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

You may not have a more fuel-efficient car yet, but there are still ways for you to save money while driving.

With windows or air conditioner open?

It really depends on the situation. Drive with the windows open if the car has been parked under the sun for hours. You can open the air conditioner once the car has already cooled down. The bottom line, still, is that less power means less fuel.

Regular fuel or premium fuel?

If your car goes well with regular fuel, there is no more need to run it with something higher in octane. On the other hand, going for premium fuel is best if you have a supercharger or a turbocharger.

Light acceleration or heavy acceleration?

Considering light acceleration will surely not hurt you. Aside from saving money, you will also be less prone to meet accident (knock on the wood). By and large, light acceleration saves fuel.

[via Chicago Tribune | image credit: Air Conco]

You might be balking at 9 MPG, when industry standards put eco-friendly cars at 40-plus MPG. EV’s and Hybrids usually get something in the lines of 90 MPG equivalency. But 9 miles per gallon?

Consider this: 20% of America’s fuel consumption is logged in by the hauling industry, meaning trucks, delivery vans and the like. And those big, hunkering heavy duty trucks get an average mileage of 6 MPG. This means that 9 MPG is actually a big improvement, according to the EPA and the NHTSA.

… Continue reading.

AutoJab comments on how the Oxford Dictionary has chosen the word “hypermiling” as word of the year.

The word came about in 2004 and it was coined by Wayne Gerdes. Hypermiling is the act of making adjustments to one’s car or one’s driving methods, adjustments geared towards maximizing fuel-efficiency and fuel economy. This entails pushing gas tanks to the limit to achieve ‘hypermileage’ that exceeds EPA ratings for miles per gallon.

Observing speed limits, steering clear of hills and avoiding congested traffic, removing unneeded cargo for lesser weight—these are just some of the methods employed by hypermilers all over the world.

I know hypermiling sometimes entails excessively stingy driving habits, which include freewheeling (dangerous!), turning off the air conditioner (uncomfortable), to using lower grade fuel (sometimes harmful to the engine).

The hypermiling movement has been criticized for its alleged promotion of driving tactics that are considered dangerous or illegal, such as overinflating tires, rolling through stop signs, and following closely behind large vehicles to cut down on wind resistance.

But I think that hypermiling should essentially mean being conscious of your driving habits such that you save on fuel. There are perhaps both good sides and bad sides to it.

Are you a hypermiler? Or do you at least try to drive with fuel efficiency in mind? Tell us how you save up on gas!

Here is a good solution that you may want to look out for if you are hesitant on changing your car with the hybrids and electrical cars that are being offered in the market today. But what if you had the choice to own an engine that can be flexible and run on any type of fuel? Well if you are asking if there is such a thing, yes there is!

It is called an Omnivorous engine, an automobile engine that Wallner and his colleagues have tailored to efficiently run on blends of gasoline, ethanol and butanol.

Now wouldn’t that be something? Imagine no longer worrying about the usual issues of rising oil prices and also finding ways to beat the issues of having to run a car on a limited basis. This can certainly be the best solution one could ever dream of.

Unlike regular automobile engines, which typically run solely on gasoline or, in rare instances, on a blend of gasoline and ethanol, the omnivorous engine would be able to run on any blend of conventional gasoline, ethanol or butanol, another organic alcohol that scientists are beginning to consider as a potential biofuel. Even more significantly, the omnivorous engine would use a suite of sensors to calibrate itself so that it burns available fuel as efficiently as possible.

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Everyone is rejoicing these days as the crude oil prices are slowly going back down. But if you compare it to the first time that they started their upward trend, you will find that they are still way off from the affordable prices we all enjoyed back then.

The call has been to look for alternative fuel or perhaps shift to the electric powered cars. But what makes us so sure that once these efforts would still be continued as oil prices are on the decline?

For one, attention will surely be shifted on analyzing and waiting the downward trend of oil prices. But while that is something that analysts would surely love, the effort for alternative fuel and means of transportation should not be stopped. The current situation should not be a means for us to consider that everything is going back to normal.

Just as quickly as the oil prices spiked, the same can be said for the current oil price decline. It may hit us at a time we least expect it and perhaps even become worse than what we initially experienced. With that in mind, we may even find ourselves going back to square one, maybe even back to nothing as far as alternative measures are concerned.

One thing consumers are wondering these days is why the oil company giants are taking their sweet time adjusting their current gasoline prices despite the dramatic decrease in the world market. While government intervention seems to be useless, the conclusion is that they are dilly dallying to be able to make up for losses from previous years. Is that ethical?

