Credit: www.newscanada.com

Germans going green this time

It is great to hit the road in a grand SUV, but some of us have a hard time when it comes to investing in a vehicle that has been touted as “gas guzzlers” by environmentalists.

The good news is: soon you are going to get the best of the both worlds – a SUV based on hybrid technology. With the Porsche Cayenne hybrid to be rolled out by the end of 2009, the German auto industry, at last, has something up their sleeve to make environmentalists happy.

German car makers have always been considered one of the finest manufacturers in the industry. But in the recent years, the Japanese car makers were seen to grossly outpace them in the matter of international repute. The German automobile industry lacked in a vital area of manufacturing; they failed to cut down on the dependence on the fossil fuel engine.

The European car makers as a whole have come under the close scrutiny of the Environmental police tightening the rules on CO2 emissions amidst growing pressure from the environmental lobbyists.

In fact, the Greenpeace staged a demonstration before the Porsche plant holding the company responsible for building cars they labeled “climate pigs”. (The present Cayenne model with its conventional six-cylinder engine, consumes 12.9 liters on average. That makes Cayenne SUV one of the worst emitters of CO2.)

All these acted as catalyst for Porsche’s decision to turn green: Porsche revealed that they are on their way of developing a hybrid drivetrain for its Cayenne SUV. Cayenne in its Hybrid avatar is designed to drastically cut on fuel consumption and going to achieve average fuel consumption of 8.9 liters (2.35 gallons) per 100 kilometers (62 miles), claims Porsche.

The engineering of the Cayenne hybrid combines an electric motor and battery with a standard combustion engine in order to cut fuel consumption. The technology is being co-developed with Audi and Volkswagen AG. The hybrid powertrain is being designed to capture energy from braking and use it to drive an electric motor. The expected speed of the vehicle is going to be up to 120kmph with the gas engine first taking over at high speeds. This is no doubt an impressive figure.

Porsche says it plans to unveil the Cayenne hybrid in 2009. This new hybrid is sure to encourage the other European manufacturers get started in making a greener world.

Energy cost is relative. When you plug in your hair dryer, do you ever consider the pennies it’s costing you to look your best? When you toast your morning bread, does it even register that some small price is being paid for the convenience? How about when you go to fill up the gas tank of your car? I imagine this is the point when energy costs begin to enter the minds of most of us. One U.S. company would like to see all of that change, so that in the future you think no more about your vehicle’s energy consumption than you would your refrigerator’s, possibly even less.

Google charged into the green movement yesterday, announcing one million dollars in grants for the development of plug-in hybrid vehicles capable of achieving fuel efficiencies between 70 and 100 mpg. Along with the initial moneys being paid out, the company also plans on offering up to an additional $10 million dollars for future proposals advancing the technology.

The target fuel efficiencies would be four times that of the average non-hybrid car on the road today, and twice that of standard hybrids. The increased fuel efficiency comes from higher capacity batteries in the vehicles. These batteries are left to charge overnight, and can run without gasoline assistance for the first 20-40 miles of a trip. On average, Americans commute 33 miles a day, meaning that most people would not use any gas going to or from work.

In addition to the plug-in hybrid technology, Google hopes to develop vehicle-to-grid technology that would allow drivers to sell their unused power back to the electricity grid. In other words, drivers could actually be paid for their morning and afternoon commutes.

Google states that the integration of plug-in hybrid vehicles could save the United States 85 billion gallons of gasoline per year, equaling a 27% reduction in greenhouse emissions, and a savings of $270 billion in gasoline.

An additional bonus that that these cars bring is that they charge at night, while power consumption is low, so the effect on the power grid would be minimal.

Hybrid technology has come a long way quickly, but with Google’s announcement it looks as though it’s about to take another giant leap forward.

Today mayor Bloomberg announced that the city’s yellow cabs plan to switch to hybrids within five years.

Bloomberg stated that “there’s an awful lot of taxicabs on the streets of New York City… these cars just sit there in traffic sometimes, belching fumes.”

Over the past 18 months the city has been testing models, including the Toyota Prius, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, the Lexus RX 400h and the Ford Escape.

Full story: MSNBC

Yesterday the guys at Popular Mechanics tested out the Ford HySeries Edge: the world’s first working plug-in, fuel-cell, hydrogen-powered car.  This Detroit-made is being featured as a concept at the New York auto show today.

Though wafting zero-emissions exhaust in our face taught us plenty as to the realities of a hydrogen-powered automotive experience, what really made our test special was actually being able to drive a car running on advanced hydrogen fuel-cell technology that can power itself with a 336-volt battery pack.

 

But there is another factor that accounts for this huge popularity of hybrid cars; this is the influence of celebrity hybrid drivers. Starting from Tom hanks to Cameron Diaz, from Salma Hayek to Leonardo DiCaprio…all leading Hollywood stars’ love affair with their Hybrid cars are but an open secret today.

 

In a society that loves to stay besieged by the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood, celebrity endorsement holds immense brand building potentials. Celebrities can make the brand more conspicuous in the lives of the consumers. Most importantly, the celebrities can take a campaign to an extent, which is impossible to achieve through any other means. So the Global Green’s Red Carpet-Green Cars campaign seemed to take the right route to motivation when they made the celebrity like Charlize Theron drive up the Red Carpet in the Emmy Awards back in 2005, in a Hybrid car instead of conventional Limousine. The stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Hanks or Orlando Bloom are also some of the proud green drivers who move along the roads of Hollywood in their hybrid cars.

