Blogs & Ecology

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A Dream on Wheels

When you say the words "green car," what comes to mind? Prius first, I suspect. One of the numerous electric cars popping up these days. And perhaps a hydrogen car. So would you be surprised to hear that the winner of last week's Green Car of the Year award at the LA Auto Show was...a diesel? Volkswagen's Jetta TDI.

With all this talk about the green economy, it’s nice to know that some people are working on the play-by-play plan to get us there. This road map comes from Scott Clavenna, CEO of Greentech Media. He calls it a “Greentech Market Taxonomy.”
It's broken down into five major market segments:

Power Technology: generation, storage, transmission and management
Transportation: vehicles, fuels, and infrastructure
Built Environments: greener buildings, energy efficient technologies

From Hybrid to Heavy
During the campaign he sang the praises of hybrids and rallied against SUVs, and switched his ride to a mix of the two.

While NYC is having a hard time clearing the air when it comes to taxis, some claiming they're not as safe as the 15 mpg relics common on the road now, Boston and San Francisco have a solid option that goes far beyond being a transportation service that's replaced the black car with a green car.

We've talked about UPS a lot recently on 3P in terms of their highly successful efforts to reduce energy and fuel consumption. From reducing the number of left-turns on a route to various experiments in hybrid and alternative vehicles, UPS has done a lot to earn our accolades. What's next up their sleeve?

We're excited that UPS has asked 3P's Tom Schueneman to be present at their latest Alternative-Fuel Vehicle Press Conference and will broadcast the conference here on this page. Representatives of UPS, the EPA, Eaton, and Navistar will be present as the next phase in UPS' commercial fleet strategy is announced.

Japan's business news source, Nikkei (subscription only), has reported that Toyota is planning a Prius with solar panels manufactured by Kyocera Corp. Toyota has not confirmed the reports. If Toyota achieves the rumored timing, it will be the first major manufacturer to bring a car with integrated solar panels to the mass market.

Mercedes Wants to say 'Goodbye' to Petroleum by 2015
If you want to achieve great things, you have to set bold goals and then do your best to meet them. Mercedes now has the first part of the equation down, lets hope they can deliver on the execution.

The Slow Green Conversion of Carlos Ghosn

By the year 2010 a plug-in hybrid vehicle will be available in Japan, the US and Europe as part of the green strategy released by Toyota on June 11 last week. The vehicles will be run with next-generation lithium-ion batteries and will be rechargeable from an electrical outlet. The ecological petrol-electric cars will be aimed at leasing customers and will operate longer and cleaner than regular hybrids.

The initiative comes as part of Toyota’s larger plan to create a more sustainable practice and to meet consumer demand from suffering drivers who are feeling the oil price crunch and who are becoming conscious consumers in the face of global warming.

The Little Hybrid Car that Could
Toyota has recently announced that worldwide sales of its Prius hybrid gasoline-electric car have hit the 1 million milestone. More precisely, as of the end of April, the total number was about 1,028,000.

Sales have not been linear: The first generation Prius hybrid was introduced in 1997 in Japan, it was really the 2004 model year second generation that turned it into a hit, almost tripling sales in a year (from 43.2k in 2003 to 125.7k in 2004). ...

Gas prices are skyrocketing and now more than ever we can agree we're sick of it. Fortunately, so were the people at Aptera who not only created a new hybrid but one like any other. Want a full electric version? They have that too.

Technology Review has created a useful animated primer on regular hybrid cars, plug-in hybrids and 'extended-range' electric car. The latter is what the Chevy Volt will be; A plug-in hybrid, but unlike with regular hybrids and plug-in hybrids, the gasoline engine cannot turn the wheels directly. All it can do is charge the battery, which then powers electric motors that turn the wheels.

In the grand scheme of things, it's a small step: 10 diesel-hybrid trucks to replace conventional ones, saving about 1,600 KG of CO2 emissions per year, per truck. But as the first company to operate such a hybrid truck fleet in Australia, it's worth mentioning to encourage them to keep going, and encourage others in the country to follow suit.