German car sales rise 21 percent; UK to launch vehicle scrappage plan?
Vehicle scrapping plans are likely to get lots of attention now that Germany’s program has proven so effective. Last month, sales in Germany, Europe’s largest new car market, surged by 21 percent, which is an amazing figure considering the current state of the global economy. Much of this uptick in sales can be attributed to a new program that Germany introduced that pays new car buyers 2,500 euros to trade in and scrap their old cars, just so long as the displaced vehicle is at least nine years old. Officials from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders in the United Kingdom are now urging their government to adopt a program similar to the one introduced in Germany. UK car sales were down by nearly 22 percent last month and almost a third so far for the year. It’s logically assumed that the fleet of vehicles on the road would be cleaner and more efficient if older models were replaced with new vehicles that meet the latest environmental requirements. [Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd | Photo: Patrick Dockens ] Auto Blog: Legislation and Policy , Green Daily , Europe/EU , UK , Germany German car sales rise 21 percent; UK to launch vehicle scrappage plan? originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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German car sales rise 21 percent; UK to launch vehicle scrappage plan?
Sentience Research Vehicle shows how tons of data can save millions of barrels of oil
Click above for a high-res gallery of the Sentience Research Vehicle How smart does a car have to be before it starts saving you money and reduces your fuel usage? You can make any car a bit smarter by driving more sensibly, but a team of engineers in the UK has decided to give an SUV a few more microchips and let it try and save fuel for you. Dubbed the Sentience intelligent advanced hybrid vehicle, the 15-month-long project melds telematics with technology that is here today to reduce CO 2 emissions of the test vehicle by between 5 and 24 percent, dependent on driving style. The collaborators, including Transport Research Laboratory, Ricardo, Jaguar-Land Rover, Ordnance Survey and Orange Business Services, say that by using readily-available technology, the Sentience technology could be applied to vehicles in the UK without too much cost. If it were, the engineers estimate, total savings in the country would be somewhere between 1.2 and 2.9 million barrels of oil per year. There are three main components to the Sentience technology: Enhanced Acceleration/Deceleration (EAD) in which the vehicle speed is controlled to meet actual and virtual speed limits Optimized Engine Load (OEL) in which the hybrid powertrain systems are managed using advanced route knowledge in such a way as to make optimal use of recharging opportunities Enhanced Air-Conditioning (EAC) control in which temperature set-points are adjusted prior to and following temporary stops. More details after the jump. Gallery: Sentience Research Vehicle [Source: Ricardo] Continue reading Sentience Research Vehicle shows how tons of data can save millions of barrels of oil Auto Blog: Emerging Technologies , Green Daily Sentience Research Vehicle shows how tons of data can save millions of barrels of oil originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Sentience Research Vehicle shows how tons of data can save millions of barrels of oil
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Leave a commentFord CEO Mullaly expects many Fords to be electric in a decade
Click above for high-res gallery of the Ford Focus EV “mule” Ford may have been relatively quiet on the electric vehicle front while General Motors got all the attention for its Chevy Volt series hybrid, but the Blue Oval has come roaring back in recent months. It was revealed in its viability plan submitted to Congress back in December that an electric commercial van would be launched just one year from now followed by an electric car the next year. According to CEO Alan Mulally, that’s just the start. At a conference in California this week, Mulally declared, “In 10 years, 12 years, you are going to see a major portion of our portfolio move to electric vehicles.” Mulally told the conference that internal combustion efficiency will also improve dramatically over the next decade, and more hybrids will join the lineup including a plug-in hybrid that will debut in 2012. Ford is shifting a significant proportion of its truck building capacity to cars over the next two years and the company doesn’t expect truck sales to recover to their previous record heights. While fuel prices are low now, they are expected to climb again as the economy recovers. The shifts to cars and more hybrid and electric vehicles will be necessary to meet both market demands created by those expected higher fuel prices and government mandates for higher fuel efficiency. Gallery: ABG Quick Drive: Ford Focus EV mule Photos Copyright (C)2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc. [Source: Automotive News , sub. req'd] Auto Blog: EV/Plug-in , Hybrid , Ford Ford CEO Mullaly expects many Fords to be electric in a decade originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Ford CEO Mullaly expects many Fords to be electric in a decade
