Green Cars - For the People, By the People

Last week GM reported a 1.3 billion dollar second quarter profit, a big turn around from one year ago when it went into bankruptcy. While this is a bit encouraging the company still owes the U.S. government over 40 billion dollars. And regardless of this slight upswing, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that the company, as with all U.S. car manufacturers, is lagging in innovative technology that make cars more fuel-efficient. The Chevy Volt, which is scheduled to hit showrooms late this Fall is a positive start but we are still way behind.

At Earthgarage I’ve come across dozens of interesting green car innovations from independent people. John Scott from Wales, WI has developed a cambered tire that provides better fuel economy while also achieving better traction. And the Edison2 team from Lynchburg, VA developed and raced the Very Light Car, which has stellar performance and fuel economy around 100 mpg.

But we still aren’t seeing these technologies in our cars. Perhaps we should be resorting to smaller, independent vehicle manufacturers that are flexible enough to handle new automotive technologies as they are developed. Recently Jay Rogers of Local Motors gave a great lecture at Poptech about utilizing open source technology to build fully customizable vehicles. The best part is that Local Motors accepts design input from anyone. In addition, cars are made locally in small factories and designed to handle road conditions in specific regions.

Manufacturing cars on a smaller scale seems positive for the future of environmentally friendly vehicles. At the very least it’s hard to believe that small independent manufacturers will ever require billions of dollars from the government if they don’t succeed.

Lose that Shining Escalade, Fuel Efficient Cars Are Safer from Theft

As if you needed another reason to buy a more fuel-efficient car, you can now feel safer about it because thieves just don’t want it.

According to a report from the Highway Loss Data Institute, hybrids and fuel-efficient cars are stolen a lot less often than others. The report looked at insurance claims for theft losses from 2007 to 2009 and fuel-efficient cars showed some of the lowest losses. The insurance claims take into account both the number of times claims were filed and also the payment for the claims.

The car with the most insurance claims for theft was the Cadillac Escalade, which averages at 11 mpg, followed by the Ford F-250 pickup and the Infiniti G37 luxury car. In fact most of the cars with the highest losses were large SUV’s, pickups and luxury cars.

The Toyota Prius, a hybrid, is the least stolen vehicle on the list. The frequency of claims for the Prius was a low 0.8% as compared to 10.8% for the Escalade. The Prius also had an average loss payment of $2,203 per claim as compared to $11,934 for the Escalade.

The Prius, which averages at 50 mpg, shares it spot on the lowest losses list with other fuel-efficient cars like the Volvo S80 (27 mpg) and the Mini Cooper (32 mpg).

Prius owners need not be insulted; Escalade parts are just worth more on the black market. Kim Hazelbaker, HLDI senior vice president says, "Thieves are after chrome, horsepower, and Hemis," which may explain why more fuel-efficient vehicles are so low on the list.

Knowing thieves are into gas-guzzlers is one more good reason to buy a hybrid. Besides saving money on fuel, you can now save yourself the anxiety of worrying whether your vehicle is safer from theft and damage.

Source: http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr080310.html

Earthgarage Interviews Co-Founder of Evatran Plugless Power

Earthgarage interviewed Rebecca Hough, Co-founder and Director of Sales & Marketing, of Evatran Plugless Power. Essentially, they've turned the ubiquitous concrete tire stop you see in parking lots into a wireless charging station. We learned more about their radical new technology as well as the company behind it.

What led to the creation of Evatran Plugless Power in 2009?
MTC, the parent of Evatran has been in the electrical infrastructure market for over 25 years. So naturally we've always been interested in electrified transportation, ever since GM came out with the EV-1 car in the 90's. About 18 months ago we decided the time was right for leveraging our transformer technology to develop a convenient charging platform. Evatran was founded, and we started moving towards product development.

How did you become involved with Evatran?
We're a family owned company. My father acquired the company in 1998, and grew it over the past 12-13 years into the successful company it is today. Since I was connected through family, and because of the renewed interest in electric vehicles, I decided to leave the consulting business, and help found Evatran.

