Is Toyota’s Plug-In Prius worth it?
The word on the street is that Toyota is planning on producing 20,000 to 30,000 plug-in Prius vehicles and selling them in 2012. That’s the good news, but, as always, the devil is in the details. According to reports, the plug-in Prius from Toyota will only get 12-18 miles in electric mode. Worse, the plug-in model will have a price tag of about $48,000!!!
Many people seem to be quite unhappy with the specs because you can get something better, now, for much less money with A123 Systems Hymotion conversion kit. In fact, The Green Car Company is one of a handful of authorized installers for the plug-in conversion kit.
The conversion kit works with your current 2004 to 2009 Toyota Prius. If you don’t yet own a Prius, check out our inventory page. We sell the Prius, both new and used, that already have the conversion kit installed.
With the a current Prius and the Hymotion kit, you can get better EV performance at a much lower price! So, perhaps Toyota needs to go back to the drawing board.
Choosing Greener Electronics
Despite whether you love or loath Greenpeace, they have recently released the updated “Guide to Greener Electronics,” and it’s pretty cool to look over. I’ll spare you the suspense: Nokia scored the best, and Nintendo scored the worst. If you’re considering an electronics purchase, this information is certainly something to consider!
Greenpeace’s guide began in August 2006 as a way to rank the top 17 manufacturers of computers, phones, televisions, and game consoles based on their corporate policies regarding recycling, toxic chemicals, and climate change. The guide has been updated every three months since the first release.
Here is an excerpt from Greenpeace that describes the ranking criteria:
The ranking criteria reflect the demands of the Toxic Tech campaign to the electronics companies. Our three demands are that companies should:
- Clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances.
- Takeback and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete.
- Reduce the climate impacts of their operations and products.
The use of harmful chemicals in electronics prevents their safe recycling when the products are discarded. Companies scored marks out of 51 this has then been calculated to a mark out of 10 for simplicity.
Follow the more link beside each company for the full details of their score. The full criteria for scoring the companies is available. Download the full pdf of the scorecard.
Each score is based solely on public information on the companies website. Companies found not to be following their published policies will be deducted penalty point in future versions of the guide.
More in-depth descriptions of each company rated is available on the guide’s webpage.
McDonald’s: would you like a charging station with your order?
McDonald's first "green" restaurant
It looks like McDonald’s is going to start cleaning up its image and install EV and Hybrid Plug-In charging stations at its restaurants. McDonald’s first charging station will be at a new restaurant that will be opening July 14 in Cary, NC.
The charging stations will be part of the ChargePoint Network. The stations can either be free, or require a subscription. The press release didn’t mention if charging would be free at McDonald’s, but it doesn’t really make sense to pay for a full charging session if you’re just stepping into have a Big Mac. (You can look up other ChargePoint station locations here.)
The new restaurant in Cary, NC is McDonald’s first “green” restaurant in North Carolina, and only their third such restaurant in the United States. The other two green restaurants are in Savannah, GA and Chicago. Aside from the new restaurant’s charging stations, it will also feature other environmentally-responsible aspects:
- Use of solatubes and LED lighting fixtures designed to use 97 percent natural light during the day
- Highly efficient, energy and water-saving restroom and kitchen fixtures
- Dedicated parking spaces for hybrid vehicles and plug-in charging stations for electric vehicles
- Table and decor walls incorporating rapidly renewable materials like sunflower seed board, wheat board, bamboo and kirei board
- Some recycled building materials
- Drought tolerant landscape plants
- Energy Efficiency Education Dashboard in dining area informing guests about the economic and environmental benefits of the building
Energy Independence on Independence Day!
Tomorrow is the 4th of July and The Green Car Company wants you to come to the Kirkland Parade! We will be shutting our store so we can show off some cool vehicle options in the parade. All the parade details are here: http://celebratekirkland.org/parade.htm
Waxman-Markey passes the house, but what is it?
If you’ve been following the news, then you’ve probably heard of the Waxman-Markey Act, also know as the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). It is an energy bill that outlines an emissions cap-and-trade policy. It passed in the House on Friday by the House, but has yet to make it to the Senate. After two Bush terms of inaction on climate change, we’re finally moving in the right direction. Maybe.
The blogosphere and newspaper opinion pages are on fire about whether the bill is a nonsense, just what we need, or somewhere in the middle. A Mother Jones article in the week leading up to the House vote does a good job of summarizing the concern over Waxman-Markey: Pass a flawed climate bill now, or wait for a better one?
Here is the meat of the 1,200-page bill:
- Set limits emissions limits of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases: by 2020, emissions need to be 17% below 2005 levels. By 2050, an 80% reduction.
- Set renewable energy production standards: by 2020, any electricity provider who supplies more than 4 million MWh must produce 20% of it’s supply through a renewable source, such as wind, solar, or geothermal. However, part of this requirement can be met through increasing energy efficiency. Alternatively, an energy supplier can pay $25 per MWh to achieve compliance.
- Modernization of the American electricity grid.
- Provides for an expansion in electric vehicle production.
- Makes large increases to the required levels of energy efficiency in buildings and home appliances.
The emissions weren’t a much as President Obama had hoped for, or as much as many European counterparts have adopted, but it’s a start. A new article today pointed out that the new law could upset the voluntary market, such as companies trying to green up their image by buying offsets. The provisions for energy efficiency increases in buildings could lead to some pretty neat things.
However, the bill has yet to be tested in the Senate. With Al Franken making Democrat #60 in the Senate, we’ll just have to wait to see if that means anything.
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