I Hate Prius Drivers

The Volt Isn’t A Prius. It Might Even Be Better | Autopia from Wired.com By Chuck Squatriglia

The Chevrolet Volt and Toyota Prius look a lot alike, but they are fundamentally different cars that blaze separate paths toward the inevitable electrification of the automobile. And while the Prius is the world’s most-popular hybrid and the poster child for green(er) motoring, the Volt is more technologically advanced. 

The Prius, like the Honda Civic Hybrid and the forthcoming Insight, is a parallel hybrid that uses both an electric motor and a gasoline engine to drive the wheels. It is designed to deliver optimal fuel economy at low speed or in stop-and-go traffic, when the electric motor does all the work. At highway speeds, it’s just another fossil-fuel burner, albeit one that gets 45 mpg and emits less CO2 than almost anything else on the road.

The Volt, which General Motors finally unveiled Tuesday, is a series hybrid, also called a range-extended electric vehicle. Like the Prius, it’s got an electric motor and a gasoline engine, but the engine merely charges the battery as it approaches depletion. Electricity alone turns the 17-inch wheels. The Volt is designed to travel 40 miles on a single charge of its lithium-ion battery, meaning most drivers will never burn a drop of gasoline.
Assuming it works, of course.   

GM is confident it will, and it’s given 700 people — many of them veterans of the groundbreaking EV1 electric car GM unceremoniously killed in 1994 2003 — a blank check to make sure the Volt is in showrooms by the end of 2010. The company reportedly will spend $400 to $500 million on the project during the next two years. “We can do anything we want to make this happen,” Andrew Farah, the Volt’s chief engineer and a veteran of the EV1, tells us. Many industry analysts and battery experts say it’ll be close, but GM almost certainly will meet that deadline.

“GM is staking its reputation on the Volt working and it’s spent a lot of money to make sure it will work,” says Mike Omotoso of JD Power & Associates. “I think they’ll be able to mass produce them by 2010.”

The heart of the car is a T-shaped 16-kilowatt-hour battery comprised of 220 lithium-ion cells and a 111-kilowatt (150-horsepower) electric motor good for a top speed of 100 mph. GM says the drivetrain will produce acceleration similar to that of a V-6 engine. The goal is to get the battery down to 396 pounds and no more than 64-inches long and 33 1/2-inches wide across the top of the “T.” That’s light-years ahead of the similarly shaped lead-acid battery that powered the earliest EV1s; it weighed 1,200 pounds and was 92.5-inches long. The Volt’s battery will run the length of the cabin, taking up the space beneath the center console and the rear seat.

GM is testing batteries around-the-clock at labs in Michigan and Detroit, where engineers have as many as 40 battery packs on test rigs that measure life-cycle depletion rates, thermal behavior and load performance. “Extreme cold temperature and battery life are the biggest challenges,” Denise Gray, director of advanced battery technology, says. The objective is to build a battery that works as well in Nome, Alaska or Flagstaff, Arizona as it does in the lab — and is good for 150,000 miles. “It’s a high hurdle to clear,” Gray concedes. “Maximum” Bob Lutz, VP of global development for GM and the guy cracking the whip to keep the Volt on schedule, says the batteries are performing “flawlessly” and “it’s almost scary that we aren’t seeing any problems with them.”

GM is testing batteries from LG Chem/Compact Power and A123 Systems/Continental, and Lutz says the company’s decided who’ll get the contract but won’t announce it until the end of the year.

General Motors wants the Volt to recharge in eight hours using a standard 120-volt wall outlet or three hours with a 240. Of course, that won’t do you any good if you’re miles from home when the batteries are winding down. At that point, the Volt’s 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine kicks on, powering a 53-kilowatt generator that will keep the battery going. The original plan called for a 1-liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine, but GM went with the four because it’s lighter and simpler. “To be honest with you, we’ve got enough technology in the Volt,” says Micky Bly, director of hybrid drivetrain engineering. “We don’t need the added complexity of a turbocharger.”

Bly says the engine will produce less than 100 kilowatts (134 horsepower) but promises that’s enough to do the job. And because the engine drives a generator that will run at a constant speed, the power band can be optimized for maximum fuel efficiency and lowest emissions. “We can run it in the sweet spot at all times,” he says. Just how sweet that spot is remains to be seen, because GM isn’t saying what kind of fuel economy or emissions we’ll see from the Volt, although 50 mpg has been mentioned.

The engine will not fully charge the battery. Instead, it will keep the battery in what Farah calls “charge sustaining mode” at about 30 percent of its capacity, providing enough juice to keep the car going. The idea, like so much of the technology in the Volt, was born of the EV1. Engineers testing the EV1 in the early 1990s needed a way to keep its battery charged as they racked up miles on the track. They fashioned a generator from a snowmobile engine strapped to a trailer towed behind the car. Farah thought it was a great way to improve the EV1’s range, and some of the engineers urged GM to incorporate it into the car.