Can Plugless Power compete with high voltage chargers like level 3 fast charging units? Is there anything you can tell us that we may not know?
Plugless Power is not meant to compete with level 3 chargers. They fill different niches in the market. Plugless Power is more suited to home charging, as opposed to the level 3 chargers which are more likely to show up at stop-and-go places like gas stations.
As for something you may not find explicitly on the web site, many people don't know how the automatic aligning feature works. The parking block is actually hollow and contains the (electrical) sending unit. The sending unit actually moves back-and-forth inside the block to align itself with the car's built-in charger.

What, do you think, is the technology's greatest advantage?
The two biggest are advantages are convenience and peace of mind. The technology suits our current lifestyle, not only in the U.S. but also across the world. It removes the repetitive nature of the charging process, creating a hands-free and extremely simple interaction - like self-cleaning ovens. The second, peace of mind, avoids many of the worries of regular systems. If you forget to plug in your car you could be stuck without transportation to work the next day; and when you are distracted by all the tasks of the day it is relatively easy to forget to plug in. Plugless Power makes sure there is never that moment when you wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if you remembered to plug in the car.

The media makes such a big deal about EV's but how many Leafs were sold, 10,000? Seriously, when will electrics cars be ubiquitous?
Conventional hybrids have been around for about 12 years; after about 10 years they hit 3% of the market share. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you think about it, how often you see a hybrid on the road? Wouldn’t you say fairly often? Even ten years from now, by 2020, a 3% market share for pure electric vehicles will have been extremely successful, especially for a technology that is revolutionizing the market place.

Three Green Apps That Can Chop the Toes Off Your Carbon Footprint

Everyone has a carbon footprint, not just corporations and car owners. If you've ever wondered what size footprint you leave, or how to shrink it, then take a look at these iphone apps.

Commute Greener

Commute Greener will help you track the CO2 cost of your commute, and let you set carbon reduction goals. It also provides an online community feature, and the ability to compare your carbon footprint from day to day, or week to week.

Ecorio

Ecorio has a simple and easy user interface, making it a breeze to track your carbon footprint. Ecorio even finds the most efficient route for your trips using Google Transit. Plus it offers the option to purchase carbon offsets directly.

Carbon Tracker

Carbon Tracker lets you manage your carbon footprint. It keeps track of each trip's carbon cost, and allows you to set a desired maximum footprint. It also provides a graph of carbon usage to help you keep track of yourself over time.

These apps present a useful way to take personal responsibility for your own part in climate change, and to live a greener life. Having concrete goals can make all the difference between maintaining a green lifestyle, and falling back into old habits.

Tesla Would be Proud: Plugless Power by Evatran

Nikola Tesla was one of first to employ wireless power, demonstrating it at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. He might be happy that another of his ideas has found an application more than a century later.

Evatran's Plugless Power uses a proximity power system to charge EV batteries without any physical connection. The driver parks their car. A "parking block" aligns itself with the car's built-in adapter. The battery charges through induction. No, this doesn't mean you're going to get zapped by electricity flying through the air. Tesla's demonstrations took place over a century ago and were safe even then.

Conceptual Design

 This technology could solve many of the problems associated with EV charging infrastructure - the need to leave the vehicle plugged in and often unattended, electrocution anxieties (still persistent despite being unfounded), and simply forgetting to charge-up. (Anyone with a cell phone knows this problem too well).

Imagine parking lots where, instead of yellow concrete parking stops, there were Plugless Power stations. This technology provides a beautifully simple way to recharge an EV.

Product Report: FuelMileage.com

Need an easy way to keep track of your car's performance and fuel costs? Want to know how your car measures up to other vehicles? If the answer was "yes," then check out Fuelmileage.com. It is a free application with a few very useful features. It can track and calculate gas mileage. It has the ability to track multiple vehicles. Plus, it has a comprehensive online database and flexible reporting system.

fuelmileage.com Android App

Users add information in three different ways - by text message, through the website or through a mobile phone (pictured left). Simply add information after each fill-up, which includes distance (either the odometer reading or the trip meter reading), gallons, price per gallon, location, and any notes the user may want to add.

