With the world focused on fuel economy, advanced car design seems to be converging around one point in space. And I do mean, literally, a point in space — a point sometimes seen flying over Roswell, or crashing in the Bermuda triangle.
Regardless of what you think about this type of design, it begs the question: do cars need to look like alien spacecraft to get decent fuel economy?
In an international effort, Japanese automaker Toyota and Électricité de France (EDF) are expanding their European plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) testing program to the United Kingdom.
The trial builds on the first European PHEV testing program launched by Toyota and EDF on French roads in September 2007. The UK partnership is designed to evaluate vehicle performance within an urban environment, vehicle infrastructure requirements, and driver behaviors and expectations.
Trials started on September 10th and will continue for more than one year. Toyota’s PHEV will make its on-the-road debut as part of EDF Energy’s company fleet and will be tested by employees under every-day driving conditions. The modified plug-in Prius being tested will utilize nickel-metal hydride (NiMh) batteries, with an all-electric range of approximately 8 miles if the speed remains below 62 mph. When Toyota begins producing the plug-in Prius (expected for fleets in 2009), it will utilize superior lithium-ion batteries.
Good news for BMW this year. Studies by the European Union committee on transport pollution, or the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E), showed that the high-performance, luxury automotive maker reduced carbon emissions by more than 7% across all models released and sold in 2007.The average level of greenhouse gases emitted by BMW vehicles dropped from 184 grams of CO2/km to 170 g/km. That number is still a bit too high as far as the European Union is concerned, but it’s admirable to see an automobile manufacturer known for performance attempting to clean up a fraction of the mess it leaves behind. Read the rest of this entry »
The report, ‘On the Road in 2035: Reducing Transportation’s Petroleum Consumption and GHG Emissions,’ summarizes the results of an MIT research project that assessed the technology of vehicles and fuels that could be developed and commercialized during the next 25 years.
The research team assessed the effect of new vehicle and fuel technologies on the performance, cost and lifecycle emissions of individual vehicles. It then assessed the effects on the total on-the-road fleet of introducing these technologies using “plausible assumptions about how rapidly they could be developed, manufactured and sold to buyers to replace existing vehicles and fuels or to add to the existing fleet.”
Other key findings include: Read the rest of this entry »
You look west to see a barren landscape, tumbleweed breezing lazily through the charred remains of a forest. The rust laden skeleton of what used to be a city echoes the promise of a future long gone. You are fighting out your days amidst gunfire and tribal warfare in armor composed of animal fur and long deserted hockey pads. Ironically water isn’t the most important liquid on the planet that spins where the Earth once spun. You begin to wash the grease smears off your face in a shallow pool…
…oh wait, am I jumping the gun here?
While our gas crises hasn’t quite reached ‘Mad Max’ proportions yet, things are close enough that the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers will make this September “Green Check-Up Month.” After countless years of making oversized and inefficient autos, Ford and Chevy are now going to tell us how to save gas.
As a basic principle of fuel economy, smaller cars get better gas mileage. Engineering trends keep pushing the limits of the term ‘compact’ car while somehow keeping the interiors large enough to carry people. Unfortunately, the Prius won’t suffice for all drivers, and rightfully so. There are people in the United States who require space shuttle sized SUV’s and Titantic trucks, and nothing is going to change that in the immediate future. America runs on progress, and progress cannot happen without construction and high a high towing capacity. The next generation of GM trucks is attempting to bridge the gap between brute force, and environmental friendliness.
The company is currently taking orders for a limited run of 300 “signature series” Sky conversions. The Sky EV will be able to go from 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) in 5.7 seconds, will have a top speed of 90 mph (145 kph), and can go 150 miles (240 kilometers) before needing a recharge.
The 1990’s were the host of many great fads. Furby, Tamagachis, string theory, the examples are as numerous as the many incarnations of Prince. Fast forward to 2008, and it seems that America’s fads are finally becoming practical. Hypermiling is the new hoola-hoop, and it’s even more convenient because there is more than one way to do it. While some prefer drafting and coasting in neutral whenever possible, most drivers just watch their tachometers.
