Tag:

driving

The Influence of Free Parking on Commuting

Originally published on Bikocity.

Apparently, people love their cars. And people love driving. Who knew? When surveyed, most commuters – even when offered the same tax benefits at $225 a month – would not trade in their car for public transit. Congress recently decided to give commuters the same paybacks whether saving money while using public transit or driving, and it seemed to have little effect, as drivers continue to receive free parking privileges. Take those away and they might change their tune.

TransitCenter conducted a study in five major U.S. metropolitan areas regarding travel choices in response to such benefits. Washington (D.C.), Miami (Florida), New York (New York), San Francisco (California), and Seattle (Washington) were chosen, and their commuters’ choices analyzed. The data did not favor public transit in any measurable way.

In 2014, when driving saw a bigger benefit than public transit ($255 to $130), driving saw a rise in numbers. In 2016, when both choices see the same benefit at $255, driving is still projected to and seeing a rise. In fact, the only situation where driving sees a decrease while public transit rises is if the benefits remained equal and driver’s parking privileges were eliminated. Basically, offering incentives to take public transit just is not enough.

source: TransitCenter.org

February 29, 2016 2 comments

Nissan LEAF Owners Drive 50% More Than Combustion Car Owners

written by Christopher DeMorro

In Europe, high gas prices discourage needless driving, but what happens when you take gasoline out of the equation? A study of Nissan LEAF drivers found that on average, these EV owners will drive about 50% more often than conventional car owners.

Without high gas costs to be concerned about, EV owners can drive more frequently, ignoring public transit and in some places enjoying perks like access to bus lanes and free parking. All these incentives, as well as the low cost to operate an electric car, encouraged the average LEAF owner to drive about 10,307 miles per year.

That stands in stark contrast to the 6,721 miles the average combustion-powered car owner will drive across Europe, though both numbers fall short of the 12,500 miles the average American will drive. Regardless, these numbers back up previous assertions that low-range EVs can cover 95% of daily driving trips, as LEAF owners are proving in spades. Using informaton gleaned from its CarWings app, Nissan was able to find that LEAF owners like driving…a lot.

“Since the beginning we have said that the Nissan LEAF is much more than just a city car or second car and now we can show the data that proves this. Our customers frequently tell us that they buy the Nissan LEAF as a second car, but end up using it far more than their other vehicle and the information we receive from CarWings reinforces that message,” says Jean-Pierre Diernaz, Director of Electric Vehicles for Nissan. “The customers tell us this is because the car has very low fuel and servicing costs and that along with the smooth, almost silent ride of the Nissan LEAF make it difficult to go back to a diesel or petrol car.”

Spanish LEAF drivers spent the most time behind the wheel, averaging 228 miles per week, followed by the Swedes (211) and the UK (201), while ze Germans drove the least (173). On average, European LEAF drivers drove about 198 miles per week, about 50% more than conventional car owners. Even with the cost of crude going lower and lower by the day, taxes are still keeping European petrol prices well above what Americans are used to. Is it any wonder EV sales have nearly doubled in the Old World?

Love driving, but hate gas prices? The obvious solution is to go electric, so you can drive to your heart’s content and still not pay one red nickel for petrol.

January 11, 2015 14 comments

2015 Honda Fit Deep Dive

written by Jo Borrás

By now, you’ve heard what driving the new 2015 Honda Fit is like. You’ve seen what riding in a new Fit is like, too- and, maybe, you’ve figured out how they got one into a tiny bar (I haven’t). Still, we haven’t spent much time actually talking about the nuts and bolts and whys and hows of the new Honda. Until now, that is.

2015 Honda Fit is SO New, it Has a New Home

For starters, just about everything on the 2015 Honda Fit is new or modified compared to its 2014 siblings- and that includes where it’s being made. Instead of a mostly Chinese-built product, the new Fit has North American roots, being built in Celaya, Mexico. The new production facility is supposed to separate North American demand from global demand, giving dealers better selection, more freedom in ordering, and (of course) cutting costs for Honda, itself.

The new plant in Celaya will also start building a Honda Fit-based mini-SUV to slot below the CR-V later this year, bringing total North American vehicle production capacity to over 1.9 million units. That bump in capacity from Celaya means that some 98% of Hondas sold in North America will be built in North America.

2015 Honda Fit Body + Chassis

The new Fit is 1.6″ shorter than the outgoing 2014 model, but thanks to Honda’s “packaging magic” design, the 2015 Honda Fit has more than 3″ of additional rear seat room, and 1.4″ of additional rear seat leg room. That’s a great distinction to make, by the way, for customers who’ll be stuffing baby seats- rather than adults- into the back of the thing. The new Fit also gives the front passengers more slide-adjustment in the front seats.

