Los Angeles-based fans of the Chevrolet Volt will be pleased to learn the highly anticipated extended-range electric vehicle is in Tinseltown for a few spins around the City of Angels and a whirlwind tour of activities leading up to the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show. The Volt will be popping up all over town, mingling with the stars and generally showing off to consumers and media alike. The Volt  even visited a local middle school for what could possibly be the world’s largest show-and-tell.

Unfamiliar with the Chevrolet Volt?  The Chevrolet Volt is an electric vehicle that can be charged at home overnight to run on battery power alone for shorter trips up to 40 miles, but which also benefits from a range-extending gasoline engine that kicks in to charge the batteries when additional electricity is required for longer trips. Those whose daily commute is under 40 miles roundtrip will use almost no gasoline and contribute no greenhouse gasses as a result of their driving. A full charge can be obtained from a 110-volt outlet in about six hours, or from a 220-volt outlet in as little as three hours. Regenerative brakes also help recharge the vehicle’s batteries.

Today, Monday, November 30, kicks off a series of live video webcasts, embedded below, and also available on ChevroletVoltage.com as well as the Chevrolet and Chevrolet Volt Facebook pages.

Volt started its tour with a live assembly from Harvard-Westlake Middle School this morning. There, more than 800 students and staff learned about the basics of electricity and how this common energy source can be used to transform the way we drive. Middle school teachers and students from across the country were also invited to participate in the live webcast.

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Our emphasis here at eCycleGroup is to share different perspectives on all kinds of sustainable and  eco-friendly subjects; this is the second of two stories intended to identify some pros and cons of the alternative engine choices available now and promised to come to market in the future. (Click here to read part one,  which focused on emerging automotive technologies, such as hydrogen, electric, and hybrid electric/gasoline powerplants.) Part two focuses on the variety of alternative fuels currently in production. You can find a list of that operate on these fuels by searchng at fueleconomy.gov

Diesel
Diesel is produced as a byproduct of the distillation procedure that produces gasoline. Both gasoline and diesel are produced from the same crude oil. As part of the production process, crude oil is heated, releasing different hydrocarbon compounds at different boiling temperatures. The lightest components — such as ethane and propane — evaporate first. The next components, called naphtha, are used for making gasoline. Finally, the heaviest portion of crude oil is used to make diesel fuel.

Diesel engines are known for their high strength and durability, and today’s modern diesels are typically much cleaner and more fuel efficient than their predecessors. Thanks to today’s high-tech direct injection diesel engines, the days of smelly, sooty diesel discharge are long gone.

Some diesel engines have been modified to burn biodiesel,  which is a domestically produced, renewable fuel derived from natural oils like soybean oil. Biodiesel is produced without petroleum, though it can be blended  with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. Biodiesel blends of up to 20 percent can be used in any diesel engine without requiring any modifications to the engine or the fuel system. Some specially prepped vehicles are even able to use post-consumer oil products recycled from restaurants — like old french fry cooking oil! You can find out much more at www.biodiesel.org » Read more

Our emphasis here at eCycleGroup is to share different persepectives on all kinds of sustainable and  eco-friendly subjects, so we thought it might be useful to identify some pros and cons of the alternative engine choices available now and promised to come to market in the future. There’s a lot to digest here, so we’re breaking it into two segments, with part two to follow next week.

This week, we’ll focus on emerging automotive technologies. Next week, we’ll discuss the fuels themselves.

Hydrogen:
I’ve had several opportunities to drive Chevy’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell Equinox and it offers excellent performance. If I had a couple million dollars, I would absolutely build a 700-bar Hydrogen fueling station in my neighborhood to help create one tiny piece of the infrastructure required to support this emerging technology. While Eeperts suggest urban areas should have enough Hydrogen fuel stations located close enough to each other so that users will have ready access to fuel, even building just 100 fueling stations around Los Angeles would require an investment of 200 million dollars.  And as if that’s not enough, the prohibitive cost of producing the fuel cells themselves puts the feasibility of this choice far into the future. Hydrogen-powered vehicles have been manufactured by BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, and Toyota. Can you buy one? Some are available in specialized fleets, but none are yet for sale to the general public.

Electric:
We’ve all heard about the Tesla electric car and are amazed by the performance (0 to 60 in four seconds) promised by this battery-operated sports car, but did you know that it is powered by more than 6800 lithium-ion computer batteries? Besides being incredibly expensive ($98,000) have you considered how the battery performance of your laptop degrades over time and how this is likely to transfer to the performance of that little car? And where will all those little batteries go after they lose their effectiveness? Again, this car is too expensive and impractical to be considered a viable option for the average consumer. » Read more

Be Green with AskPatty.com

As a female friendly business, AskPatty.com trains automotive dealerships and retailers to create a safe and comfortable environment where women feel welcome; these businesses are then held to a high level of customer satisfaction for their women consumers. However, AskPatty.com is also an automotive website that recognizes its responsibility to the world around us, encouraging its employees and affiliated dealers and retail businesses to continually strive to reduce their environmental impact.

AskPatty.com’s President and CEO Jody DeVere launched the BE GREEN initiative last year to help affiliated automotive dealerships and retail locations become more environmentally friendly.  As part of their training, AskPatty provides business with the information and tools they need to utilize green marketing and to highlight earth friendly vehicles in their inventory.

AskPatty developed an Earth Friendly Logo that dealers can place on any vehicles in stock that are earth friendly, allowing consumers to easily identify vehicles that qualify for the program.  How are vehicles defined as “Earth Friendly”? Under the Be Green program any vehicles that utilize hybrid gasoline/electric power plants, are powered by clean-burning natural gas, produce the lowest emissions possible thanks to PZEV and ULEV engines, or promise more than 28 miles per gallon qualify as Earth Friendly. The AskPatty BeGreen program also helps dealerships highlight vehicles that they sell that are Earth Friendly.

AskPatty.com also educates its Certified Female Friendly dealers and retail businesses on things they can do to become more environmentally friendly in their day-to-day operations, such as: » Read more

Toyota presents its third-generation Prius with this cute commercial titled “Harmony.”  In this version of Harmony, Man’s wants and Nature’s needs agree. Using the wind, sun, and advanced hybrid technology, Toyota claims the Prius balances our demand for mobility with the natural order of things. Toyota promises the new Prius is a hybrid like no other, because it is the first to benefit from three cycles of design evolution.

Check out the commercial here. Watch closely, and carefully observe all the little things that move. There’s more here than initially meets the eye!