You reach a certain age when it seems the only surprises are bad surprises. The 2012 Kia Optima Hybrid is a rare happy surprise. The rise of Korean automobile makers is an oft-told tale – cheap lemons to top-notch serious competition for the likes of Toyota and Honda. The 2012 Kia Optima isn’t your father’s Kia. Heck, it isn’t even your big brother’s Kia.
Tags: · Clint Williams, Fuel Efficiency, Green Test Drive, high mileage cars, hybrid cars, Kia Optima Hybrid, Kia sedans
From Green Right Now Reports
Even though only about 2,000 of GM’s electric Volt have been sold so far, the company sees a charged market ahead for the newly introduced vehicle, if it can ramp up production to meet consumer desire for the Volt.
To that end, the company will be closing the Volt factory next month to retool.
General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant will close for four weeks starting in June for upgrades that will help speed the rate of Volt production, GM reports. The decision to shut down production, so it can be speeded up later, comes in response to “tremendous consumer demand” for the Volt, said spokeswoman Christi Landy.
The re-tooling also will assist the assembly of the 2013 Chevy Malibu.
Tags: · Electric Cars, GM, greenrightnow.com, hybrid cars, Opel Ampera, Volt
Let’s face it, some of what passes as green living feels like self-deprivation – tinkering with the thermostat so that you’re uncomfortable no matter the season, taking cold showers, riding the buses that fail to connect.
Lexus CT 200h, better than 40 mpg, and many perks.
Happily, the 2011 Lexus CT 200h turns that notion on its head. This odd-looking hatchback offers stunning fuel efficiency with a modicum of luxury. It’s a comfortable way to reduce your carbon footprint.
Tags: · greenrightnow.com, high mileage cars, hybrid cars, Lexus CT 200h, luxury hybrids
The road ahead looks welcoming for green automobiles, according to an Autobytel.com survey of potential car buyers.
More than half (about 57 percent) of those responding to the mid-summer survey of 2,000 people reported they were either definitely, likely or possibly going to buy a green car in the next year.
Tags: · Autobytel.com, car emissions, environmentally friendly cars, greener cars, high milage cars, hybrid cars
By Melissa Segrest Green Right Now Honda is trying to step up its game in the race to create greener cars, announcing today that it will begin selling an electric car in 2012. The company hasn’t provided details about how the car’s battery would operate, although it said the vehicles would be “commuter” cars (which [...]
Tags: · battery-electric car, electric car, Honda battery-electric car, Honda electric car, Honda electric car 2012, Honda plug-in hybrid, hybrid cars, plug-in hybrid cars
In an effort to house all the info about efficient vehicles in one virtual garage, the Union of Concerned Scientists has created HybridCenter.org.
Tags: · Carbon Emissions, Cars, efficiency, Gas, gas efficiency, gas mileage, Gas Prices, gasoline, green cars, hybrid cars, Hybrids, save gas, Union of Concerned Scientists
BP officials are at their least appealing when pushing off responsibility for the oil spill onto the oil-consuming public. We caught a whiff of this attitude during their May testimony to Congress.
“Tragic and unforeseen as this event was, we must not lose sight of the reason that BP and other oil energy companies are operating offshore, including in the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf provides one in four barrels of oil produced in the U.S. – a resource our economy requires,’’ said BP President and Chairman Lamar McKay, testifying to to the Senate.
Tags: · BarbaraKesslerBlog, bike, BP blame, BP officials, BP oil spill, carpooling, drive less, getting off oil, Gulf of Mexico, hybrid cars, Lamar McKay, petroleum in packaging, petroleum in personal care products, save gasoline, telecommuting, use less oil, walk
By Bill Sullivan
Green Right Now
The electric car is almost here. Hybrids abound. Diesel has cleaned up its act. Even conventional internal combustion engines can be tweaked to do a bit less harm to the environment.
A brighter, cleaner future is a mantra at the auto shows this year. Scratch beneath the surface, however, and a different sort of impression emerges: Change may be coming to the automobile industry, but progress is slow — even grudging — and the message can be murky.
Chevy Volt. Photo: Green Right Now
Chevy has been hyping the much-discussed Volt, for example. The manufacturer’s new electric car – due later this year – can go up to 40 miles on a single charge before a gasoline engine kicks in to keep passengers from becoming stranded.
Tags: · 2010 model cars, Chevy Cruze, Chevy Volt, Electric Cars, Ford Fiesta, Ford Fusion, Fuel-efficient cars, high mileage cars, Honda CR-Z, Honda Insight, hybrid cars, Mazda2, Mitsubishi iMiEV, Toyota Prius, Volkswagen Golf TDI, Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen TDI
By Bill Sullivan
Green Right Now
The German government hopes to get one million electric cars on the road by 2020, offering incentives for BMW and Volkswagen to get behind the push. France aims to have twice that many in operation by that same year. Carlos Ghosn, who heads up Nissan and Renault, expects 10 percent of the world’s automobiles to run on electricity before the end of the next decade.
Wait, wait, waiting for the Volt, shown here on a pre-production test drive
Tags: · cars in 2020, Chevy Volt, Electric Cars, Electric vehicles, Honda Insight, hybrid cars, Hybrids, lithium batteries for cars, lithium battery drawbacks, lower emissions cars, Model S, Nissan LEAF, Tesla, Tesla Motors
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
The latest Harris Poll on green behavior in America is a good news/bad news story.
The good news: Most people have done something that’s green, by recycling a computer or cell phone; switching to tap water from bottled; made their home more energy efficient in some way.
The bad news: Only a tiny fraction of US residents (2 percent) own hybrid cars and vast numbers of people have not “engaged” in most of the green activities the survey asked about, like for example composting (only 17 percent do), walking or biking to work (15 percent), or even getting a low flow shower head (17 percent).
Tags: · appliances, buying local, buying organic, carpooling, CFL lightbulbs, Composting, energy efficient appliances, energy improvements, green actions, green Americans, Harris Poll, hybrid cars, low flow showerheads, online bills, Recycle & Reuse, reusing, Tap Water
By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
Before the recession put a stranglehold on most every investment, clean technology was hot. Nearly 80 percent of all the venture capital spent in 2008 went to clean, green investments. The industries slumped for much of 2009, but now investors are returning to clean industries.
Regular Americans are curious about these clean tech companies, too, and they’re asking their financial advisers about them, according to one survey.
What is clean tech? It refers to technologies made without generating significant pollution, which produce products that can replace non-renewable energy sources, like oil, and make us more energy-efficient. Think solar cells and wind-generated power, hybrid or electric cars, green buildings, desalinated water and a “smart grid” that will help businesses and home owners to connect with new sources of power, like wind farms and giant desert photovoltaic installation
Tags: · Biofuels, Clean Edge, Cleantech Group, Electric Cars, green investment, green lighting, Green Tech Media, Greentech Media, hybrid cars, Morningstar, Solar Power, Wind Power, Winslow Management
By John DeFore
Green Right Now
Whatever you drive (or don’t) at home, traveling to a city with poor public transport can put you at the mercy of either taxis whose efficiency may not have been state-of-the-art since the ’80s or rental cars chosen for popularity and price instead of their MPG rating.
The rental firm Enterprise, mindful of current trends, has just announced it is adding about 5,000 hybrid autos to its rental fleet — cars customers can have set aside for them in advance either online or over the phone.
Tags: · Enterprise, Ford Escape, hybrid cars, Nissan Almtima, rental cars, Toyota Camry, Toyota Prius
Barbara Kessler
Andrew Winston
Danielle Nierenberg
Anthony Swift