By John Ivanko •
June 15, 2009
I’m coming to the conclusion that there’s very little that’s sustainable about the company known as GM.
It’s frustrating and sad, because I was raised in the auto city and had family members who worked in the industry. I even spent a summer at the GM Tech Center (working for then EDS as an intern at the time). I’m perplexed by the company’s name which most of us recognize only as a vehicle company. But it wasn’t always this way.
There was a time when GM was diversified, and innovative. I was amazed by the poor decision making at GM when it recalled and promptly crushed their all-electric EV1s after bringing them to market in 1996. I drove an EV1 in California; it rocked! The company used to also make refrigerators starting in the 1920s under the Frigidaire brand and airplane components during WWII (my grandfather was an engineer who worked on a few).
So when, exactly, did the General Motors Corporation stop becoming a “generalist” industrial powerhouse making motors and instead, devote all its energies to making only motors in transportation vehicles and to lesser extent, but profitable one, vehicles for the military — you know, Humvees and the like?
By Robin Shreeves •
April 6, 2009
Two years ago when we bought our Prius, my then second grader had an idea. He thought that everyone should have to give up their old cars and buy a hybrid. That, he believed, would solve the global warming problem that he was so worried about. Someone in Washington has stolen my son’s idea.
The New York Times reported last week that President Obama embraces “cash for clunkers” a government sponsored incentive program that would offer Americans cash for trading in their old, inefficient vehicles for new fuel efficient cars. The program would help both the environment and the ailing auto industry.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of the reasons that we bought our Prius was because my husband’s company was offering a $5000 bonus to anyone who bought a vehicle that got 35 miles a gallon or better at the time. There was also a tax rebate - I believe it was $1800, don’t quote me on that figure, but we didn’t know about that when we made the decision.
By Jamie Ervin •
February 24, 2009
We drive a Prius, and in case you missed the memo, we are a family of seven humans, one dog and two cats. (Disclaimer: we do have a larger vehicle for times when more than five of us are going someplace at once, which is usually once a week.)
Frequently I hear, “I’d love to have a Prius but we couldn’t fit” or “It wouldn’t be practical”. Let me tell you, I put three carseats across the backseat in ours and it works just fine. The trunk is roomy and hauls around strollers, boxes, even dogs when needed. The back seats fold down in a 60/40 split, for those times when I have a child + things to haul.
By Anthony Cefali •
February 10, 2009
We all know the economy is broken. Nobody is spending money on anything (especially if no one gets bonuses). According to UK auto statistics firm, Autodata, even hybrids have taken a sales plunge in January.
Looking at the Autodata compilation, there was a purchase surge beginning in February of 2008 which lasted until April before hybrid sales began to decline. They saw another quick increase over the summer when gas price caused a panic, and then began to teeter off as gas prices came down.
By Tetsuya Yokoyama •
January 30, 2009
Editor’s Note: This is part three of an interview Tetsuya Yokoyama recently had the opportunity to conduct with Honda R&D Chief Engineer, Mr. Yamamoto, at Eco-Products 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Yamamoto is greatly involved in the development of Honda’s hybrid technology including the upcoming 2009 Insight. Read part one here and part two here.
Honda CR-Z lightweight hybrid sports car. Photo: Honda
After talking with Mr. Yamamoto about supercapacitors, I moved on to discuss the possibility of a manual transmission on future hybrid vehicles. He said that it would not be difficult to put a manual transmission into an Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) Hybrid system.
Even though the current Civic hybrids have no option for a manual transmission, a manual transmission was offered on the first generation of that car. The reason the current Civic Hybrid has a continuously variable transmission (CVT) is to increase overall fuel efficiency by automatically letting the system choose the most efficient drive ratio.
While you could potentially get a much better fuel efficiency with a manual transmission if you practice “Ecodriving,” the efficiency would go down significantly if you choose lower gears more often or drove more aggressively.
By Dave Tyler •
January 28, 2009
Road testing at Vermont’s Green Mountain College on a pair of souped-up plug-in Toyota Prius hybrids has found the cars returning better than 100 miles per gallon in daily commuting. At times, one car topped 140 MPG.
Steven Letendre (pictured above), economics professor and research scientist at GMC, monitored the travels of his colleague James Harding as he drove a plug-in Prius nine miles each way between the college’s campus in Poultney and his home in Middletown Springs during the fall semester. Letendre said he was “amazed” by Harding’s results.
By Nick Chambers •
January 10, 2009
In a wide-ranging statement on its future, Toyota has announced that it will bring a plug-in extended range Prius to market by the end of this year, will introduce as many as ten completely new hybrids by the early 2010s, and will bring a fully electric car to market in 2012.
Irv Miller, Toyota’s Vice President of Environmental and Public Affairs, had this to say about the announcement:
“Last summer’s four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline was no anomaly. It was a brief glimpse of our future. We must address the inevitability of peak oil by developing vehicles powered by alternatives to liquid-oil fuel, as well as new concepts, like the iQ, that are lighter in weight and smaller in size. This kind of vehicle, electrified or not, is where our industry must focus its creativity.”
By Susan Kraemer •
January 2, 2009
A Massachusetts man - faced with no power in the recent ice storm, powered up the family Prius to create enough electricity to run the essentials; the fridge, the lights, the TV, the wood-stove fan to manage during the power outage, creating 17 Kilowatt hours of energy for three days.
By Alex Felsinger •
December 13, 2008
Students at San Jose State University have created a new type of hybrid—or perhaps tribrid?—that makes use of human pedal-power, solar panels, and a strong battery. They’ve dubbed the car the ZEM, or Zero EMissions Vehicle, and say it could be mass-produced for a mere $4,000.
I’m coming to the conclusion that there’s very little that’s sustainable about the company known as GM.
