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Environment

Gas2 Week in Review, June 4: Technological Processes that Benefit EVs and Climate

Technological processes that will move us closer to emission reductions sparked our readers’ interests this week on Gas2. One of the most compelling stories discussed Havelaar Canada’s reveal of its Bison electric pickup truck with #nextgen connectivity. Then, too, climate change activists and deniers alike spoke with passion regarding Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris agreement.

The Texas state legislature has again denied the most prominent electric car innovator of our times permission to sell its cars directly to customers. Yes, in case you missed it, Texas shot down Tesla’s legal petition to circumvent traditional car selling in the Lone Star State. So our readers turned to a story about the other economic end of the EV spectrum: the cheapest electric cars available today and the various technological processes that promote lightweighting. That story allowed our readers to build in some additional prior knowledge as they commented, especially when the topic of extensive computational analysis arose. Many promising results are being revealed in the lightweighting laboratory and implemented on the assembly line, especially with batteries.

Here are those stories and more on this week’s edition of the “Gas2 Week in Review.”

Bison Electric Pickup Truck Introduced by Havelaar Canada

What Canadian citizen wouldn’t like a sophisticated #nextgen pickup truck with instant connectivity, touch screen display, and driver assistive technology calibrated to meet both the day-to-day work demands and active lifestyle needs of adventurers? That’s the description provided by Havelaar Canada at the EV/VE Conference and Trade Show in Ontario as it revealed its new Bison electric pickup truck. Inspired by nature, designed in cooperation with the University of Toronto, the Bison will join the upcoming competition with Tesla and other EV makers as they attempt to corner the popular pickup truck market.

June 4, 2017 1 comment

Weather Whiplash is Causing Midwestern Towns to Invest in Expensive Nitrate Removal

written by Carolyn Fortuna

Weather whiplash, a phenomenon in which extreme seesawing between drought and flood occurs, is now driving deterioration of water quality and forcing municipalities to seek expensive solutions so their residents can have clean and safe drinking water. Modern agriculture is inextricably tied to declining surface water quality, with associated national and global ecological and economic problems.

Agriculture is a major source of reactive nitrogen and interacts with hydrology to control nitrogen loading to aquatic ecosystems. Future hydrological changes that are associated with climate will alter nitrogen loading to freshwater ecosystems in ways that are just beginning to emerge.

That’s according to research which indicates that U.S. Midwest agricultural regions will experience more drought and periods of excessive rainfall, and these will be “really big storms,” according to Terry Loecke, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Kansas. He and his team of researchers have created a weather whiplash index, which is calculated as the total precipitation from January to June of each year (1951–2099) minus the total precipitation from July to December of the previous year (1950–2098), divided by the total precipitation over that entire period.

And they’ve found that extreme weather events change the storage of nutrients in the agricultural landscape, especially nitrogen used in fertilizing farms.

“Farmers put on their normal amount of fertilizer, but when we have a drought, plants don’t grow as big and don’t take up as much nitrogen,” Loecke said. “Instead of going into the plants, which would be harvested, it stays in the soil — and no water is flushing it away.” Floods carry the nitrogen into rivers, which often supply local communities with drinking water.

With climate change predicted to increase the frequency and severity of growing-season drought and produce more extreme precipitation in the spring, agricultural crop yield will be reduced but soil nitrate concentrations will be enriched.

And who will pay for the nitrogen remediation? You guessed it: the taxpayer. Water departments are finding themselves forced to build new facilities to eliminate nitrogen from municipal water supplies.

April 5, 2017 2 comments

In the Vehicle Emission Standards War, It’s California 1, Trump 0

written by Carolyn Fortuna

Donald Trump’s hyperbole about making America great again has been shot down in flames this week. First, it was a failure to muster enough votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Then, on Friday, the California Air Resources Board announced that it would hold firm to the same vehicle emission standards it had agreed to adopt in 2012 through to the year 2025. California will also accelerate alternative fuel powertrains from around three percent now to about fifteen percent by 2025. These sources will include batteries, fuel cells, and plug-in hybrids.

