Hippy Green

Being a graduate of UVM and knowing the club’s advisor and Chairperson personally, I just had to post up this story. Direct from The View at UVM.

This past May 5 - 7 was the International Formula Hybrid Competition at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, NH. Universities from Yale, Dartmouth, and more came to participle included schools from Russia, Canada and Taiwan. The car was designed and built by members of the Aero (Alternative Energy Racing Organization) at the University of Vermont. Their car won Chrysler’s Best Hybrid System Engineering Award, the Best Hybrid-in-Progress Award, the Dartmouth College Thayer School Dean’s Award for Most Innovative Design, and even second place in overall technical design.

The UVM team designed their car nicknamed, “GreenSpeed” as an all-wheel-drive hybrid with front regenerative breaking that recharges onboard batteries. The director of the Formula Hybrid Project at Dartmouth College said “These two things have never been done before” in competition.

All their work of building this amazing machine took a wrong turn with some electronic controls due to software bugs and a pair of $15 failed switches, which took them out of the race for the acceleration and autocross competitions. A bittersweet disappointment for UVM, but a victory by still winning various awards and competing in the 13-mile endurance test.

I knew this is only the beginning of UVM competing Green and will be looking forward to seeing how next years competition pans out.

Dreaming of owning a Tesla Roadster but knowing how much they costs has been keeping down, have now fear. For the cool $35,000 (and a sam’s club membership) you can pickup a FULLY ELECTRIC SMART CAR! Plus a bonus trip to to witness a space shuttle launching! I know I have thought about a smart car but more if I was in New York City (this car could park anywhere).

This 2007 Hybrid Technologies Lithium-powered Smart Car is PERFECT for any city environment as well as short nearby communities. This smart car is a REAL CAR, top speed of 80mph with a 0 to 60 time of 7.1 seconds! Yes, there is the 6 to 8 hour charge time, but you can travel about 140 miles per charge! This is a great commuter car and with the money your saving in gas, you could almost buy 2!

Now if your a bit more into the exotic hybrids, you should take a look at the aptera, the famous 330mpg trik. This car does NOT have to go through rigorous testing like other 4 wheeled cars, because of its design, this vehicle falls under a motorcycle and WILL be street legal in all 50 states! It comes in 2 options, fully electric or plugin. They expect to start producing these in the next 12 months and you can reserve your name on the wait listing for only $500, fully refundable!

Although I enjoy my fun prius I may have to sell if and move to this futuristic badass car!

I forgot to post up that I purchased a 2007 Toyota Prius, totally forgot to post it here too. No need for double post, so just a cross blog link.

So check out my blog and yes most people say you lose $2k when you buy a NEW car, but hey I got a hybrid!

Are you a savvy business person in NYC who uses a car service everywhere you go, or needs one for a trip to the aiport, but want to be more environmentally friendly? Need a eco-luxury private car service? Have no fear, OZOcar is here!

OZOcar is a car service that uses hybrids (Toyota Prius and Lexus RX400h) as their cars to pick you up and drop you off. OZOcar was started by Jordan Harris and Roo Rogers in 2005 with the goal of providing customers with style, service, and sustainability.

So not only are you “saving the environment” with a hybrid but you are also get some nice perks from OZOcar, such as the usage of a Apple iBook with free wifi to check your email, 200+ satellite stations to listen too, and some enjoyable refreshments.

So if your in the NYC area and need a ride, call 1 866 OZO 5966 or 1 886 696 5966.

So I was reading yesterdays Wall Street Jounal that was at the hotel. I was flipping through it and found a nice article, Why Your car Has Lousy Gas Mileage. It also had a picture of a 1986 Honda Civic CRX and a 2007 Honda Civic DX Sedan. The CRX had 52 MPG City and 57 MPG highway! The civic gets 30 MPG city and 40 mpg highway. Can you believe that, a 1986 Honda gets better gas milage compared to a 2007, even thought heir both a sedan. Granted the CRX was a compact 2 door, but its not like the civic is some HUGE SUV. Its just funny because the 90s were all about going big, with huge SUV that get classified differently so they do not have to meet MPG in the 30+ but more ilke 10 or below. I am not saying that the Civic 30 MPG is bad, I am saying that we need to rethink our cars! Its not just the hybrid technology, its the design and usage. How many people really use all 7 seats in an SUV? Do you even need a 4 door car, or could you get by with a small smart car? Maybe as a family, you drive a smart car for commutes and a SUV for long trips.

A Prius is a very affordable hybrid and more cars should be similar to it. I am not saying hybrids are great, as seen from the 2007 GMC Sierra Classic 1500 Hybrid Extended Cab SLE2 Standard Box 2WD that gets 18 mpg city / 21 mpg hwy, ha!
Americans need to get the automakers to step back upto the plate like they did in the late 70s and 80s during the gas shortage. Lets start building small compact 1 or 2 person cars and sell those for CHEAP! Most cars are fuel hogs because of their size. The civic is considered a small car, but the CRX is A FULL 3 FEET SHORTER IN LENGHT! Lets build cars like the smart cars, ideal for a starter family, and a 4 door style for the … soccer mom.

