Gas 2.0

One Year and 15,000 Miles in a Grease Car
Want a Plug-in Hybrid Now? Luscious Garage in San Francisco is Your New Best Friend
The 21st Century Car Industry: Why Plug-in Hybrid Retrofits Could Fix it
Won’t Someone Please Save Our Clunkers!
Aptera 2e Gets a Production Facelift
Hybrid Vehicles Failing to Produce Environmental Benefits

One Year and 15,000 Miles in a Grease Car

Posted: 10 Aug 2009 12:49 PM PDT

Ten Things I’ve Learn About Driving A Car Powered by Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO)

What makes a seemingly rational guy, who can afford to drive pretty much whatever car he wants to, trade in his shiny, new Audi for a 27-year old Mercedes 240D that runs on waste or straight vegetable oil (WVO/SVO)? Well, in my case, someone took the time to call me out on my level of willingness to make a difference–or at least try to.

In late 2007, my partner and I took on a brand development project for a fledgling, Washington DC-based hybrid limousine company. These guys were not only driven by a real desire to reduce their industry’s carbon footprint, but also to engage with the theoretical decision makers on Capital Hill. Every week, we’d be on these long conference calls, where I would inevitably begin to complain about the escalating price of gasoline and the perils of foreign oil dependency. Finally, one of these brave entrepreneurs told me to shut up and do something about.

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Want a Plug-in Hybrid Now? Luscious Garage in San Francisco is Your New Best Friend

Posted: 10 Aug 2009 10:50 AM PDT

"Take a used 2004-2009 Prius—maybe your own—and add the [Plug-in Conversions] kit," says Carolyn. "For less than $30,000 you'll have a car that's better than the new 2010 Prius."

Editor’s Note: If you’re interested in converting your own car or a buying a plug-in conversion through group discounts, you can join this email list for electric cars.

Luscious Garage works exclusively on hybrids. Founded in 2007, it sits amidst early-20th-century storefronts in a quiet, tree-lined section of downtown San Francisco. Outside, a tire hangs high with a plant inside it—just a hint of what's within.

The ground-level work area is unlike any you've seen before. The left wall is filled with colorful artwork. Then, you notice there's no smell of oil or gas—and no pounding of compressors.

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The 21st Century Car Industry: Why Plug-in Hybrid Retrofits Could Fix it

Posted: 10 Aug 2009 10:14 AM PDT

Entrepreneurs have begun to retrofit ordinary combustion vehicles into all-electrics or plug-in hybrids. Here’s why this could be the “big fix” that the auto-industry needs.

Are we stuck with our oil addiction? What if millions of our middle-aged vehicles could be reincarnated as superior versions of their youthful selves, while developing new revenue streams for Detroit? What if that “fix” could start reducing the billion a day we spend on imported oil, while creating tens of thousands of local jobs in communities and cutting greenhouse gases from fossil fuels?

Automakers could do all this—by thinking of vehicles as upgradable high-tech products. For example: A pioneering Chicago startup makes a prototype Ford F-150 pickup with an all-electric range of 30 miles per charge. After that it’s a hybrid, boosting the best-selling truck’s 15 city miles per gallon to 21.

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Won’t Someone Please Save Our Clunkers!

Posted: 10 Aug 2009 09:42 AM PDT

Jalopnik has issued a call to arms to its fans: Won’t someone please save our quirky classic cars. Ford Explorers - - fine, that’s one thing….but…

…this is the very last straw: “A classic example of vangenieering, is being sacrificed at Galpin Ford in Los Angeles. For what? A Ford Focus? We must let people know of the horrors. If you see a great vehicle being sacrificed take a picture and post it here. We must bear witness to the atrocity.”

Jalopnik is a site for the auto-world equivalent of Fashionistas, and the CARS Carpocalypse is hitting them hard. For the most part its devoted readers are putting a very brave face on it. But the agony:

“I saw a mid 80’s El Camino get traded in. I… I didn’t cry. I know it wouldn’t want to be looked at with misty eyes of mourning.”

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Aptera 2e Gets a Production Facelift

Posted: 09 Aug 2009 10:11 PM PDT

Aptera Motors publicly debuted it Aptera 2e during TED 2009 this past February, but the company has announced that it will modify the interior of its Aptera 2e in its production models. According to the company’s newsletter, they did extensive consumer testing of the car and discovered some elements that would turn off consumers including cabin space, cargo space and well, space. So they fixed them.

The first major issue found was that there wasn’t enough space for men or women. I remember this being an issue in the first version of the Honda Insight as well. Very tall people couldn’t fit into the car. Like Honda, Aptera has gone about to fix this and using their Aptera formula - safety, then aerodynamics, then lightweight - they have increased the interior cabin by 10 percent.

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Hybrid Vehicles Failing to Produce Environmental Benefits

Posted: 09 Aug 2009 09:09 PM PDT

Despite government rebates for hybrids offered to consumers in U.S. and Canada, the programs are failing to produce environmental benefits, yet the programs continue to cost consumers. This according to a new study, “Green Drivers or Free Riders? An Analysis of Tax Rebates for Hybrid Vehicles,” from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

The study finds that hybrid sales have not replaced gas guzzling SUVS, but rather have replaced small, relatively fuel-efficient, conventional cars. Too bad considering SUVS, trucks and vans produce substantially greater carbon emissions.

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