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The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has built and demonstrated a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can fly for up to ten hours using 500 grams of liquefied hydrogen fuel. The hydrogen is the energy carrier which appears to provide electricity to an electric motor via a fuel cell. At this time, the plane is piloted from the ground using radio control, but the team says that they are close to implementing an automatic pilot system, meaning that the machine would not require any manual human intervention. There is hope from the Korean team that the machine could have a future military purpose.
I've flown radio controlled airplanes before, and I can't imagine flying one for ten hours straight! After about fifteen minutes, my neck would revolt from staring up in the sky, so I'm sure that an auto-pilot would be a welcome addition.
A lot of people hate taxes. If asked, would you rather have death or taxes, some people might need a few moments to consider the question. How much of a tax are we talking about, some people might need to ask before answering the question.
A hatred of taxes explains why you often hear people say global warming is real, and taxes are the right solution but don't raise my taxes. There is a 50 cent gas tax bill in the works now, and - I have to admit - I started thinking whether that 90 percent certainty (that humans are causing global warming) that the IPCC is talking about really isn't all that definitive. So, I thought, why not seriously consider some alternatives to the gas tax? Here are two of my favorites;
Only tax when gas prices are low. A minimum price for gas would allow energy technologies that don't make sense when competing with low gas prices to develop. It would go a long way to answering critics that say gas prices are illegally manipulated anyway. Some states already have minimum prices for ethanol. I think gas deserves that kind of treatment.
Tax gas but then give it back. Tax gas as much as you like but make the amount tax deductible. The plans vary but the gas tax could also be equal to a cut in payroll taxes, which could use some cutting. No one could complain about a gas tax then because it's not really a tax, it's more of a gas loan. The gas tax rebate has had problems because there really are no "lock boxes" in government for any taxes, and personally, I think I might drive more if I knew it meant lower taxes.
What's your favorite solution to the making gas taxes a little more palatable to a nation that started a revolution over taxes? I actually first heard about the gas tax rebate from a comment at AutoblogGreen. I would really like to hear your comments on this article. Below the fold is a video of David Brooks of the New York Times on the potential of a gas tax. David says no "living politician" would risk supporting it.
The Mitsubishi i MiEV stores energy for propulsion in a lithium ion battery pack that now has twenty to thirty percent more capacity than the last version. The battery is produced by a new joint venture company owned by GS Yuasa and Mitsubishi. With these latest cells, the i MiEV has had its range bumped from 81 miles to about 99-106 miles per charge. The battery company is not exclusive to Mitsubishi and they will make there energy storage systems available to any car-maker that's interested. Mitsubishi hopes to have a commercial launch of an electric car using these new lithium batteries by 2010.
The editors over at National Review Online believe that Republicans are drunk on ethanol. Or most of the Republicans running for president are, anyway. The one contender (sorta, at this point) that the NRO singles out as not being drunk is John McCain who claims, jokingly, to drink a glass of the stuff every morning.
NRO says that presidential candidates "discover the miraculous properties of ethanol" every four years when they visit Iowa, and that that is "a depressing ritual." AutoblogGreen wasn't around for the last presidential election, but we'll be happy to look back in 2011 and compare what's going on then with the hoopla today.
So, why does the conservative NRO not like ethanol? Because, they say, it won't solve the larger problem of ending massive imports of foreign oil, not enough cars can even use E85, and in order to make E85 more available, the government would have to mandate that gas stations sell the biofuel. "Liberal groups," NRO says, support that, but conservatives should not.
As ethanol glut brings prices down (see related links below), ethanol supporters are finding themselves in a bit of a pickle. If any of the various cellulosic ethanol plants that have recently been announced actually start cranking out cellulosic ethanol, then many of the problems that the NRO - and many others, myself included - has with ethanol will have been addressed. Until then, we can watch people all over the political spectrum making sure the public knows that ethanol is not the answer, for presidential hopefuls or anyone else
There was a big push for electric cars in the '70s because of energy concerns. There was another big push in the '90s because of a California law. The two videos below the fold are of the two iconic cars from those bygone decades: First, the triangle on wheels, aka the City Car. In a 1974 video, we get a look at the batteries, which were located directly under the seat. Second, is a video from 1990 all about the GM Impact (later renamed the EV1). The Impact videos tells the story of how Paul inspired GM to make the car. Hopefully, 10 and 30 years from today, we'll have more than old videos of the current crop of electric cars, and those that should be coming out very soon.
