Tag Archives: Cars

CAFE oh, yay?

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Yesterday afternoon the Obama administration released a proposal for new CAFE standards of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, up from the current 27.5 MPG. Soon the average automobile may finally get significantly better mileage than the Model T. Still, under these regulations, cars sold on the American market in 2016 will consume use more gas than Chinese cars from 2005! It is worth noting though, that since Ford’s time vehicle safety has improved, and most drivers have ridiculous amounts of horsepower to spare.

The 250 grams per mile of carbon dioxide limit the proposal puts forth is not a restriction at all. This comes to 19.42 pounds per gallon for 35.5 MPG vehicles, the same quantity of emissions as the EPA currently reports for a gallon of gasoline. In other words, at its current value it is redundant, and simply another way of saying 35.5 MPG. However, this needn’t be the case if gasoline formulations were to change.

Lastly, here’s some coverage of events leading up to the announcement, and some interesting graphs of DOT and EIA fleet fuel economy; this is real-world MPG, and is therefore affected by driving practices, weather, etc.

Weighing in on electric cars

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Volt230 A recent issue of The Energy Report, featured a story about a new Michigan factory to supply batteries for the Chevy Volt and other vehicles in GM’s fleet. The Energy Report covers Energy and Environmental policy in the United States and globally on CleanSkies.com, a relatively new webcast.

While the article touts the benefits of getting higher mileage and lower CO2 emitting vehicles, we must keep in mind a few costs before running out to buy a new electric car (be it from GM, Daimler-Chrysler, or Tesla Motors). These costs include environmental, financial, and and the opportunity costs for using your money for other purposes.

Electric cars do have an impact on the environment, related to the extraction, manufacture, use, and disposal of the materials in their batteries; as well as the rest of the car. Tesla Motors does seem to be conscientious of its environmental impact and other car manufacturers like Toyota and Honda are promoting battery recycling. Because electricity must be created to charge the batteries, whether electricity comes from coal or nuclear, or wind, solar, or hydro, hybrid cars makes a substantial difference on one’s carbon footprint. Manufacturing an entire car has a huge environmental impact as well, particularly when compared to using mass transit, car sharing programs, occasional car rentals, bicycling, and walking.

Owning a car is very costly in financial terms: car principal payment, interest, gas, maintenance, and insurance. One of the best ways to be a good environmental steward: don’t own a car. Living close to work, school, and shopping nodes keeps money in your pocket, protects the earth’s resources, reduces your carbon emissions, exercises your body, and leads to a healthier life style.

MIT Introduces new Solar Car

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This car will be competing in October in the World Solar Challenge race across Australia. About a dozen team members are expected to go to Australia for the race, although only four will drive the solar car in the competition. By the way, the car’s name is Eleanor and when the sun shines, it will do 55 mph all day long.

Arbitrage on Electric Car Batteries

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A couple of weeks ago Warm Home Cool Planet featured a story on the 2010 Chevy Volt–the car that will save GM–and the first mass market example of transport technology that might save us all in the end. But will the public buy it.

This article about the Tesla (the all electric roadster favored by environmentally-conscious celebrities such a George Clooney) demonstrates there is a market for these cars, as long as they are appropriately targeted to customers.

The most interesting part of the article examines the company’s financial arrangements with customers to replace the car’s battery, which they estimate has a lifetime of approximately 7 years or 100,000 miles. As you can imagine, you don’t simply undo the cables and hand swap them like a vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine. Currently, Tesla imagines the cost of replacement at $32,000. But they will take an upfront payment of $12,000 when you plunk down $105,000 for the Roadster.

If you can afford 100 grand for a car, the $12,000 upfront rather than sounds like  a pretty good risk, particularly in this investment climate. It brings up a interesting point about the marketability of electric and hybrid cars. If the battery on this these cars has a finite lifespan, owners already paying a premium to cut down their CO2 emissions will be hit with a substantial repair bill after owning the car for a number of years. This will affect the the resale of these vehicles, making them a less attractive new car purchases.

