Chat Live With GM About The Environment

A great opportunity to chat to an executive from the automotive world, on Wednesday February 6th GM executive Brent Dewar (North America Vice President of Field Sales, Service and Parts) will be online answering questions regarding GM’s environmental programs and positions.

“Since the environment is a hot topic in today’s world, GM wants to set the record straights on its policies and initiatives. The chats are your exclusive chance to ask questions about the company and how it impacts the environment. ”

The first chat will take place Wednesday, February 6 from:
6pm to 7pm GMT
12pm to 1pm EST (time zone where chat takes place)
10am to 11am PST

Follow this link to ask a question at the time above. The chats are open to everyone.

This video of Brent Dewar below talking about environmentalism will give you an idea of what to expect.

Win With The Super Cars Shout Out Competition

What if you could be rewarded by thanking other people who, by driving less polluting cars, are doing a small part to help the environment? Well, with the Super Cars Shout Out Competition from PlanetThoughts.org you can.

This contest allows you to place a simple, colourful flier on high mileage cars that you encounter, showing the vehicle owner that she or he has done something worthy. Optionally you can re-use a copy of the flier on multiple vehicles to avoid paper waste, but then the car owner never knows that he/she was recognized, so we don’t recommend that. Printing fliers on recycled paper with high post-consumer content is recommended.

Of course, we would still prefer it if everyone could all walk, bicycle, car pool and car share, or use mass transit rather than driving individually-owned vehicles. Using more efficient cars simply makes this habit or need less damaging to our environment by reducing global warming gases, and saving fuel as well. Hopefully these cars are part of a transition to a better set of solutions.

The prize for this competition is at least $500 guaranteed. So if you are not in it for the fun and the mission, there is another reason to join in. And to make this fun for the wise car buyers, they will give $50 per month to one randomly selected car owner who contacts them that month and who has a valid photo of their of car uploaded on our site by any other entrant. Note: no individual or their family can win more than one secondary prize (the $50), but such winners are still eligible for the grand prize.

How to enter
1. Download and print one or more of the cool looking fliers (recycled paper obviously prefered and possibly two per page).
2. Find a 40+ mpg US (16.74 kmpl) car from the list.
3. Place the flier under the windshield wiper.
4. Use a digital camera or good cell phone to photograph it (and either take the flier with you to reuse or leave it for the car owner).
5. Upload the image(s) to the PlanetThoughts.org website.
6. Repeat

There are, of course, some simple rules to stop people rigging the competition, but nothing difficult.

It really is a great actionable idea that can win you some cash, so take a look.

Green Cars and Green Claims - Part 3

This is the final part of a three-part series. For the first part go here, or follow this link for all Detroit Auto Show 2008 articles.

Chrysler

Chrysler had a nice big sign up for their Aspen two mode hybrid but very little information on it. Their Global Electric Motorcars company had several vehicles on display, including the e2 pictured here. It’s under $7,000 and while a rear window and right side mirror are optional extras it does have a smog rating of 0.00.

BMW

BMW presented the BMW Hydrogen 7, the world’s first hydrogen-powered luxury saloon virtually free of emissions in everyday use. Currently 100 vehicles are on test drive, where the engine can be switched between hydrogen mode (200km/125miles range) or gasoline (another 500km/310 miles) to increase range. The advantage of hydrogen engines of course are they emit only water vapour. however, how green they are depends on how the hydrogen is manufactured.

Mini focused on lower fuel consumption as a unique selling point. With Brake Energy Regeneration they convert engine power into drive power for the wheels and electric power being generated only when moving or braking. With the Auto Start Stop function means that for all manual gearbox versions the engine no longer idles when stopped. When the gearshift is in neutral and the clutch isn’t pressed the engine switches off. Once the clutch pedal is pressed again the engine restarts. Finally they have a simple device called “the gearshift point indicator” that literally points to which gear you should be in for maximum engine (and therefore fuel) efficiency. Interesting!

Fisker Automotive

Fisker launched their $80,000 “eco-chic” car, which looks pretty nice as you can see from the photo below (or after the ‘Read more’ link if you’re reading this on our homepage). And yes, they are solar panels on the roof. Clearly aimed at the eco-conscious rich and celebrities, the vehicle is a plug-in hybrid that gets 50 miles from an overnight charge, and then a combustion engine takes over. 0-60 in 5.8 seconds is not bad at all, so if you can afford it (though you could get two Chevy Volts for the price) you can pre-order one for $5,000 now… The company was one of the few who printed their press kit on recycled paper with soy-based vegetable inks so get the thumbs up there.
[Read more]

Green Cars and Green Claims - Part 2

This is part two of a three-part series. For the first part go here, or follow this link for all Detroit Auto Show 2008 articles.

Toyota

Toyota is well known for their Prius, but this is a purpose built hybrid, not an exisiting model with a hybrid option. They hope to have all models with a hybrid option by 2020, however seem to be falling behind the competition in this respect, perhaps as a result of resting on the success of the Prius. They will have 400 demonstration plug-in hybrids by 2010 but not models for sale. It plans to offer diesel engines on the Tundra and Sequioa, though these are still pretty inefficient vehicles.

