Cars & Transportation

"Oscar is smarter than the Smart", read the headlines of the Berliner Morgenpost after the little electric flitzer made a visit to the capital city. Oscar, for Open Source CAR, is an electric car developed by Felix von Borck of Akasol and a group of students at the Technical University of Darmstadt (which you may remember as the winner of the 2007 Solar Decathlon). Oscar was invited to Berlin for a meeting of the Green Party members in Germany's Bundestag (Parliament). There, Oscar drew the attention of a VW engineer. It is certainly not the looks, so what is it that draws VW's attention to Oscar?

Cars & Transportation

On-street electric vehicle charging seems to be finally taking off, in the UK at least. We’ve already seen trial schemes with free charging, and plans for major installations across the country, but now Westminster City Council, in central London, is launching the largest on street charging service in the UK with the opening of 10 new recharging posts. More from their press release:

Cars & Transportation

In a side conversation a few days ago, Emerald City's Siel -- a fellow Angeleno -- took me to task for summarily dismissing the potential merits of the recently proposed congestion pricing scheme. She helpfully pointed me to a column penned by her friend, Damien Newton, who makes a convincing argument in favor of HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes. His spirited defense rests on two central points: First, the pricing structure of the HOT lanes has not yet been hammered out -- so people like me should stop belaboring the equity issue for now -- and, secondly, this scheme should help expand and improve the MTA's services. He writes:

"Once the schedule's nailed down, it very well could be that cars with more than one passenger will be paying a very reduced rate and cars with three or more people driving free. It could also be that cars with two or more passengers will be able to access the HOT lane in non-peak hour periods for free, but have to pay a small fee during peak hours. The truth is, carpoolers probably won’t be seeing much, if any, of a change in the cost of their commute."

Cars & Transportation

From the lead editorial in today's New York Times:

Senators John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton have hit on a new way to pander to American voters: a temporary suspension of the federal gasoline tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The proposal may draw applause and votes from Americans feeling the pain of nearly $4-a-gallon gasoline. But it is an expensive and environmentally unsound policy that would do nothing to help American drivers.

Recent Comment by Michael Long : "It's nothing but pandering, pure and simple. In fact, all of the candidates are promisi..." [read]

Cars & Transportation

Image courtesy of DRB62 via flickr

Following its unceremonious defeat at the hands of New York State Assembly, congestion pricing is looking to make a comeback in -- of all places -- car-mad Los Angeles. The large chunk of federal cash NYC's nixing of the deal has freed up, roughly $354 million, would be used to put toll lanes on three freeways, initially. The catch is that existing carpool lanes on these freeways would be converted to toll lanes.

Cars & Transportation

In a country where 5.2 million cars were bought last year, where nearly 10 million cars are produced each year, and where "environmental protection" is a major buzz word, you might think that the Chinese have been ramping up their cheap, domestic-made hybrid cars. Nope. The only hybrids currently available are Japanese, the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic. And while they're assembled in China, importing the parts from Japan means heavy taxes, which means that these cars costs double in China than what they do in the US. That's why only 417 Priuses were sold in China last year.

Then, at the Beijing auto show last week, GM got lots of press for announcing it would sell its new hybrid in China. But the cost won't be much better than the Prius, around $40,000. For a country where the average car costs less than a quarter of that, where demand is growing for big cars, and where fuel prices are kept artificially low by the government, the future of green cars seems dim.

But enter the Chinese automakers. Yes, big cars are in but so are small and green models, and they have a few that, while still largely concepts, are affordable -- and could be invading overseas markets in the next few years.

Cars & Transportation

We have had some sport with the dangers of Electromagnetic Forces (EMF) before (see a University without Wifi) and even done April Fools jokes about it; after a little more reading we concluded that we should not be so dismissive.

However we find it hard to take Jim Motavalli's article in the New York Times "Fear, but Few Facts, on Hybrid Risk" seriously. He writes:

There is a legitimate scientific reason for raising the issue. The flow of electrical current to the motor that moves a hybrid vehicle at low speeds (and assists the gasoline engine on the highway) produces magnetic fields, which some studies have associated with serious health matters, including a possible risk of leukemia among children.

Cars & Transportation

The average car on Australian roads today is only as fuel efficient as its predecessor was back in 1963. That’s the finding of prominent transport researcher Paul Mees, of Melbourne University, who is crunching numbers for the Garnaut climate change review. Paul says that “the current rate of progress in making cars more fuel efficient is no progress at all.” In 1963 the average Australian car went 100km on 11.4 litres of petrol. (That’s 20.6 mpg) They can only manage the same efficiency more than 40 years later.

Gathering data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, he has revealed that while engine efficiency has improved, this has been countered by the addition of 'enhancements' such as air-conditioning, power steering and windows, safety and entertainment systems. The static nature of overall fuel efficiency has also been hampered by the roll out of more freeways. "If you drive at 110kmh you use more fuel than if you drive at 70kmh." From ::Sydney Morning Herald, via Ecomedia