I’m in tears. Back in 1972, Stewart Udall, interior secretary in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, proposed that the auto companies branch out into “exciting new variants of ground transportation” to produce minibuses, “people movers,” urban mass transit and high-speed intercity trains. Instead of expanding the Interstate highway system, he suggested that the road construction industry take on “huge new programs to construct mass transit systems.” And he called for building “more compact, sensitively planned communities” rather than continuing urban sprawl.” We all know what happened. Detroit, today desperately seeking a miracle, worked hard to ensure that this would never happen. Even today, while screaming and begging for tax dollars, Detroit is lobbying against California’s stricter emissions laws that dictate smaller cars. Here’s the thing: people don’t want cars, we want mobility. And the reason I’m in tears is that lots of people saw this, almost FIFTY years ago.
Category: Green
Another day, another hysterical headline demonizing the automobile. This one arrives to us thanks to a study from California State University [via the SF Examiner]. Now, I’m no epidemiologist, nor do I play one in the autoblogosphere. But whenever I see the media glom onto research that promotes a particular political agenda, I want to see the methodology. (Hell, even if a study doesn’t become the darling of a crusade, I still want to see the methodology.) OK, so, “Hall and colleague Victor Brajer analyzed ozone and fine particulate concentrations across the two [most pollluted] basins in five-by-five kilometer grids from 2005 through 2007. The researchers applied those numbers to the health affects they are known to cause, then assigned peer-reviewed economic values to each illness or death that could result.” Fair enough. And then… “To illustrate its point, the study noted that the California Highway Patrol recorded 2,521 vehicular deaths in the San Joaquin Valley and South Coast Air Basin in 2006, compared to 3,812 deaths attributed to respiratory illness caused by particulate pollution.” See? Now who asked them to do that?
Recently-increased emissions standards (along with CAFE requirements) have received quite a bit of attention from Detroit’s blame-everyone-but-us squad. But bailout-begging agendas aside, just how hard are the new(ish) EPA standards to meet? Not that hard at all, according to an EPA report covered by Green Car Congress. The Office Of Transportation and Air Quality’s Report on Engine and Vehicle Compliance (pdf) for 2007 shows that the overwhelming majority of vehicles on the market actually meet or pass the EPA’s Tier Two Bin Five standard in current form. In fact, most US-market cars and light trucks currently boast a 46 to 90 percent compliance margin, meaning the amount by which they actually exceed EPA requirements. Under the EPA regime, models which “over-comply” with standards earn their makers credits which can be applied to under-conforming models. Of the 40-odd manufacturers on the market, five (Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Toyota) had a positive Tier Two emission limit credit balance for 2007, while only Aston Martin carried a net-negative credit balance. The credit-positive firms tended to certify most of their vehicles at Bin Five levels, while adding a few sub-Bin Five (higher standard) vehicles to gain credits. Those which merely met the standard certified at a mix of Bin levels which added up to an average of Bin Five. That wasn’t so hard, was it?
Soon after Inauguration Day, President-elect Barack Obama is expected to reverse about 200 Bush administration executive orders. One ot watch: a reversal of the December 2007 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ) ruling prohibiting the enactment of California Assembly Bill 1493 (pdf). Passed back in 2002, AB1493 mandates a 30 percent reduction in car and truck carbon dioxide emissions starting in model year 2009. Depending on who’s doing the math, calculations suggest that California’s law would mandate a fleet average of about 40mpg. That’s about five mpg higher than the EPA’s latest Corporate Avererage Fleet Economy (CAFE) target. There is a loophole for small-volume manufacturers, but volume carmakers are going to be pissed as as hell (they lobbied heavily for the primacy of the EPA ruling). As expected, Obama has come out in favor of aiding the US automakers ASAP. Will the automakers plead poverty and ask for a delay in reversing the AB1493 ruling? Of course.
You gotta sit up and take notice when a new technology claims a 40 to 50 percent increase in fuel economy. Either that or hide your checkbook. Personally, professionally, I’ve never heard of a hydraulic hybrid vehicle (HHV), never mind a diesel hydraulic hybrid vehicle (DHHV?). But IndustryWeek has, as well as the United Parcel Service, which plans to deploy a fleet of two (count ’em two) HHVs in Minneapolis early next year. The only explanation for the taxpayer-funded technology involved is, to say the least, literally, marginal. “The technology, originally developed in a federal laboratory of the Environmental Protection Agency, stores energy by compressing hydraulic fluid under pressure in a large chamber.” Does one of our Best and Brightest care to elaborate? Meanwhile, it’s kinda weird to hear our government officials talk about the hybrid premium: “The EPA estimates that when manufactured in high volume, the added costs of the hybrid components can be recouped in less than three years through lower fuel and brake maintenance costs.” [thanks to nutbags for the link]
Things must be really bad in Deutschland. Before, any German government of any persuasion raised taxes when times were good, and raised them more when times were bad. Debates before important elections usually are about how much taxes should be raised. Imagine McCain saying: “My friends, I will tax you more than that guy.” He’d get the vote in Deutschland. Well, the German government is now worried about auto sales. Scared scheissless is probably the better term. So scared they want to abolish the tax on cars. Totally. Well, at least for a while. And in a discreet green wrapper. Says so in today’s report by the German magazine Der Spiegel. Berlin’s cabinet left it to their Minister of the Environment, Sigmar Gabriel, to give the car crazy Germans the good news this morning: No tax on environmentally friendly cars for the next two years. Zilch. Nada. Nichts. “Environmentally friendly” is defined as compliance with the Euro 5 and Euro 6 norm. Which, for all intents and purposes, means no tax for all new cars coming to the market.