Emission requirements generally determine the fuel efficiency of cars sold in the U.S. Trump has vowed to lessen vehicle emission standards regulations in order to stimulate the U.S. automotive industry. On behalf of the Trump administration, Scott Pruitt has stated that the EPA will review California’s right to enforce stricter emissions standards than those promulgated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The standoff injects more vitriol into the larger national conversation about whether the Trump administration will retreat from its climate change denier position or continue to bail on the U.S. and stand firm as a leader of a corporatocracy.

Reuters quotes a White House official as saying, “We are disappointed that California has chosen to refuse our good-faith offer to work together with all relevant stakeholders on this important matter.” Under a provision in the Clean Air Act, California has the autonomy to decide its own vehicle emission standards.

March 27, 2017 5 comments

Higher Fuel Economy Standards Are Within Reach, If Only Traditional Carmakers Would Give In

written by Carolyn Fortuna

How do you feel about fuel economy standards? Don’t you wish that the vehicle you like to drive most could achieve higher — and maybe much higher — fuel economy and still provide you with the options you enjoy?

You’re not alone. Better fuel economy standards are something that most Americans want, according to the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are regulations in the U.S. designed to improve the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks (which include trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles) produced for sale in the U.S. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulates CAFE standards, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) measures vehicle fuel efficiency. Congress specifies that CAFE standards must be set at the “maximum feasible level” given consideration for:

technological feasibility;
economic practicality;
effect of other standards on fuel economy; and,
needs of the nation to conserve energy.

In a CFA poll conducted at the end of 2016, people who responded across party lines said that they supported fuel economy regulations. Here’s the breakout of who wants fuel-economy standards:

2/3 of Donald Trump voters;
4/5 of Hillary Clinton voters;
2/3 independent voters (who also tended to favor Republicans).

Then how come, if so many Americans across the political spectrum want higher fuel-economy regulations, we don’t have them?

CFA research director Mark Cooper said, in understated fashion, that automakers are not enthusiastic about CAFE standards. Lack of enthusiasm aside, a fact sheet from the Union of Concerned Scientists describes the effects of fuel-economy standards: they would reduce America’s oil consumption, save consumers money at the gas pump, and protect public health and the environment by curbing global warming pollution. They could also help spur investments in new automotive technology, create jobs, and help sustain the recovery of the American auto industry. No other federal policy has the potential to deliver greater oil savings, consumer benefits, and global warming emissions reductions.

So, even though the Obama administration made history by setting standards that could nearly double the fuel economy of new cars and light trucks by 2025, what’s the likelihood we’ll see them take affect?

Not too great. And that’s a travesty, because a July Technical Assessment Report issued by the EPA and other regulators found that U.S. automakers could meet existing national emission standards primarily by further improving the efficiency of internal-combustion engines. Why don’t they start here then, with their existing catalog?

The cost of compliance with upcoming efficiency standards could “put new vehicles out of financial reach of the average new-car purchaser” argues Mitch Bainwol, head of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) lobbying group.

February 7, 2017 8 comments

EV and Solar Technologies Forecast to Significantly Reduce Fossil Fuel Dependence by 2025

written by Carolyn Fortuna

Electric vehicle (EV) and solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies will displace as much as 2.0 million barrels of oil per day by 2025 and grow to an astounding 25 million barrels of oil per day by 2050.

That’s according to a study produced in partnership between Carbon Tracker and the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London. They say that continued cost reductions through low-carbon technologies such as EV applications can displace demand for currently dominant fossil fuels and mitigate CO2 emissions. Luke Sussams, a senior researcher at Carbon Tracker, said, “Electric vehicles and solar power are game changers that the fossil fuel industry consistently underestimates.” The authors also warn in “Expect the Unexpected: The Disruptive Power of Low-carbon Technology” that their data is on the conservative side and the pace of innovation could be far greater than we imagine.

