As we cover the automotive industry, we run across numerous events which lean, in one way or another, towards our green preferences. Some of these could be very influential on the industry while others are really more for fun. With that in mind, we've compiled a list of our top five favorite upcoming green events for Earth Day. Take a look-see starting with number five (or skip ahead using the list below) and let us know how you feel.
When we were brainstorming ideas for Earth Day posts, we thought about featuring the ten most exciting green cars we wish we could buy today. It turns out that there are at least twice as many green rides on the horizon that we'd really like to have today, so the list has expanded. We'd like to note that this list is far from complete; the green sector of the automotive industry is growing in leaps and bounds. Start here and join us for a guided preview of our future garages or jump ahead by clicking on a number below. Either way, enjoy!
We met Jory Squibb way back in late 2006 over at the Santa Monica Alt Car Expo. How can you miss a guy driving a tiny, 100+mpg bubble car called the Moonbeam? Jory, from Maine, is now back on the ABG radar with his presence at the New York Auto Show. He didn't have a car with him this time, but he did have the idea for a competition vehicle for the Automotive X Prize with him. His new tadpole-style vehicle (that is, two wheels in front, one in back) is called Dirigo, which is the Maine state motto and means "I lead" of "I direct." The Dirigo's powertrain is based on a 950cc Daihatsu turbodiesel engine that sits in the back and drives the front two wheels. Jory told us the Moonbeam taught him that you really need at least half of your wheels providing power (the Moonbeam was also tadpole style, but only driven by the single rear wheel). Jory's team for the Dirigo, which is now a year old, is made up of about four regular members, some of whom are boat builders and are taking the Dirigo in a wooden direction. Learn more by listening to Jory yourself:
UPDATE: Jory sent in a few thoughts on the Auto X Prize at the New York Auto Show. We've pasted his essay after the jump.
Of the 60+ teams that have signed a letter of intent to participate in the Progressive Automotive X Prize, about 15 were on hand at the New York Auto Show. With only four cars on stage, it's easy to calculate that some teams arrived sans vehicle. The group from Motive Industries had just a little folded flyer to show what they've been working on for their entry vehicle. The basic idea for the as-yet-unnamed Motive vehicle is an electric car with an on-board ICE for range extension. The real challenge for Motive will be convincing everyone that "filling up" via quick, robot-aided battery exchanges are the way to go. Four-passenger and full size with biomaterials in the body panels and elsewhere, the vehicle is just now moving off of the design pages. Motive's Darren McKeage and Nathan Armstrong were in New York to give the public a first glimpse of this new car. You can view the flyer in the gallery below and listen to the duo by clicking play.
The Automotive X Prize announcer used it. We've been using if forever. And, until recently, MDI and Zero Pollution Motors were still calling their vehicles the Air Car. Now, though, to avoid confusion as much as possible, the preferred term is "Compressed Air Vehicle" (don't look now, but the ZPM website still says Air Car). At the New York Auto Show this week, we finally had a chance to sit down with Guy Negre, the creator of the CAV, and his partner Shiva Vencat (Vencat also provided translation for most of Negre's answers, as I don't speak French) for a talk on what happens next in the compressed air vehicle world.
The CAV team was in New York as part of the Automotive X Prize announcement, and I'm going to have to say that MDI/ZPM seems to be one of the stronger potential entrants into the race. While the design of the vehicle in New York won't appeal to everyone, I think the renderings for the MiniCat (is that what it's called?) could result in a solid X Prize entry. Plus, considering that deals with Tata have already been signed and the air car (whoops) technology has been tested for quite some time, the vehicle won't be bowing out of the race early, I don't think. To hear what Vencat and Negre have to say, listen to the interview yourself.
Gallery: New York 2008: MDI Air Car, X-Prize competitor
When we saw the distinctive shape of the VentureOne under wraps before the start of the Progressive Automotive X Prize announcement, we were pretty psyched. While the appearance of this vehicle on stage does revive our hope that we'll be able to drive one of these high-mpg hybrids one day, the bad news is that this is just a full-scale model. While it looks good, it's not going to get anyone anywhere. Yet.
