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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With gas prices continually in flux, interest in domestically produced bio-fuels like ethanol (E85) is on the rise. These flex fuels have been gaining popularity not only for their lower cost, but also their lessened impact on the environment. Flex Fuel vehicles that can run on gas, E85 or a combination of both, are already available from Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, and GMC.

Helping to lessen the impact on the environment even more, Coskata Inc., a leading developer of alternative bio-fuels, has just announced the successful start-up of “Project Lighthouse” its semi-commercial flex-ethanol facility. We first heard of Coskata when General Motors announced their partnership with the energy company at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. It’s a suitable partnership, since General Motors has built 5 million of these Flex Fuel vehicles to date, and has committed to making 50 percent of its fleet Flex Fuel compatible by 2012.

Unlike other technologies and facilities that often rely on one primary source of feedstock, the company’s flexible ethanol facility will be producing ethanol from numerous sources, including wood biomass, agricultural waste, construction waste, and even household garbage.  They expect to produce about 100 gallons of ethanol per dry ton of biomass material. That’s energy out of trash, people! » Read more

Do you change your car’s motor oil? If so, you’re considered a do-it-yourself (DIY) oil changer! According to the American Petroleum Institute, more than 50 percent of all motorists fall into this category. DIY oil changers generate approximately a quarter of all used motor oil that has the potential to be reused or recycled: that’s about 150 million gallons of used motor oil each year!

When you change your own oil, you take responsibility for properly disposing of your used oil, too. Mobil oil wants to help you with that: Just enter your postal zip code here to find the location of the oil recycling or disposal facility nearest you.

With business activities in some 200 countries and territories across six continents, ExxonMobil realizes the potential environmental impact of its operations and desires to maintain the highest standards for environmental stewardship. Because Exxon/Mobil believes protecting the environment is everyone’s responsibility, the company has joined with Earth 911, www.earth911.org a nonprofit network that provides access to local environmental programs in the United States and parts of Canada, to make it easier for consumers to properly dispose of their used motor oil. » Read more

An estimated 250 million registered vehicles drive more than 6 billion miles on America’s roadways, every day: how cool would it be if companies could generate electricity every time one of those vehicles pulled into their parking lot or rolled through their drive-up convenience window?

New Energy Technologies, Inc. a next-generation alternative and renewable energy developer, has created a system that does just that with its MotionPower technology for generating electricity from the motion of slowing cars and light trucks. It recently underwent durability testing at a Burger King in Hillside, New Jersey, throughout the busy Labor Day weekend

It looks just like a flattened speed bump with long levers across the top that press down when tires roll over them. That force turns gears inside, generating 2000 watts of electricity instantaneously, say the engineers who designed it. Watch a demo of it here at www.newenergytechnologiesinc.com

Designed as a roadway-based system for installation where vehicles are already required to decelerate or stop, MotionPower technology assists vehicles in slowing down, and in the process of doing so, captures the slowing vehicles’ motion (kinetic) energy before it is lost as brake heat, and creatively converts that energy into clean, ‘green’ electricity.

As millions of vehicles slow or come to a stop at toll plazas, rest areas, residential traffic slowing areas, drive-thrus, and countless other roadway points, their original motion energy, derived from the burning of fossil fuels, is dissipated into the brakes and lost as heat to the environment. I’m thinking that such systems could be even more functional than those speed humps meant to slow down speeding drivers in residential neighborhoods. » Read more

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

The Century Council has been sending out an innovative eCard for the Fourth of July holiday that reminds people to stay safe this Independence Day and not drive drunk. Click below to start the video, or you can also view the eCard here at The Century Council.

I first learned about The Century Council and its efforts to stop underage drinking when I posted a story for AskPatty.com reporting on the organization’s support of Brandon Silveria and his “Make the Right Choice“  Program. The Century Council is a national not-for-profit organization funded by distillers dedicated to fighting drunk driving and underage drinking; through educational efforts such as the Silveria lecture and video program, The Century Council educates students across the country about the hazards of underage drinking and driving.

The special Fourth of July eCard demonstrates some activities that might happen on a typical Fourth of July holiday – a burger flips on a grill, a flag waves, somebody tosses a horseshoe. But it ends with images of what happens when someone has too much to drink, gets in their car, and puts lives in danger. It all happens in the blink of an eye, and then?

Forty years ago, my own mother was killed by a drunk driver. She was the first car off a green light when the other car sped through a red light and tee-boned her car, killing her instantly, leaving my father a widow and her four children without their mother. I was barely four years old, but my siblings were old enough that they have memories of the policeman coming to our home to tell us the bad news. They remember her funeral, though have no memories of the event, or any of my mother who was taken away before she was even 30 years old.

I hope this eCard will serve as a reminder to all my readers to stay safe this Fourth of July and NEVER drive drunk. If you click on the link to view the eCard at the Century Council,  it will also allow you to send the eCard to a friend, and even post it to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

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!