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 commentGreenlings: How power-split parallel hybrids work
Over the past decade, if there is one word that has become synonymous with green motoring it is hybrid. Ever since Toyota launched the first modern commercially viable hybrid with the original Prius (above) in 1997, over one million of them have hit the roads. Of course, as is so often the case, this overnight sensation was anything but. In fact, the technology was nearly a century in the making. The first known hybrid was developed by the original Ferdinand Porsche back around the beginning of the twentieth century. The hybrid, as we mostly know it today, was actually developed and patented by engineers at TRW in the late 1960s. While most people have by now heard of hybrids and know that they can improve efficiency, few understand how they work. Since the debut of the Prius, most automakers have been working on hybrids and have developed their own variations in an attempt to reduce the cost and/or improve the efficiency. Let’s start (after the jump) with a look the power-split parallel hybrid as popularized by Toyota and Ford. Gallery: 2010 Toyota Prius Continue reading Greenlings: How power-split parallel hybrids work Auto Blog: Hybrid , GM , Mercedes Benz , Toyota , AutoblogGreen Exclusive , Green Daily Greenlings: How power-split parallel hybrids work originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Greenlings: How power-split parallel hybrids work
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