By taking the money upfront Tesla is taking a gamble too. They are betting that by the time these batterries need to be replaced, technology will them to install a new power source for their car at closer to the $12,000 they took from each new car buyer.

GM has not made any definitive statements about the lifespan or replacement cost of the electric batteries in Volt. But even $12,000 is almost half the cost at which they plan to sell the car. Warm Home Cool Planet’s advice to all planning on buying a Volt… bank that rebate check and compound that interest–you may need it.

Stay tuned for more on this subject.

Local company to make energy efficient stereo for Chevy Volt.

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Framingham-based Bose Corporation has long been known for it’s innovative and high-quality sound products. The Bose Wave we have at Warm Home Cool Planet HQ is without a doubt the best investment we have made in the last 3 years.

Now, Bose will be part of the revival of an American icon. Right after the first Chevy Volt hits the road in 2010, GM will be releasing a newer version with a Bose Energy Efficient Sound Series that uses 50% less energy than any previous car-based Bose system. This will go a long way towards achieving the Volt’s promised 40 miles operating range on electrical power only. That number is significant as it covers the daily commute of over 70% of the working population of the US.

The year Green Marketing Broke Through

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I think we can all agree 2008 was an historic and constantly surprising year:

The folks over at Marketing Profs  also noted 2008 was the year major companies and major brands saw that terms like carbon footprints, CO2 emissions, alternative energy and energy efficiency weren’t going away. OK, so Warm Home Cool Planet is now part of the mainstream. What does that mean and where can we expect ‘green’ marketing to go in 2009.

Here are the some of the trends worth noting:

Green campaigns are being created and awarded. On the other hand, organizations who engage in ‘greenwashing’ (i.e. making false claims about their environmental record or the carbon footprint of their products) will be found out and called out by the many watchdog and activist groups using the Internet to make life difficult for these companies.

The bottled water industry has taken a beating recently as people began to realize there was something wrong with drinking a bottle of water transported from thousands of miles away when there is perfectly good drinking water coming out of tap just a few feet away. This kind of information-the kind that changes consumer perceptions–and behavior–is now being shared on the web at lightning speed.

If the car industry in America is ever going to make a comeback it will have to be within the next four years. They are in position to be first to market with an entirely electric car, which if it gains widespread acceptance will help them meet tougher emissions standards. If a universal health care plan is passed, it will also allow Detroit to compete with car companies located in countries where employers do not have to add employee healthcare costs to the price of their products.

In other words, despite the grim economics news, there is enough financial incentive, consumer demand, technological innovation and government assistance to make green products and the marketing of those products grow even more prevalent in 2009.

Zipcar-wheels when you want them

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Occasionally we like to give a shout out to our neighbors in Cambridge doing the right thing by the community and the environment. Zipcar, who rent cars by the hour or day, definitely fits into that category. Here’s where Zipcar explains why using one of their vehicles for your transportation around town is much better for the environment than owning your own car–you’ll probably find it’s cheaper too. If you’re not into the whole reading thing, the graphic below explains how the Zipcar works. The only thing to add is that Zipcar does expect the car back at some point…

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Unlike Hertz, Avis and all the other car rental companies, Zipcar’s policy is to locate cars in the neighborhoods where their customers live, which cuts down on transportation costs to your Zipcar.

Find out if there’s a Zipcar near you.

New Prius on the Horizon

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2010 Toyota Prius

Not that we’re flacks for the auto industry, but when we heard they were rolling out a new Prius at this year’s Detroit Auto Show, the car fans here at Warm Home Cool Planet got all excited. After all, here’s the car that pretty much made hybrid a household word.

When we heard words like ‘mainstream styling’ we started to worry that the Prius’ wonderfully quirky styling had become a victim of success. Have no fear, though, as you can see from the photo above the distinctive ‘slice of pie’ profile is still there. With just a little Camry styling around the lights.