Fuelishness! Feed: Ford’s Focus on Eco-Driving; Pentagon’s Algae Fuel Research; Oil over $80; Lithium Supply for 1M Hybrids; ‘Stuck With Cars’ Discussion
- Ford’s new Focus on eco driving — It’s about being careful and not wasteful, both when it comes to the way a car runs and, indeed, how it is built in the first place and here Ford is reducing its carbon footprint with a range of sustainability initiatives.
. - Pentagon Researcher Promises Cheap Biofuel for Jets — Pentagon officials have been talking for years about weaning their jets off of fossil fuels. Now they say they’re only months away from producing a cheap fuel made from algae — for less than $3 a gallon.
. - Oil above $80 as traders eye low interest rates — Oil prices rose above $80 a barrel Monday in Asia, extending a three-week rally as investors expect the U.S. central bank to keep interest rates near zero to help fuel economic growth, which would boost crude consumption.
. - Energy for Electric Vehicles Dealt a Blow by Bolivian Lithium Production — Unfortunately for those who are expecting electric cars to spring out of the woodwork in the next few years (remembering that the President’s plan calls for 1 million plug-in hybrids by 2015) Mitsubishi estimates that the world will need 500,000 tons per year at full ramp up. The Salar di Uyuni deposit in Bolivia holds at least 9 million tons, although the country has, in total, perhaps as much as 73 million tons.
. - Stuck With Cars — Every weekday, tens of millions of Americans get into vehicles that are full of passenger space which won’t be used, with engines capable of horsepower and speeds that won’t be attained, holding fuel tanks that could power the car for distances that won’t be traveled. The result of all this over-engineering is that cars cost way more than a vehicle for daily commuting need cost, and they consume way more energy than a vehicle for daily commuting need consume.
The Post-Crisis Consumer (John Gerzema @ TED)
John Gerzema says there’s an upside to the recent financial crisis — the opportunity for positive change. Speaking at TEDxKC, he identifies four major cultural shifts driving new consumer behavior and shows how businesses are evolving to connect with thoughtful spending.
13 trillion dollars in wealth has evaporated over the course of the last two years. We’ve questioned the future of capitalism. We’ve questioned the financial industry. We’ve looked at our government oversight. We’ve questioned where we’re going. And yet, at the same time, this very well may be a seminal moment in American history, an opportunity for the consumer to actually take control and guide us to a new trajectory in America.
“Drive like there’s a glass of water on your dashboard”
“Drive like there’s a glass of water on your dashboard” is one of the visualizations supposed to help drivers moderate jack-rabbit starts, wild turns, and sudden stops.
Engineers in Japan have responded:
Surely a fun demo of an interesting stabilizer system using an accelerometer to determine g-forces on the car/glass of water, apparent built on an open-source hardware framework called Arduino I have been looking at lately for a project of my own.
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
I’ll keep you posted.
Hacked? (Confirmed)… Fixed!
On certain browsers I’m seeing “Online Casino” links somehow injected into the Fuelishness! Blog titles and content. If you are seeing this also, please let me know in the comments or using the feedback tab. It only appears to effect IE, because Firefox and Chrome appear ok. Anyone have a clue where to start looking for this one? – Michael
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Confirmed… only shows up on Googlebot scans and certain browsers, there goes my page rank… asking hosting provider to restore from a backup or upgrade the site to a fresh install. I think it might be time to use a different blog package – this is the third or forth time we’ve been hacked this year.
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Thanks to the always impressive customer service of HostMySite/Hosting.com (and Brady, thank you very much) the codebase got a fresh install of the latest version of WordPress, and I’m not seeing the sneaky injections in my tests of the site. Might be a few more days before Google is corrected, hopefully my PageRank will be restored.
Thank you Brady at Hosting.com VPS support – it’s a Christmas miracle! (I couldn’t resist.)
Video: “The Rest Is Up To You” – Eco-Driver On Board
Eco-Driver On Board
FuelClinic.com will show you how to improve your gas mileage and get 5%, 10% up to 20% better MPG (and sometimes more) using the vehicle that you already own, while helping improve road safety, reducing traffic congestion, and saving you money.
FuelClinic.com will accurately calculate and track your actual gas mileage online easily, will teach you safe and efficient driving techniques that will improve your gas mileage, and will help you monitor your progress as you continue to practice better driving techniques.
You will save money, cut your own carbon emissions, and help reduce our dependence on foreign oil – all at the same time. Join the thousands who already use FuelClinic.com to become safer, smarter, more efficient drivers.
Safer, Smarter, Fuel Efficient Driving
Visit http://www.fuelclinic.com to learn more about eco-driving, and to join our community of eco-drivers.
