Author: Christopher DeMorro

As many of you know, I dig racing. I’ve already dedicated several posts to efforts being made by the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) to promote a greener image when it comes to auto racing and to highlight the efforts being made in the racing world to develop green technology. While many people might dismiss the notion of production car-based racing as green, the fact is that many major manufacturers use racing as a test bed for new technologies, both performance oriented and otherwise, that eventually find their way into dealerships.

Last Friday, the ALMS announced a five member “Green Dream Team” made up of five racers from the ALMS. These five men will serve as ambassadors towards a greener racing series. Bob Dickinson, Vice President of Public Relations/Media Service, reached out and clarified for me what these ambassadors will do, and how the ALMS is looking towards a greener, and faster, future.

(more…)

Summer is right around the corner once again, and with warmer weather comes higher gas prices. It is already $3 a gallon in many places in the U.S., and our demand for gas has already set a record for the month of March. Still, even at $4 a gallon, America pays less per gallon of gas than many European countries. One need only look at our proper cousins across the pond to see some truly terrifying gas prices.

Prices in the United Kingdom recently topped $7.00 a gallon (about $1.90 per liter), not because of lack of supply or the cost per barrel going up… but because of taxes. And frankly, it seems like drivers in the UK are fed up as they plan to protest and block gas stations across the country.

I respect civil disobedience if it gets the point across. It sounds like UK drivers are trying to do just that by foregoing the purchase of petrol on May 1st to protest new gas taxes signed off by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. These new taxes have made it so the government collects $4.42 on every gallon of gas sold. I know that taxes are an effective way of reducing ones carbon output, and that the most dramatic way to get people to change their habits is to hit them in the wallet. But at a time when the global economy is still recovering, and many people are struggling to find employment, $7 a gallon for gas is… well, it is a lot.

(more…)

My father surprised me the other night when he told me how much he loves the Fiat 500. Strange words from the man who has pretty much lived in a pickup truck for the past two decades. He is in good company though, as the Fiat 500 is one of the best selling cars in Europe. And Fiat is betting the car will sell well here in America too.

As part of its strategic alliance with Chrysler, Fiat is going to start building the 500 in Mexico, and selling them in North America. It will be the first Fiat to be sold in America in decades, and it could one day be offered with four doors… just for us!

(more…)

Cars catch a lot of flak for pollution, but they are not the only source of manmade greenhouse gas emissions by a long shot — cargo ships, airplanes, trains, even cows and industrial farming make the list too. Many of the same technologies that are being tried out to improve auto emissions may also be used on other forms of transportation.

Large cargo boats are amongst the dirtiest polluters and, considering much of the world’s populations lives along the coasts, they can have a mighty detrimental effect on the health of the population. In light of this, the California Air Resource Board (CARB) is soliciting a proposal for a grant for up to $1 million to hybridize current marine vessels.

(more…)

If you’ve been reading Gas 2.0 for awhile now, you probably know I am a big Jeep fan. I like my Wrangler for its versatility and reliability. It is also a great conversation starter, because it seems like every other vehicle I see is a Wrangler (what else might you expect from a farm town). My Wrangler gets terrible gas mileage though, and I have secretly longed for a diesel engine or even an electric motor.

The Ecos Fun! is not a Wrangler. Nor does it appear very versatile, seeming more like a glorified golf kart. But Ecos claims the Fun! has a 100 mile range and a top speed of 70 mph, all starting at $24,995 — very reasonable if you ask me. And it sorta looks like a Jeep.

(more…)

If you do not learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it. Looking back over the last 120 years, one can see many false starts for the electric car industry. Some of the very first horseless carriages were electric vehicles, and automakers have been teasing us with images of a future propelled by electric cars even during the muscle car movement. The closest we ever came was the EV1 program, which fizzled and failed after a few years. So how do we make sure that this time it sticks?

The energy policy committee at last week’s SAE World Congress mulled over this issue. Their conclusion is that electric vehicles still need significant support before they can stand on their own merits, or the switch from gas to electric vehicles could stall before it ever really gets started.

(more…)

We all have bad habits that we would be better off without. But breaking a bad habit isn’t easy, and we are often more likely to fall right back into that habit rather than quit cold turkey. Our oil addiction seems to be an especially difficult habit to break.

The month of March saw record production for U.S. refineries, putting out an average of 9.3 million barrels of gas every day. That isn’t even half of our daily demand. Demand is up too, even though gas is hovering around $3 a gallon already. And it isn’t even summer yet.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, total gas deliveries were up 3.5 percent over a year ago. 9.2 million barrels of domestically-produced oil were “delivered”, which I assume means they were also used. That is close to the record of 9.6 million barrels delivered in July of 2007… you know, when everyone still had money to spend on Hummers and McMansions. But I suppose looking on the positive side of things, more oil use means more people are out and about, which means maybe the economy really is on the road to recovery. But $4 a gallon gas could easily send us spiraling back into a trouble.

(more…)

I don’t have much experience with bicycles to be honest. Like most little kids, I had my fair share of bikes, and I enjoyed pedaling around. But living on a major road in the middle of nowhere, pedaling around in a circle in my backyard eventually got boring. Yet, I imagine if I was forced to live in the city, I’d be biking a whole lot more.

Due to the generally higher concentration of people in Europe, many European cities have already implemented bike sharing programs, but the idea hasn’t really caught on in the U.S. yet. Could things be changing? On Earth Day, B-Cycle is opening what they claim is the U.S.’s first city-wide bike sharing program in Denver, Colorado.

