The Green LiterGoing the extra mile with electric vehicles, hybrid cars, fuel efficient cars, biofuels and alternative energy sources

Fuel rates and prices are unbelievably shooting up around the world. Hence, if you want to save on your finances, you must know how to monitor your mileage and make the most out of each liter (or gallon) out of your tank. What’s more, you can save the environment and Mother Earth by consuming less (or just the right amount) of fuel and having a better-fuel mileage.

Clueless? No worries. This article will show you how:

1. Observe your car’s maintenance schedule

Suggested intervals for the maintenance schedule are every 3, 6 or 9 months. But how do you know simply when it’s the right time? The mile/Km count and the temperature of air, oil and engine condition are some indicative factors. If you’re not sure, you can check your car’s manual. Another helpful sign is when you start your car and see a light flashing for 10 seconds. This means that you’ve exceeded the recommended service interval intended for your vehicle.

Keeping your car’s engine and oil in healthy and proper maintenance will minimize pollution emitted into the air while driving.

… Continue reading.

With the Toyota Prius outselling all other green car competitors with annual sales of approximately400,000 units sold annually worldwide, the Prius has become the face of the green car revolution whileleaving its competitors out of the limelight. This lack of attention from the general public has leadmanufacturers to develop new innovations in electric and hybrid technology that have the means to dethrone Toyota as the new breakout green vehicle.

In a new green car comparison, manufacturers like Nissan with the Leaf and SMART with the ForTwo Coupe have surpassed Toyota’s Prius when put in a side by side comparison. From this comparison, it isclear to see that these new competitors in the green car market are gaining headway on Toyota as theyhave been ranked higher than the Prius in categories such as Air Pollution score, MPG, and overall greenrating.

Although the sales numbers for the Leaf and the ForTwo Coupe are abysmal in when compared to thatof the Prius, they are growing rapidly with cars like the Nissan Leaf selling over 10,000 units worldwidein its very first year of production. With these cars scoring higher in green testing, it is only a matter oftime before we see a new powerhouse in the green car market.

With the electric and hybrid cars making a splash as THE green cars of the future, the hydrogen fuel cell cars seems to have been forgotten.

Here are just some examples of how the Hydrogen car has fallen:

• The current US Govt has plans of cutting spending on hydrogen technology by 40 percent next year.
• California’s plans of a hydrogen highway has gone nowhere.
• Some car manufacturers like Ford and Renault has focused more on electric cars now rather than hydrogen ones.

But people are still hanging on the idea of a hydrogen car in the future.

“Yes, there are a lot of opportunities for battery-powered vehicles, but in many ways, the opportunities for fuel cells are much bigger,” says Herbert Kohler, head of the Daimler AG research unit that is developing electric and other alternative-fuel technologies.

If one compares an electric to a hydrogen car, it totally beats it. An electric vehicle can run at an average of 100 miles before the next recharge, while a hydrogen one can go 240 miles. Fuel cells are much more powerful therefore it can power big vehicles like SUVs and trucks.

Car manufacturers like Toyota has found ways to even further downsizing the fuel cells, lowering its cost. According to them a Toyota hydrogen car may cost around $50,000 and be ready come 2015.

Article via Wall Street Journal | Image via Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0]

As mentioned last time, electric car charging roads seem to be a better alternative rather than lining up in a charging station.

That technology is under testing as part of the UK’s public trial of green cars–specifically electric cars. The Covently and Birmingham Low Emission Demonstrators (CABLED) testing program will be in charge of the inductive system and the standard plug-in charger. The inductive system was unveiled to the public last October and allowed electric car charges while parked on a pad. Those pads will be installed both in the home of the tester and CABLED public charge points.

The data will be used to know whether there are changes in the tester’s way of charging inside and outside the home.

Article via Business Green | Image By Pe?ot (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Fisker Automotive Inc., a Finnish Hybrid car manufacturer has just received a $100 Million investment from unknown stakeholders.

The company has only just finished raising $190 million in an additional investment round in March, pushing the total raised funds above $1 billion. The extra $100 million is expected to ensure an initial production target of 3000 units for the Fisker Karma is met.

The Fisker Karma is an electric hybrid car. It has a 2-litre Ecotec turbocharged petrol motor, with gas consumption at 2.4L/100 kms. It’s also expected to run 0 to 100 kmh at 5.8 seconds.

With the additional money supporting it, it is now expected to appear on showrooms within May or June this year.

Article via Car Advice | Image By Alainrx8 [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

According to German Media, Volkswagen and its subsidiary Audi is planning a package where when one buys a green car, he or she has the option to buy the fuel that comes with it as well.

Audi announced on Thursday evening it would invest in four large wind turbines at a cost of tens of millions of euros. The company declined to say who its partner would be, but the FTD reported that talks were underway with Bard, which runs the Borkum offshore wind farm.

I think this is a good plan for Volkswagen as it not only becomes a car manufacturer but also a possible alternative fuel seller.

Article via The Local | Image By Wolfgang Pehlemann (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Google and Ford, two of the biggest names in their industries have decided to join forces to create the best green car possible.

The deal was first announced at the recently held Google I/O Developers conference. Ford said that it is keen on applying the Google Prediction API in its own research to predict drivers’ behaviour on the street.

The reason behind it was that by predicting driver habits, Ford can find ways to optimize engine functions that would result into better hybrid or electric cars.

The result of all this planning and predicting may come to fruition in four to eight years from now.

Article via IT Pro Portal | Image via Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

Great movies influence people. The more they like it the more they are inclined to try it out, especially if it’s based on reality (nope, you can’t do Thor sorry). Wouldn’t it be great if a movie could help influence people to buy green cars?

A good example of a movie affecting how people buy and/or use their cars is The Fast and the Furious franchise. According to the statistics in this site, when the first movie was released 2001, the compact performance products sales went up to $2.86 Billion. At the end of 2002, the sales was at $3 Billion. There was also a 25 percent in performance and racing products. This is all good for the movie franchise but won’t help in decreasing the dependence on gasoline.

Maybe a Fast and the Furious Green Car version movie would do well?

Image via Wikimedia Commons (Copyleft License)

What’s better than using an electric car and not paying anything for the high price of gas? Using an electric car and not paying for any recharge at all!

The electric car owners of San Francisco should be rejoicing now as Mayor Ed Lee will be announcing today that the city-owned garages with the almost 90 newly built plugins will be available for free until 2013.

The one to foot the $300,000 bill will mostly be coming from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s $3.9 Million that they were supposed to pay rebates to people with personal chargers and to build charging stations with.

Article via: Bay Citizen | Image via Franco Folini CC by-SA 2.0

The next time you’re in Portland, Oregon and you’re in need of an electric rental car, feel free to contact West Hills Collision Center.

The owner, Don Blazer, has been using electric cars for seven years and therefore is familiar with all the advantages and disadvantages of using one. One of the disadvantage he saw was that it required special charging equipment and is not good as a loaner car.

However, with the Nissan Leaf and availability of charging stations, he thought it was time to use it as a renter or loaner car.

“Normally I would not loan out this expensive of a vehicle but right now there is a very limited number of electric vehicles available,” said Blazer. “Of the 50,000 body shops in the United States I know of none using electric vehicles as loaner or replacement rental cars.”

Loaner is free only to those who use the collision center.

Article via: Plugin Cars | Image by Patric Connor