Category: Autos & Vehicles
Video: New FuelClinic.com Feedback Forum
I’ve just created my first Jing video, a <5-minute screen capture that demonstrates the User Voice Feedback system that I’ve added to FuelClinic in an effort to organize bugs and requests in a community-driven forum.
Watch the quick video online here and add your own feedback to the new forum or vote on existing ideas you want to see get completed first.
MINI Cooper D Sets New Zealand Fuel Economy Record Of 3.5 l/100km (67.2 MPG)
Source: The Motor Report
A MINI Cooper D (diesel) – piloted by trained ecodrivers Mark Whittaker and Paul Owen – has just set a new record for fuel efficient driving, by driving 2000 km on just over 72 liters (19 US gallons) of diesel fuel – achieving 3.5 l/100km (just over 67 MPG) average for that trip.
Mark Whittaker said the aim of the exercise was to highlight the potential for cutting New Zealand’s transport related emissions at little or no extra cost.
“In setting this record we are demonstrating that everyone can contribute to reducing emissions by choosing a fuel efficient car and employing simple ecodriving techniques,” Mr Whittaker said.
While Whittaker and Owen had originally targeted an average of 3.0 l/100km, the final 3.5 l/100km figure bested the country’s other top fuel miser – the third generation Toyota Prius – with which the Cooper D shares an official fuel economy of 3.9 l/100km.
The MINI Cooper D sports a fuel efficient and spunky small clean diesel engine and state-of-the-art start/stop technology similar to the new Ford Focus ECOnic we profiled a few days ago.
The Cooper D’s figures are thanks to a host of technological innovations borrowed from parent company BMW (including a start-stop system and a thrifty diesel engine from PSA).
BMW Group New Zealand Managing Director, Mark Gilbert said the fuel economy record proves how far diesel technology has come.
“The MINI has proven that new, small clean diesel engines have an important part to play in improving the fuel economy of the New Zealand vehicle fleet,” said Mr Gilbert.
“And the other clear message from this exercise is that it is not only what you drive, but how you drive, that counts,” he said. (Emphasis added)
That last bit sounds familiar! We certainly agree.
The bad news is that although it was mentioned last February that MINI was considering making the Cooper D available in the US, it has yet to become a reality according to our local MINI dealer. A message to MINI USA about the future availability of the “D” here in the US is awaiting reply – I’ll update you should we hear back. (If you’ve seen a “firm” scheduled availability date, please let me know.)
The future availability of the Ford Focus ECOnic diesel is also yet to be announced. In the past I mentioned my experience driving the SEAT with a small clean diesel a few years ago in Estonia… for now, you’ll still need to cross the pond to have this much fun driving at over 65 miles per gallon.
Congestion Challenge Awardees Presented at 2009 ITSA Annual Meeting
Source ITSA:
ITS Congestion Challenge
The first global ITS Congestion Challenge, announced in June 2009, was open to entrepreneurs, commuters, transportation experts, researchers in all fields, universities, and citizens around the world. Three winners and six finalists from Hungary, Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States, were selected by an open global community of more than 4,000 people, including transportation industry professionals and the general public.
1st PLACE
iCarpool provides commuters and other travelers with comprehensive travel choices for modes of travel other than driving alone. Read more.
2nd PLACE
FuelClinic, for their “Eco-System” and “Eco-Driver On Board” programs, which provide tools and certified eco-driving training to improve, track, and manage driver performance for increased fuel efficiency, increased driver safety, and reduced accident rates. Read more.
3rd PLACE
iCone Products, LLC, for an ITS concept to beam real-time traffic information over the Internet to a central web site for use by government officials, emergency response personnel, trucking fleets, the public and information resellers, including media outlets and GPS services. Read more.
“Caption This Image” Winner(s) Announced
In late October I posted an image I had cobbled together and asked Fuelishness! readers to help me improve the caption that accompanied it. I offered a $50 gas card as a reward for what we felt was the best suggestion. We received over 50 suggestions here at Fuelishness! I did something similar at the Vencorp classifieds, and we collected about a dozen additional suggestions.
At Vencorps, we chose the suggestion by Shashank K:
Emissions Compliance [Check]
Engine Performance [Check]
Aerodynamic design [Check]
There’s only so much the car can do, then its all YOU.
It’s a great suggestion, an we’ve already started to use it in a new animation currently in production. (It’s fantastic!) I hope to be able to release this new animation by the end of this year.
Here at Fuelishness! the choice was much harder to make… there are so many good suggestions. First we whittled the field down to the top dozen. Then we weighted each and added up the scores. We chose the suggestion by Lori on October 22nd:
Want better MPG’s? You’re in the Driver’s Seat.
We will be using this caption in future marketing materials.
Congratulations to the winners, and thank you all for participating in our first ever FuelClinic Fuelishness! contest.