If it had, what was the EV1 might have been the Volt.

Read the entire article at The Volt Isn’t A Prius. It Might Even Be Better | Autopia from Wired.com.

Radio New Zealand News : Latest News : 200806300813 : Prius found to use more fuel than SUV

The hybrid Toyota Prius car has been exposed as being less economical than a diesel SUV.
The Prius has been compared by a British motoring website with a Jeep Patriot and found to use half a litre more fuel per 100 kilometres than the SUV.

The motoring website also reveals the main advantage of hybrids - the fact the engine does not idle at traffic lights - has no more benefit than a modern diesel with stop-start technology.

Read the entire article at Radio New Zealand News : Latest News : 200806300813 : Prius found to use more fuel than SUV.

How the Prius became the Smug Liberal product du jour.

Marissa Moss: Smug Is Better Than Smog - Living on The Huffington Post

A little over seven months ago, I moved from New York City, my lifelong home and utter sense of identity, to Los Angeles. Yes, I went willingly into that dark night–I needed a change of scenery, my skin was starting to turn into an inverse form of white that happens when you actually take in negative amounts of sunlight, and I was afraid if I didn’t move away from the Lower East side I might be at risk of being stopped on the street, bulldozed, and instantly turned into a shiny new thirty-story high-rise.

But it meant one thing: I had to learn how to drive.

Not having a license had always been Smug New Yorker Reason # 4 (in my list of all things Smug New Yorker, I probably had about approximately 59 and a half, which included never living in a borough, bagels, “being an island off the coast of Europe,” and “yes, my high school really was just like Gossip Girl!”).

I’d always liked holding that I-don’t-drive smugness over everyone, even more than I liked my New-Yorker smugness. Working for several years with inspiring green chefs and eco-conscious companies, not contributing to the mass amount of carbon mayhem that just one driver can produce was a nice badge of honor. Now, in one move West, I’d have to become a part of the Car Problem.

So I did what any self-respecting, environmentally conscious ex-New Yorker would do: bought a Prius. Shiny, black, energy-efficient, perfect for accidentally backing up into things (walls, other people’s cars, trees–remember, I’m a first time driver). And I with that purchase, I quickly discovered a fun by-product of buying everyone’s favorite hybrid: smugness! Oh, how I missed thee.

A search on Google of the terms “smug” and “Prius” brings up about 32,800 hits. Score.

I realized quickly the view of non-Prius owners onto us “Pius” people. Although it seems like about one in every ten cars in Los Angeles is a Prius, the rest of the ten is made up of mostly giant SUVs of all shapes and sizes.

This conversation has happened more than once:

RANDOM PERSON: So, you just started driving?

ME: Yep! Only ran over three things today. It’s a good day.

RANDOM PERSON: What car did you buy?

ME: A Prius.

RANSOM PERSON: Oh. Think you’re special huh?

The rest of the conversation progresses with them telling me things like, “See, I had to buy an SUV since I carry a lot of stuff around,” or, “I am short and like to feel like I am above traffic in my big car,” or, “The Iraq war will actually result in oil being two dollars a barrel, so who cares?”

How the Prius became the Smug Liberal product du jour is easy to see: it started with Larry David and has spiraled into a pop culture phenomenon with everyone from Cameron Diaz to South Park either driving one or parodying one.

Take this example: my first month or two in Los Angeles, I went to an exclusive, green-sponsored Oscar Party. Of course, I drive up in my Prius (black, with tinted windows). As I approached the valet, a swarm of paparazzi circled around my car, flashing bulbs. Did they mistake me for Evangeline Lilly?

Nope. I quickly realized that the cause for panic was the fact that I was in a Prius–and aiming your camera at a Prius at an event yields about the same chances of capturing a celebrity as does parking outside the Ivy. The Prius is the new black. Limo, that is. Hello, smug!

As gas prices soar, there are reasons to be smug about owning a Prius, many of which are the coolness and “it” factors, the cost savings. But then there is the most importantly the one, core reason in that I’m so proud to own mine: in an age of excess consumption and unending carbon output, anything I can do to help counts. And whether or not the Prius is the perfect solution–it’s not–dismissing owning one as a simple liberal smug choice and ignoring the overarching problem is a lot worse than feeling like a victim of a celebrity-driven trend.

Until we can make concrete changes, like the National Low Carbon Fuel Standard that Barack Obama promises to initiate if elected president, a green trend should be a good trend, smug and all.

I still call myself a New Yorker and now, a Prius owner. Call me smug all you want, I can take it.