Ford Motor Company announced today it will be scrambling to realign its North American Manufacturing operation with the realities of consumer needs today.
With gas prices above $4 / gallon, most Americans are shying away from giant gas-guzzling vehicles in favor of smaller fuel efficient models. Starting in December, Ford said it will accelerate production of new fuel efficiency technology, double their hybrid production and lineup, and downsize vehicles across the board. By 2010, Ford says 2/3 of its spending will be on small cars and crossovers, and it will pull six small European models to the US by 2012.
“While we have no intention of giving up our longtime truck leadership, we are creating a new Ford in North America on a foundation of small, fuel-efficient cars and crossovers that will set new standards for quality, fuel economy, product features and refinement,” said Mark Fields, Ford president of The Americas. Read the rest of this entry »
There are lots of gas saver devices out there that claim to help you increase your car’s fuel economy. Most of them are of questionable effectiveness — to put it mildly — relying on such things as magnets, mini-tornadoes, and fuel tank pills. I’ve covered some of them in a previous post about potential fuel saving scams.
The sheer number of such questionable gas saving devices makes it difficult for the average person to distinguish the effectiveness of any single one of them. It also instills a general feeling of distrust that any of them could actually work.
A few days back I posted a You Tube presentation about two professors from Duke University who came up with a different, and in their minds, more accurate way to determine the efficiency of the engine in your vehicle.
It’s nice to know how many miles per gallon (MPG), or as the profs say, gallons per mile (GPM) your vehicle will get, but there’s more, much more to that equation.
First of all, you’re paying a premium for regular gasoline, $4 maybe in excess of $5 a gallon, and you decide to fill it up. Sticker shock will settle in quickly, but how about this, how many hours will you have to work in order to pay for that fuel? Read the rest of this entry »
Revetec, a little known company from the Gold Coast region of Australia, may be on to something huge: they’ve created an engine that is 50% smaller, 50% lighter, has 50% lower emissions and is cheaper to manufacture than a conventional internal combustion engine of the same horsepower. Oh yeah, did I mention that it doubles the fuel economy too.
What that means is a car like the 2007 Toyota Yaris, which is rated at 40 mpg on the highway, would get 80 mpg with a Revetec engine.
This isn’t some hoax… They have a prototype which has been attached to an actual vehicle and independently tested to substantiate their claims.
Editors Note: This guest post was contributed by Charley Territo, spokesperson for the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers, in an effort encourage better dialogue between the auto industry and the environmental movement. Charley also contributed a guest post on Grist on May 20. I asked him to weigh in on a question I’ve had for a long time: How can automakers like GM complain that consumers only want to buy big cars when they spend hundreds of thousands advertising brands like Hummer? Here is his response. Feel free to weigh in with your own comments below.
For years it’s been assumed that, using their superior marketing skills, automakers have the ability to trick consumers into buying SUVs and pickup trucks…when, in reality, the consumers really only
wanted to buy compact cars. While that’s probably quite flattering to the marketing departments, it doesn’t have the important benefit of actually being correct.
Current events are now allowing people to see more clearly the greater force at work driving consumer demand: Gas prices. Read the rest of this entry »
Allstate has announced that the number of Californians running out of gas on the highway jumped 17% in the first 5 months of 2008 compared to the same time period in 2007. Additionally, AAA of Northern California saw a 6.5% increase in stranded “empty-tankers” in April.
Phil Telgenhoff, Allstate assistant field vice president for California had this to say about it:
“We can’t directly correlate this rise in the number of people running out of gas to the rise in prices at the pump, but anecdotally we know that consumers are trying hard to stretch their dollar and sometimes that means stretching fuel into fumes.
In California, the highway patrol hands out free gas to stranded motorists and AAA will do the same. There has been speculation that this is one of the reasons people choose to let their tanks go empty.
All these years, I’ve been doing the simple math of dividing the number of gallons used over a given number of miles driven, to determine how my car is doing on gas mileage.
Now come two professors from Duke University who say that may not be the accurate way to determine how efficient your car really is.
Gas 2.0
Gas 2.0 digs into the viscous world of biofuels and the fast-paced transit arena, exploring the technologies and substances that are the future of transportation.
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