not familiar with this foreign-only car, is the size of a Smart ForTwo and a 1-liter gasoline engine that gets 55 mpg.
The New York Times “Wheels” blog notes that with such disparate fuels and production levels, it’s not exactly a level playing field. Nonetheless, a winner will be announced at the New York Auto Show, which is being held April 10-19.
Image of the Honda Clarity by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
Honda announced the official MSRP for the new Insight, and it’s under $20,000 (unless you count that pesky, unavoidable destination charge. The car will be available for sale March 24 for a base price of $19,800 for the LX model. EPA fuel economy estimates are good, at 40 mpg city, 43 mph highway.
The LX is pretty basic for a five-door sedan, with auto climate control, power windows, and a CD stereo system. The Honda Insight EX will be priced at $21,300 (again, not including destination), and comes with stability assist, cruise control, paddle shifters, an upgraded stereo, and more.
How does this compare to its number-one competitor, the Prius? It’s hard to say, since Toyota hasn’t given a date or price for the redesigned 2010 Toyota Prius, only that it will drop this spring. They did just release the car’s EPA numbers, though: 50 mpg city, 49 mpg highway. The EPA gave them a combined rating of 50 mpg, which the Insight just can’t beat. But with a starting price of $22,000 for the 2009 model, Honda seems to have Toyota’s hybrid MSRP licked.
Image by Kristen Hall-Geisler.
GM unveiled the European version of the Chevy Volt at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show — the Opel Ampera. The two cars are identical where it counts: they use the same chassis and Voltec extended-range electric vehicle drive system. But the skin they wear is quite different, and not surprisingly, the Euro version has more style.
Following the GM press release’s Euro style, the car can travel on electricity only for 60 km. After that, a small on-board engine acts as a generator to recharge the batteries and give the Ampera another 500 km of driving range. (That’s 37 miles on battery power, and about 300 miles of generator-extended driving on this side of the pond.)
GM says the Ampera will debut in dealerships in 2011, as the Continent’s first EREV. The Chevy Volt will be in U.S. showrooms at about the same time; its production is scheduled to begin in late 2010 at the company’s plant in Flint, Michigan.
Images above courtesy of GM. The Ampere is on the left, at its debut with Opel VP Alain Visser, and the Volt is on the right.
Smart announced today that it will debut the Smart ForTwo edition limited three car with standard micro hybrid drive for spring at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show in early March. MHD is basically start/stop technology, where the engine shuts off when the brake is applied and the car slows to under 8 km/h (5 mph) and restarts as soon as the brake pedal is released. Parent company Daimler says mhd can improve fuel economy by up to 20% in around-town driving.
But the special-edition Smart isn’t just green on the inside. The exterior is covered in metallic melon green paint with a silvery sweep behind the doors. It has limited three logos on the mirrors and alloy wheels, and an exclusive brown interior with more silvery trim.
No word on how limited this limited three edition is, or if any of the examples will roll off the line and across the Atlantic to U.S. dealerships. We do know the coupe price will be just under $20,000 and the cabriolet will go for about $23,500.
Image courtesy of Daimler.
The Zap Alias three-wheeled EV, which made its debut at the North American Auto Dealers show in New Orleans last month, has been accepted as an X Prize competitor, along with nearly 40 other teams of alternative-fuel vehicle builders.
The winner of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize will meet several criteria:
In a nutshell, these high-efficiency cars have to work and real people have to be able to buy them.
The Zap Alias, a two-seater electric vehicle, is competing in the “alternative” class. It requires two seats (check) and a 100-mile range, which Zap says the Alias will be able to do. The alternative class encourages new designs, which Zap took to heart when coming up with the three-wheeled Alias. It’s more than a motorcycle, but not quite a full-fledged car, with an other-worldly, sci-fi flair. Which may be just the ticket for the $1 million prize purse.
If you’re into the Alias and want one regardless of its chances at the X Prize, Zap is taking deposits of $1000 for the car. There will be a limited number of Signature Series examples sold in 2009.
Check out the 30-second video to get a glimpse of the Alias.
The American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy, a Washington D.C. non-profit, has released its environmental ratings for 2009 vehicles, including the top 12 “Greenest” and bottom 12 “Meanest” cars you can buy.
The list is in its twelfth year, and the results aren’t terribly surprising. The greenest 12 are small, alternative-fuel cars with great mileage; the meanest 12 are large trucks and high-performance sports cars that drink gasoline by the bucket. What is a little shocking is that the meanest car on the road is a flex-fuel vehicle, the Hummer H2.