EVs are predicted to account for approximately 35% of the road transport market by 2035, and by 2050, for over two-thirds of the road transport market. This growth trajectory will displace approximately two million barrels of oil per day (mbd) in 2025 and 25mbd in 2050. The study also points to coal and oil demand peaking in 2020 with gas demand growth curtailed.

Moreover, solar PV could supply 23% of global power generation in 2040 and 29% by 2050. This would entirely phase out coal and leave natural gas with just a 1% market share. The analysis contradicts data that ExxonMobil uses, which sees all renewables supplying just 11% of global power generation by 2040. James Leaton, head of research at Carbon Tracker, notes, “There are a number of low-carbon technologies about to achieve critical mass decades before some companies expect.” The researchers warn that big energy companies are seriously underestimating low-carbon advances with a business-as-usual approach.

With significant data to back them, the researchers argue that many more efforts must be made to align with a carbon-constrained trajectory. They describe how technological advances have resulted in innovative manufacturing and less costly production methods. This has made end products in the electric vehicles as well as the solar and wind energy sector more affordable.

February 6, 2017 11 comments

Fun Super Bowl Ad for Mercedes Celebrates Me Generation, Misses EcoJustice Opportunity

written by Carolyn Fortuna

Super Bowl ads this 2017 year range from the fun to the sublime. Mercedes’ Super Bowl commercial, called “Easy Driver,” was created by the ever-clever Joel and Ethan Coen brother team, who are known for their pointed and enduring humor. With Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” as background music and a cameo appearance by Peter Fonda, the commercial offers a chance for its baby boomer audience to be a bit self-deprecating about angst over youth and those long-lost possibilities for freedom and independence.

What it doesn’t do, however, is call upon that same middle-aged+ audience to think about how a “Me Generation” attitude and sell-out to corporate America produced what seemed unthinkable in the late 1960s and early 1970s: that the former flower child generation would abandon the Earth’s delicate ecosystem and be directly culpable for big contributions to anthropogenic climate change.

With references to the 1969 classic film, “Easy Rider,” the fun Mercedes Super Bowl ad features a bar filled with aging bikers. Long gray beards. Tie dyed shirts. Fringed sleeves. Bulging bellies. Bodies no longer behaving in sync with the mind. Fist fights that go nowhere. One biker holds a lighter flame aloft just a bit too long. Two others hug and intertwine their long necklaces.

When one biker¹ slams open the swinging, Old West-reminiscent saloon doors, he catches everyone’s attention. “Blocked in,” he growls. The bar goes silent. “Blocked in?” is the refrain from the unbelievers.

Outside the bar, with the biker crowd onlooking and a lone eagle’s cry in the distance, we see a silver Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster and, walking toward it, Peter Fonda. He looks to the crowd and comments, “Nice rides.” A wrinkled female biker acknowledges, “Still lookin’ good.”

Fonda slips into the Roadster, beer mugs shake on the bar top, and the Mercedes-AMG GT speeds into the distance in a cloud of dust. The music returns alongside the slogans, “Born to be wild. Built to be wild.” The Mercedes maneuvers around corners and along sagebrush lined roads. Looking ahead, with the sun glinting around him, Fonda throws the audience — wait for it — the peace sign.

According to Ad Age, Drew Slaven, VP-marketing for Mercedes-Benz USA, said the ad’s creative team realized how Easy Rider was all about open air, the love of the drive, and “freedom as a the result of the machine you are on.” Commenting on how the Coen brothers were lured to do the spot, Andy Hirsch, chief creative officer at at Merkley, said: “They were excited that Peter Fonda was doing it too… (It) all came together. It was a great collaboration.”

That collaboration coalesced with the production know-how of the Coen brothers, whose films No Country for Old Men, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski have become cult classics.

