The Honda Accord Shakes the Hybrid, While Prius Sales Leap Ahead

With the rest of the automotive world talking hybrids, Honda is now saying what is old is new again. After some quiet time in R&D Honda is coming out with a new diesel engine for their Honda Accord in 2008. That diesel will be supplanting the Accord hybrid. With projected fuel consumption estimated to reach 50-60mpg it might seem a legitimate option as Americans seek out ways to decrease their carbon output and decrease their gas expense, but it does fly against the popular trend of hybrids in the market place. A pretty bold move by Honda as the Toyota Prius moved up to being the 6th most sold passenger car in the US for the month of May.

This year the Toyota Prius hit 10 years old, and to celebrate its birthday Toyota has record numbers of them hitting the dealerships. It used to be you had to pre-order your Prius sight unseen and hope for an early delivery. Today you can actually head to a dealership and put your hands on one. And as the tax incentive on the Prius dwindles Toyota has started to chip in some of their own marketing money with a $2000 rebate.

 It will take a few years yet to see which company is betting on the right technology, if there is a right or wrong here. Maybe the most important thing is that the major automakers of the world are finally putting some real money into fuel efficient vehicles instead of engineered behemoths. Now if only one of these major corporations would put out a supercharged diesel sports car with 400-hp that gets 40mpg.

…Ahhh. Dream a little dream.

 Source[hybrid cars]
Source[AutoBlog]

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Aston Martin DBRS9 Wins Race on Bio-Fuel

For the first time in British racing history a bio-fueled race car runs away with the checkered flag. The Aston Martin DBRS9 driven by Lord Drayson and Johnny Cocker is the first bold statement to stab back at those critics of bio-fuels who claim a large loss in a cars performance with alternative fuels.

If memory serves me correct the first fuel-injected cars in the US were available in the 1950’s, and yet they did not see market wide useage until the 1980’s. Is that to say that automotive technologies take time to develope? ..Crazy talk!
So why do the critics of todays bio-fuels attempt to automatically condemn the use and research those bio-fuels are receiving today? The automotive market could absolutely stand a shake-up in the way cars are being produced today as bigger, faster and hungrier. And it is not as though the internal-combustion engine will be scrapped in the next 10 years when Hydrogen might be more prevelant beneath the hood of new cars.

Lord Drayson may have summed it up best: “This is not a one off, the car has been competitive all season, taking two pole positions and it now leads the championship. It goes to prove that running a car on bio-fuel doesn’t mean any compromise in performance. I hope we can get this message across to motorists everywhere.”

Source[newspress.co.uk]

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Alternative Fuels in Demand; E85 Where are You?

With the demand of alternative fuels on the rise and a national desire to reduce our dependence on foreign oil why is the market still limping forward in making the available alternatives accessible? The flex fuel mixture of E85 has been around for over a decade and yet few states outside of the mid-west have more than 20 stations that carry it. On the West Coast that number drops down to fewer than 10 stations that sell E85.

Those numbers are provided by fueleconomy.com where you can find local filling stations in each state that provide the E85 ethanol fuel option at the pump. As more Flex Fuel vehicles are built in the next year the number of filling stations that carry E85 should increase, assuming that the supply remains available. In the meantime though the only two states that are showing a readily available supply are Illinois and Minnesota. And for both states that supply alternative received state and local government support.

As more ethanol refinaries begin production in the coming years and more farms turn to growing the crops necessary to produce ethanol Flex Fuels like E85 should become more readily available. In the meantime, if you have a Flex Fuel vehicle or are contemplating the purchase of one, go to www.fueleconomy.com and search for the E85 station nearest you.

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Clearly, being eco-friendly has become more of a necessity nowadays because ...

A recent study by JATO Dynamics showed that average U.S. market cars release 85% more carbon dioxide (CO2) and incinerate twice as much fuel compared to Japanese and European market cars. The study also proved that Japanese and European vehicles are fast becoming environment-friendly.

In France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, the average emission of CO2 for all new cars in all categories (SUVs included) is 3.26 tons/year (since the beginning of 2008) based on 12,000 miles/year. While in Japan, the average emission of CO2 is 3.10 tons/year. In the U.S., the average CO2 emission for new cars is a surprising 5.77 tons/year.

When it comes to consumption of fuel, the study found that cars, minivans, and SUVs in the U.S. market consume 10.6 lt/100 km. While European cars consume 5.83 lt/ 100km and Japanese cars consume only 5.79 lt/100km. I suppose American drivers should counter this by reading up on some fuel efficiency tips.

Note that the European CO2 results are affected by the big proportion of compact cars and diesel engines, and the Japanese CO2 average is affected by the large proportion of minicars. While SUVs make up 30% of the total U.S. new car market.

Another factor is the strict CO2-based taxation enforced throughout Europe, which hasn’t been adapted in the U.S. Also, the higher gas prices in Europe also affect the results of the study.

If the U.S. will enforce the fuel-consumption-based taxation on new vehicles and if the gas prices will rise to the same levels as those in Europe, then American will be forced to buy compact-sized cars which emit less CO2 and consumes less gas.

Clearly, being eco-friendly has become more of a necessity nowadays because it not only affects the consumers’ financial stability but also the environment.

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