Scores are based on tailpipe emissions, fuel consumption, and emissions of gases that cause global warming. Without further ado, here are the big winners and losers:
Greenest:
Meanest:
Thanks to Nissan’s pulling out of the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, Chinese auto manufacturer BYD (”Build Your Dreams”) got its chance to shine. Last year, BYD was relegated to the basement of the Cobo Center; this year, they were upstairs, between Subaru and fellow Chinese auto maker Brilliance, where the overhead lights could gleam off the company’s hybrid cars.
With a blast of music from the loudspeakers and a substantial investment from Warren Buffet, BYD is setting itself up to take on Toyota, Honda, Ford, and everyone else with a horse in the hybrid race. BYD began in 1995 as a battery producer, so building the car around the power system was a cinch. Like most other manufacturers with a new technology to sell, BYD brought a cutaway car to showcase its dual-mode hybrid system.
BYD’s first car, the F3DM, went on sale in China in December 2008. The company plans to bring its cars to the U.S. by 2011, and eventually to build them here, too. The next BYD car to reach showrooms will be a “family-sized” sedan, also dual-mode, called the F6DM. Both dual-mode cars have a 1-liter gasoline engine, an EV range of 68 miles, and a not-too-shabby 0-60 time of 10.5 seconds.
The BYD e6 is an all-electric vehicle with a 250-mile range and a 0-60 time of 8 seconds. It also features a “quick-charge” capacity that can restore 50% of its power in 10 minutes.
In all its cars, BYD promises safety, quality, affordability, and environmental responsibility. It’ll be interesting to see how they fare against the IIHS crash tests and EPA mileage machines.
The blogosphere (GoodGreenCars.com included) has been abuzz this fall about two new hybrids: the third generation of the crazy popular Toyota Prius, and the resurrection of the pioneer Honda Insight. We’ve already talked about the “most important reveal,” according to humble Toyota execs, of the 2009 Detroit auto show, so now let’s turn to the potential giant-killer Insight.
First of all, if you take a look at the pictures of the new Honda Insight on the stand in Detroit, one thing stands out: it looks just like a Prius. Same short, sloped nose, same little wheels, same chunky back. Part of that is due to the aerodynamics necessary to get high fuel economy in a hybrid, but part of it is probably a little Prius piggy-backing, as well. In order to sell a lot of Insights, you have to aim for the familiar.
Honda hasn’t announced an official price for its hybrid, but it keeps saying it will be cheaper than the Prius. The new Prius doesn’t have an MSRP yet, either, but we can expect both of the cars to be somewhere slightly north of $20,000.
Interestingly, while Toyota couldn’t have tooted its own horn louder if it had brought a drum and bugle corps to Detroit, Honda didn’t schedule a press conference for its Insight. It left the car on the dais for the curious to find, with a cutaway car showcasing the Insight’s technology nearby. Humility won’t get anyone anywhere in the new automotive landscape, so if Honda wants to take on the mighty Prius, it had better step up is marketing game.
At last: the 2010 Toyota Prius, making its world debut at the 2009 North American International Auto Show.
Here’s the skinny from Toyota’s Group VP Bob Carter, who introduced the car at the Detroit auto show:
See more images by yours truly on my Flickr page.
I’ve attended about a half-dozen press conference at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit today — enough to give you an idea of what’s to come. I’ll have pictures and in-depth information on the models mentioned here in the next day or two.
GM: To emphasize the company’s commitment to greener powertrain technology, the Volt led the GM parade. The much-hyped range-extended electric vehicle should be market-ready by the end of 2010. The Chevy Beat microcar concept will be produced worldwide as the Chevy Spark in 2011. The surprise of the conference was the all-electric Cadillac Converj concept (nice spelling, eh?) It’s based on the Voltech system, as the company is calling it, and should have a 40-mile range.
Lexus: Toyota’s luxury arm debuted a dedicated hybrid, the HS 250 h. The “entry-level luxury vehicle” has plant-based eco-plastics, according to Lexus, throughout the interior, which is 30% recyclable. The car overall is 85% recyclable, including the batteries. It’ll be on sale in late summer 2009, but no price was announced yet.
Ford: Ford was all about its new EcoBoost engine, which is an option for the Flex right now and will be available on 90% of Ford vehicles by 2013. Bill Ford Jr. announced plans to bring four new high-mileage battery vehicles to the market by 2012, declaring it “not a test program,” but a business strategy.