Why Mercedes failed to use the Super Bowl to speak out about climate change action

The “Easy Driver” ad is part of Mercedes’ new strategy of giving more marketing attention to AMG, which is its sports car and high-performance sub brand. According to Car and Driver,

In these roadsters, performance is the real point. A 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 pairs with a seven-speed automatic, making 469 horsepower in the GT model. With 550 hp, the GT C shaves 0.2 second off the base car’s claimed 3.9-second zero-to-60-mph time. GT C models get rear-wheel steering and a limited-slip differential from the racy GT R coupe. Expect the GT roadsters to arrive in Mercedes-AMG showrooms in fall 2017.

Power. Performance. Speed. What else would a Baby Boomer want?

Shaped by the Cold War, the Baby Boomer generation became adults who were able to experience economic opportunity, and they took full advantage of it. However, they really didn’t bother to preserve the environment for generations to come in the way that many had anticipated. They burned inexpensive fossil fuels and filled the atmosphere with heat-trapping gases. It’s a generation that will probably never pay the costs of averting catastrophic climate change or helping their grandchildren adapt to a warmer world.

Mercedes knows that media messages are all about co-constructing meaning. To call out the upscale Baby Boomer audience which is the target for the identity rejuvenating Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster would mean that Mercedes would probably lose a valuable client share. It’s just easier for Baby Boomers to laugh alongside the Coen brothers than to be made accountable for a generational self-centeredness. Mercedes knows their target audience.

Millennials and attitudes on climate change action

A study by Statista in March 2014 looked at the different attitudes on climate change between generations. When asked if they believed that climate change was real and that humans were to blame for most of it, 50 percent of millennials answered yes, whereas Baby Boomers answered 43 percent yes. This Baby Boomer ennui is quite unsettling when taking into account powerful forces like the Koch brothers, oil companies, and lobbyists who devote significant time and financial resource to demonizing environmentalist action, protecting factory farming, and supporting unsustainable industries. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait until millennials control Congress before we have substantive climate action.

Yes, millennials have enjoyed living in a country with the most pro-environment president in decades. They enjoyed a governing administration that demonstrated interest in sensible climate legislation, including the Paris Climate Agreement and the Climate Action Plan. And Mercedes knows that the millennials’ share of new vehicle purchases surged 150 percent between 2010 and 2014. Looking to cater to the generation’s growing purchasing power to build a future customer base, Mercedes will have to adapt to environmental and marketing trends that a eco-conscious generation not just wants but expects.

Note: Interestingly, Mercedes brand has the naming rights to the new Falcons stadium that opens next season.

¹With only one person of color in the commercial, this critique could easily have gone in another direction and asked why Mercedes and the Coen brothers featured a nearly all-white cast.

Photo credit: zeevveez via Foter.com / CC BY

February 5, 2017 1 comment

Super Bowl Commercials Use Autos to Describe U.S. Identity in Divided Times

written by Carolyn Fortuna

Super Bowl commercials have a way of incorporating our American fascination with cars as a way to reinforce our identities. Today’s social media Super Bowl tie-in’s speak to the importance of automobiles as central to the American economy and ideological landscape. They’re also a way for us to celebrate a particular if mythological Golden Age of American’s past while looking to the degree to which we’ve oriented ourselves as a nation around progressive values, especially those that promote climate change action.

The automobile and the American identity

Back in the 20th century, many groups became affiliated with a particular kind of vehicle, like vagabond hippies and the VW bus. Surfers and 1940s woodies. WASP middle-class moms and the station wagon. Rugged individualists and off-road trucks. Yuppies and BMWs. A common U.S. cultural value has been to connect advertising and the automobile with the quintessential icons of freedom and mobility. The automobile became part of our daily existences, an extension of our public selves as symbols of who were as individuals and as part of a common culture. Automotive designs in the 20th century mostly reflected what it meant to have an American personality and style.

