While Chrysler’s alt-fuel plans for the future—and its integrity—seem uncertain at best, its cross-town rival General Motors is trying to make good on its fuel efficient pledges in a different way. This includes (finally) offering a Hummer with E85 flex-fuel capabilities, as promised in 2007.

Oh, and for those who are wishing for a Volt sub-brand, keep wishing. GM has no plans of spinning off the Volt as a brand of its own (as Toyota might do with the Prius). That won’t stop the General from spreading its hybrid drivetrain across other models, however.

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This debate has already taken so many faces, and been argued so many times, that I cannot hope to add much more to it.

But I’ll try anyway.

A new study published by the Journal of Consumer Research has found that many Hummer owners excuse their large, oft-unnecessary H1 and H2s by crying patriotism and quoting American ideals like individualism. So are Hummer owners the morally righteous in the debate of anti-consumerism versus over-consumption?

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Thanks to all who participated!!!

Mean Joe Green Cartoon Archive

Rules for Participation:
1. Look at the cartoon below.
2. Think of a caption to accompany the cartoon.
3. Post your caption in the comments section.

The winning caption will be published (with author’s name as posted in comment section) in Red Green and Blue sometime next week.

Enjoy!
-MJG

GM unloads Hummer to Chinese buyer

Previous Caption Contests

Monsanto, I Presume? Mean Joe Green #44: Caption Contest 2 Winner
Mean Joe Green #33 part 2: Caption Contest Winner

Mean Joe Green Cartoon Archive

While we wait to see if General Motors will go banko come June 1, Raser Technologies is hoping to change our minds about one of GM’s most iconic offerings: the Humvee.

During the upcoming 2009 SAE World Congress (Detroit, April 20 - 24) the company plans to unveil a Hummer H3 Range-Extended Electric Vehicle (ReEV) prototype. The vehicle is designed, first and foremost, as a purely electric vehicle with a drive train similar to the Voltec system in the Chevrolet Volt.

“We are resurrecting the Hummer,” David West, vice president of marketing for Raser Technologies said, adding that “It’s like a Volt on steroids.”

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Faulty fuel tank support straps in new H3T latest setback for GM

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for General Motors, they did. The financially beleaguered automaker announced a recall of 1,738 of its new Hummer H3Ts on Friday, after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said a weak support strap could cause the H3T’s gas tank to fall off, “Increasing the risk of crash.”

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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.

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Children who are generally concerned about our planet’s health and climate change do not deserve to be denigrated by Fox’s idiot Greg Gutfeld, who would actually punish his kids for being green!

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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!).

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No, not that… rather, the Chinese are experiencing American-style SUV mania with their low gas prices. Also in this edition:Find out how walk-able your neighborhood is, and People Cube helps offices become sustainable.

Links for this week’s ZapRoot:

China Hummer

Zipcode Village

Walk Score (Also see the “Walk this Way” series at Ecolocalizer)

People Cube

The V-8 combustion engine has been replaced by a small stand-alone 4 cylinder 2.0L engine which is only connected to the 100 kW Symetron PM Synchronous generator, and not the drive system. The engine is used only generate electricity and recharge the batteries when the vehicle drives beyond its 40 mile battery range and the lithium ion batteries are spent.

Three liquid cooled lithium ion battery packs are mounted between the frame rails and can be charged with a standard 110-volt household outlet. For a quicker charging 220-volt outlets are also supported. A full charge will take between 3 and 10 hours.

This plugin hybrid drive-system was designed by Raser Technologies, but developed by FEV, Inc. But is a 100 mpg Hummer enough to change the minds of the 30,000 industry specialists, engineers and business leaders who will be attending SAE?

No gas is used up to 40 miles. At 50 miles a day, the vehicle would still get 185 miles to the gallon. For 60 it’s 100 miles per gallon and over 200 miles the miles per gallon goes down to 33.

“Our goal in exhibiting this particular vehicle is to demonstrate that electric vehicle technology is a viable solution for a variety of vehicle platforms,” said Gary Rogers, FEV, Inc. president and CEO. “Needs of consumers will continue to vary, and the Hummer range-extended electric vehicle shows that fuel economy does not necessarily mean sacrificing power and utility.”

