After its surprise introduction at the Geneva Auto Show last week one thing is clear: the Porsche 918 Spyder supercar has struck a resounding nerve in the automotive community. You see, true car nuts, no matter how green they aspire to be, are always drawn to fast, sexy cars. And if there’s one thing the world of car nuts felt like it might be losing in this profound shift to green transportation, it was sexy speed.
In the coming decades, India will emerge as a huge car market due to its population and rapid economic growth. Already China surpassed America in the number of cars sold last year, and both markets represent opportunities for American car companies. GM has a firm foothold in China, and Ford seems to be turning their eye towards India for expansion.
In a bid to boost their Indian market share, Ford introduced a car tailor-made for India back in September; the Figo, Italian for “cool”. That car is now officially on sale, aimed at the average Indian who wants something more upscale than a Tata Nano.
New research out of the University of York in Britain is unraveling some mysteries of the common wood-eating gribble that could provide the key to cheaply turning abundant wood and straw fiber into biofuel.
Fresh off its official unveiling at the Chicago Auto Show a couple weeks ago, Azure Dynamics, Ford and AT&T have just announced that AT&T will be the first company to own some Ford Transit Connect Electric commercial fleet vans. With an order of just 2, it certainly is a small start, but the list will surely grow from here.
KB Home, one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., has announced that they will be providing the option to homebuyers to pre-wire their new construction homes so that they are ready for the high voltage, high amperage electrical lines required to charge electric cars quickly and properly.
The company views this new option as an extension of their already existing “My Home. My Earth.” campaign to make their homes more energy efficient and load them with features and equipment that both save money and have a lowered environmental impact.
One of the biggest barriers to the adoption of electric cars, plug-in hybrids and extended range electric vehicles is cost. The biggest part of that added cost is the battery. In the past, estimates of roughly $1000 per kWh of battery capacity have been thrown around as a way to gauge how much of a premium consumers can expect to pay. Given that it takes roughly 25 kWh to go 100 miles, you can see how this would quickly add up.
Recently, however, the cost of lithium-ion batteries has been dropping more steeply than expected; indicating that the potential in the market to reduce the premium of owning a battery-powered car has been greatly underestimated.
In a recent interview with Business Week, Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn was cited as saying that Nissan has collected 56,000 orders for the LEAF already. What this actually means, I’m not sure… especially considering that just last month Nissan said they had more than 50,000 people signed up on their Nissan LEAF interest list (which requires no deposit) and that actual pre-orders requiring a small refundable deposit of $100 will begin in April.
“Range anxiety” — the worry that your EV will run out juice before you get to where you’re going — is a term that has been bandied about a lot recently… almost annoyingly so. From a common sense standpoint, it seems only logical that range anxiety is a real phenomenon. But since we have so few EVs on the roads right now, the fact of the matter is that range anxiety is, at this point, a made up concept based on what we can logically expect.
And it’s this expectation that is spurring a huge amount of both private and public investment in nationwide charging networks for EVs — the assumption being that the only way EVs will ever become mass-accepted is to eliminate range anxiety.
But will those public charging stations that we’re dumping money into go unused because we have an expectation for a phenomenon that turns out to not really be an issue?
Container ships straddle a fine line between ultra-efficient and ultra-polluters. They can carry thousands of 20-ft containers across thousands of miles of ocean in relatively short time, but they also burn sulfur-laden heavy oil fuels. Each ship can emit over 150,000 tons of CO2 every year, 5,000 tons of sulfur, and other harmful particulates attributed to death and disease along heavily populated coastlines.
A.P. Moller Maersk AS operates the world’s largest container ship fleet. For the first time in 106 years, they lost money due to the economic downturn. How much money? $1.3 billion. Ouch. But they’ve also pledged to reduce their CO2 output by 20% by 2017. How nice would that be?
So far as we know, oil is a finite resource. But it is still the most widely used fuel for transportation right now, and likely will be for the near future. It could be twenty-five years or more before alternative fuel vehicles make up a majority of the new car market. So until then, we are stuck with petrol engines. But that doesn’t mean they won’t get better.
A California-based company called Transonic claims that its fuel injection system increases fuel efficiency by 75% while cutting emissions in half. No electric motors, no gimmicks… just a supercritical injection process. Which is what, exactly?
Audi is continuing its aggressive push into the electric car marketspace by bringing its “e-tron” moniker to yet another model: the A2. What’s that you say, there’s an Audi A2? Well, yes, when it was originally produced in the early 2000’s the A2 (pictured above) was essentially a European market flop.
It was an oddly styled, underperforming mini-minivan that made extensive use of aluminum to save weight. But it was also a very fuel efficient vehicle: the 3-liter diesel version got nearly 80 miles per gallon (US) on the European cycle — making it the first vehicle to break the 3 liters per 100 kilometer mark.
And now Audi seems to think that the A2 was a flop because it was ahead of its time and they’re planning on bringing it back for the 2014 model year. Given the success of vehicles like the Mazda5 and the onslaught of what are essentially mini-minivans, perhaps Audi is right. Let’s just hope they make it look better this time around.
Fuel efficiency has increasingly become an important factor over the past few years when it comes to buying a new car. But it isn’t the only factor that matters as evidenced by a 7.5% decline in hybrid car sales in 2009 compared to 2008 when summer gas prices soared to $4/gallon. According to a new report by Accenture, American consumers are demanding more from their green cars than just good gas mileage; they want their green cars to wow them with electronics while delivering a superior driving experience.
Are you listening Detroit?
In the world of alternative fuels, Brazilians are lucky. They have some of the best land and climate in the world with which to grow sugarcane–which they have proven is an excellent feedstock for first generation ethanol production.
Not only is it incredibly easy to convert the cane sugar into ethanol through fermentation, they can power much of their ethanol production by burning the material leftover after harvesting and crushing the sugarcane to extract the sweet liquid.
Years ago the Brazilian government realized the potential in this system and started encouraging a major shift to a transportation sector capable of running mostly on ethanol. And now the fruits of their labor are being borne out: The 10 millionth ethanol flex-fuel capable vehicle has been delivered in Brazil.
I love me a fast Ford.
The 2011 Mustang GT gets a new 5.0 liter, 412 horsepower V8 engine, 25 mpg, and a plethora of other improvements. It is a real Camaro killer.
But if I’m going to be honest, it is the 305 horsepower V6 Mustang that has caught my eye. Not only does it share the GT’s sharper, improved looks, but Ford had estimated the V6 engine would return 30 mpg on the highway. Well the official certification results are in, and the Mustang gets 31 mpg highway, making it the first car with over 300 horsepower to get over 30 mpg.
Let’s just say I’m not exactly a fan of the California Air Resource Board, or CARB. For all their good intentions, they cause a lot of headaches with unintended consequences of sometimes poorly conceived ideas–especially for those of us who enjoy performance cars.
But every now and then they get something right. And while Roush is a name most often associated with supercharged Mustangs, the company is also well known for its propane conversions. CARB recently approved both the F-250 and F-350 Roush propane conversions for street use. Yay!
Gas 2.0
Since November 2007, Gas 2.0 has been dedicated to news and information for those looking to move beyond petroleum-based fuels.
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