Over in Britain, Citroën is doing their best to draw owners of older, thirstier, CO2-spewing cars for a new low-CO2 model. To help attract customers to their showrooms they are offering up to £1,000 in cash for trade-ins on older cars. The deal applies to particular low emissions models of the C1, C2, C3, C4 and Berlingo van. Unfortunately deals like this are unlikely in the US because most of those low emissions small cars have little or no profit margin here.
So, you read our recent post about urban-biking and you want to get started. First, you'll need a bike, right? There are quite a few choices, some of which have been covered here on AutoblogGreen before (see related posts). As our recent article pointed out, many manufacturers are seeing the rising trend of city-bike riders and are developing specific models to entice those shoppers. Cannondale is one such brand, and the urban-bike that they are designing has some interesting innovation to offer. From the "righty" single-sided front fork to the folding frame design, the "ON" was designed with city dwellers in mind. This is still just a concept at this point, but expect to see something like this available in Cannondale dealers before too long.
I'm trying to figure out how Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize win (which he shared with UN climate change scientists) last week might affect the green car world. The general theme from the articles I've read on the win over the weekend (the ones that aren't rightwing hit pieces or speculations on a possible Gore 2008 presidential run) seem to agree that the value in Gore's win is that it finally moves the whole global warming/climate change/is it happening debate off to the side. Take this, for example, from today's Chicago Tribune:
Over the last year, views on climate change seem to have transformed faster than the weather itself. In almost impossibly rapid fashion, a once widely disputed theory has become a mainstream worry. There are waiting lists for hybrid cars. In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, the prize committee gave much of the credit for that shift to this year's winners...
Humans are affecting the environment, the new widespread conventional wisdom goes, this causes conflict, and people (Gore, scientists, and individuals) now know how to take action to affect it for the better. For those of us who read and write about the environment (and cars, natch) every day, this might not really seem like a big shift, but I get the feeling that there is something changing out there that's larger than what has come before. Certainly, there is a lot of distance yet to cover, but I think Gore's win is a big step forward towards getting our less eco-conscientious brothers and sisters to take a longer look at just what that hybrid premium is worth, whether biodiesel is the way to go, calculating the carbon impact of corn ethanol or - maybe - starting to save up for a Tesla WhiteStar. Or even learning for the first time what the Tesla WhiteStar is.
What does the win mean to you?
UPDATE: Ford exec says Oscar win was more important for hybrid sales. Via Automotive News (subs req'd).
So I've decided to drop my car and use a carsharing scheme. My provider, Avancar, works under a brand named Catalunya Car Sharing. This is the first service in Spain and it only covers Barcelona and some nearby towns. Plans are that the service will extend to some other Spanish cities but I'm not holding my breath for that. As I explained in my previous post, I plan to use a low-cost car rental service (Pepecar) for longer car trips.
Avancar has basically two tariffs. One is for intensive use and the other is for leisure. I'm planning to start with the cheapest one - just because my study shows that my personal usage will likely be in between both of them.
Start: 30 EUR/year of membership costs but you have to add 0.60 EUR/h to the regular tariff (6 EUR/day) Active: 80 EUR/year (or 24 EUR/trimester)
In either case, you have to pay an hourly rate and for your mileage. No hourly rate is charged when you use the car from midnight to 8 AM. The rate also changes depending on the type of car.
Detailed rates and more information on Avancar are available after the jump. Here's hoping it's the right plan for me.
New Zealand has bold plans for greening its automobile transportation. In the "Energy Strategy to 2050" report, presented by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, there are calls for major changes such as:
5 percent of cars to be plug-ins by 2020, rising to 60 percent by 2040.
25 percent of cars to be fuel cells by 2050.