With the ubiquity of design in today’s U.S. automobiles, the car as identity has shifted a bit. Today, the car is more of a way to align oneself with value systems, such as those that work toward reducing carbon emissions into the environment. It’s not really like it was in 1950 as way to be “cool.” Think iconic gull wings on a Tesla Model X rather than James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder.

Super Bowl commercials reflect U.S. social divisions

In 1967, the first Super Bowl consisted of college bands from the University of Arizona and Grambling State University, instead of featuring popular singers and musicians as in more recent Super Bowls. Today, the Super Bowl is a very special occasion. Super Bowl LI 2017 in Houston features high profile television commercials to grab viewers’ attention. Explicit political and direct issue-related advertising are usually not aired during the Super Bowl, as the NFL has rules for equal issue broadcast time and adherence to NFL policies. As with any media message, though, some commercials will nonetheless attract controversy due to the nature of their content and the elements of their compositional design.

Corporations spend an enormous amount on Super Bowl commercials with the hope that their product or service will be the one most talked about on social media and, as a result, by people across the U.S. (The Super Bowl commercials are generally limited to the American television broadcast of the game, although they may be available abroad on YouTube.) Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, noted the slower pace of ad buys as the Super Bowl LI approached. “This year the polarization of the country is so apparent,” Calkins noted, “and that will clearly have an impact on how companies think about and approach the Super Bowl.”

On January 20, 2017, the Pew Charitable Trust released six important findings that emerged from their U.S. political surveys since the election.

Trump remains historically unpopular.
Most Americans want Trump to be “more cautious.”
The GOP’s image has improved.
Views of Russia and Putin have shifted along partisan lines.
Democrats glumly approach a new era.
Obama leaves office on a high note.

These findings are instructive when we think about how the Super Bowl LI — a quintessential celebration of all that is American — depicts itself as a nation. “To not think that there’s a Trump effect here would be crazy. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” said Michael Bernacchi, professor of marketing at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Despite the buoyant post-election stock market, marketing experts indicate that brands both within and outside the auto category are acting cautiously with their Super Bowl commercial decisions. Many were hesitant to spend potentially more than $5 million, which doesn’t include the pricey associated production and digital promotional costs, for a 30-second commercial. They were uncertain about what lies ahead for the nation’s economy and couldn’t risk alienating their clientele.

February 5, 2017 0 comment

Scotland Votes To Ban Fracking

written by Steve Hanley

On June 2, Scotland’s parliament voted to impose a moratorium on fracking within the country. The vote was 32 – 29. The narrow margin of victory for the anti-fracking measure came as the result of a united effort by three of Scotland’s political parties — the Scottish Greens, the Liberal Democrats, and the Labour Party.

$fracking$

June 6, 2016 6 comments

Kia Diesel Hybrid Not Coming To The U.S.?

written by Andrew Meggison

Kia has a brand new Optima hybrid with an efficient diesel engine in the works, but don’t expect it in the U.S. anytime soon.

The Kia Optima Mild Hybrid (AKA T-Hybrid) features a 1.7-liter turbo diesel four-cylinder engine coupled with an electric motor and a 48V lead-carbon battery pack. Using what is called a mild-hybrid system; the electric motor does not propel the car on its own, but rather allows the turbodiesel engine to be turned off whenever the car is coasting, braking, or stopped. This system replaces the conventional alternator while regenerative braking recharges the battery.

The Kia Optima Mild Hybrid is expected to debut at the Paris Motor Show, soon and with its debut the official efficiency figures will be made public.

While no news has come out about mass producing the Optima Mild Hybrid, speculation is that it will not come to the U.S. But why? Kia does have a strong presence here; however it seems that the goal is to introduce the hybrid to the European market first where efficiency standards are a bit more lenient towards diesel emissions, and the use of diesel fuel is less of an issue than it is here in the U.S.