Chrysler: Chrysler execs were grateful for the government bailout and weren’t afraid to show it. They brought their GEM low-power electric vehicles, plus the three ENVI electric prototypes they debuted in 2008. They also brought the new Patriot EV (the second Jeep to get the EV treatment) and the Chrysler 200c EV concept, which is packed with more hi-tech bits than an iPhone.
Bentley: The high-luxury car maker made available its corporate plans to move to flex fuels in its massive sedans and convertibles. It also announced a new biofuel car that would debut in Geneva this March. Oh, and they brought champagne. Yum.
Mini: Mini brought its E electric car and talked about its program to get a fleet of 500 test cars in Los Angeles and New York City, and it debuted a new convertible that is more fuel efficient and emits less carbon dioxide than the previous model.
That’s all for now. More press conferences tomorrow, including a new plug-in hybrid sports car concept from Fisker.
Garmin announced its latest nav-system add-on, called ecoRoute, at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. The application, which will ready for download in February, allows drivers to choose “less fuel” as a route calculation, in addition to “faster time” and “shorter distance.”
Besides just calculating the gas-sipping-est way from here to there, ecoRoute compiles a Fuel Report and Mileage Report to keep drivers informed of their gas usage over time and per trip. It even has little fuel-saving messages that pop up as text on the screen.
EcoRoute is compatible with the 205 and 705 series of the Garmin Nuvi satellite nav systems. Honda and Ford have recently announced similar built-in systems for their upcoming models, according to Edmunds.com’s Green Car Advisor.
The Chevy Malibu Hybrid is the gas-sipping car for people who don’t want to look like an eco-freak. It’s a pretty big four-door sedan with lots of space, a solid feel, and comfy seats. Grandparents and salespeople will love this car. It’s not an incognito hybrid, though: there’s the green hybrid badge on the trunk and a large hybrid decal at the top of the back window.
This car got a little extra testing this week, as we got a load of snow dumped on us here in the Pacific Northwest. I drove the hybrid — carefully — on slick and snowy streets when it was safe. The traction control worked beautifully as long as I was going slowly. When the snow got deep, though, the Malibu stayed parked in the driveway for five days.
As a result of driving in less than optimal conditions, I didn’t get the best mileage. The EPA says the Malibu Hybrid should turn in 26 city, 34 highway, but I averaged in the low 20s in the time I had the car. The most helpful green feature in nasty weather was the automatic shutoff, which was indicated by a flashing green “ECO” light in the dashboard. The Eco mode shut down and restarted smoothly.
The Chevy Malibu Hybrid starts at $26,345, which seems par for the hybrid course. If it makes you, the consumer, feel any better, it’s not the most expensive Malibu trim level available. There’s a 3.6-liter V6 LTZ version that starts at over $26,000, making the hybrid look like a good value all around. Too bad Chevy lists it as having “Very limited availability.”
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
In my review of the Honda Civic Hybrid, I mentioned that my fuel economy was nearly 10 mpg lower than the EPA estimates, and wondered if it had to do with the cold temperatures that week. Could freezing temps have an effect on the batteries or the electric motor? Or was I imagining things?
I checked in with my informal panel of experts, the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association, whose members drive hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and EVs. According to these road-tested experts, I wasn’t imagining things, but I didn’t have the whole story.
First of all, Oregon adds ethanol to the gasoline in winter, which reduces fuel economy by about 4%, which I had forgotten about. Second, the snow and gravel would increase friction, which would lower the mpgs. Hybrids also lose energy heating up the whole engine and keeping it warm. Hybrid drivers can combat the drop in mpgs by turning off the defrost and heat while idling to get the gasoline engine to shut off as it does in more pleasant weather.
Several OEVA members also mentioned that everyone, hybrid and conventional car drivers alike, have been driving more carefully in the snow and ice. The techniques we use to avoid sliding into parked cars are the same ones that save gas overall and extend the range of electric vehicles:
One final word of caution: Hybrids are usually fitted with low-rolling-resistance tires to maximize the mpgs. These are pretty awful in winter weather, so if you’ve got a hybrid and live in an area that sees a fair amount of fluffy white stuff, it’s probably worth it to invest in a set of snow tires.
The first thing to note about my week with the Honda Civic Hybrid was that it was very cold. Not negative-degrees cold, but well below freezing cold. I wondered if the hybrid engine or fuel economy would suffer when the car and the street were icy. I’m not sure if it was the weather or my driving, but my mpgs came in way below the EPA estimate.
Over the week, I drove about 120 miles, and I managed to average 31.5 mpg combined city, highway, and icy roads. The EPA rates the Civic Hybrid at 40 city, 45 highway. Handling, however, wasn’t compromised, and I was glad to have stability assist, ABS, and 4- and 5-star crash ratings. Not that I crashed. The car is just fine. I’m an excellent driver.