So, despite the reduced length of the Fit, it’s roomier. That happy mindf*** comes courtesy of a new, contortionist fuel tank that twists and turns around the Fit’s floor frames and contorts itself around the new, shorter, rear trailing arms more closely than the outgoing Fit’s tank. It’s a trick worthy of Gumby- just pray that you’re not the tech who has to replace one, because I imagine it would be a b***h to do without some advanced robotics.

The suspension that the tank wraps around is worth mentioning, as well- it’s all new, a rigid, torsion-beam style rear suspension and conventional-ish struts up front. It feels a lot more advanced than that, however, thanks in large part to the new Honda Fit’s electric power steering and a new VSA stability program that seems to serve to keep the car neutral. Whatever the actual reason is, the new Fit handles far better than anything with a glorified solid rear axle should.

2015 Honda Fit Earth Dreams Drivetrain

Back in 1989, Honda introduced the original, 1.6 liter, 160 HP B16A and B16A1 engines in Europe and Japan. 25 (twenty-five) years later, Honda’s newest 1.5 liter, direct-injection i-VTEC engine makes “just” 130 HP. Granted, that’s a huge improvement over the last Honda Fit’s 117 HP engine- but a 29 MPG combined EPA rating for the 6 speed and 31 MPG combined rating for the CVT version doesn’t exactly scream “25 years of progress!”

Still, the 2015 Honda Fit has more power, more torque, offers better fuel economy, and puts out fewer emissions than the 2014 model- so that’s a step in the right direction.

Sadly, Honda took a step in the wrong direction in terms of transmissions. For starters, the new 6 speed manual transmission might seem like an upgrade from the old 5 speed- but the “new” 6th gear is the same as the “old” 5th gear. So, while you might find snappier performance in the more closely-spaced 1-5 ratios, you’ll still have the same high-rpm buzz you had in the old Fit at highway speeds. At the 80-85 MPH cruising speeds common on Illinois’ I-90, the Fit’s 1.5 is revving at a positively raucous 4000-ish RPM. In this tester’s opinion, it’s a horrific experience- and one that makes the CVT option a no-brainer, no matter how much you like to row your own … which brings us to our next dubious transmission choice: the CVT’s “gears”.

Honda spent an awful lot of time and money developing a CVT that was capable of keeping the new Earth Dreams at its peak power and efficiency while infinitely adapting the gearing around it (between 2 hardware-determined limits, of course). That was good- then they lost the plot completely by setting 7 pre-determined “shift points” into the Fit’s S-mode, which can be manually selected via paddles on the steering wheel. If you understand the purpose and function of a CVT at all, you’ll immediately realize how stupid this is.

Left on its own, however, the 2015 Honda Fit’s CVT is more than capable of doing its job. Stay away from the paddles, in other words, and you’ll do just fine. More than fine, in fact, since Honda’s CVT is one of the best in the biz (the best CVT setup I’ve experienced, by the way, was also in a Honda).

2015 Honda Fit Interior + Trim

For 2015, Honda upgraded the plastics on the Fit- offering leather for the first time, as well. Gone are the old “Base”, “Sport”, and “Navi” trim levels, which are replaced with a more Honda-like LX, EX, EXL (for “leather”), and Navi versions. The infotainment system, too, is a major upgrade from before with a large, easy-to-read screen on all models, and a clever phone/nav integration on the EX that (despite a long boot/load time) works exactly as expected. Mostly (my pre-production tester had no “backspace”, so we had to back ALL THE WAY OUT of the Nav screen and start again if we mis-typed anything).

Still, the real magic of the 2015 Honda Fit interior isn’t in the upscale materials- it’s in the seats. The Honda Fit seats can be configured in a number of ways. There’s the standard “passenger mode”, as well as 4 other modes for carrying people and things. These being “Cargo Mode” (for cargo- spluh), “Long Mode” (for carrying long items with passengers sitting in tandem), “Tall Mode” (for carrying tall items like plants and big-screen TVs), and “Refresh Mode”, which was the highlight of my initial “passenging impressions” article.

Those different modes were part of the old Fit, as well- and looked like this here …

… but I’d never seen or heard of a Honda Fit having “modes” (refreshing or otherwise), so it’s news to me. Judging by the amount of people currently looking at pictures of my limited-edition slip-on Converse, though, it’s probably news to a lot of people- and really one of the strongest selling points for considering the 2015 Honda Fit as a second car.