Venture Vehicles' founder and CEO, Howard Levine, was happy to be back on the AutoblogGreen radar and gave us the rundown on where his company goes from here and how the VentureOne - which is a codename for the vehicle, not the final moniker - will move into production. He explained that the lack of media attention hasn't meant they haven't been working, just that they have been focusing on the vehicle, not on building hype. One of the big decisions the company has made is to offer only a hybrid version at launch, the pure electric option will have to wait until battery prices come down. Want more info? Listen to Levine yourself by clicking play.
Gallery: New York 2008: VentureOne full-scale model
One of the quieter announcements from the New York Auto Show was that a Subaru ad called Soul of Subaru - Values won the Green Award from Intermedia Advertising Group (IAG). The ad won not because a panel of judges thought it was the best but because IAG discovered, based on customer research panels, that this particular ad was the most effective. This meant that the ads left more viewers with the idea that Subaru was a green car company than anything else on TV last year. This week, I spoke with Sallie Hirsch, senior vice president of automotive research, and Lois Miller, president of IAG Automotive, to figure out not only why and how this commercial won (Subaru's overall clean message played a big role) but about TV green car advertising in general. While average, non-green ads still dominate the airwaves, there were more green car ads in 2007 than ever before. Not the most surprising bit of informatin, but well worth keeping an eye on. IAG does just that, and you can get a peek into the industry by clicking play on the widget below.
If the person being interviewed in the picture above looks a little bit young, well, that's because he is. He's a student at the West Philadelphia High School Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, which is fielding the youngest team of entrants in the Progressive Automotive X Prize.
I had a chance to speak with the teacher in charge of the program, Simon Hauger, who talked about the three (or four, depending on how you count) green vehicles the team has worked on over the past nine years. From an early converted Jeep(s) to the Hybrid Attack you see in the photo gallery, the team knows a few things about greening up a ride. The team took a K1 Attack and modified it to biofueled hybrid that won the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's Tour de Sol twice. Can high school students win the Auto X Prize? They certainly have the passion, as Hauger describes. For the X Prize, the team is working on another vehicle, this one a plug-in diesel hybrid. The team says the car will exceed the 100 mpge requirement "without sacrificing style, safety or affordability." That's the dream, right?
Gallery: New York 2008: West Philly's Hybrid Attack
In the general hub-bub before the Automotive X-Prize kick-off event yesterday, we cornered Progressive Insurance's President and CEO Glenn Renwick for a few brief moments to get his thoughts on the prize. I mean, it's his company that is putting up the ten million dollars in prize money, so you can bet he's thought long and hard about paying someone that much for a freakin' car. While insurers are not usually known for being happy about seeing money go out the door, Renwick said he hopes the company does indeed fork over the money at the end of the race. Renwick said (rightly, IMHO) that he considers the sponsorship to be simply another way of advertising, and as such is coming out of the company's general advertising budget. You might now see fewer Progressive ads on TV, but you'll be seeing the name much more here on ABG. Fair trade? That's not for me to decide.
Look at it from another angle: if we don't figure out a way to move to highly-efficient personal vehicles (and higher gas prices continue climbing as a reflection of dwindling supplies), what would Progressive have to insure? This might be the best $10m they ever spend. Give Renwick a listen using the flash widget below.
When the U.S. Congress passes or is about to pass some legislation relating to issues of automobile safety or vehicles' ecological impact, the Auto Alliance speaks up. Why do we only hear from the group on these issues? The Alliance's Charles Territo sat down with us at the New York Auto Show to explain how ten large automakers - BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes Benz USA, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen - work together. The short answer is that, when it comes to safer and cleaner driving, the industry can agree on what needs to happen: cars need to be, well, safer and cleaner. For example, the Alliance is hyper-excited for alternative fueled cars, which it defines as vehicles available today that don't rely exclusively on gasoline. In this case, that means hybrids, diesels and flexfuel cars. When it comes to specifics like which powertrain technology is best or which bodystyle to promote, well, that's where the companies fight and snipe, all trying to get your dollar. Give Territo a listen by pushing play in the widget below.
