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Cash for Clunkers edges Americans onto greener roads
By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now
The Cash for Clunkers program, which ended this week, may have been more environmentally friendly than originally thought. The concern among environmentalists was that by tossing away old cars and buying news ones, the program encouraged a throw-away society mentality — something Americans are often accused of.
The Sierra Club, says spokesman Jesse Prentice-Dunn, initially had concerns that the bill was weak.
“Now, looking at the final stats,” he says, “consumers did buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. One thing that was very encouraging, was that more than 84 percent traded in trucks and other gas guzzlers; and 59 percent purchased cars.”
They may not have purchased hybrids, says Prentice-Dunn — the Prius was No. 7 on the list of cars purchased. However, the fact that they bought more fuel-efficient cars was important. The Sierra Club, he says, was encouraged by consumers’ choices.
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Tags: · Cash for Clunkers, cleaner cars, Department of Transportation, Fuel Efficiency, Hybrids, Sierra Club
Green Test Drive: Honda Insight delivers hybrid technology with a lower price tag
By Clint Williams
Green Right Now
Gee-whiz technology always starts out expensive. Graying boomers can remember paying $400 for a VCR. That first DVD player probably set you back $600. Now you can buy one at a grocery store for less than $40.
 The 2010 Honda Insight is no $40 DVD player, but it proves the point: costly technology eventually becomes affordable. The starting sticker price of the Insight LX, the most basic of the three trim levels available, is $19,800. The MSRP for the top-of-the-line Insight EX with navigation system is $23,100 plus $670 destination and handling fees.
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Tags: · 5-seater, high mileage cars, Honda, Hybrids, Insight, plug-in gasoline engine, Prius, Toyota
A guide to ‘Cash for Clunkers’
By Clint Williams
Green Right Now
Desperate automobile dealers are slashing sticker prices, passing on rebates and offering zero percent financing to move metal, making this a good time to buy a new car. And the good times are about to get better thanks to the federal “Cash for Clunkers” program kicking off later this month.
The Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) signed into law last month is designed to help car makers and the environment by providing vouchers of $3,500 to $4,500 toward the purchase of a new vehicle in exchange for a gas-guzzling clunker. The program essentially inflates the trade-in value of older cars and trucks, providing drivers an incentive to go ahead and buy a new, more fuel-efficient rig right now.
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Tags: · CARS vouchers, Cash for Clunkers, diesel cars, Fuel Efficiency, high mileage cars, Hybrids, minivans, sedans, SUVs, tax credits for cars
Plug-in hybrid carmaker Fisker names first dealers
From Green Right Now Reports
Fisker Automotive, the new green car manufacturer based in Irvine, Calif., announced its first North American dealers. The luxury plug-in hybrid Karma sedan is priced at $87,900 and is expected to achieve the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon.
 So far, 32 auto retailers have signed on to sell the Fisker marquee when it launches later this year. The company said its goal is to 40 locations in the U.S. and Canada by the end of June 2009.
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Tags: · Fisker Automotive, Hybrids, Karma, Vic Doolan
Honda’s new Insight goes on sale this month, priced under $20k
From Green Right Now Reports
Honda’s says the new 2010 Insight hybrid will go on sale March 2,4 and you could argue its timing is bad as fleets of hybrids are going unsold on dealer lots. But the base LX model Insight will sell for $19,800, and that might be just the right price for consumers who have rejected paying a premium for hybrids when gas is once again relatively cheap.
At today’s gas prices, experts say it would take nearly a decade for most hybrid buyers to make up the higher upfront cost of the vehicle.
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Tags: · Honda Insight, Hybrids
Slideshow: Mercedes-Benz S 400 BlueHYBRID
Mercedes-Benz is launching its first passenger car model equipped with a hybrid drive system in summer 2009 – the S 400 BlueHYBRID. The sedan will combine a modified V6 gas engine and a compact hybrid module that Mercedes-Benz says will make the S 400 BlueHYBRID, based on the S 350, the world’s most economical luxury car with a spark-ignition engine. The new S 400 BlueHYBRID is the first series-production model to be equipped with a particularly efficient lithium-ion battery specially developed for automotive use.