 

This fascination of the celebrities with their hybrid cars proved to be infectious and more and more people are stepping into the shoes of their favorite stars. The Global Green’s small efforts at important award ceremonies definitely bounced back in a big way…the skeptics turned tree huggers literally overnight.

 

Such is the power of celebrity endorsement: it can mould a non-believer into a staunch believer. But in the ultimate terms, each and every individual that drives a hybrid is a celebrity him/herself. A hybrid driver is helping the world to cope with the uncertain environmental future and energy storage. They are celebrities because they are silently contributing to the reshaping of international politics which at present seems to be controlled by the dynamics of too much oil dependence.

 

So emulate your favorite star for a bigger cause…be a celebrity yourself!

 

As a part of $55 million research contract bagged in 2003 from the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) Lifecycle Management Command, Oshkosh has been engaged in developing the eight-wheel, 13-ton A3.

These Oshkosh hybrid heavy weight trucks use lot lesser fuel— almost 20 percent lesser— than their traditional fuel guzzling siblings. They also bring 100 kilowatts of exportable power.  Instead of a standard drive train, the truck’s diesel engine drives a generator. The generator in turn powers an electric motor on each of the eight wheels. While put in parking gear, the generator is capable of running a command-and-control center or field hospital. It stores electricity in an ultracapacitor which does not weigh more than typical batteries; this keeps up its efficiency in freezing and extremely hot conditions.

The coming months will determine the fate of HEMMT A3s when their constructional superiority will be judged by the army officials over a 10,000 miles of on- and off-road testing at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Md. This will clear all doubts whether these hybrid tactical trucks are sturdy enough to withstand the realities of battle grounds.

The construction of the current batch of A3s is being built by strictly considering the factors of military ruggedness. They are built on a 20-year life expectancy. Joaquin Salas, Oshkosh’s defense marketing manager sums up the advantages of this 8 wheel mobility tactical trucks in this way:

“The truck provides an advanced capability that it sets apart from any current vehicle on the battlefield whether you are talking about power, fuel savings or the ability to off-load a C-130”.

Thus the army seems to have enough reasons to be upbeat about this new generation of hybrid military trucks. Reducing fuel consumption, the HEMMT A3s are expected to considerably slash off military’s logistic budgets; the on-board electric generators ensure greater flexibility too.

As of us, there is no reason why we should not look forward to the production of commercial vehicles using the same technology.

 

They are cheaper to maintain on the long haul!!

They help you to save on your tax payment!!

….There were myriad reasons why so many people thought it worthwhile buying a hybrid car!

The net result is: Starting from the year 2000, till mid- 2006, the sales curve of hybrid cars depicted a definitive upward trend. However a fall in the fuel price had somewhat interfered with this steep growth (within August to November the sales fall to 19,000 to 32,000).

Cut to 2007. Scenario has changed a bit…tax incentives, at least for Toyota cars are fading out, but people have started to take environmental factors more seriously. Under this circumstance there zoomed in another factor in a rather big way and that relates to the gas price!  According to a survey conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), Gas prices will average slightly more than $4 a gallon by 2015 and just over $5 a gallon by 2020.

With soaring gas price, the fuel economy and emissions regulations are going to be even stricter over the next decade, not in the USA alone, but also in Japan and in the EU countries.

And gas prices during the next few years are going to determine the fate of hybrid cars in a big way.

Keeping with the gas price/pollution control regulations factors, the leading auto manufacturers, especially Toyota and Honda…two world leaders in manufacturing hybrid cars are going to give special emphasis on more environment-friendly greener and cleaner cars, reports Japan Times.

The three US biggies— GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler unit are also planning to take green route for competing with Japanese manufacturers in the face of soaring fuel prices in the forthcoming decades.

However, Toyota is one step ahead: It has already started thinking about incorporating alternative technologies apart from their usual gasoline-electric hybrid. As the experts predict; the environment protecting technologies will emerge as the ultimate winners. While fuel cell vehicles hold no such hope for commercial viability in the near future, the ethanol powered cars have earned relatively greater popularity particularly in the countries like USA.

The ‘J’ factor is expected to rule the hybrid market in these coming years too with the Japanese automakers fast catching up with the new technologies. “(Japanese automakers) are working to develop the technologies, but it is too heavy of a burden to pursue all of them,” as declared Fujio Cho, vice chairman of Toyota and chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, in the recent past. The survival secret of hybrid cars in the following years lie in better gas mileage (as for instance, the next generation Prius can offer you a princely 90+ mpg) and in the plugging in technology.

To summarize it all, the future hybrid cars are going to retain their popularity over the coming years with their green features such as ultra-low emissions and fuel efficiency. And the next generation hybrid cars are targeted at the consumers who are more sensible towards environment and for whom hybrid means necessity, not indulgence in luxury.

In an odd twist, the Japanese aim for the big and powerful while American companies shy away from fuel guzzling trucks and SUVs.

They said that “Rumors of the electric car’s demise appear to have been greatly exaggerated, with so-called plug-in hybrids making the rounds from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., along with the sporty, new all-electric Tesla Roadster on offer. Now a new analysis from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) offers more good news: existing electric power plants could fuel 84 percent of ‘light duty’ vehicles if all 220 million cars and trucks converted to electric power overnight. ‘We’re delighted to see solid third-party confirmation of what the people who know best–the utilities–have been saying for sometime,’ says Felix Kramer, plug-in hybrid owner/evangelist and founder of Calcars.org.”

So there’s really no excuse not to start making the switch – it’s just amazing that the American government is not promoting this more, especially since so much of our money goes to some of their biggest enemies.

So what can you do?  Write your representatives at congress.org.