When we first encountered the Milner Motors ElectriCar yesterday, we just did a quick flyby with out cameras and then headed off to other events. Later in the afternoon, we returned for a 15 minute chat with Chris Milner, the AirCar inventor's son and a partner in the company. He talked about the design of the car, the potential roadmap from this early prototype stage to a production vehicle and why this is so much like the AirCar with its wings lopped off. And yes, Milner's AirCar and the MDI Air Car are two different beasts. Chris said he's more than aware of the credibility issues involved when you try to build a flying car but, should the ElectriCar make it to production, the profits could be used to fund further development of the Air Car. Get ready.
The other day, Dr. Prabhakar Patil of Compact Power, Inc. was up in Vancouver, BC for the Auto FutureTech Summit. While AutoblogGreen wasn't able to attend the show, we did get a hold of Dr. Patil on the phone for about 15 minutes to talk about CPI's lithium ion batteries and get Dr. Patil's perspective on what the future holds for electric drive cars. As many readers probably know, CPI is one of the companies delivering batteries to GM for the Chevy Volt, so Dr. Patil is in the center of the lithium ion world. CPI is also working with other automakers (details are still secret, unfortunately).
You can listen to Dr. Patil using the audio widget below and we'll have there is a transcript of the discussion pasted after the jump later today now.
At the Chicago Auto Show ABG had the chance to sit down with Toyota's Bob Carter and Jaycie Chitwood. Bob is currently the Group VP for the Toyota Division and Jaycie is the Senior Strategic Planner. We talked about a range of issues including hybrid marketing, diesel, ethanol, hydrogen and weight reduction.
ABG: In production applications Toyota were obviously the pioneers in bringing hybrid vehicles to the mainstream and everybody is scrambling to catch up and get their own hybrids and other alternative drivetrains to market. Moving forward, obviously, you have applied your hybrid synergy drive to a wide a variety of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Let's start by talking a little bit about where you are today and where Toyota is going in the next five to ten years?
BC: Okay, where we are today. Six hybrids, three Toyotas, three Lexus. We are really pleased with the progress. Total we did 278,000 units last year. Prius had a tremendous increase, up 67 percent. We had a 44 percent increase overall in hybrids. We first brought Prius to the U.S. in 2000. As you are aware Prius was actually introduced in Japan in 1997.
There were a lot of people who were just scratching their heads. They did not really understand it. A lot of criticism on hybrid, why they are doing that. Back in 2000, fuel prices were under $1.50 a gallon and there was not nearly the concern on supply and concern on the environment was there but was not really, in my view, embedded in the society the way it is today.
We introduced the first generation. It did well. It attracted the early adoptors that we were primarily interested in environmental impact. We also had people that were attracted by the technology. What is so encouraging to walk around this show is when we look at 2007, the 278,000 hybrids, it has gone beyond the initial adoptors. It's starting to embed itself within the general market and 11 percent, I am talking in terms of Toyota division which I represent, of our total sales last year were hybrid. Yet less than 2 percent of the industry was hybrid.
The other day I had the opportunity to talk with Peter Savagian of General Motors about a study that he and his colleagues E.D. Tate and Michael Harpster completed. They used real-world driving data recorded from over 600 drivers and ran simulations with different combinations of hybrid and extended range electric powertrains. They have written a technical paper for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). As this post is being published, Savagian is presenting some of the results at an SAE Hybrid Vehicle Symposium in San Diego. The final paper will be presented at the SAE World Congress in April. I had a chance to read a draft copy of the paper before our discussion and GM has allowed me reproduce a few of the charts here for reference (after the jump).
