CO2
-
This week, we received a press release from the University of Michigan with a stunning subject line: "Emissions from new vehicles down a record 20% in five years". "Okay", we thought, as we opened the email, "what's the catch?" As it turns out, that's a little complicated. Researchers at the University's Transportation Research Institute track a lot of statistics. For example, they keep tabs on fuel economy of new cars sold in the U.S., and they always let us know whether it's rising or falling. (Note: it's currently on the rise, but as fuel prices fall, that may change.) UMTRI also tracks...
-
Will The CO2 In Your Car Exhaust Become Valuable?
Whether or not you subscribe to the theory that carbon dioxide released by human activity is to blame for global warming, theres no doubt that we do release a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere. Many countries have now introduced measures to curb those emissions, something that goes hand-in-hand with...
Antony Ingram -
A Good Reason To Cut Cars' Carbon Emissions: CO2 Makes You Fat
Carbon footprints are a big talking point at the moment - they're your personal contribution to greenhouse gases, usually in terms of carbon dioxide, or CO2 emissions. The latest research out of Denmark suggests our footprints might be getting deeper as well as larger, with the news that CO2...
Antony Ingram -
Ford Offers Fleet Buyers Tool To Compare Total Emissions & Costs
Fleet managers are very, very rational people. Unlike many retail car buyers, they analyze vehicles without a shred of emotion, basing their decisions on lifetime ownership costs for vehicles that meet their needs. More and more, though, those fleet buyers are being asked to help reduce their...
John Voelcker -
What Do Greenpeace, Star Wars And Volkswagen Have In Common?
You'll no doubt have heard of Greenpeace. The high-profile, occasionally militant green organization very much believes in action over words when it comes to coercing companies into considering the environment. Volkswagen too is well-known, as one of the world's largest car producers, supplier of...
Antony Ingram -
Electric Cars Dirtier Than Gasoline Equivalents In China
EV fans are probably sick of arguing the case for electric cars whenever someone brings up the old "well to wheels" scenario. "Well, where does the electricity come from?" they ask. Familiar with it? Most of us have pre-prepared figures as to why EVs are cleaner, even considering the fuel burned to...
Antony Ingram -
If you've ever visited a museum or a manufacturing plant, you've probably heard a tour guide say something like this: "And if you laid all these bottles end-to-end, they'd stretch clear across the state of Kansas!" Through time and repetition, certain comparisons have become standardized, so that we now measure square footage in football fields -- and we measure pollution with cars. It's happened so slowly that we barely notice it anymore. But several of us sat bolt upright earlier this week, when an outfit called the Environmental Working Group published a report about the impact of food...
-
Honda Commits To 30 Percent CO2 Reduction By 2020
In its latest Environmental Annual Report 2011 Honda has committed to reducing the CO2 emissions of its global product portfolio, including everything from jets to cars and motorbikes and even power generators, by 30 percent compared to 2000’s levels by the year 2020. At the same time, the...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Ferrari Shows Biggest CO2 Cut Amongst Supercar Brands, But Is There More To The Numbers?
Governments around the world are bowing to public pressure to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases their respective countries produce, and more often than not, the first sector they look at is the auto industry. Here in the U.S. the government has imposed a tough 34.1 mpg fleet-wide fuel economy...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Want To Clean Up The Planet? Spay Your Pet, THEN Buy a Prius
Cutting carbon emissions is complex. And there are a lot of myths and misinformation out there. The effective impact of some actions--reusing your grocery bags, for instance--is relatively low. Other methods, things that many people never even consider, are considerably more effective. For...
John Voelcker -
Can Condoms Curb Climate Change Cheaper Than Low-Carbon Cars?
The Frankfurt Auto Show just wound up today, and most of the concept cars focus on lowering carbon dioxide emissions. Volkswagen, for instance, launched a two-seat "1-Liter" concept car that gets a remarkable 170 miles per gallon. But suppose all the money we're investing in better gas mileage and...
John Voelcker -
2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In: By The Numbers, Would It Work For You?