Surely, auditing their financial records is not expected to help. For one, it is easy to maintain two sets of financial statements, one which is false and the other as the real and authentic one. Of the two, it is obvious that the former will be the one used as many businessmen want to avoid being reprimanded or penalized if found to be guilty of taking advantage of the situation.

As far as the government is concerned, perhaps this is one instance where they can show the validity of being recognized into power. Major players are taking advantage of the situation and hopefully this can be corrected.

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Thanks to the decrease in oil prices in the world market, SUV owners are given a reprieve as far as having to look for alternative forms of transportation. Apparently, not all people have to resort towards looking for alternative modes of transportation these days but this should not be a means to breathe freely. The oil prices these days are still way off to the standard price and by all means they are not stabilized.

So in this scenario, what does a SUV owner do? Apparently he should still try to conserve as much as possible and continue the preservation efforts he did prior to the constant oil price hikes. By all means, there is no telling on whether the prices will spike up again. For now, it would be best to play it safe. By all indications, we are far off from enjoying the traditional oil prices to which most of these SUVs came about.

If you haven’t been reading the news lately, the oil price in the crude oil market are slowly going down. But while that may seem good news, you may be wondering why the local fuel companies are not doing the same as far as oil price rollbacks are concerned.

One of the things is because they are making sure that the price rollbacks are for real and not just a sudden turn of events. Indeed it would make sense. Decreasing prices for a week and then jumping them up again can drive the consumers crazy. But in all, assigned analysts should be able to note if such market fluctuations would arise and hence be a cause for another round of price hikes that can be a cause for alarm.

As far as the current trends of the oil prices are concerned, the way things are going seems to be a big sigh of relief.

On another note, it is also about trying to regain losses from the series of price increases that had to be done. One thing you should note is that losses during the transition stages and delays of price hikes are high. They are not just a matter of loose change. Imagine the number of consumers in need of fuel and you can determine how much was lost.

But proper auditing of their books should be done. Some may be abusing and using this as a ploy to profit which is entirely foul. Consumers have moved on by taking alternative measures but this does not mean that they don’t care about stabilizing fuel and oil prices. Just like most people they would want to use their own means of transportation once again and use the standard way once more.

Let us hope that oil companies do not use this as a means of earning from changing trends. If auditing shows they are, such a shameful act should be penalized!

Proper calculation as far as the right amount of fuel to allow cars to accelerate is known to be a problem these days. Especially with the rising cost of fuel, wise driving starts from realizing our faults in driving our cars. There is no perfect driver, only wiser ones. While some love speed, it also means using up fuel the unconventional way.

Nissan for its part, has developed a keen contraption that can help drivers improve their manner of driving and fuel consumption. With this indicator in tow, people who are having trouble as far as maintaining the proper efficiency level of fuel consumption may finally get a break.

The technology involved is simple – when the ECO Pedal is on, the system calculates a threshold of accelerator pedal travel depending on the prevailing driving conditions. A counter push-back control system is activated when the pedal is depressed beyond the threshold level and along with a eco-driving indicator in the instrument cluster, informs the driver of his driving behaviour.

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In perhaps what is a piece of good news over the last couple of months, countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea are contemplating on reducing oil prices soon. This is considering the current oil prices continue to decrease though. In the past weeks, the global price of oil in the market has been falling and this is good news for the world that has to survive in these hard times of high oil prices.

But while that is a great sign, local distributors still have the last say. There are some local oil companies that have been thinking twice about on whether to cut down oil prices since they are still wary of deficits and losses to which they would want to make up for. The thing is, are these claims legitimate enough to hang on to the current oil prices?

Consumers have called for government intervention to make necessary measures in auditing the books of these local oil distributors. Apparently it seems that this is the logical way to go to certify the claims that they are indeed on the red. And while that is the case, don’t expect the consumers to be as understanding.

On the side of developing alternative fuel, they should not stop. Providing alternative source of fuel is something that can still be beneficial regardless if the current oil prices do go down to manageable levels for consumers. Biodiesel and ethanol alternative still pose a good choice for people especially since they are a lot cheaper and may even cost less once regular oil sets its mark to normal.

Malaysia may reduce fuel prices in the weeks ahead if global oil prices continue to fall, a senior finance ministry official said Thursday.

The government hiked petrol prices 41 percent in June to ease the burden of spiralling energy subsidies, but crude oil prices have fallen around 20 dollars from record highs above 147 dollars per barrel hit earlier in July.

The official said “if oil prices remain between 120 dollars a barrel and 125 dollars a barrel for two weeks,” then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi could announce a cut in fuel costs in the weeks ahead.

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