Free “Keep The Receipt” Reminder Magnets
Recently I was asked about a “reminder” magnet from a FuelClinic.com user who sometimes forgets to take the receipt from the fuel pump, causing him to miss a fill-up and creating a problem in his FuelClinic account.
Last year we had created a “First Aid for High Gas Prices” magnet that FuelClinic users are proudly showing off on their cars around the country, but I wanted to make something smaller and cheaper, so that we could just give them away instead of having to sell them. Here’s what the new smaller reminder magnet looks like:
We’ve made a few hundred of these and if you send us a self-addressed stamped envelope, we’ll send you two reminder magnets that can be placed near your fuel door, inside your fuel door, or on your refrigerator. This is a limited time offer.
As with all of those magnets for your car, it’s recommended that you keep it clean underneath and move it around every few months to prevent your vehicle from having uneven paint fading from the sun being blocked by the magnet.
For a pair of FREE reminder magnets, send a self-addressed stamped envelope (regular first class stamp in the US, outside the US make sure you include full return postage) to:
FuelClinic.com
Free Reminder Magnet Offer
522 Hunt Club Blvd., #319
Apopka, FL 32703
In your return envelope you’ll get both magnets on one sheet, just cut along the faint line in the center to separate them.
Fuelishness! Feed: Ford Fusion Car of the Year; Eco-Driving Savings; Feds Buy Green; Hybrid Special Ops Buggy; Hyundai-KIA Develop CVT for hybrids
- Ford Fusion Named Motor Trend Car of the Year — Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s group vice president of global product development, said the 2010 Fusion has a sportier look and better fuel economy than previous versions. It gets 34 miles per gallon on the highway when equipped with a four-cylinder engine and six-speed automatic transmission. The gas-electric hybrid version gets 41 miles per gallon in the city.
- How much money can eco-driving save you? Matt Joy took part in BP’s Fuel Efficiency Challenge to find out — Go from a not-uncommon 30mpg to an achievable 40mpg and you could save £150 a year on fuel, if not more – and all that without spending thousands on a new car. That will please everyone except the taxman.
- SPIN METER: Feds buy green cars, auction rejects — If you missed out on Washington’s cash incentive program to trade in your old clunker, Uncle Sam still has a deal for you: The government will sell you rejects from its own fleet, even as it makes dealers scrap all those old cars that were collected from the public.
- Army tests new special ops hybrid vehicle — The CERV pairs the Quantum’s new “Q-Force” advanced all-wheel-drive diesel hybrid electric power train with a light-weight chassis to produce a torque rating that exceeds 5,000 foot-pounds. The unit can maintain speeds of 80 miles per hour and climb 60 percent grades–all while reducing fuel consumption by up to 25 percent compared to a conventional alternative, according to the company.
- Hyundai-Kia Developed Its First CVT for the LPI Hybrids — The Elantra LPI Hybrid has a fuel economy rating of 17.7 km/l (5.7 L/100km or 42 mpg US); gasoline-equivalent fuel economy is 22.7 km/l (4.4 L/100km, 53 mpg US). This represents a 47% improvement over a conventional 1.6L Elantra.
Fuelishness! Feed: Fuel Efficient Prototypes; Fuel Efficiency Ratings for Tires; Peugeot Advert gets Banned; More MPG from a Pickup Truck
- GreenTech Unveils 4 Fuel Efficient Prototypes — According to the Associated Press, “The prototypes include a midsize four-door hybrid that will get 50 miles per gallon, a zero-emissions electric car, a high-efficiency gasoline car designed to get 65 mpg and a hybrid sports coupe designed to get 45 miles to gallon and to go from 0 to 60 mph in less than 5.9 seconds.”
- Europe may have tyres with efficiency ratings — When adopted, this legislation will help to reduce CO2 and noise emissions on Europe’s roads, by promoting green tyres with improved fuel-efficiency that do not compromise on safety. In addition, the labels will provide more transparency to consumers.
- Peugeot 308 ad campaign banned for suggesting unrealistic level of fuel efficiency — The ad campaign, which ran in the national press, highlighted a “fuel stretching world record” that achieved 126 miles per gallon in a Peugeot 308 HDi. A picture of the car in the ad had the text “126mpg” on it.
- Getting the Most Possible Mileage Out of a Pickup — Because today’s EPA ratings are fairly realistic, thanks to the recent change in how they’re calculated, these trucks should be about 1 mpg better in real-world use as well. But at $2.40 a gallon at an average 18 mpg (versus 17), if you drive 12,000 miles each year, that 1-mpg difference will save $94 a year. Which raises the question: Why are these trucks just 1 mpg better? Why can’t automakers improve the fuel economy by 10, or even 12?
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