(more…)

GM has said from the beginning that the powertrain underpinning the Chevy Volt would eventually be used in other vehicles. Naturally, I assumed they meant that there would be a bigger, and smaller version of the Volt as a car. But I hadn’t given much thought to the idea of a Volt… minivan.

But if you stop and think about it, the idea makes sense. Minivans are often used for local outings to bring the kids to soccer practices, but are also suitable for long haul drivers where good gas mileage matters. So I’m really not surprised to see these patent filings from Chevy for a Volt MPV.

(more…)

I’m not a huge fan of Daimler’s ‘other’ brand. Smart cars just look so… small and awkward. But, before you hate on me, I do realize that they are relatively affordable, sip fuel, and remarkably safe for their size. Just… they’re not for me. Seems a boatload of other people agree as Smart sales have been plunging off a cliff lately for who-knows-what reason.

Daimler, who owns Smart, has big plans for the small brand of cars though, and those plans include a strategic alliance with Renault-Nissan. Apparently they’ll be resurrecting the four-person ForFour model (they really need better names) and adding diesel, hybrid, and fully electric drive systems to their vehicles. Smart 2.0 sounds like it might have a chance.

(more…)

While frowned upon by many in my home state of Connecticut, off-roading is nevertheless a prevalent past time in a state filled with farms, forest, and Fortune 500 CEO’s. In fact, for such a politically liberal state, there are a surprising number of Hummers (though far more Priuses). While mostly reserved for commuting, every now and then I’ve seen a Hummer tearing it up off-road.

Still, there is a part of me that winces everytime I see the mud flying and the engines revving. It is bad for the environment, and off-roading definately breeds a disregard for nature. It is still fun, but if there was a better way to do it, I would be all over it. Raser Tech’s plug-in hybrid Hummer might just be that better way.

(more…)

I love the Transformers; but not the terrible, loud, and innuendo-laced Micheal Bay version. I’m talking old school 80’s toys made popular by the Transformers cartoon. Those guys were awesome, though I was always disappointed when the Decepticons were defeated, not because the Autobots were better, but because Megatron was an inept leader at best.

Someone in the military must be a fan of Transformers too. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has revealed plans for an all-terrain wheeled vehicle that can transform into an airplane and go as far as 250 miles on a tank of gas. Awesome.

The military has a history of hair-brained defense schemes, but this sounds like one that might actually make it to production one day. The design calls for a VTOL, or Vertical Take Off and Landing vehicle, sort of like the Osprey pictured to the left. It would also be about the size of two Hummers parked bumper-to-bumper with a price limitation of $43 million. So far, so good, right?

(more…)

I love turbochargers. While superchargers hold a special place in my heart, the efficiency and sheer amount of power a well-made turbocharger system can produce really tickles my fancy. That is one of the reasons I love Ford’s new line of EcoBoost turbocharged engines.

The Blue Oval announced on Tuesday that it would be adding the EcoBoost engine to four more vehicles in the near future, including the Edge, F-150, and yet-to-be-unveiled 2011 Explorer. It was also announced today that next generation EcoBoost engines would have an improved Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system to boost fuel efficiency.

(more…)

One of the major contributors to poor gas mileage is the heavy weight of many conventional cars. Even the lightest cars, such as the Mazda Miata, weigh over a ton. This makes converting a conventional car to electric power especially daunting, as many available electric motors simply don’t make as much power as petrol engines. While you can slap a supercharger on a low-displacement petrol engine, there is no such easy fix for electric cars.

Tokyo-based Teijin has unveiled a lightweight electric city vehicle made from composite materials. So is this just a pipe dream project, or something that might one day see production?

(more…)

Ah Ireland. The Emerald Isle is home to one of my favorite stouts, Guinness, and it has a very long and interesting history — both bloody and scientific. They also make great whiskey. But one thing I’ve never associated with Ireland was cars. That may soon change, however, as the Irish government has announced some big moves regarding electric cars.

In order to ease the transition to more expensive electric cars, the Irish government is offering a grant of 5,000 euros (about $6,800) to anybody who buys an electric car, and an infrastructure of 3,500 charging points nationwide by December of 2011.

(more…)

Many of us have often dreamed of traveling the world one way or another. I usually dreamed about it during math class. But say you’re someone who takes the environment and your carbon footprint into consideration. How would you cross the globe without creating a huge footprint from all the flying, staying in hotels, and eating out all the time?

You could do what Jay Shapiro and his family are doing: build an “EcoRoamer.” This massive truck is a self-contained house with a Caterpillar biodiesel engine, solar panels, water purification, and accommodations for four. Jay is embarking on an epic journey that will take him across five continents and tens of thousands of miles on the vacation of a lifetime.

(more…)

While we tend to focus on the needs of the American motor public here on Gas 2.0, the fact of the matter is there are two huge countries who are going to dominate the transportation equation in coming decades. I am referring of course to India and China. GM and Ford both already have their toes in the Chinese waters, posting impressive sales gains. But India is dominated by microcars and Tata, the largest domestic Indian automaker. GM and Ford need something big to break into the market… and by that I mean something very small.

To this end, GM is planning on introducing an all-electric version of its Spark — which will be coming to the US as a gas-powered car — to select Indian markets. But will the fiscally frugal country spend the extra rupees for an electric car?

(more…)