As of yet, there has been no talk of funding but I suspect that will come up during SAE. Raser hopes to have 2,000 of these things on the road by the end of 2010. Wired.com reports that Pacific Gas & Electric has already requested two of them.

Hey, only 1,998 more to go!

Don’t forget to see this throwback, the post that put Gas 2.0 on the map: Car Hacker’s Hummer Gets 60 MPG

Source [Wired.com]

A 45 year old mechanic from Dorset, England, always wanted a Hummer, but not the cost of maintenance and keeping it filled with gas.

So, Andy Saunders took a 1998 Suzuki Wagon, which he called an “old people carrier”, added custom steel panels and other parts to get that special Hummer look.

Now he drives a pint-sized version of the army’s Humvee personal troop transporter at a savings. Instead of 12mpg, he says the “credit crunch Hummer” gets 60mpg.

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Capable of climbing a 407mm vertical wally, operate in up to 610mm of water and traverse a 40% slope, it won’t be available commercially. Sorry boys.

Source

The V-8 combustion engine has been replaced by a small stand-alone 4 cylinder 2.0L engine which is only connected to the 100 kW Symetron PM Synchronous generator, and not the drive system. The engine is used only generate electricity and recharge the batteries when the vehicle drives beyond its 40 mile battery range and the lithium ion batteries are spent.

Three liquid cooled lithium ion battery packs are mounted between the frame rails and can be charged with a standard 110-volt household outlet. For a quicker charging 220-volt outlets are also supported. A full charge will take between 3 and 10 hours.

This plugin hybrid drive-system was designed by Raser Technologies, but developed by FEV, Inc. But is a 100 mpg Hummer enough to change the minds of the 30,000 industry specialists, engineers and business leaders who will be attending SAE?

No gas is used up to 40 miles. At 50 miles a day, the vehicle would still get 185 miles to the gallon. For 60 it’s 100 miles per gallon and over 200 miles the miles per gallon goes down to 33.

“Our goal in exhibiting this particular vehicle is to demonstrate that electric vehicle technology is a viable solution for a variety of vehicle platforms,” said Gary Rogers, FEV, Inc. president and CEO. “Needs of consumers will continue to vary, and the Hummer range-extended electric vehicle shows that fuel economy does not necessarily mean sacrificing power and utility.”

As of yet, there has been no talk of funding but I suspect that will come up during SAE. Raser hopes to have 2,000 of these things on the road by the end of 2010. Wired.com reports that Pacific Gas & Electric has already requested two of them.

Hey, only 1,998 more to go!

Don’t forget to see this throwback, the post that put Gas 2.0 on the map: Car Hacker’s Hummer Gets 60 MPG

Source [Wired.com]

The words ‘green’ and ‘Hummer’ don’t usually occur together, except when compiling a complete list of oxymorons. But earlier today at the Saab/Hummer press conference, GM debuted it’s concept H-X Hummer, calling it the “Green Hummer”. The new model is smaller, lighter, and intended for a younger demographic, with the added capability of running on E85 ethanol. It also has an interesting modular construction that allows you to reconfigure the cab at will. Martin Walsh, General Manager of the brand, told us that the new model could get mileage in the mid-20s (although no hard numbers were available).

Ok, this isn’t exactly the 60 mpg Hummer I’ve mentioned before, but that’s a 10 mpg increase in efficiency over previous models. To be honest, it also looks a lot less like a Hummer, being smaller and sportier-more like a lunar explorer than the H2 (that’s my take). But Mr. Walsh said Hummers will continue to decrease in size as customers demand greater fuel efficiency and continue to voice environmental concerns.

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First, credit where credit’s due: GM is one of the few major public corporations (and the first I’ve seen in the auto industry) to realize that social media, and the blogosphere in particular, doesn’t take kindly to being treated like any old marketing mechanism. On-message spin doesn’t work online because bloggers are people who take pride in peering through the fog, and distilling information for their readers. Conversations on the web are not one-way, and information can’t be controlled in the ways executives are used to. They are learning that the blogosphere is never afraid to call “bullshit” when it sees it, and the possibility of instant feedback ensures that all viewpoints can be heard, immediately.