25 percent of vehicle fuels to come from renewable sources by 2020, rising to 80 percent by 2050.
80 percent of New Zealand's government vehicle fleet able to run on 10 percent biofuels or electric power by 2015.
Fuel economy increased 25 percent by 2025.
These measures will halve transport green house gases emissions by 2040, and mean that New Zealand could be the first country to widely use biofuels, clean diesel and electric powered cars. They still can't beat the Vatican's claim, though.
Besides automotive interiors and batteries for hybrid vehicles, Johnson Controls is also in the business of facility management and control systems. As part of that effort, the company is partnering with Nexterra Energy of Vancouver, British Columbia. Nexterra has developed biomass gasification systems that can produce synthetic gas from a wide variety of feedstocks. The gasification systems will be installed in factories, warehouses, educational facilities and other buildings to provide heat and drive generators for electricity. The flexibility of the system allows many types of locally available materials to be used in place of fossil fuels.
New diesel-powered cars have been scarce in California in recent years due to more restrictive emissions regulations than anywhere else in the country. It looks like the drought is about to end as a Southern California Mercedes dealer has started advertising availability of the new E320 Bluetec from this coming Monday. It's not clear why Mercedes-Benz of South Bay would advertise the $53,000 diesel sedan on Craigs List, but it's there. If you are in the area this week you might want to swing buy and check it out. If the Benz is a little outside of your budget don't forget the new VW Jetta CleanTDI that's coming next March.
We've written all about Nissan's efforts to be a greener company that makes greener cars. To this end, they have created an environmental action plan called "Nissan Green Program 2010". It turns out that they've decided to invest some 90 billion yen ($783 million) into a new Research and Development center to help them meet these environmental goals. Not only will Nissan's engineers and researchers be working on making improvements to their vehicles at the Engineering Center, they have also incorporated energy saving measures into the building itself. See below:
"The Engineering Centre employs an environmentally-friendly turbo freezer that uses water as coolant for the air conditioning system, a first in Japan. With the all-new turbo-freezer system, Nissan will collect data to support further improvements to the system for wider industrial-scale applications. Other "eco-technologies" incorporated into the design of the Engineering Centre include use of crystal liquid ice thermal storage and heat recovery system (CLIS-HR), eco-glass, and a rain-water and waste-water heat recycling system to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions."
The building was officially opened on October 4th and is located within the Nissan Technical Centre (NTC) campus in Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Volkswagen is spreading the turbocharged direct-injection love to the new Audi A5 coupe. They are adding a new 1.8L TFSI engine to the new A5 which, in combination with a six-speed manual gearbox, gets a respectable 33.1 mpg (US). The new four cylinder is rated at 170 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque and will be supplanting the old 1.8L port injected turbo that has been a stalwart of Audi and VW models since the late nineties.
The Swiss Federal Material Testing and Research Institute (EMPA), in cooperation with Volkswagen and Umicore, has developed a new catalyst designed specifically for natural gas engines. The companies claim the new catalyst reduces NOx emissions by around 50 percent and it costs less because it uses fewer precious metals than existing models.
The catalyst has been tested on three vehicles. One of them, a Volkswagen Touran Ecofuel, is going to be shown at at the Zürich Car Show next month (November 1-4th). The Car Show will also feature a range of natural gas vehicles, some of which will be available for visitors to test drive on site.
A lot of people hate taxes. If asked, would you rather have death or taxes, some people might need a few moments to consider the question. How much of a tax are we talking about, some people might need to ask before answering the question. 
New Zealand has bold plans for greening its automobile transportation. In the "Energy Strategy to 2050" report, presented by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, there are 
Besides automotive interiors and batteries for hybrid vehicles, Johnson Controls is also in the business of facility management and control systems. As part of that effort, the company is partnering with Nexterra Energy of Vancouver, British Columbia. Nexterra has developed biomass gasification systems that can produce synthetic gas from a wide variety of feedstocks. The gasification systems will be installed in factories, warehouses, educational facilities and other buildings to provide heat and drive generators for electricity. The flexibility of the system allows many types of locally available materials to be used in place of fossil fuels. 