2015 Honda Fit Pricing

Honda’s product planners explained that the new 2015 Honda Fit would cost a bit more than the outgoing Base and Sport models, with the LX starting at $15,525 and the EX-L Navi topping out at $20,800. That’s not a huge bump from last year’s $15,425-$19,790 range- and that $19,790 didn’t get you 130 HP, leather, or a 7″ screen. So, yeah- the new 2015 Honda Fit is an objectively superior machine than the 2014 it replaces, but what do you think?

Did Honda do enough to place the new Fit in the premium compact class occupied by the Mini Coopers of the world, or is its move upmarket a step in the wrong direction? Let us know what you think, in the comments. Enjoy!

Sources | Photos: Honda, FitFreak.

April 11, 2014 1 comment

Driving the 2015 Honda Fit, No Snark Allowed

written by Jo Borrás

There’s really no way to lead into this, so I’ll just come out and say it: the 2015 Honda Fit is a fantastic car. Around town, at speed on Southern California’s twisty canyon roads, on the highway, stuck in traffic- there wasn’t a single situation we put our EX and EX-L testers into that it didn’t handle with aplomb. Even some light off-roading didn’t twist up the Fit’s rigid frame.

Diving into corners at twice the posted advisory speed, the 2015 Honda Fit’s electric steering does exactly what you’d expect it to. The new, 130 HP Earth Dreams engine pulls the car out the corner effectively enough, too- especially for a long-stroke 1.5 liter. The brakes are direct, drama-free, and the ABS kicks in right when you’d want it to.

This new Fit is such a good car, in fact, that it wouldn’t even let be snarky around it. Case in point:

After a quick lunch, Jeff (my co-driver for the day) and I decided to make some solo runs in the “comparison cars” Honda had on-hand for the event. These included a Chevy Sonic, a Toyota Yaris, and a Nissan Versa Note- all optioned up to about $17,000.

Simply put, the 2015 Honda Fit blew them all away. The Fit was a generation newer than the non-turbo Chevy Sonic, and it showed. The interior of the Nissan Versa was almost laughably cheap in comparison to the other cars, and the car, itself, got frighteningly squirrel-y under braking. The Toyota, alone, had an interior I’d call “comparable” to the Fit- but I certainly wouldn’t call it better. On the winding canyon roads surrounding our Don Quixote-looking lunch stop …

… the Yaris was simply no match for the Honda.

It was such a one-sided Honda blowout, in fact, that I started to get a bit snarky about the whole event. “Do you think there’s much of a science to picking the comparison cars for these things?” I asked Jeff.

If you don’t know Jeff Palmer, trust me on this: he’s smart. You can tell. When you ask him a question, for example, he thinks about it for two or three seconds, then answers in complete, well-formed sentences. “I think Honda wants to present its competitors’ cars in a situation where they won’t perform as well as their car.”

Here’s where I (tried) to get snarky. “I dunno- I think all Honda’s really proven today is that they can build a $25,000 car better than other people can build a $17,000 car.”

I’d expected to get a giggle or a laugh out of Jeff, but he just looked confused. “How do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, this Honda- what’s it cost? There’s no sticker on it, so what’s it gonna cost? 22,000? 23?”

“No, this is an EX,” explained Jeff. “It’s replacing the old Fit Sport, which was about 17. It’s not going to be more than 17, $18,000.”

No way. There was no way that the 2015 Honda Fit EX (with an excellent 6-speed manual, I should add) we were driving was the same price as the cars we’d just driven. I refused to believe it, and the exchange that followed saw us pull over, open the trunk, and dig furiously through our notes to see just how far upmarket Honda had dragged its little hatchback.

$17,435.

The 2015 Honda Fit EX with a 6-speed manual transmission will sell for $17,435- and, if you’re shopping new subcompacts under $20K, you’d be a fool to spend your $17K on anything else. Really.

Properly chastened, I flipped and flopped the 2015 Honda Fit’s Magic Seats into Refresh Mode, kicked up my feet, and asked Jeff to drive me back to the hotel bar. When you’re a professional blogger (well- paid, anyway), and you can’t find any way to be snarky or s***ty about something, it’s time to pack it in for the day.

The new for 2015 Honda Fit should be arriving at dealerships soon, with 30+ MPG fuel economy and your choice of 6-speed manual or CVT. If I had to come up with a complaint, it would be that the 6 speed’s top gear is too short for American highways, and the engine buzzed at more than 3500 RPM at a 77 MPH cruise. If you drive 68, the buzz is gone- so, yeah. Small price to pay for the privilege of rowing your own, you know?