The Honda Civic Hybrid makes heavy use of its Integrated Motor Assist technology, which uses an electronic motor mounted between the gasoline engine and the transmission for extra power. Honda says the electric motor can propel the car from a stop to 35 mph, but I had a hard time keeping the internal combustion engine from kicking in, no matter how carefully I drove.
The car does have an auto stop feature that cuts the gasoline engine out almost as soon as the car is stopped, and it starts back up seamlessly when it’s needed. A blinking green “Auto Stop” indicator in the dash lets the driver know that the car is supposed to be absolutely silent.
The poor-ish mileage was my only complaint with the Honda, and that was likely a function of the weather, not the car. But if you live in an area with regular harsh winters, you may only get 30 or 35 mpg with the Civic Hybrid. Keep in mind, though, that these days we’re calling anything above 30 mpg pretty good.
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
The New Oxford American Dictionary has chosen “hypermiling” as its 2008 word of the year, beating out such other neologisms as “staycation” and “frugalista.” The word was apparently coined in 2004 by Wayne Gerdes, who runs the web site CleanMPG.com.
In honor of hypermilings achievements as both a word and a lifestyle in 2008, here are the top 10 hypermiling techniques:
Oh, Americans, when will we ever learn? We the people freaked out during the spring and summer of 2008, when gas prices hit $4 a gallon, and bought small, low-gas-mileage, low-emissions, Earth-friendlier vehicles by the boatload. Small cars that had languished on dealership lots for months were snapped up in seconds as the price of gasoline climbed. And heaven forbid you had a Mini Cooper or hybrid on your shopping list. They were scarcer than hens’ teeth.
In the wake of this fuel economy frenzy, articles were written (including one by me) about the plight of the large truck. Pickups and SUVs were left on the lot by new-car buyers, despite deep discounts and dealer incentives to get these things to go away and make room for the smaller cars people wanted.
But now, though we all talk a good eco-game, truck sales are inching back up. This despite the fact that all signs point to the current low-ish price of gas being an anomaly. Not to mention that whole reducing the ol’ carbon footprint idea. Here are the top five vehicles ranked by sales in May and November, according to industry publication Automotive News, with city and highway mileage plus the annual carbon dioxide output numbers from the EPA:
May 2008
November 2008
The first thing to note about the Nissan Altima Hybrid is that it makes use of the Toyota hybrid system. Nissan is working on its own proprietary hybrid system, but in order to enter the HEV market ASAP, they leased the technology from Toyota and dropped it into the Altima, giving the car an EPA mileage rating of 35 city, 33 highway. Not too shabby for a four-door sedan.
But not too smooth, either. The Altima hybrid has a keyless, push-button start. It only takes a second to turn the car on, and a green “ready” light lets the driver know the electric motor is good to go. A few seconds later, though, whether you need it or not, the gasoline engine kicks in — very noticeably. The first time it happened, I wondered if I had done something wrong.
Since the hybrid system was thrown into the Nissan Altima almost on a whim, the gauges lack the depth of fuel economy information seen in other hybrids. The center gauge does display “EV Mode” when the car is running under electric power only, which makes for a fun mpg challenge for the driver. The key is to stay in EV Mode for as long as possible, or to get EV Mode to kick in while driving around. I found that with careful pedal work, I could do most of my Christmas shopping on electric power. That was cool.
The Nissan Altima Hybrid gets good marks for its safety — five-star ratings for front and side crashes — and its low carbon footprint. But the integration of the hybrid system into the existing Altima leaves a lot to be desired, especially at a base price of $25,070. I assume the Nissan hybrid system of the future will work more seamlessly in its own cars.
Top image courtesy Nissan USA.
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
When I got back to the States after my vacation in diesel-clogged Buenos Aires, I had a Ford Escape Hybrid waiting for me to test drive. I don’t think I’ve even been so happy to see a low-emissions vehicle in my life.
Before we get to the mpg, a note on space: The Escape fit all of our suitcases, camera bags, backpacks, and whatever else in the back seat and cargo area, with plenty of space for a regular-sized driver (me) and a six-foot-plus passenger. It was far less crammed than the airline seats we had just happily left, and we had satellite radio.
When the Escape is started, the gasoline engine comes on, so there is an audible cue to let the driver know when to stop turning the key. In case that’s still too quiet for you, there’s the little green car-shaped light with a double-ended arrow under it in the dashboard to let you know the vehicle is ready to go. (This comes in handy when stopped at very long red lights and the gas engine drops out. The electric motor is silent, but ready to do your bidding at the green light.)
