Green Options

Well, actually I wasn’t there, at the Detroit Auto Show, but it stands to reason that someone from Ford uttered those words, near a rotating platform, without breaking into a laugh.  I’m willing to go on record, though, with the prediction that Ford’s new engine, the EcoBoost, will bear a new nameplate within two years. In a world fixated on what is sustainable, that name is simply not.
The name of Ford’s new V6 engine seems to imply that power is somehow boosted by some naturally occurring and environmentally sustainable green technology, like tree leaves, or a river.  Cars are a long way from being environmentally friendly, regardless of the technology that’s been developed and put into hybrid and electric cars.  Electrical outlets don’t grow own trees, and in fact, much of the electricity we use is powered by coal, not exactly a clean or sustainable technology.

Audi has outfitted the new R8 V10 sports car with all-LED headlamps, which consume about a quarter of the energy of halogen bulbs. According to an Audi press release posted on autobloggreen.com, the company expects LED’s to be eight times more efficient than halogen bulbs by 2018.
While it seems odd to introduce this development on a sports car that boasts an energy-inefficient ten cylinder engine capable of propelling the car to 196 miles an hour, the reason is probably cost.

Autobloggreen.com notes that LED headlamps were available as a $5,600 option on the original R8. The R8 V10, to be sold in Germany beginning in the spring of 2009, will cost nearly $200,000.

Still, the technology that Audi has developed to show off on its most high-end vehicle, will eventually trickle down to other vehicles and other manufacturers, and every conceivable increase in efficiency should be welcomed as we move toward electric vehicles.

Audi estimates that a vehicle running with soon-to-be-mandated (in Europe) daytime running lights consumes a constant 200 watts (this includes low beams, tail lights, and a license plate light. In contrast, Audi claims that only 15 watts is required to power their daytime headlamps.

I suppose it all started with tofu, some three thousand years ago. Logically, soymilk, with its nine essential amino acids quickly followed. Many of us, as infants, were fed soy formula instead of milk. Now you can walk in to just about any major chain restaurant and find a veggie burger, made from soy. But the soy revolution has only really just begun. Soybeans are used to make paints, insulation, adhesives, inks, foam for seat cushions, and biodiesel, of course.

Is there anything that soy cannot do? Perhaps not. Scientists at Agricultural Research Service (ARS), a scientific research agency of the USDA, are experimenting with the use of defatted soy flour, to take the place of traditional petroleum based fillers that increase tensile strength and wear in tires.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz announced the company’s suggested holiday reading list, via the FastLane blog, and I’ll have to admit that while I found it fairly unusual for a car company (not an honorific title, yet) to issue reading recommendations, I found the idea quaint and refreshing.

I was quite eager to see what GM might come up with, since I’ve got a little extra time on my hands during the holidays, and I’m always looking for a good book.  My first thought was that GM would suggest some escapist fiction - Ray Bradbury, for instance.  But Something Wicked This Way Comes probably sounds a little daunting in these times.  GM, understandably, does not wish to frighten any more people away.

In an interview with Automotive News China, the president of BYD (Build Your Dreams), Wang Chuanfu, said that in addition to the recent Chinese release of the F3DM — the world’s first plug-in hybrid production car — he expects his company to release two more electric car models in 2009.

The F3DM, which does not look like a three wheeled motorcycle or a minivan shrunk quarter size as you may have come to expect, and instead looks like a normal sedan, will be buttressed in 2009 by the release in China of the F6DM sedan, and an entirely electric van, the E6, capable of seating seven.

American government regulations are what will keep all of those cars from hitting the US market right away, according to Chuanfu. Even so, he thinks that BYD will be able to release cars in the US and Europe by 2011. Regardless of the delay in getting the vehicles stateside, the new releases in China mean that the company will have three electric vehicles on the road in 2009, while no other major automaker has managed to produce even one.

The Bush Administration bailed out GM on Friday, after pushing the prospect of bankruptcy as the most reasonable option.  The most compelling language in the bailout agreement: A mandate for electric cars or fuel efficient models?  Not at all. The government has focused in on forcing GM to get rid of its corporate jets, which drew little notice until the Big 3 CEOs flew to Washington to be upbraided by lawmakers.

The legislation had little to say about fuel efficiency, electric or hybrid cars, or the feasibility that a loan to GM will do anything to resurrect the struggling company.  In regard to emerging technologies, the legislation requires merely that GM “intend” to “commence domestic manufacturing of advanced technology vehicles.”

China-based BYD has introduced a plug-in hybrid that can be plugged into a regular electrical outlet, and achieve sixty miles on one charge.

The BYD F3DM is the first mass-produced plug-in vehicle in the world. While the car will not be available in the United States until approximately 2011, according to an article on Bloomberg.com, the release of the vehicle provides a boost for the sagging vehicle market, and for the Chinese market in particular.

Editor’s Note: Marc is one of the newest additions to the Gas 2.0 writing team. Welcome Marc!
In between a heavy rotation of aspirin, Tylenol, and Motrin, washed down with the cheapest scotch I could find, I took a few minutes to stop focusing on the ever-imploding economy and my prospects for having a job in six months, to do some problem solving for the world.

According to what anyone of any authority in the United States would have you believe, the collapse of the Big Three automakers (as if they are inextricably linked) would send our economy from the thin patch of ice that it is currently skating on, into the frigid depths to drown. Job loss estimates that I’ve seen range to two and a half million, not much less than one percent of the entire population of the country. It is for this reason, apparently, that Congress will likely throw a lifeline to each of the Big Three, by printing up trainloads (a Hummer might do actually – thanks GM!) of cash and wishing it well (thanks taxpayers!).