You can see how the new 2015 Honda Fit looks in red and yellow, below, and let us know what you think about the new Fit in the comments.

2015 Honda Fit in Red

2015 Honda Fit in Yellow

Original content from Gas 2.

April 9, 2014 10 comments

How Do American Travel Habits Compare to Other Countries'?

written by Jo Borrás

We have wide open spaces and highways 8 lanes wide- but do Americans really do more of their travel by car than people in the rest of the world? What about trains? How do the subway and “L” commuters in New York and Chicago stack up against the people who frequent high-speed rail travel in Europe and Japan? Who flies more, the Brits or the people of Atlanta (which, I’m told, may actually be more than just a Delta hub)?

Lindsay Wilson, over at Shrink That Footprint, found the answers to those travel questions and more, and put together a handy-dandy, interactive infographic that should help us figure out how our fellow humans get around. Enjoy!

Source | Images: Shrink That Footprint.

January 5, 2014 0 comment

Michigan to Allow Autonomous Cars onto Icy Roads

written by Guest Contributor

Michigan has become the fourth US state to allow autonomous cars to be driven and tested on its roads. What makes Michigan different, though, is the state’s icy roads and (let’s face it) dismal infrastructure- which should provide a great real-world testing ground for the next generation of cars to be sold to America’s heartland. Detroit-based automakers like Ford, which announced its own plans to build autonomous cars earlier this month, are no doubt behind the lobbying efforts to get the law passed- let’s hope it eventually leads to safer, greener driving!

You can read more on the story in the article, below, from the Environmental News Service. Enjoy!

AmeriScan: Dec. 27, 2013 (via Environment News Service)

Self-Driving Cars, Cheese Brine on Icy Roads, Coca-Cola Hybrids, EPA Gets the Lead Out, Great Lakes, Controlled Burns, Household Dogs Michigan OKs Road Testing of Self-Driving Cars … Wisconsin Mixes Cheese Brine With Salt to Clear Icy Roads … Coca…

December 28, 2013 0 comment

Gas 2 Asks: Can You Drive a Twike in Winter?

written by Jo Borrás

Of all the oddball green car concepts out there – and, there are a lot of ’em! – my favorite has to be the Twike 4XP. A human-powered hybrid, the Twike 4XP is a tiny urban runabout that you can pedal like a bicycle, but also drive around like an electric car. If you’re running low on juice, either physically or electrically, you can tap into the appropriate reserves and get home. It’s brilliant, in my never-so-humble opinion, and its most heinous emissions are easily controlled by avoiding Indian food. Still, today’s weather forecast called for “cold and freezing fog” here in Chicagoland, which didn’t sound promising for the little Twike.

Putting it another way: can you realistically drive a 4XP in winter?

Because life can always get a little better, I (sadly) don’t have a Twike to try out on icy roads. That means I had to ask, and the word from FINE Mobil GmbH (the manufacturers of the Twike) was that the little machine “is very suitable for driving on snow as well as on ice. Through the drive with a three-phase motor and due to the narrow tires, the ‘grip’ on snowy roads is very good – by accelerating and recuperating. However, the ‘soft’ snow height should not be more than the ground clearance.” Which makes sense, since the aerodynamically-shaped flat bottom would make it just a sled, at that point.

Here comes the technical explanation for the grip, courtesy, again, of FINE:

The three phase asynchronous motor accelerates the vehicle by increasing the engine speed by a fixed amount per unit of time, limited to a maximum power consumption. This control mechanism during recuperation (electric braking) acts in the same way that prevents indiscriminate spinning of the drive wheels and thus receives the traction capability of the vehicle. Thus, the Twike automatically has a kind of “anti – skid control” and a kind of “ABS” during electric braking. Traction on ice and packed snow is an ultimate experience of the Twike.

So, take that how you will, I guess. Do any of you have a Twike or enclosed Velo of your own? Have you driven it in winter? Let us know how that went in the comments, below.

Source | Photos: Twike.

December 27, 2013 1 comment

Three 2014 Honda Accord Models Get Green Car of the Year Awards

written by Guest Contributor

With subdued styling, excellent driving dynamics, and weak yen helping keep the R&D costs down, it’s no surprise that Honda’s latest Accords are hot-sellers. What may be surprising is that this year’s Green Car of the Year awards panelists couldn’t agree on what car to give the award to. What they did, insteand, was give it to three: the 2014 Honda Accord, Accord Hybrid, and Accord PHEV! You can check out the full story, below, in an article that originally appeared on the Environment News Service. Enjoy!

