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Thursday, May 8, 2008:
An MIT study found that if we have the same mix of vehicles on the road in 2035 that we had in 2005, our fuel use will rise 35 percent. However, "aggressive adoption of hybrids would make carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent lower than if no changes were made in the next 27 years. That would require 55 percent of new cars on the road to be hybrids or plug-in hybrids, leaving 44 percent to run on gasoline." The researchers also called for immediate government support through fuel-efficiency tax credits ... As if we need more evidence that high gas prices are affecting car-buying habits: "A year ago, the Toyota Prius was the 13th most shopped model on third- party web sites such as Edmunds.com and Autotrader.com. In April, as gas prices jumped from the $2.70 range to the $3.25 range, the hybrid became the 4th most shopped, according to a new report by Compete.com, Boston." ... Zoom zoom! Sixteen college teams participated in a hybrid racing competition this past Tuesday, where the hybrids keep getting faster and faster ...
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Friday, May 2, 2008:
Are you a Prius owner who is eagerly awaiting more opportunities to convert to a plug-in? A123 Systems is now taking pre-orders for their Hymotion 5 battery, which converts a Prius into a plug-in hybrid. The battery, which fits in the spare truck slot under the trunk, takes the average 40 miles per gallon fuel economy of the Prius and jacks it up to a potential of over 100 miles per gallon. ... Looks like hybrid-like technology may be adapted for use in regular gas vehicles to improve their fuel efficiency. As those of us who live in cities know particularly well, we spend many hours of our life sitting in traffic or at red lights. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that "17 billion gallons of fuel are spent each year while cars sit motionless." We were intrigued to see that a German transmission company has "introduced a technique ... that stops fuel consumption when a non-hybrid car comes to a halt and restarts it within 350 milliseconds of the brake being disengaged. This reduces fuel consumption on starts by 5%" ... One police technician in California took on the challenge of converting hybrids into police-ready vehicles and his success is now drawing interest from police agencies around the country. Local shops weren't able to convert properly the Highlander Hybrids ordered by the Lindsay police and Toyota even refused to offer technical support. But Officer Eliseo Mendez was able to work out all the kinks so the police and fire department would have a reliable and greener mode of transport ...
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