The feature that allows you to compare cars with other users will become more useful as their online community grows. Still, if you want to record and track your car's efficiency, this application is worth a try.

Visit Earthgarage.com for other ways to make your car greener and wallet fatter.

Information Over Asphalt: Drive With Your Computer Instead of Your Car

Ever consider ditching the morning commute and telecommuting on the information superhighway? No more wasting all that time, gas, and money, sitting in traffic on the way to work each week. Not to mention the reduction in C02 emissions. Spending every day at home might not work for you, but cutting out a few days or even just one a week can help a lot, and telecommuting isn't the hassle it once was. New advances in technology make it much easier to communicate with each other than ever before.

www.dimdim.com

Applications like dimdim let you host online meetings, share documents, web pages, audio, video, whiteboards...All on a web browser.

tinychat.com

Others like tinychat give you an extremely simple audio/visual chat system, which works on any operating system as long as you can access a web browser.

www.webex.com

Cisco's WebEx allows you to share desktops in real-time, and combines it with a phone conferencing system. Everyone can see and hear the same thing at the same time. Powerful tools like these can reduce the need to go to the office everyday, and save you time, stress, and money. Consider telecommuting instead of driving.

Chinese Invent Coolest Bus Ever

A Chinese company (Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., Ltd) has come up with an awesome new type of public transportation, which they call a 3D fast bus, or straddling bus. The bus can run on rails or use an autopilot program that follows special lines drawn on the road. The bus bridges or 'straddles' a two-lane road allowing cars to pass underneath, and so avoids impeding traffic flow. It is estimated the bus could reduce traffic jams by 25%-30%.  It draws power from charging posts that run along the top of the bus, and also uses solar power.

The bus has a top speed of 60 km/h, a 1200 passenger capacity, and a complicated warning system to deal with other drivers. These 3D bus lines usually cost 90% less than an equivalent amount of subway line, and take about a third of the time to build. Maybe the coolest feature of all is the "huge skylight that will eliminate passengers’ sense of depression."(chinahush.com)

Photos: chinahush.com

 A pilot program is scheduled for later this year in Beijing. While the practicality of this type of system depends on the individual city, it does provide a good alternative especially where subway lines are not viable. Public reaction might be mixed as people may think driving through a bus is a little crazy. (treehugger.com)

Thunderdome: Nissan Leaf vs. Chevrolet Volt

Two cars enter, one car leaves. The Leaf and Volt are coming out later this year. Both are the flagship electric cars for their companies, Nissan and GM respectively. There is definitely
going to be competition for a share of the market. So let's compare.

Chevrolet Volt, and Nissan Leaf

Range:
The Nissan Leaf is fully electric and doesn't use any gas, and it get a little under 100 miles per charge.

The Chevy Volt is good for about 40 miles on pure electric, but has an extended range mode, which after the battery is depleted gets about 50 mpg.

Fuel:
Leaf - electricity.
Volt - electricity/premium gasoline.

Price:
Leaf - $32,780.00
Volt - $41,000.00

Both are eligible for a federal tax credit of $7,500.00 that will help bring the price down a bit for the buyer.

Recharging:
Both cars can be charged with either a standard 120v outlet, or a higher voltage charging unit for quicker recharge time. Some cars even come with a free charging unit courtesy of the Federal Government (www.theevproject.com).

Size:
Leaf - four person compact car
Volt - mid-sized sedan, seats four.

Conclusion:
The Volt is the more expensive of the two, and the larger price tag doesn't seem to get you a lot more, it needs expensive premium gas, and still only seats four despite being a sedan. The Leaf is much less expensive, uses no gas, and gets better range when compared to the Volt's pure electric mode. So unless your commute is more than 50 miles each way, go with the Leaf.


Sources: Examiner, Mercury News, New York Times, GreenCarReport.