Three Honda Accords Named Green Car of the Year 2014 (via Environment News Service)

LOS ANGELES, California, November 22, 2013 (ENS) – The 2014 Honda Accord has been chosen as the Green Car of the Year®, but this year the award goes not to just one model but three: the Accord, Accord Hybrid, and Accord Plug-In Hybrid. “Green Car…

November 23, 2013 1 comment

I Go to Texas With Honda, Part 3: Driving the 50 MPG Accord

written by Jo Borrás

Here it is, the revolutionary new for 2014, 50 MPG Accord Hybrid. Before we get too far into my driving impressions of the car, though, I want to make a few things clear. First, the new Accord hybrid is a revelation. Second, In-n-Out Burger is seriously overrated. It’s all about the vastly superior Whataburger, and that was the first stop I (and the similarly burger-wise Jeff Palmer, from Temple of VTEC) made in Honda’s newest toy.

At that point in the drive, the Whataburger manager rushing into the parking lot to ask us why we were taking pictures of the Whataburger was the most exciting thing about the drive. I was riding along in the passenger seat. The roads weren’t particularly twisty or elevation-change-y. The Accord was, from the front passenger seat, an Accord. It was excellent, in typical Honda, but it didn’t seem like the kind of thing you’d fly a dozen journalists out to a swanky hotel to ooh and aah over, you know?

I was about to express something along those lines to my eager pilot, in fact, when the roads started to get twisty, and some kind of sick change came over him. Out of nowhere, he decides he’s some long-lost ~~Andretti~~ ~~Earnhardt~~ Senna heir, and we are screaming into corners – which are clearly marked “35” – at almost 70 mph. I know how fast we were going, because I was afraid, the tires were howling, and I pulled the bitch move of looking at the speedometer.

“It’s not me,” said Jeff, noticing my- let’s call it “anxiety”. “It’s the car!”

“Sure it is,” I thought. Still, I stayed mostly quiet about the speed we were carrying into corners, thinking about how I’d been on racetracks with guys named Andretti, Kendall, and Frentzen (among others) at seriously Serious speeds, and how I was going to die in the middle of Texas because some frustrated race-car-driver-turned-blogger wanted to see how the new Accord Hybrid compared to the S2000.

We drove until we saw the giant armadillo …

… then switched seats.

I spent some time adjusting the Honda Accord’s driver’s seat. Height, seat angle, steering wheel – they’re all adjustable. I made sure I could see out the mirrors, and I took a quick inventory of the dash. Big speedo. No tach. Looking down, I saw “P R N D B” in the console. I drove around a bit in “D”, like a good little auto-journo, until we pulled into a Honda-designated checkpoint at a golf course, where Jeff got out to snap some pics of the car.

“What’s ‘B mode’?” I asked Jeff, now happily buckled into the passenger seat.

“Braking,” he explained. “It uses the engine and electric motors to slow the car down and charge the batteries. Put it in ‘B’, that’s what I was using.”

Fair enough. We pulled out onto the twisty, hilly roads outside of San Antonio in a 50 MPG Honda Accord Hybrid, and I immediately started speeding.

I couldn’t help it.

It was the car.

“Damn!” I said, whooshing through another corner way too easily.

Jeff just nodded.

In “D”, the car feels limp and stupid. Avoid D.

In “B” mode, with an almost 1:1 connection between your foot and the Accord’s speed, it’s perfect. Understand, too, as you read all this, that I am supremely jaded when it comes to “sporty” cars. I ride motorcycles. In addition, over the last 15-16 years I’ve been driving Moslers, Ferraris, AMG Mercedes, Corvettes, Lamborghinis, Porsches, and (of course) 1000+ HP Nissan GTRs fairly regularly. None of them were as bonehead simple to make go fast in real-world conditions as the Honda. None of them were as smooth, and – with the exception of a particularly eager blue Mosler Raptor maybe a dozen years ago – none of those cars actually made me smile.

I also know that there are “B” modes in cars like the Toyota Camry Hybrid, which also use engine braking- but those engines are connected to the wheels with a CVT.

This new Honda is different. Its engine is directly connected to the drive wheels with clutches that use variable input from the electric motors to make up for the lack of torque multiplication at low revs. I’ll cover that in my next Honda Accord Hybrid article, though – all you need to know is this: the 50 MPG Accord Hybrid drives exactly, precisely, and inimitably like a slot-car.