OK, before we get hit with a lawsuit, Mark Miller Toyota will not offer the “Bob Marley Special” on new Toyotas. Not that it wouldn’t appeal to at least one Prius driver. Anyway, a Market Watch press release tells us that the Utah Toyota dealer is opening the first and only LEED-certified car dealership in the state. (At least he expects a Gold LEED rating when the paperwork clears “in the coming weeks.”) Designed to maximize local and recycled materials and maximize energy and water-efficiency, the new dealership boasts a number of eco-features. Sun-tracking skylights, a cool-roof system, low-flow taps and toilets, rainwater collection and high-speed service bay doors keep energy bills low, and allow Toyota customers to feel a little better about mean-smuggin’ in their Priora. The most gimmicky best feature? “Anyone familiar with Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive knows there is a screen that shows the car’s energy use over a time period. We’ll have the same sort of panel inside the dealership that shows the building’s energy use over the last half hour or so,” reveals Miller. Up next: employees obsessively turning the A/C on and off and bragging on their blogs about how many cubic feet they were able to “hypercool” on a single kilowatt/hour.
In a country of a billion souls, where billionaires waft in their Quattroportes alongside whole families in Chang’an Altos, justice is not easy to come by. The absolute power of China’s central government is two-sided sword: capable of rapidly enacting transformative change, but also equally capable of drawing the instant ire of hundreds of millions. Thus, to deal with a boom in car ownership and its attendant congestion issues, Beijing has turned to the only fair method of government to force drivers from the road: a lottery. Yesterday, Beijing’s government announced that cars with license plates ending in 1 or 6 would be banned from the road for a day. And just like that a fifth of Beijing’s 3.5m (and counting) cars were off the road. Autocar reports that tomorrow numbers 2 and 7 are next.
What’s beyond irony? Farce? Whatever it is, the fact that Chevrolet decided to underwrite Christian Slater’s new NBC series entitled “My Own Worst Enemy” is it. The show’s “bumpers” featured the Chevrolet Traverse and the Chevrolet Camaro in split screen head-on action, supposedly reflecting the electronically-induced multiple-personality disorder suffered by the show’s main character. Or is that characters? Although I was busy surfing the net at several points during the show– checking to see if Autoblog was live blogging (“we know it’s Albright having intercourse with Spivey’s wife cause he strikes her on the buttocks”)– I don’t think the Traverse was ever shown in motion. I guess NBC suits decided that Spivey couldn’t be THAT much of a Mr. Mom. That said, the Traverse did survive a nearby bomb blast without a scratch. But where was the dismembered limb on the windshield routine? The silver Camaro was ready for its close-up when Spivey got bored and took Albright’s whip (don’t ask) for a little late hoonage..
We’ve got this Green.MSN.com website.
So let’s do something with it! I hear this hypermiling thing is big.
It sure is. What is it?
No idea. Some crap about getting great mileage without having a hybrid.
“When you first start hypermiling, I find, you really wish you had someone to ride along with you to show you the ropes. Sadly, that’s not yet an option for most people. Until then, we can learn from some of the best.” Rather than suggest you not play with fire (like turning off your car while coasting, thus killing your power brakes), MSN asks self-confessed “efficiency nerd” Darin Cosgrove some broad questions and calls it good. I repeat: the article does not contain a single tip (although you now know to avoid Darin Cosgrove at parties). Not only is the article useless, but it is part of the irresponsible practice of telling people they should do something dangerous without even understanding it completely, or having someone “show them the ropes.”