Their stand was made of eco-friendly materials and incorporated energy efficient elements such as using LEDs. They also unveiled the Toyota A-BAT concept runs on the same hybrid powertrain as the Prius (below left), and had an excellent cutaway of a fuel cell hybrid, demonstrating how it worked (below right).

Lexus didn’t have much of a green angle (like most of the luxury manufacturers) with only their RX 400 SUV on show, to my eye at least.

Ferrari

Yes, even the great gas guzzler Ferrari had a F430 Spider bio fuel vehicle on display, even though it’s just a concept. It runs on E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline for those who don’t know), and has actually slightly more horsepower than the current version.

Honda

Honda have the Accord ES is a “near zero” emission vehicle yet I don’t know whether it was because I was tired or they hadn’t yet put all the vehicles out for the public show, but I couldn’t find one on display.
[Read more]

Green Cars and Green Claims - Part 1

This is part one of a three-part series. Follow this link for all Detroit Auto Show 2008 articles.

At the Detroit Auto Show I’ve seen many claims and examples of cleaner vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles. As a guest of GM I had the closest look at their vehicles, but there were plenty of unveilings and new technologies from most auto manufacturers. In this three-part series I’ll take a look at some of the major green announcements and vehicles from the show.

GM

Most of GM’s brands had a green announcement in one sort or another, even Hummer. Under their banner of “gas friendly to gas free”, GM unveiled five different programs to reduce gasoline usage. These were:

- Fuel efficiency
- Ethanol E85 (see my Coskata announcement)
- Hybrid
- Electric (such as the Chevy Volt)
- Fuel cell (hydrogen)

In fact, most of the talk with any GM employee turned to green issues whether in press conferences, group interviews or one-on-one talks. The wind seems to have truly shifted firmly in the belief that in order to sell more cars in the future, the reliance on (mainly) foreign oil needs to be broken - see my interview with Bob Lutz, GM’s Vice Chairman.

Saturn extended their commitment to the Green Line of the Vue and Aura, positioning Saturn as the green brand for GM. The 2009 Vue Two mode hybrid uses a system that has been used in buses since 2003 in over 1,000 vehicles in 70 cities. Apparently it is 50% more fuel efficient than it’s non-hybrid version, and can get 500 miles on one tank. The engine turns off when idling, it uses electric only at low speed, and has seamless regenerative braking. They also showed their Flextreme concept vehicle that can drive for 30 miles on electric power only.
[Read more]

Bob Lutz GM Vice Chairman Interview

As a guest of GM at the Detroit Auto Show, I was fortunate enough to sit down with a small group of people (that gradually got larger the more we talked…) and speak with Bob Lutz, GM’s Vice Chairman.

Loved by some, criticised by others, Bob is quoted as saying a few years ago that hybrid cars were just a “marketing tool”. Having publicly admitted that was wrong a while ago, it was very interesting to hear his thoughts on the future of alternative fuel and alternative fuel vehicles.

Our video below is a short (~4 minutes) excerpt of the interview, where Bob talked about the reasons behind the Coskata announcement and the progress on the Chevy Volt.

In addition Bob talked about being involved in the Chevy Volt and hybrid programs at GM more than any others, the need for government intervention in the distribution infrastructure of ethanol and whilst the cost to produce ethanol could be ~$1 per gallon, once profit margins and taxes have been added it was more likely to be $2 per gallon. For more of the interview there are a few other links.

Firstly Clayton over at Gas 2.0 has a great transcript of part of our conversation, specifically around the ethanol and Coskata announcement.

You can find the full video here (over 20 minutes), from Matt Kelly’s excellent Next Gear Show Green. It’s honestly a fascinating watch and if you’re even only slightly interested in the auto industry, hearing the thoughts on the future of fuel directly from a high level executive is well worth your time.

For more info on the Chevy Volt, take a look at GM-Volt.

Keep tuned this week and next for more details on the Chevy Volt, green claims from the Auto Show and an interview with GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner.

Green Detroit Auto Show Just For Show?

As I first mentioned in my opening post about the Detroit Auto Show, this show was greener than any before it. This is, however, in terms of the cars and technologies that were displayed, not the show itself.

Whilst any show uses a huge amount of energy (even green trade shows!), the Auto Show was no exception. Huge plasma screens, projector screens, light shows, and enormous lighting rigs (see below) made the energy consumption seem off the chart. If it’s true that one evening major sports game uses the same amount of energy as a house uses in 60 years, then this show must use more in a day than does a town in 60 years.

Not only that, which in some ways is always going to be a result of a Auto Show (or most other shows), but there were no recycling facilities anywhere. None. Not one to be seen anywhere I looked and asked. Coupled with the huge amount of printed press material that was handed out (and often thrown away) and the empty water bottles, there was a huge opportunity to do something as simple as collect recycling. I ended up taking things back to the hotel (where they did recycle) as it began to frustrate me so much.

Finally, Chrysler launched their new Dodge Ram by staging a cattle drive down the street outside the show. It was very impressive (though cold), until I realised the cattle had been flown in especially for the event. Well, at least their waste could be used by GM to make ethanol….

My next post will be about the efforts car companies are going to to appeal to environmentally aware customers and the alternative fuel vehicle market.

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