The study compares real-world performance of a standard strong hybrid, a conversion plug-in hybrid, a dedicated plug-in hybrid capable of running the full EPA city cycle on electricity alone and an extended range EV like the Volt. The limited power output of the electric motors in current hybrids restricts the ability to run at higher speeds and acceleration levels. As a result, even with larger batteries, few of the PHEVs currently being developed will be able to go as far as people might think without running the engine. Read on after the jump for our discussion of the study findings.
I came across the Bridgestone booth at the Chicago Auto Show while they were rehearsing for an upcoming press conference. Ex-NFL player Eddie George was running through the script and Bridgestone was showing off its Super Bowl commercials, but I was more interested in the booth's "One Team, One Planet" display. I got a chance to speak about the environmental efforts that Bridgestone and Firestone have done and are doing with Dan MacDonald, Bridgestone's director of media relations, and Michael Martini, president of North American Consumer O.E. for both Firestone and Bridgestone.
The short version of the tale is that the tire manufacturer is working on the reduce, reuse, recycle method. Whether it's retreading a tire (a process that uses 68 percent less oil compared to making a new tire - 7 gallons vs. 22 gallons) or giving the State of Tennessee ten thousand acres to be set aside as a nature reserve, there's a lot more going green here than low-rolling resistance tires. Don't worry, we talk about that, too. Listen in here (8 MB, 17 min).
You can see high-resolution images of all the panels in the "One Team, One Planet" in the gallery below.
In the general hub-bub before the Automotive X-Prize kick-off event yesterday, we cornered Progressive Insurance's President and CEO Glenn Renwick for a few brief moments to get his thoughts on the prize. I mean, it's his company that is putting up the ten million dollars in prize money, so you can bet he's thought long and hard about paying someone that much for a freakin' car. While insurers are not usually known for being happy about seeing money go out the door, Renwick said he hopes the company does indeed fork over the money at the end of the race. Renwick said (rightly, IMHO) that he considers the sponsorship to be simply another way of advertising, and as such is coming out of the company's general advertising budget. You might now see fewer Progressive ads on TV, but you'll be seeing the name much more here on ABG. Fair trade? That's not for me to decide. 
When the U.S. Congress passes or is about to pass some legislation relating to issues of automobile safety or vehicles' ecological impact, the Auto Alliance speaks up. Why do we only hear from the group on these issues? The Alliance's Charles Territo sat down with us at the New York Auto Show to explain how ten large automakers - BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes Benz USA, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen - work together. The short answer is that, when it comes to safer and cleaner driving, the industry can agree on what needs to happen: cars need to be, well, safer and cleaner. For example, the Alliance is hyper-excited for alternative fueled cars, which it defines as vehicles available today that don't rely exclusively on gasoline. In this case, that means hybrids, diesels and flexfuel cars. When it comes to specifics like which powertrain technology is best or which bodystyle to promote, well, that's where the companies fight and snipe, all trying to get your dollar. Give Territo a listen by pushing play in the widget below.
The other day, Dr. Prabhakar Patil of Compact Power, Inc. was up in Vancouver, BC for the Auto FutureTech Summit. While AutoblogGreen wasn't able to attend the show, we did get a hold of Dr. Patil on the phone for about 15 minutes to talk about CPI's lithium ion batteries and get Dr. Patil's perspective on what the future holds for electric drive cars. As many readers probably know, CPI is one of the companies delivering batteries to GM for the Chevy Volt, so Dr. Patil is in the center of the lithium ion world. CPI is also working with other automakers (details are still secret, unfortunately).
At the Chicago Auto Show ABG had the chance to sit down with Toyota's Bob Carter and Jaycie Chitwood. Bob is currently the Group VP for the Toyota Division and Jaycie is the Senior Strategic Planner. We talked about a range of issues including hybrid marketing, diesel, ethanol, hydrogen and weight reduction.
_thumbnail.jpg "Beijing 2008: BYD e6")