Posted in Auto Green, Hybrids | alan mulally, alanmulally, copyright, europe, fordev, fuel, green-daily, mulally, next, over-the-next, photo, program-similar, ricardo, scrapvehicle, sentience | Leave a commentElon Musk reportedly sets trap for loose lipped employees
The breathless style of writing at which Valleywag has made a name for itself isn’t the sort of thing we often link to, but we’ll make an exception today. According to the Gawker team , Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not making any friends in his own company; in fact, Valleywag claims that Musk recently tried to pinpoint people on his team who may be leaking confidential information to the media. The tactic? Sending each employee a slightly altered version of an email about stopping the leaks and then checking to see which version made it to the media. It reportedly backfired in a pretty big way. Valleywag reports that Musk did not let his own executives know of this plan to smoke out the leaker. One of them unknowingly forwarded his version of the email within the company, which made it clear to the rest of Tesla’s workforce that they were being set up. We contacted Tesla about this story, but got a simple “No Comment.” That’s fine for us, but it might be a long, long month before the Model S unveiling on the 26th . Follow the source link to Car Blog Greena version of the email, presumably one of many, that Musk sent to his employees. Thanks to Yanquetino for the tip! [Source: Valleywag ] Auto Blog: Etc. , EV/Plug-in , Tesla Motors , Green Daily Elon Musk reportedly sets trap for loose lipped employees originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Elon Musk reportedly sets trap for loose lipped employees
Posted in Auto Green | a-friend-via, daily, entry, europe, fordev, green-daily, photo, program-similar, tesla, tesla roadster, tesla-motors, teslaroadster | Leave a commentSemi trucks converted to run on biomethane from cow manure
Looking for a sustainable fuel to power your fleet of semi trucks? If you are a dairy farm, we’d bet that the one thing you’ve got too much of is cow manure. Hilarides Dairy happens to have this exact problem, and it’s turning it into a solution. Over 10,000 cows will happily provide enough dung to generate 226,000 cubic feet of biomethane gas each and every day. That amount of gas (literally) is enough to cut 650 gallons of diesel fuel fuel per day from the farm’s fleet of vehicles. The process goes something like this: Cows excrete their spent fuels as manure, which is then flushed out into a lagoon where microbes begin breaking it down, resulting in the production of methane gas. The gas is then further purified at a local refinery that strips out unwanted bits like carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. After this final refining, the fuel is pressurized and fed into Cummins diesel engines that have been converted to run properly on methane gas. Proponents of this technology suggest that there is enough manure to displace the gasoline requirements of up to 16 million gas or diesel vehicles. It’s both gross and brilliant all at once. [Source: Wired | Photo: JelleS , CC 2.0] Auto Blog: Natural Gas , Green Daily Semi trucks converted to run on biomethane from cow manure originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Semi trucks converted to run on biomethane from cow manure
Posted in Auto Green | a-friend-via, a-prime-target, cow farts, cow manure, cowdung, daily, fuel, news, photo, turning-it-into | Leave a commentChicago 2009: Photo fun with the 2010 Toyota Prius
Click above for a gallery of the spinning 2010 Toyota Prius Ahh, the fun you can have when an auto show isn’t exactly busy. Today at the Chicago Auto Show, we found a 2010 Toyota Prius spinning on a stand all by itself (see also: Saturn Flextreme in D.C. last week ). With not all that much to do ourselves, we set the camera to a slow shutter speed and spent some time with our fisheye lens aimed at the car. Turns out, if you fall into the camp that thinks the Prius looks a little like a spaceship, this might be what you’d see cruising through hyperspace (if it looks anything like what the movies tell us). Have fun looking at these and, if you want plan pictures of the new Prius that don’t suggest motion sickness, here they are . Gallery: Chicago 2009: 2010 Toyota Prius Photos Copyright (C)2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc. Auto Blog: Etc. , Toyota , AutoblogGreen Exclusive , Chicago Auto Show , Green Daily Chicago 2009: Photo fun with the 2010 Toyota Prius originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Chicago 2009: Photo fun with the 2010 Toyota Prius
Posted in Auto Green | a-longer-term, chicago, chicago auto show, chicago-auto, copyright, environmental, green, johnkrafcik, photo, toyota, toyota-prius, toyotaprius | Leave a commentGet Approved!
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