All in all, this is a use of new technology for Kia and hopes are high that the end result will generate enough buzz to take the Kia Optima Mild Hybrid from the motor show to the road soon.

Source: Green Car Reports

September 28, 2014 1 comment

Car Dealer Predicts Tesla’s Eventual Victory

written by Andrew Meggison

Jim Ziegler is a self-described public speaker on car dealership issues who says in his op-ed titled “Who’s Afraid of Elon Musk” for Wards Auto that Musk’s controversial manufacturer-direct sales business plan is the way of the future.

When you go to buy a Tesla you are not going through a car dealership/dealer, you are buying factory direct. That is the foundation for manufacturer-direct sales.

Car dealerships hate the manufacturer-direct sales model because they see it as competition with an unfair advantage. As with any factory direct purchase the middle man, in this case the car dealer, is cut out of the process meaning consumers save money on the product and basically pick the car, pick the features you like, pay the set price, and wait for your order to come in. There is no dealership upselling, no pressure to buy, and no lame promotions that you don’t care about because salespeople aren’t paid on commission.

Car dealerships are not taking this change lightly. There has been a bitter battle in many states led by well-financed and connected car dealers to keep Tesla and their manufacturer-direct sales model out. But one by one more states are opening their doors to Tesla, with Massachusetts being the latest to reject a lawsuit by car dealers seeking to stop Tesla sales in the Bay State.

It is because of this unified front against Tesla by car dealerships nationwide that Mr. Ziegler’s piece stands out. While Mr. Ziegler does maintain the battle cry of car dealerships by saying,“Franchised dealers give consumers a competitive advantage with service and pricing. Factory-owned stores do not provide that.” and,“Politically, consumers might think the protected dealer franchise system is not in their best interest. Dealers generally sell new cars at a loss or break even. The manufacturers make the lion share of the profit. With manufacturer control, margins and prices would increase.” Mr. Ziegler does freely admit that Musk knows what he is doing, “He’s (Musk) never lost at anything he’s attempted so far.”

So, in summary, what Mr. Ziegler is saying is that even though he does not like the idea of a manufacturer-direct sales business plan and feels it will end up costing consumers more money due to lack of competition in the market, the current car dealer system can not survive the tide that is Elon Musk. Mr. Ziegler is saying that Musk’s controversial manufacturer-direct sales business plan is the way of the future, and that the current business plan for car dealerships needs to adapt or die. Mr. Ziegler believes there’s a place for both sales models in the market, but only if dealers can deliver equivalent or superior customer service or prices.

September 22, 2014 1 comment

Mercedes B-Class Electric Fails To Impress Consumer Reports

written by Andrew Meggison

Consumer Reports rarely minces words when it comes to its car reviews, and it calls the Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive hatchback the least-efficient electric car on the market. Ouch.

The Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive hatchback has a sticker price of around $41,350 and while the hatchback does offer abundant cargo space and a clear view of the road, it isn’t enough to earn high marks from Consumer Reports.

The electric B-Class has an 80 mile range, but also offers what Mercedes is calling an extended Range Plus mode which will push the Merc an additional 20 miles, offering a maximum of 100 miles of driving range. The extended Range Plus mode is done by selecting the option prior to charging the vehicle, which increases the charge from the cars normal 28 kWh to the full 36 kWh. Of course overclocking the battery will have a negative impact on the batteries lifespan. Unfortunately, the B-Class Electric also doesn’t offer a DC fast charge option like its main competitor, the BMW i3, so it takes a full 3.5 hours to charge compared to the Bimmer, which can top off in about 30 minutes.

While the Range Plus mode is interesting, it did not help once Consumer Reports took the B-Class for a spin. The results were the B-Class running at 2.9 miles per kWh, or the equivalent of about 98 mpg. While 98 mpg would be great for a gasoline powered car, it is a very poor score for an electric vehicle, and it’s even worse than the 3.2 kWh of the much older Nissan LEAF, which has been on the market for four years now.