Want to slow down? Back off the gas pedal. In my tester, backing off hauled the car down from 50-ish mph to 20-ish quickly enough to make braking through the twisty roads optional. Even in stop-and-go, there was almost no coasting. Give it a bit of gas, it rolled forward slowly. Take your foot off, and the car stopped. Go into a corner too hot? Back off the gas. Tires still quiet mid-corner? Give it a bit more … now, maybe a bit more. I SAID GIVE IT MORE, DAMMIT!! All of that, and we never – no matter how we pushed the car in B mode – saw MPG drop below 46.

Most of the time, we saw more than 60 mpg.

All that said, the only thing this new Accord Hybrid needs to be the perfect everyday car is a set of tasteful-looking performance wheels to replace the factory hubcap simulators and a set of grippy tires to replace the low-rolling resistance nonsense the cars were saddled with during our test drive. Make that swap, paint the thing mouse gray, and you’d have a perfect high-speed Q-ship to blast down the highway with.

“That’s what we wanted,” said Art St. Cyr, head of Honda’s motorsports program and one of the company execs on-hand at the event. “We wanted it to be a hybrid and we wanted to hit a number (presumably, he meant that 50 MPG mark), but we wanted it to be fun.”

Based on my experience driving Honda’s gas-powered V6 coupe version of the Accord (with the 6-speed manual), as well as the 4 and 6-cylinder gas versions (also on hand) I think Art’s nailed it. The 50 mpg Accord Hybrid is the best Honda Accord. It’s the most fun Accord you can buy – and also the most expensive. But, hey- you get what you pay for, right?

Original content from Gas 2.

October 9, 2013 12 comments

Congress Considering A Pay-Per-Mile Road Tax

written by Andrew Meggison

With gas taxes bringing in less and less revenue, states like Massachusetts and Washington are considering a pay per mile tax. This idea of charging drivers a taxed based on how much they drive is even being bandied about Congress. Basically a pay per mile tax, or Vehicle Mile Tax, would charge American drivers per mile driven instead of charging the current 18.4 cent-per-gallon Federal gasoline tax they pay now.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) proposed a bill into the Oregon State House in December 2012 that would, if passed, implement a pilot program to test the feasibility of a tax on miles traveled. The U.S. Congress is looking into similar options as a supplemental source of revenue for the Highway Trust Fund.

The pay per mile tax is under consideration because the current federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cent-per-gallon is not generating enough revenue – partly due to fuel efficient vehicles including hybrids and electric vehicles (EVs) and the fact that the gasoline tax was never indexed for inflation. The Federal gas tax has not been raised in 20 years, causing Congress to borrow money elsewhere to fund infrastructure expansion and maintenance.

For some the fact that gasoline usage is down might sound progressive because it is evidence we as a nation are indeed being more fuel conscientious, using new high mileage or alternative fuel vehicles, and even using more public transportation. However, a penny saved is not a penny earned to the Feds. The gas tax revenue went towards maintain Americas’ highway system. Currently the federal government is facing a gas tax revenue of $34 billion a year which is far less than the estimated $78 billion needed to keep the national highway system in working order.

So why not just raise the gas tax higher than 18 cents per gallon? The answer is because the government would still be missing out on the lost revenue from the growing number of citizens who drive EVs, hybrids, and other alternatives. The gas tax would also have to more than double to cover infrastructure costs. Good luck getting that through Congress

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that in order to generate the needed revenue American drivers would have to pay 2.2 cents per mile on average – a 153% increase over what they pay now in gas tax. The GAO predicts that commercial trucks would be hit with a 120% increase, raising the price of shipping which would no doubt be passed on to customers.

There are a bunch of concerns with this tax idea, but perhaps one of the most interesting in the invasion of privacy. The process of how the government would get your mileage is a logistical and civil liberties nightmare. Ideas have been bounced around from installing GPS systems in cars to track mileage to having transmitters in cars sending out some kind of odometer count at a gas station so the pay per mile tax could be applied when a person fills their tank.

It is anyone’s guess if such a tax will happen or if a pay per mile tax idea would even work to generate the needed revenue. What is known however is that money is needed and badly — so badly that all ideas, no matter how invasive or outlandish, are clearly on the table.

Source: moneymorning.com

Andrew Meggison was born in the state of Maine and educated in Massachusetts. Andrew earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Government and International Relations from Clark University and a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Northeastern University. Being an Eagle Scout, Andrew has a passion for all things environmental. In his free time Andrew enjoys writing, exploring the great outdoors, a good film, and a creative cocktail. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AndrewMeggison

February 12, 2013 2 comments

Driving A Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, Days 1+2

written by Charis Michelsen

I believe I have found an excellent vehicle to drive through the zombie apocalypse – or at least a good one for hauling stuff around on a regular basis. I’ve had a Mitsubishi Outlander Sport tossed at me for the week, and it’s turning out to be a lot of fun!

