You can’t really say the Toyota Camry is exciting, but this may get your pulse racing – 38.8 miles per gallon.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: · Green Test Drive, high mileage cars, Hybrids, Toyota Camry Hybrid
The Toyota Prius has evolved into t-h-e hybrid automobile since it first hit the
highways in North America in 2000, setting the standard as America’s biggest selling green car with 955,000 sold since introduction. Sometime early next year, Toyota will offer the Prius in a deeper shade of green.
Tags: · Cars, Electric Cars, Green Test Drive, green transportation, greenrightnow.com, Hybrids, Prius Plug-in
New government labels are coming for cars and they could clearly send some vehicles straight to the head of the class, while others wind up just a grade away from detention.
These new labels, developed by the U.S. Departments of Transportation and Environmental Protection, are designed to make it clearer for consumers where a car stands on the spectrums of fuel economy, carbon emissions and energy use. The idea is to help people compare vehicles across types, which can be tricky under the current system, which displays a car’s EPA-figured gas mileage on the retail sticker sheet plastered to the side window.
One new label under consideration grades the vehicle for energy use and emissions.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Tags: · Auto emissions, automobiles, car emissions, car mileage, DOT, Electric Cars, EPA, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Hybrids, mileage labels
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Not everyone can afford to pay the freight for one of those new electric cars hitting the market this year. Others may be leery of the long-term viability of hybrids. What to do if you’re driving a conventional gasoline-powered car and still want to help the environment? Maintaining your vehicle’s fuel system can improve performance, lower emissions and save you money, too.
Tags: · Car Care Council, Electric Cars, Emissions, fuel filter, fuel system, Hybrids
In an effort to house all the info about efficient vehicles in one virtual garage, the Union of Concerned Scientists has created HybridCenter.org.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Tags: · Carbon Emissions, Cars, efficiency, Gas, gas efficiency, gas mileage, Gas Prices, gasoline, green cars, hybrid cars, Hybrids, save gas, Union of Concerned Scientists
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
Popularity: 2% [?]
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 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.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: · Cash for Clunkers, cleaner cars, Department of Transportation, Fuel Efficiency, Hybrids, Sierra Club
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.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: · 5-seater, high mileage cars, Honda, Hybrids, Insight, plug-in gasoline engine, Prius, Toyota
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.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Tags: · CARS vouchers, Cash for Clunkers, diesel cars, Fuel Efficiency, high mileage cars, Hybrids, minivans, sedans, SUVs, tax credits for cars
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.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Tags: · Fisker Automotive, Hybrids, Karma, Vic Doolan
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.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: · Honda Insight, Hybrids
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.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Tags: · Hybrids, Lithium-ion battery, Mercedes-Benz, S 400 BlueHYBRID
Sustainable Florida
Barbara Kessler
Andrew Winston
Danielle Nierenberg
Anthony Swift