Consumer Reports found other problems too. Even with a drive system coming from Tesla, the independent magazine said the car felt dated with a noisy cabin, stiff suspension, and dull handling despite a healthy 177 horsepower engine. Additionally, one of the largest issues aside from the Range Plus mode that Consumer Reports had with the B-Class was with the regenerative brake system. The B-Class offers two regenerative brake modes, one called Drive Minus which boosts regenerative braking but is tricky to use effectively. The other mode is Drive Plus mode, which allows you to coast, but brings down the range extending benefits of regenerative brakes.

Consumer Reports is not alone in their negative view of the B-Class as Car and Driver had some choice words as well. In any event, the B-Class Electric Drive is available in California only for now, but will be more widlely available across the U.S. in 2015.

Source: consumerreports.org

September 19, 2014 4 comments

Audi Completes Congestion Pilot System

written by Andrew Meggison

The future is upon on us, and driving will never be the same. Audi has successfully completed low speed tests of their Congestion Pilot System, a type of self-driving system that kicks in during high traffic and slowly moves the car along without driver interaction.

Driving in heavy traffic is no fun, no one likes it, so Audi is now taking the constant stop-and-go pedal pushing out of the equation through self-driving technology. The tech is called the Congestion Pilot System, and is made to kick in during times of traffic congestion at speeds below 37.5 miles per hour. While in traffic, the Congestion Pilot System will slowly accelerate and decelerate the car through the flow of traffic as well as utilizing a number of sensors (22 to be exact) through the on-board Central Driver Assistance Control Unit to anticipate maneuvers and direct the car forward.

When the traffic loosens up and speed goes above 37.5 mile per hour, the Congestion Pilot System returns control of the car back to the driver. If for some reason the driver does not regain control, it will actually slowly come to a stop.

Audi has been making some big advances in quasi self-driving technology. This on road test of the Congestion Pilot System took place in Tampa, Florida using a specially-modified A7, making Audi the first auto maker in the world to do a full on public road test of traffic jam assistance technology.

While self-driving cars such as the Google Car are years away from being consumer ready, autonomous car technology is slowly making its way into the mainstream. Once upon a time, rear-view cameras were only for the most luxurious of cars; now they are standard issue in most, and will be mandatory and enforced in new model cars by 2018. Audi is already looking forward to a future where driving is something you do only if you want to, rather than being a necessary evil.

The times and driving as we know it are a changin’.

August 26, 2014 0 comment

Where Is the 50 MPG Honda Accord Hybrid?

written by Andrew Meggison

The 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid is EPA rated at 47 miles per gallon, and has been on sale since October of 2013– but the Americans who want to buy them are having trouble finding them. In fact, over the first 10 months since its release, Honda has sold a mere 979 Accord Hybrids – out of 366,678 Accords of all models sold in 2013. To put that into perspective, the Accord Hybrid was outsold almost eight-to-one by the 7,719 Civic Hybrids delivered, of a total of 336,180 Civics.

What gives?

With an MPG rating that rivals smaller hybrids like the Toyota Prius, a starting price tag around $30,000, fun to drive handling characteristics, and being a four door mid-sized sedan, the Accord offers plenty of attractive features. Plus, it’s a Honda, so you can expect it to drive forever.

So, where’s the car? Honda claims that the company has suffered “component supply constraints” on the Made-in-the-USA Honda Accord Hybrids. Which, basically, means that they don’t have enough of the needed parts to meet US demand– a good problem to have!

There’s also been speculation that a version of the US-market Honda Accord Hybrid is being targeted at Japan, due to the heavy gov’t incentives offered to companies that are providing green options in Japan.

50 MPG Honda Accord Hybrid at Launch

Source: Green Car Reports.