The home screen of the display has a little map, radio information, and an mpg meter. For more detailed mileage information, you can call up the HEV screen, which shows a diagram of the engine, electric motor, the battery, and the front wheels. A green outline shows which elements are in play at any time, and the status, i.e., “Idle with Charging,” is spelled out at the bottom of the screen.
The Escape doesn’t have the pep of the Mini I tested a few weeks ago, but I did take it on a variety of roads — surface streets, interstates, and state roads. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get my average fuel economy to budge from 30 mpg. Wait — I did get it to 29.9 mpg while I was passing a string of trucks. This is less than the EPA combined rating of 32 mpg, but still good for an SUV. The EPA also gives it an 8 out of 10 emissions rating.
That kind of mileage and low emissions come at a price, though: the Ford Escape Hybrid starts at $29,305. Hybrids are still hard to find on the lot, as they are expensive to build and popular to buy, so price breaks and dealer incentives are going to be equally as scarce for the Escape hybrid. But if you can find and afford it, the Ford Escape hybrid is a great SUV.
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
The Los Angeles Auto Show just came to a close, and not surprisingly, manufacturers brought a lot of green cars to the event. There were high-mpg gasoline cars, electric cars, clean diesels, and more. (Ferrari and Bentley also brought expensive gas guzzlers, but I’m willing to bet the market for those is pretty small.)
Here, then, is the Good Green Cars round-up of the enviro-friendly autos that were at the L.A. Auto Show.
Oregon Public Broadcasting’s call-in show, “Think Out Loud,” was about the future of the automotive industry this morning. The program focused on the state of Oregon, and most of the guests and callers were from the state, but the show had a lot to say about where personal transportation is headed in the next decade for the entire U.S.
The show, which aired Monday, December 1, was called “A Sustainable Auto Industry.” Guests included John Viera, Director of Ford Sustainable Business Strategies; Mark Perry, Director of Product Planning for Nissan North America; a representative from Governor Kulongoski’s office; and an assistant professor at Oregon State University’s College of Business. So they had their bases covered.
Highlights of the show (though you should listen to the whole thing):
A lot of basic alternative-fuel questions were answered, like shifting emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack, and the recyclability of electric-vehicle batteries. It’s a good listen for newbies and alt-vehicle veterans alike.
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.
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.
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.
This car was provided for review by the manufacturer at no cost to the reviewer.
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
2009 Toyota Prius
[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
Best Luxury SUV
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:
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:
Jeep EV:
Chrysler EV:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
Now that Mini is going electric, everybody wants a piece of the action. Smart has a test EV running around in Europe right now, and while Tata has long had plans to introduce an electric car, they’re going ahead with a diesel this year.
The electric Smart ForTwo, known as the Smart ed, has a 41-hp electric motor and sodium-nickel-chloride batteries. It gets about 70 miles per charge, and has a maximum speed of 70 mph, which makes it a reasonable commuter EV, even if your commute involves highways. Price and market haven’t been announced, but they do expect it to go on sale in 2010. Cross your fingers that it comes your way — and you can afford it.
While we may have to wait a while for the EV version of the Tata Nano, the diesel version will hit the Indian market in October. The hatchback will go a rocking 50 mph from its little 33-hp, 2-cylinder diesel engine, but it gets 52 mpg city, 61 highway. The added efficiency will drive up the regular Nano’s price of $2,500 to about $4,200.
MyGallons.com promises that users can buy gas at today’s price and fill up in the future. Once the service is completely up and running (right now, you can reserve an account but not yet use it), users create an account, receive a MyGallons card, and check the web site for the current price of gas. You’ll be able to click a button to prepay for as many gallons of gas as you like.
The prices quoted on MyGallons are all regular unleaded. If you fill up with premium or diesel, the company will adjust your balance to account for that. If you’re out of town and the price of a gallon of gas is significantly lower — or higher — than your hometown price, MyGallons will adjust for that, too.
A program like MyGallons is designed to hopefully save you money — not gas. Having a prepaid fuel-only card will not improve your fuel economy. You may in fact get worse mileage out of your car if you drive like you know you paid less for that tank of gas.
Something to keep in mind: Tara Baukus Mello, lead analyst for the NADA Guides, told me in an interview that they don’t expect gas prices to rise any more this year, and they may even drop a little. Not a lot, but a little. With the price of gas in such flux, I’d check my crystal ball twice before prepaying for gas.