Photo: © 2009 Daimler AG
The new Mercedes-Benz S 400 BlueHYBRID is based on the S 350, and features an extensively modified drive train. This encompasses a further development of the 3.5-litre V6 gas engine, an additional magneto-electric motor, the 7G-TRONIC seven-speed automatic transmission specially configured for the hybrid module, the necessary operating and control electronics, the transformer and a high-voltage lithium-ion battery.
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Tags: · Hybrids, Lithium-ion battery, Mercedes-Benz, S 400 BlueHYBRID
California’s new auto emissions labels help sort out cleanest vehicles
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Just like you hunt for that Energy Star tag when examining a fridge or washer, people in California can now duck under the hood of any new 2009 model car to get an at-a-glance emissions rating.
 The Environmental Performance sticker, mandated to begin on Jan. 1 for all new model cars, will include two scores, one rating the car’s smog emissions and the other its greenhouse gas output. The air pollutants for the latter include carbon dioxide emissions, which make up the greatest volume of greenhouse gases. Gas engine cars emit nitrous oxides, methane gases, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and other emissions.
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Tags: · Air Resources Board, California, Electric Cars, Environmental Performance, Greenhouse Gases, Hybrids, smog
Hybrid-Only Parking Sparks Interest And Debate
By John DeFore
Add this to the list of “pros” when weighing the purchase of a hybrid car: It might get you a better parking spot.
More and more around the country, retailers, employers and cities are toying with the idea of setting aside prime parking spots for hybrid drivers. Just last month, the Houston Chronicle [...]
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Tags: · Austin, Gas-Guzzlers, Houston, Hybrids, Los Angeles, Seattle
Texas paying cash toward cleaner cars
August 28th, 2008 · 1 Comment
By Harriet Blake
 Residents of the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area will again get a chance to trade in their pollution-emitting old clunker for a newer, less polluting car with the help of state money.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) reports that it has about $12 million for the second year of the AirCheckTexas Drive a Clean Machine campaign, which began taking applications in mid-August.
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Tags: · Aircheck Texas, Austin, Dallas, Emissions, Houston, Hybrids, Texas
Eight Green Concept Cars To Tickle Your Imagination
By John Fadler and Keelan Tollefson
Pushed by the dwindling prospects for fossil fuels, the auto industry is undergoing changes not seen since the days of Henry Ford. Today’s innovators aren’t just looking to gear up production, they’re trying to dial back energy use, and that’s produced a bumper crop of wild and wacky (and some not so wacky) concept cars.
Here are eight of our favorites:
It would cost less to manufacture (and buy), less to maintain, less to fuel and there would be no emissions.  The makers of this car, Air Car Factories, are either on drugs or they’ve seized the Holy Grail. Their car would run on compressed air collected by see-saw devices on the road. Each car would be refueled through regenerative driving. The Barcelona-based company expects to begin with electric models, until testing is completed on the Air Car. A green dream? We hope it’s a reality.
That’s right. This is a car designed by a shoe maker. It doesn’t much look like a shoe. More like…nothing you’ve seen before. The car is intended to be “athletic.” No joke. “An athlete training to drive the Nike ONE uses a physical resistance simulator, that mimics the vehicle’s controls, along with the digital simulation within GT4 to train their muscles and mind for specific tracks and competition scenarios,” explains Phil Frank, lead designer, who said his team was inspired by the principals of Nike founder Bill Bowerman. The long term plan is that any movement by the driver would be converted into electricity through nanotechnology using a “Spark Suit.” Frank calls it “the ultimate in convergent technologies.” We agree.
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Tags: · Air Car, Chevy Volt, concept cars, GM, Honda, Hybrids, Hydrogen, Nike ONE, Nissan, Saab, Toyota
A Tax Tonic For Hybrid Shoppers
By Barbara Kessler
If you’ve been considering diving into the hybrid car market, the 2008 model year will tempt you as never before, especially if you still want or need a multiple seat vehicle. Toyota’s top-selling SUV hybrid, the Highlander, has gotten a redesign for 2008. Ditto the Ford Escape Hybrid. Also coming in 2008: [...]
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Tags: · Hybrids
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