August 25, 2014 1 comment

A List Of Celebrities Who Love Their Tesla Model S

written by Andrew Meggison

The Tesla Model S has proven a wildly-popular car with EV enthusiasts and celebrities alike. So who are these A listers anyhow? We did some Internet sleuthing and came up with a fairly comprehensive list of Model S owners and fans.

Ben Affleck; Actor, Director and Screenwriter, known for such features like Goodwill Hunting, The Town, and legendary J.Lo bomb Gilli.

Anthony Bourdain; Chef, Author, and TV Personality. You know him from his old TV show No Reservations and his new CNN show Parts Unknown.

James Cameron; Legendary Director, Screenwriter, Deep Sea Explorer. This is the man that brought you Avatar, Titanic, The Terminator and Terminator II, and my personal favorite Aliens. It makes sense for a sci-fi movie director to rock a Model S, doesn’t it?

Don Cheadle; Actor. You know him from Iron Man II and III, Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, and thirteen, and excellent Showtime series House of Lies.

Darren Criss; Singer Song Writer, Actor. You know him from Glee and a Very Potter Musical.

Cameron Diaz; Actress. You know her from There’s Something About Mary, Charlie’s Angles I and II, some questionable romantic comedies, and Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.

Jon Favreau; Actor, Director. You know him from Iron Man I and II, Swingers, and Elf.

Morgan Freeman; Actor and Director. You know him as the voice of God and narrator of many films, Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby, and Driving Miss Daisy.

Jennifer Garner; Actress. You know her as the wife of fellow Tesla driver Ben Affleck and some movies that were not that great like Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

Alyson Hannigan; Actress. You know here from TV on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother, and from the American Pie movies.

Dennis Haysbert; Actor. You know him as the guy from the Allstate advertisements, which obviously cover electric cars, and TV series 24.

James Hetfield; Songwriters and Lead Singer of Metallica

Anthony Kiedas; Songwriter and Lead Singer for The Red Hot Chili Peppers

Jay Leno; You know who Leno is and of course he has a Tesla! A Roadster though, not a Model S.

Dominic Monaghan; Actor. You know his from the Lord of The Rings Trilogy and Lost.

Demi Moore; Actress. You know here Striptease, A Few Good Men, and 80’s classic St. Elmo’s Fire, and from the tearjerker Ghost. She was also married to Bruce Willis for over ten years.

Ray Parker Jr.; Legendary guitarist and songwriter – he wrote and performed the theme song to Ghostbuster!

Kevin Pollak; Actor and Comedian. You know him as “oh it’s that guy” from movies like Casino, The Usual Suspects, Hostage, The Whole Nine Yards, and A Few Good Men. His standup is awesome too!

Jay-Z; Rapper and Producer. He was Instagramed with a “murdered out” black-on-black Tesla Model S by his wife, Beyonce, earlier this year.

Will Smith; Actor and musician. Big Willy Style!

Steven Spielberg; Director. ET, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Close Encounters, The Indian a Jones films, Saving Private Ryan, Schneider’s List, need I go on?

Steve Wozniak; Inventor and the other half of Apple, is an unabashed Tesla fan as well who has posed with the Tesla Model X.

And last but not least, Adam Sandler ( Big Daddy, The Water Boy) gave his costars of Grown Ups Maseratis after the shoot – nice bonus and very generous, though he gave co-star Rob Schneider a Tesla Roadster instead, because Rob likes EVs apparently.

Of course not every superstar celebrity is a Tesla fan, and George Clooney famously trashed his Model S, getting into it with none other than Elon Musk.

This is hardly a conclusive list of celebrity Tesla fans either; actor Seth Green has been seen around Hollywood in his Model S, as has will.i.am, beat master of the Black Eyed Peas. No longer do celebrities have to putz around in a Toyota Prius to seem like they care about the environment, and pretty soon all of Hollywood might be driving Teslas instead of Toyotas.

Source: dupontregistry.com Image: Beverly News

August 20, 2014 7 comments