Mitsubishi Outlander Sport: SUV + Cute, Days 1+2 (via Planetsave)

Hi, I’m Charis Michelsen. I write about cars (among other important things). This week, I’ve got a Mitsubishi Outlander Sport to play with. I was told first that it’s super cute, and second that it’s good on gas (somebody has noticed what I pay attention to here…). It’s definitely cute,…

December 4, 2012 0 comment

MUTE Budget EV is Coming to Frankfurt

written by Jo Borrás

The MUTE electric car is the latest project from a group of engineering students over at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), who are set to show off their latest project at this September’s 2011 Frankfurt auto show.

TUM’s MUTE was designed to be low weight and ultra-efficient, like most EVs, but the team promises its design will be producible at an exceptionally low price (though, probably higher than the upcoming EN-V electric pod from GM) and offer excellent driving dynamics courtesy of an innovative electric device situated into in the rear differential which serves to distribute the force evenly between the two back wheels. The team is calling this an active torque vectoring differential, and it’s the first time a unit like this has appeared in (what promises to become) a mainstream electric car. The university team claims this tech delivers “ideal distribution of propulsive force between the two back wheels makes the car much more agile and safer.”

I’m not sure about all that “ideal” business (and I’m not sure how something like this would compare to a more conventional electric racer, like Nismo’s track-ready Leaf) but this team sure seems like it’s having fun putting the prototype through it’s paces! You can check out the gallery, below, and CLICK HERE to check out the original announcement (in German) which includes high-resolution versions of these photos.

Official press release, below.

MUTE prototype displays excellent driving dynamics

Technische Universitaet Muenchen will be presenting its new electric vehicle concept “MUTE” at the international motor show in Frankfurt from 15 to 25 September. Following months of preliminary work on computer simulations, the first completed prototype showed in driving tests that MUTE possesses excellent driving properties – not only in theory, but also in practice.

For the first time, a handful of curious bystanders had the opportunity to see TU Muenchen’s new electric vehicle in test runs. But the final design of MUTE remained shrouded; it will first be revealed at the IAA in Frankfurt (15 – 25 September 2011, hall 4, C 23). The MUTE prototype is built so that it has the same driving dynamics as the final vehicle.

The first test drives speak for the ingenious construction of the vehicle, which was tried and tested in numerous computer simulations. Particularly noticeable are MUTE’s narrow tires. They minimize rolling friction, thereby extending the range of the vehicle. To ensure good cornering ability in spite of the narrow tires (115/70R16), the lateral dynamics of the vehicle were optimized by adjusting suspension, damping and axle kinematics. As a result the MUTE prototype completed the ISO Lane Change test better than a most conventional medium-sized automobiles.

A further important feature is the low weight of the vehicle. MUTE has a curb weight of only 400 kg, with another 100 kg for the batteries. “Low weight is essential for electric vehicles,” says Professor Markus Lienkamp from the Chair of Automotive Technology at TUM. “More weight requires higher battery capacity for the same range and thus generates significantly higher costs. More weight also means inferior dynamics for a given level of motor power. But what we are aiming at is an affordable car that is fun to drive.”

MUTE’s low curb weight means that the weight of passengers and baggage cannot be ignored, which is why the ratio between the spring force and the resulting contact patch load is chosen slightly progressive. This ensures that driving comfort remains the same for both light and heavy drivers, although using springs with linear characteristic. Approaching full load the spring force in the tire contact patch increases progressively, diminishing comfort slightly to allow for sufficient residual spring travel.

The results of the first test runs are also important for the design of the active torque vectoring differential. A small electric machine integrated in the differential serves to distribute the force evenly between the two back wheels. Especially when braking in curves, twice as much energy can be recouped than without torque vectoring. This ideal distribution of propulsive force between the two back wheels makes the car much more agile and safer. As a result the driver will hardly notice any reduction in lateral dynamics caused by the narrow width of the tires.

Whenever possible, MUTE brakes by using the electric motor as a generator. The recovered energy is then fed back into the battery. When more braking power is needed, the electronic stability control (ESC) also activates the disc brakes on the front wheels.

“MUTE achieves a high level of safety through ESC and torque vectoring,” says Michael Graf, who designed the driving dynamics parameters and subsequently did the test drives. “MUTE falls into the top 25 percent of existing medium-sized vehicles when it comes to driving dynamics and is absolutely easy to handle.” Even load reversal in curves does not impede safe handling of the vehicle – oversteering is easy to compensate. “Our practical tests show that MUTE outperforms theoretical forecasts,” he adds proudly.