Anyway, what I am trying to get across here is lets post ideas and be create coming up withs ideas and alternatives to getting around. Obvisouly the oil company has a huge monopoly, but how can we hurt them and say @&$^# YOU! I gave up my car, I could have a car, but there is no need for it right now. If I need a car, I would prolly look at a Prius or even going totally veg oil. So what would you change about cars today? How can we fight these oil companies?

One of the popular tourist attraction is the Circle Line boat that laps the waters around NYC. The Circle Line aka a 3 hour tour, serves as a ferry that shows off the status of liberty as well as ellis island. Circle Line has unveiled their solar/wind power hybrid electric ferry. It looks pretty futuristic and I have not done the Circle Line (even thought I have lived less then 20 miles from NYC almost all my life!). So whey they release this, I am so down, who’s with me?

While doing some research today I stumbled across some great website to help lower the cost of going green. With most technologies the new they are the more they cost. Over time the price goes down and economics of scale play a role. Anyway, please take a look at DSIRE for tax breaks for adding alternative energies to your home. Now please keep in mind that some houses (condos, gated communiteis, etc) have a HOA that would prevent you from setting up or installing a wind turbine or solar array.

As for your commute, if your thinking about a hybrid or converting a car to bio-diesel please take a look at the Tax incentives for alternative fuels.

After my post yesterday about Hybrid technologies I wanted to continue my post about other companies who are building electric cars. I also find it funny because I just flew out to Scottsdale, Arizona and have been driving my friends Mini. Its a pretty sweet car, wish it was the Mini Cooper S, but I will live. After spending the day driving it and seeing how my friend Amanda only spends about $200 a month on the car (well worth it), I just cant see how a $40,000 electric conversion is going to be appealing. Now don’t get me wrong I am all for going electric, but I think we should aim more towards the sports car driver due to the fact electric cars have the potential for an unlimited amount of torque. I also think their are plenty of electric alternatives then the $59,000 mini, the price tag for the Hybrid Technologies car is just not ideal.

As stated above, I think we need to rethink the way we are selling electric cars to the masses and start by building fast sports cars that have a 0 to 60 time thats under 4 seconds and gets a fuel economy of 100 miles per gallon. After continuing my research about Hybrid Technologies I see that they are starting to think that way in their building of the Hybrid Technologies’ L1X-75.

Along with the building of electric cars, I have to give hands down praise to Tesla Motors (Great Name, gotta love Tesla!). Tesla Motors has built the Tesla Roadster which is a 100% electric car that has a 0 to 60 time of 4 seconds, a 135 mpg equivalent and gets over 200 miles per charge. The great thing about being electric is that we can produce electricity in various forms and methods. We can product electricity by wind turbines, geothermal, hydro electric, and more. Oil on the other hand is pretty limited and becoming more expensive. By having a car that can be plugged in and charged, we can use cleaner forms of energy harvesting and make the Tesla Roadster a zero CO2 carbon emission car. Granted most of our electric does NOT come from alternative energies like wind turbines but from burning coal or nuclear energy, but hopefully one day this will change.

Zap World has also posted up some interesting plugin hybrids as well as crossovers. With all of these options in electric cars you would think that their would be more of them on the market. I think we are going through a green bubble and hopefully will force car companies to start building green and creating affordable electric cars rather then a $59,000 mini. As most of you know I have sold my 2005 Subaru STI and do not have a car at the moment. Depending on where I will be living in the next couple of months I will either be moving to Arizona or living it up in New York City. If I do move to Arizona, I want to buy a more green friendly car, but do not want to give up performance. What kind of a car are you driving? Have you driven the Prius, what do you think about its performance or lack their of?

Well its not Memorial Day yet, but it seems that gasoline prices fell 1 cent last week ending the 12 consecutive weeks of increasing prices. I wrote earlier this week that they predict a $4 a gallon price on gas this summer. Since it was only a 1 cent fall i am still sticking with my $4 a gallon guess.

I know this summer is going to ruin our economic if gas hits prices that high, but what about the buzz of going green? I recently read an article about how its not easy selling green. How can this be? Maybe the return on investment is too low for the average Joe to buy a hybrid. The average Job may not want to go green to be green, but to go green financially and concisely. I know there was a high demand with hybrid cars along with their HOV passes in California, but there is could be less return on a hybrid due to degrading batteries.

Soon to be released hybrids have been becoming more expensive rather then economies of scale bring the price down. Most of this is due to emerging technology in building these hybrids, but the problem still is the cost! Hybrid Technologies is planning to release a consumer friendly electric mini, but for $59,000 USD. Thats a full 40k more then the base Mini and takes 5 hours to charge. I think they are taking 2 steps forwards and 1 step back with this idea because there are other companies that will convert your car to a hybrid for $10,000 to $15,000. Granted this may not be a perfect apples to apples comparison due to various types of batteries and warranty, but come on this would still be a $25,000 difference.