Posts Tagged In the News
Cash for Clunkers…Conan O’Brien Style: KABOOM!
Posted by Jeffrey in General News, Green Cars on August 14th, 2009
If you’re not familiar with Cash for Clunkers (aka the “Car Allowance Rebate System“), then you should catch up on the news. It’s all over the place. It’s simple: trade in a qualifying older, not-so-fuel-efficient vehicle and get a government rebate towards the purchase of a new, more fuel efficient vehicle. It’s not perfect, but it’s wildly popular right now.
Well, Conan O’Brien made a fantastic offer on The Tonight Show: trade in your earth-killing jalopy for a Lexus HS10 Hybrid sedan. The catch? Conan is going to “blow up” your old car! (Check out the video clip on Hulu from the show.)
Conan wants people to send in videos of their terrible car and why they deserve the new Lexus. The winner gets their car blown up with massive amounts of explosives, and they get a new Lexus! The official name of the contest: Conan, Please Blow-Up My Car!
This is all of course a promotion for the new Lexus HS10, which indeed looks like a very nice car. If you watch the video clip above, they give a little overview of the car. It is loaded with technology. Maybe too much technology: it has a mouse to control all the electronics! The car is a hybrid, but because of it’s big, powerful engine, it gets a fuel efficiency of about 35 mpg.
So, if you have a real beater that is too old to qualify for the Cash for Clunkers program, Conan O’Brien might be a good alternative.
Coolest Hybrid Motorcycle Ever! It’s a Peugeot!
Posted by Jeffrey in Green Cars on July 30th, 2009
Ever since spending time in South America I’ve had a fond feeling for Peugeot automobiles. Peugeot gave up on the United States in the early 1990s, but they’re going strong in Chile, where my friend works for their marketing team. I had the chance to drive a diesel 207 around, and I have to say I loved it. I had ridden in his car several times, but until I drove it, and he told me, I didn’t know it was diesel.
Peugeot may have just completely won me over for life with their HYmotion Hybrid Motorcycle. Hybrid? Indeed. It has a 125cc gas engine, and two electric motors, one for each front wheel. Oh yeah, it’s a three-wheeled motorcycle.
If that three wheel design looks familiar, you may be thinking of the Piaggio MP3. Notably a hybrid MP3 is also in production.
BMW tried making scooter with a roof, but it didn’t take off. I always thought it was pretty cool-looking though.
The Peugeot will be hitting European streets next year.
Is Toyota’s Plug-In Prius worth it?
Posted by Jeffrey in Green Cars on July 9th, 2009
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
Posted by Jeffrey in General News on July 7th, 2009
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.
Waxman-Markey passes the house, but what is it?
Posted by Jeffrey in General News on July 3rd, 2009
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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