Over six days of driving—limited to around-town trips—we put about 103 miles on a fleet-test Toyota Prius Plug-In, averaging 90.8 miles per gallon. In that time, we gave the Prius Plug-In five full charges and two partial ones, and according to the trip computer, we covered 77.7 miles...
Bengt Halvorson -
Researching and writing for GreenCarReports, we've come to respect the insights of Oliver Hazimeh, Director and Head of the Global E-Mobility Practice at global management consulting firm PRTM. This invited post, written by Hazimeh and Principal Aaron Tweadey, offers thoughts on how carmakers can work to attract buyers to new and unfamiliar electric cars. +++++ As the auto industry climbs out of its worst sales slump in decades, carmakers are at a crossroads. On one hand, both government and consumers are pressuring them to launch a new generation of environmentally friendly vehicles that are...
-
Greening The Rouge: Ford's More Sustainable Pickup Plant
A green roof is not at its most photogenic in a Michigan winter. In fact, it's hardly green at all--more like gray and brown--though it still insulates the building below just as well. But while some of the green aspects of Ford's showcase Rouge assembly plant have succumbed to the January weather...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Prius Ad We'll Never See: Animals Worse Than Hybrids
Some of the first emissions regulations in the world came about because of the way the Los Angeles Basin is shaped. Reports of smog in southern California started with the Conquistadors, and by the Sixties, LA was notorious for its foul air. California began regulating auto emissions before the...
John Voelcker -
Paris To Test Banning Gas-Guzzlers (Yes, SUVs!) In City Core
Why are many European carmakers now planning to build electric vehicles? Because many European cities are widely expected to ban high-emissions vehicles from their city cores over the next decade--perhaps even vehicles with any emissions at all. Now, Paris may be the first city to experiment with...
John Voelcker -
Small Engines Get Even Smaller: Fiat's Turbocharged Twin
As we keep saying, one of the ways that automakers will meet more stringent fuel economy regulations is by making smaller engines that work harder. Now Fiat has one-upped its European competition by announcing it will offer a 900cc turbocharged twin in European models of its Fiat 500 mini-car. That...
John Voelcker -
Netherlands To Tax Miles Traveled, As Well As Gasoline
One problem with raising fuel efficiency is that unless total miles driven rises radically, receipts from gasoline taxes will fall over time. And that poses a major problem for the steady stream of revenue needed for road construction and repairs. Taxing vehicle miles traveled has been one proposed...
John Voelcker -
The dirty little secrets of Top 10 lists are in the methodology, as Forbes found out with its weirdly inaccurate "10 Dirtiest Cars" list. (It's the end of the year, so it's time for a lot of Top 10s.) But we see no such problems in the EPA Green Vehicle Guide, which rates vehicles not only on tailpipe emissions but also their carbon-dioxide emissions. CO2 ~ fuel usage Fuel consumption is almost directly proportional to CO2 emissions, so it's not surprising that the best cars for the climate--ranked by their carbon dioxide output--turn out to be the highest-mileage models sold in the U.S. The...
-
Toyota Creates New Flower Species To Cut CO2 From Prius Production
You may already associate the 2010 Toyota Prius with flowers, courtesy of its "Harmony Between Man, Nature, and Machine" ad campaign, complete with human flowers in the "Harmony" TV spot. Now Toyota has taken flower power one step further, creating two new species specifically to help reduce the...
John Voelcker -
Dutch Island of Terschelling Gets Th!nk City First Aid Vehicle
Here in the United States where a typical commute exceeds 15 miles, range anxiety is at the forefront of the electric vehicle discussion. The residents of the island of Terschelling, in the northern Netherlands, needn't worry about such things. Their 12 miles of paved roads represent less than a...
Robert Scardino -
BMW's Newest, Greenest Concept: Vision EfficientDynamics
BMW's legendary M series performance cars use big, brawny, turbocharged gasoline engines. The 2009 BMW M5, for example, has a 500-horsepower, 5.0-liter V-10. How many cylinders ??? Where ??? But the concept car BMW will unveil in two weeks at the Frankfurt Motor Show promises "the performance of an...
John Voelcker