Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Gas 2.0

Gas 2.0

Utah Passes Law Sidestepping EPA to Make Natural Gas Conversions Much Cheaper

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 10:49 AM PDT

As I’ve been covering for the last few months, a bill that makes converting vehicles to run on compressed natural gas about 57% less expensive was signed into law in Utah yesterday.

The law should bring the current $14,000 average cost of installing natural gas conversions in Utah down to about $6,000.

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Survey: 78% of People Believe Plug-In and Hybrid Vehicles are the Future

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 10:09 AM PDT

While it’s easy for those of us in the thick of it to simply “know” that the eventual domination of plug-in vehicles and hybrids is a foregone conclusion, what we pundits conclude is essentially irrelevant (yes, that does represent an existential crisis of sorts). Truly, in the end it comes down to what the average person ultimately accepts.

And if a recent survey by Capital One Auto Finance (done in honor of Earth Day) is any guide, plug-ins and hybrids are not just a passing fad with fully 78% of U.S. consumers now sure that they are here to stay.

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Looking Past 2016 To Even Tougher Fuel Efficiency Standards

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 08:47 AM PDT

If you do not learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it. Looking back over the last 120 years, one can see many false starts for the electric car industry. Some of the very first horseless carriages were electric vehicles, and automakers have been teasing us with images of a future propelled by electric cars even during the muscle car movement. The closest we ever came was the EV1 program, which fizzled and failed after a few years. So how do we make sure that this time it sticks?

The energy policy committee at last week’s SAE World Congress mulled over this issue. Their conclusion is that electric vehicles still need significant support before they can stand on their own merits, or the switch from gas to electric vehicles could stall before it ever really gets started.

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U.S. Gas Demand And Production Sets Record In March

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 08:41 AM PDT

We all have bad habits that we would be better off without. But breaking a bad habit isn’t easy, and we are often more likely to fall right back into that habit rather than quit cold turkey. Our oil addiction seems to be an especially difficult habit to break.

The month of March saw record production for U.S. refineries, putting out an average of 9.3 million barrels of gas every day. That isn’t even half of our daily demand. Demand is up too, even though gas is hovering around $3 a gallon already. And it isn’t even summer yet.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, total gas deliveries were up 3.5 percent over a year ago. 9.2 million barrels of domestically-produced oil were “delivered”, which I assume means they were also used. That is close to the record of 9.6 million barrels delivered in July of 2007… you know, when everyone still had money to spend on Hummers and McMansions. But I suppose looking on the positive side of things, more oil use means more people are out and about, which means maybe the economy really is on the road to recovery. But $4 a gallon gas could easily send us spiraling back into a trouble.

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Denver Getting First City-Wide Bike Sharing Program

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 08:37 AM PDT

I don’t have much experience with bicycles to be honest. Like most little kids, I had my fair share of bikes, and I enjoyed pedaling around. But living on a major road in the middle of nowhere, pedaling around in a circle in my backyard eventually got boring. Yet, I imagine if I was forced to live in the city, I’d be biking a whole lot more.

Due to the generally higher concentration of people in Europe, many European cities have already implemented bike sharing programs, but the idea hasn’t really caught on in the U.S. yet. Could things be changing? On Earth Day, B-Cycle is opening what they claim is the U.S.’s first city-wide bike sharing program in Denver, Colorado.

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Chevy Planning Volt Minivan?

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 08:31 AM PDT

GM has said from the beginning that the powertrain underpinning the Chevy Volt would eventually be used in other vehicles. Naturally, I assumed they meant that there would be a bigger, and smaller version of the Volt as a car. But I hadn’t given much thought to the idea of a Volt… minivan.

But if you stop and think about it, the idea makes sense. Minivans are often used for local outings to bring the kids to soccer practices, but are also suitable for long haul drivers where good gas mileage matters. So I’m really not surprised to see these patent filings from Chevy for a Volt MPV.

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