Okay, I’m being too kind. I’d guess that the vast majority of the company’s top executives still don’t understand exactly why they approved the creation of their social media unit, but at least they know they needed one. They managed to hire people who realize that success in the blogosphere is about having an honest conversation, good or bad, and that admitting mistakes builds trust with consumers. But a disconnect remains. Bob Lutz, GM’s main internal blogger, has advocated for a gas tax to help create consumer demand to force the industry to invest aggressively in breakthrough transportation technologies. That’s great, but if he can’t speak for the company, is it doing any good?

GM’s social media people hope that it will. I honestly got the sense that they really do want to help change the company’s culture from the inside. Obviously, that’s a long road. In this environment, only an honest, respectful dialogue is ever going to overcome the decades of inertia of a behemoth like GM.

Finally, with the advent of our medium, that dialogue is becoming possible in ways it never has been. One thing’s for sure: the louder and more aggressive the environmental community is in calling GM a bunch of fascists who pushed the Hummer on unsuspecting Americans, the less they’re helping their (and our) cause. They only provoke a more defensive reaction from the people at the top of the company. Despite my distaste for Hummer owners, no sane person can fault a company that answers to shareholders for responding to demand in a high-margin niche. A part of me can’t help but think that activists who try to pressure corporations into putting the planet above profit are missing the forest for the trees.

Obviously, something is seriously wrong with a system in which well-meaning people continue to create products that ignore the environmental, resource, and economic crises that lie ahead. But it’s not as if they’re acting irrationally, given the information available to them. We all work in a system that is fundamentally flawed, and if activists want things to get better, they might be better off banding together to address root causes rather than the symptoms. If every person with a “downstream” (i.e. GM- or DuPont-specific) complaint joined a national movement to advocate for public financing of elections, or changing the way corporate rights are considered under the law, we might finally be able to start addressing the fundamental tensions between activists and the business world.

As an activist who runs a business, I can say with confidence that both sides are well-meaning. No one wants a world in which our grandkids look back and scream “What were you thinking?!” So let’s start working together to create a future we can be proud of. None of us can succeed without the rest of us.

Note: GM paid for my airfare and accommodations in connection with my coverage of the event. Finally, in the spirit of honest, open dialogue, I’d like to issue a formal invitation for someone from GM to discuss with an electric vehicle activist the issue of the EV1 electric car, including the “hows” and “whys” of its history. The movie Who Killed the Electric Car? was a great way to start the conversation, but film remains a one-way medium, and I am personally interested to see a real conversation about the issue develop. Email me, and I’ll make sure it gets set up.

The V-8 combustion engine has been replaced by a small stand-alone 4 cylinder 2.0L engine which is only connected to the 100 kW Symetron PM Synchronous generator, and not the drive system. The engine is used only generate electricity and recharge the batteries when the vehicle drives beyond its 40 mile battery range and the lithium ion batteries are spent.

Three liquid cooled lithium ion battery packs are mounted between the frame rails and can be charged with a standard 110-volt household outlet. For a quicker charging 220-volt outlets are also supported. A full charge will take between 3 and 10 hours.

This plugin hybrid drive-system was designed by Raser Technologies, but developed by FEV, Inc. But is a 100 mpg Hummer enough to change the minds of the 30,000 industry specialists, engineers and business leaders who will be attending SAE?

No gas is used up to 40 miles. At 50 miles a day, the vehicle would still get 185 miles to the gallon. For 60 it’s 100 miles per gallon and over 200 miles the miles per gallon goes down to 33.

“Our goal in exhibiting this particular vehicle is to demonstrate that electric vehicle technology is a viable solution for a variety of vehicle platforms,” said Gary Rogers, FEV, Inc. president and CEO. “Needs of consumers will continue to vary, and the Hummer range-extended electric vehicle shows that fuel economy does not necessarily mean sacrificing power and utility.”

As of yet, there has been no talk of funding but I suspect that will come up during SAE. Raser hopes to have 2,000 of these things on the road by the end of 2010. Wired.com reports that Pacific Gas & Electric has already requested two of them.

Hey, only 1,998 more to go!

Don’t forget to see this throwback, the post that put Gas 2.0 on the map: Car Hacker’s Hummer Gets 60 MPG

Source [Wired.com]