Besides, smug is better than smog. And a crappy bagel.

Read the entire article at Marissa Moss: Smug Is Better Than Smog - Living on The Huffington Post.

Anne Danahy and Dena Pauling

POTTER TOWNSHIP — A 28-year-old woman died and another driver escaped a burning truck after a vehicle crash Monday morning about 1 mile west of Potters Mills.

The three-vehicle wreck happened about 9 a.m. and led the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to close both lanes on the long stretch of U.S. Route 322 between Warner Boulevard in College Township and Bloom Road in Potter Township. PennDOT reopened both lanes about 4:20 p.m.

Centre County Coroner Scott A. Sayers said in a news release tonight that Sarah C. Donaldson, of State College, died in the crash. Donaldson died as a result of massive head trauma, according to Sayers. She was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.

According to state police at Rockview, George E. Donley, 56, who was driving a Kenworth tractor trailer west, hit the back passenger side of the Toyota Prius when he slowed down for traffic. The driver of the Prius had gone into the oncoming lane and tried to return to her west-bound lane when the Prius was struck.

Police said the Prius was pushed into the opposite, west-bound lane and the front driver’s side was hit by the tractor-trailer being driven east by Wilbert A. Quade, 34.

Centre Hall Fire Chief Chad Packer said that truck caught on fire on impact. He said the driver “just barely got out” and had singed hair, but was OK.

According to police, Donley and Quade were both wearing seat belts

Read the entire article at .

No left turns is right on - The Boston Globe

Why UPS? Because I just found out a fairly crazy fact about UPS drivers: They make a conscious effort not to make left-hand turns.

Company leaders figured out that sitting in traffic, waiting to make a left, burns way too much fuel. So they zapped as many left turns as they could from 100,000 truck routes a day.

Instead, drivers are handed computer-generated delivery routes that have them going in efficiently calculated loops, calling for left turns only when necessary.

“You start on the right-hand side of the street and you stay on the right-hand side of the street almost all of the day,” said Dan McMackin, a former UPS driver who is now a company spokesman. “The only left turn you make is to come home.”

According to the company, this simple technique saves an eye-popping amount of gasoline. “In the last year alone,” a UPS release stated, “this system has shaved nearly 30 million miles off UPS’s delivery routes, saved 3 million gallons of gas, and reduced emissions by 32,000 metric tons of CO2 - the equivalent of removing 5,300 passenger cars off the road for an entire year.”

I doubt any of us can make it through the day without left-hand turns. (Even UPS drivers can’t avoid making them in a city as congested as Boston, says Jimmy, my local delivery guy.) But I like what UPS does because it proves you don’t have to own a hybrid to save gasoline; you just need to tweak the way you drive. And you might be shocked at how much gas you can potentially save.

Still skeptical? Let me direct you to fueleconomy.gov, a terrific government website that breaks down in dollars and cents just how much fuel you waste when you drive over 60 miles per hour, have low air pressure in your tires, or fail to replace a clogged air filter.

Read the entire article at No left turns is right on - The Boston Globe.

Costa Rica Offers Tax Breaks for energy-efficient cars Written by JohnK
 
Costa Rica Takes Steps to Cut Down on Fuel Usage.
The Costa Rican government plans to reduce the taxes paid by energy-efficient and low-emission cars. This tax break will cover hybrids, electrics, and those that are powered by biofuels such as ethanol. Automobiles in Costa Rica currently pay between 35% to 53% worth of consumption tax. The tax rate varies based on the car type, engine size and model.

The draft of the executive decree is now being reviewed by the Ministry of Energy and the Environment (MINAE), Costa Rica’s EPA, and will then be reviewed by the Ministerio de Hacienda - similar to the IRS. Julio Matamoros, the MINAE vice minister informed La Nación that the tax reduction will apply to new and used cars and some models may become totally tax free.

The projected change in taxation follows the lead of the May 2006 law that eliminated taxes for cars powered by electricity, hydrogen or compressed air. At that time, there was also a 15-30% tax reduction for hybrid cars with engines under 2000 cubic centimeters. The RITEVE test that all cars need to pass annually has also been key in helping to get cars that produce high levels of pollutants off the roads.

Currently the only car hybrid car being sold in Costa Rica is the Toyota Prius. About 150 Prius hybrids are on the road today and 3 or 4 are purchased each month. This car is sold by the Purdy Motors car dealership. The new law will hopefully make it more appealing for car dealerships to import energy-efficient and low-emission vehicles to Costa Rica. There is a growing market demand as more and more Ticos and residents look at ways of protecting the environment and save money. The added bonus of not having to pay an excessive premium to purchase one of these cars will certainly make the technology accessible to more car buyers in the near future. (more…)