Source: TU Muenchen, via World Car Fans; Photos: TU Muenchen.

July 24, 2011 5 comments

Video: Nissan Leaf Drives 779 Miles in Just 24 Hours

written by Christopher DeMorro

Over the course of four days, I had to drive almost 800 miles last weekend. Impossible to do in an electric car, right? Wrong. A pair of Dutch Nissan Leaf drivers managed to cover 779 miles in just 24 hours.

There must be a catch, right? A tow truck, or a battery trailer, or something? As it turns out, the only advantage this duo of Dutch drivers had were fast charging stations spread along their route. They set out to see how far one can drive an electric car using these fast chargers in a 24 hour period. Considering that the EPA estimates the Leaf’s driving range on a full charge to be about 73 miles, I figure these two probably plugged-in at least ten times (probably more though, given much of the trip was at highway speeds, lowering the estimated range even more.) That’s a lot of coffee breaks. Good thing the Netherlands is known for its “coffee shops.”

So, it’s not exactly the most “convenient” trip. However, with gas prices hovering between $7 and $8 a gallon in much of Europe, the extra time is probably well worth the hundreds of dollars they saved in gas expenses. The video also proves the hardiness of both the battery pack and cooling system (which some people called “primitive”) as well as the usefulness of the fast charging system. The DC Fast Charger system charges the Leaf in as little as 20 to 30 minutes, allowing them to cover a total distance of 1,254 km, or 779.2 miles, in just 24 hours. Not too shabby if you ask me, and on my recent mini-road trip, it would have saved me almost $100 in gas expenses.

Perhaps this video will win over a few more EV converts, perhaps not, but it definitely adds more fuel to the fiery debate over electric vehicles.

Source: All Cars Electric

Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMIs. You can read about his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout or follow his non-nonsensical ramblings on Twitter @harshcougar.

June 10, 2011 8 comments

Op-Ed: A Driver’s License with Green Credentials

written by Christopher DeMorro

My driver’s education class was a joke, and I don’t imagine it has gotten any better. Yet there are some very simple techniques that could be taught that would reduce congestion, save fuel, and promote a better driving environment.

The only thing I remember from driver’s education is learning how to use the emergency brake. My instructor (a retired teacher of something) took me to a parking lot, let me accelerate the Chevy Cavalier as fast as I could before yanking the e-brake. That was fun, tough not exactly useful information for daily driving.

Most of the rest of the class was driving statistics, anti-DUI rhetoric, and memorizing useless facts about how many feet should be between me and the other cars on the road depending on conditions.

Is it any wonder America’s roads are constantly congested? People never learned to drive properly, so we have people going 10 mph under the speed limit in the fast lane, dickheads passing on the shoulder, and dudes in pickups trying to drive right up your tailpipe. If only getting your driver’s license wasn’t so easy.

Take Germany for example. It costs $2,000 for a license, requires up to 45 hours of professional training (non of this sidejob bullcrap) and another 12 hours of theory…whatever that is. It sounds downright draconian, but before you judge their methods, watch this video of a Corvette Z06 going 200 mph on the Autobahn. Ze Germans can drive. They know how to get out of the way. They know their place on the road. So I think a good start would be making driver’s education mandatory. Want a license? Sit through a class, damnit.

While that hasn’t eliminated traffic congestion, I think adding a section about conserving fuel and the basic premise of hypermiling to driver’s ed could go a long way towards promoting a better generation of drivers. How many times must I see somebody fly past me, full throttle…towards a red stop light? What was the point guy? I’m right next to you, but you wasted a lot more gas than me getting to this point.

With gas prices at $4 a gallon, pretty much everybody is looking for a way to save gas. Why not make this a teaching point? And why not inform people about where their oil is really coming from at the same time? And more to the point, let’s show these new drivers how to drive well. Sorry, but not blowing through a stoplight and parallel parking doesn’t prove you’re a good driver.

Basically, I am just sick of awful drivers. I am sick of watching people waste fuel for no good reason. To me, wasting a tank of gas is almost akin to throwing out a perfectly good plate of food after taking just a few bites. Instead of scaring new drivers with flicks like Red Concrete, we should show them how to get the most mileage out of their gas tank, how to drive with consideration to others, and most importantly, we need to stop handing out licenses like they’re a right, not a privlidge. It’s not even like my generation is all that interested in cars, but the least we can do is make sure those few who take the plunge aren’t contributing to the congested mess we call America’s highways.

Is it just me, or do I sound older and crankier than usual today?

May 22, 2011 4 comments