First it was “the HUMMER H2 is better for the environment than the Prius.” Now it’s big cars in general are better for the planet– and your wallet– than small ones. “Small cars don’t last,” automotive analyst Dennis DesRosiers tells wordsmith Barbara Righton of Macleans. “They fail to retain value, utility or desirability.” Babs connects the dots. “Small cars are less durable. First off, they are built lighter. Secondly, they are cheaper, so they attract younger drivers who tend to maintain them poorly. They have a lower resale value, which guarantees they won’t trade hands many times before they are scrapped, and they’re more likely to be written off by insurance companies if they are involved in serious collisions. In other words, ‘the useful life of the vehicle’ is as short as their wheel base, according to Erich Merkle, an automotive consultant with Crowe Chizek in Grand Rapids, Mich.” Quite aside from the fallacy of the argument (I’ll let the Best and Brightest make the case), do I detect some kind of weird sneering thing going on? Indeed I do. “Merkle advises consumers to buy a mid-sized car that is a couple of years old and hang onto it. That way they can sit contentedly and watch the parade of tiny cars in their neighbours’ driveways come — and go.” [thanks to rpn453 for the tip]
Warren Buffet’s recent investment in BYD has conferred a new legitimacy on a dual parallel-serial hybrid drivetrain, which combines features from both systems. And now VW has revealed its own PHEV third way called “TwinDrive.” Ohne transmission, VW’s concept car uses a small electric engine– powered by a 350 lbs. Sanyo lithium-Ion battery pack under the trunk floor– to launch its Golf testbed to 30 mph. (At which point the gasoline engine kicks in.) Electric acceleration helps overcome the limitations of a single high gear; reverse is electric-only. And drivers can engage an EV-only mode. Motor Trend reports that VeeDub’s testing the TwinDrive system with diesel engines, but gas-powered TD’s are destined for production. Production ICE is said to be a 100hp turbocharged 1.05-liter turbocharged triple. A smart navigation-based system will calculate energy use priorities, saving battery capacity if urban driving appears ahead on the planned driving route, thus ensuring battery depletion at the destination and keeping the TwinDrive away from gas pumps unless absolutely necessary). The basic components of plug-in hybrid systems seem to have become fairly standardized. But concepts like the TwinDrive show that there are more development options than simply parallel or serial configurations.
Pssst. Wanna buy a $25K Honda Civic with a 220-mile driving range and the trunk space of a Miata? Me niether. Since its introduction over a decade ago, the Honda Civic GX has sold between 500 – 1000 per year; production has just been boosted to a mere 1500 p.a. The Civic Hybrid sells more than double that every month. Honda cites parts shortage as a bottleneck, primarily the greenest Civic’s lightweight and costly carbon fiber fuel tank. The Cutting Edge News’ Edwin Black isn’t satisfied with that explanation. In fact, Black claims a conspiracy to suppress production of the GX. Citing the inability of the Spokane, WA school system to secure a fleet of CNG-mobiles, Black chides Honda for milking maximum PR mileage on a car they CLEARLY don’t give a damn about. Even worse (for hardly anyone), the Civic GX is going out of production until June 2009 while production is moving to Honda’s new Indiana plant. Black contrasts this green conspiracy to GM’s promise to manufacture and sell as many hundreds of thousands of Volts and other electrified vehicles to as many as it can as quickly as it can at the best price that it can.” So why isn’t Black giving GM (and Ford) a hard time for discontinuing their CNG vehicles a few years back?
Chrysler, Ford and GM await the President’s signature on the bill authorizing $25b in low-interest federal loans to retool old factories to produce new fuel misers. And then face an uphill political battle to get the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to loosen its loan requirements and give them the goddam money. Meanwhile, a Toyota press release reveals that the transplant’s just landed a share of $15m in DOE grants to “speed the adoption of energy-saving building and facility technologies” at ToMoCo’s U.S. dealerships. “Being named part of this program is a tribute to those dealers with the vision and commitment to develop environmentally sensitive buildings in conjunction with Toyota’s Image II Eco design program,” said Toyota Prez Jim Lentz. “We will continue to work with dealers and the DOE to develop energy efficient facilities and guidelines that will benefit the entire industry.” Talk about rubbing it in… And what’s the bet Toyota gets the money before 2010? TTAC’s investigating.
While Chrysler jumps headlong into the concept car vaporware EV game, Toyota is taking its usual evolutionary approach. Bloomberg reports that ToMoCo will stick with its Prius strategy, augmenting it only with a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) burning hybrid version of its Camry sedan. The CNG Hybrid is a response to lower natural gas prices in the US compared to normal gasoline, and the modest success of Honda’s CNG Civic. No pricing or efficiency information is currently available for the CNG Hybrid Camry. Meanwhile, Toyota is still driving down the replacement cost of its Prius-powering NiMh battery packs, which now set first and second-gen Prius owners back $2,299. Calling the Prius “as close to a silver bullet as you’re going to get,” Bill Reinert, national manager of advanced technology for Toyota Motor Sales claims “the reason the Prius was such a successful car is that the customer didn’t have to do anything to it.” And to those who say that hybrids are a “transitional technology,” Toyota will be selling a million Priora per year by 2010, before Chrysler and GM even start selling their highly-touted EVs. Slow and steady, as they say…
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