BendGovernment

35 mpg CAFE into law? 86 mpg Honda Insight..No problemo!

December 19, 2007
Now it's pen-on-paper official:

Let's just be thankful that the 35 mpg standard survived all the backing down. And the Detroit News mentions this: **a measure in the bill that will provide at least $90 million annually for battery research to make plug-in hybrids a reality.**

Somehow I thought the PHEV money had been stricken. Hey, it's nice to be wrong. While the 35 mpg number won't kick in until 2020, the bill mandates changes starting with the 2011 model year. My, that's soon.
========== AutoblogGreen.com

PHEVs are a reality, only not in large scale production yet. There is a thriving business in converting the Prius and other makes from hybrid to PHEV. = TG

Labels: auto, Bush, CAFE, hybrid, hybrids, law, mpg, President Bush, sign

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez says he wants to send oil to $200 a barrel. Robert Zubrin has a plan to stop him. In his just released book, Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil,


The clever Saudis are the most lethal enemy of our Western free world. Osama was / is a Saudi. 1999 oil income approx 4 Billion$…2007 oil income 800 Billion$. The Saudis finance madrasses world wide where hungry young men are offered regular meals along with anti-western brain washing.

Robert Zubrin correctly suggests a stroke of the pen in USA congress that will limit oil price gouging. There is NO shortage.
================== Expert and Author: of Energy Victory.

In a nutshell, his proposal is this: that the American congress should pass a law mandating that all new cars sold in the United States be flex-fueled, which is to say able to run on any combination of gasoline or alcohol fuels. Flex fuel is proven technology which only adds a few hundred dollars to the cost of a car.

[ In 2008/09, 100% of all new cars sold in Brazil will be 100% Flex fuel.= TG]

In 2007, roughly 90 percent of all cars sold in Brazil were flex-fueled, but outside of that country, their market share was quite low - comprising about 3 percent of US auto sales, for example. However, as Zubrin argues convincingly, if it were mandated that every new car sold in the USA had to be flex fueled as a standard feature, then practically every auto manufacturer in the world would be forced to switch their lines over to flex fuel.

[ If you own a Flex fuel vehicle you have a choice. Gas at $1.05 -litre or E85 or M85 at 49 cents per litre. If the Saudis / Opec lower gas prices to compete, you can revert to gasoline anytime the price is below biofuel prices.= TG]

Thus the effect of a US flex fuel mandate would be global, and within a few years, put hundreds of millions of cars on the road worldwide capable of running indifferently on either methanol, ethanol, or gasoline.

With such a market available, alcohol fuel pumps and associated infrastructure would quickly appear, and the vertical monopoly that the oil cartel holds on the world's vehicular fuel supply would be broken, as gasoline would be forced to compete everywhere against alcohol produced from multiple sources, including biomass, coal, stranded natural gas, recycled urban trash, and so forth.


To be sure, such a development would not quite destroy OPEC. Alcohol fuels are only competitive against oil when the price exceeds about $50 per barrel. So in a free market, the best Zubrin's plan could accomplish would be to send oil prices back down to that level. Still, in the face of current oil prices of $100 per barrel, and much worse potentially in the offing, forcing the price back to $50/bbl and containing it at that level would certainly be an enormous accomplishment.

[Hugo Chavez is suggesting Opec pricing go to $200 per barrel. ]

Which brings us to Zubrin's idealism. He doesn't just want to take away the Saudi's treasure. He wants to use it to end world poverty. He says: **Instead of financing terrorism, our energy dollars could be used to fund world development. Instead of selling blocks of our media to Saudi princes, we could be selling tractors to Africa. Instead of paying for death, we could be helping to spread life. Instead of buying arms for our enemies and chains for ourselves, we could be building a world of prosperity and freedom.**

http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/The_Plan_To_Destroy_OPEC_999.html
====================
As Zubrin puts it: **So the crux of the matter comes down to this: Do we want to win or lose? The issue at stake in energy security is not a matter of whether the price of gasoline will be $2 per gallon or $3 per gallon; it is who will determine the human future. Do we want to have the enemy's fate in our hands, or do we want to have ours in theirs?**

[BTW… gasoline in the UK sells for about $8 a gallon.. ]

Laos harvests sweet yams for bio fuels. China has been ramping up production. Brazil learned the lesson of 1972/73. North America*s and UK*s ExxonMobile, Chevron, Shell, BP and all are in bed with the devil.. Too bad for us. = TG

Labels: energy, flex-fuels, Hugo Chavez, hybrid, oil, Opec, terrorism

This is a Nissan AltimaAV

Major city mayors are doing things concrete to make a clear air difference in places like Mexico city and New york .. ..

** I had the good fortune earlier this month to share the podium in Mexico City with Mayor Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon when he committed his city (the third most populated one on the planet) to a major initiative of battery EV use by the municipal government. The program will shortly expand to taxi cabs and the hybridization of transit buses.

The following week in New York, Mayor Ebrard joined peers from the 40 largest cities in the world to discuss their efforts to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg used that occasion to announce his city's plans to convert the entire 13,000 vehicle fleet of yellow cabs to hybrid vehicles over the next five years.
Brian Wynne
President
ElectricDrive.org
================EDTA

Looks like progress to me. = TG

Labels: battery, buses, electric, EV, EVs, hybrid, hybrid buses, hybrids, taxi cabs

This is the interesting end part of a CBC article about the woes of American auto makers and future plans.

cbc.ca/news/background/autos/bigthree.html

Will GM and Ford be able to turn it around? The automakers, of course, say yes. Analysts say they'll need to chop vehicles, models or brands that are unprofitable (much as GM announced the phase-out of its Oldsmobile brand in 2000). They'll also need to modernize an outdated dealer network and boost investment in their remaining plants and products.

As part of that investment, GM announced a $2.5 billion program in March 2005 to upgrade plants and boost research and development in Ontario. In November 2005, DaimlerChrysler said it would invest $768 million to upgrade and modernize its Ontario operations.

======= Gradually, ever so gradually ===== TG

And, as industry aficionados gathered in Detroit for the 2007 North American International Auto Show, GM announced it was working on a lithium-ion battery that would significantly boost the gas mileage of hybrid sport utility vehicles. GM's Saturn Vue Green Line gets about 13.5 kilometres per litre on the highway. The new battery could more than double that to 30.

=== Li is misleading =meaning, pay royalty to large format NiMH patent holder, Chevron? See TonyGuitar.blogspot.com === TG
Update While Chevron holds the *large format* NiMH patents for North America, Exxon-Mobile make the Lithium Ion seperator film,[like a thin white plastic], backbone of the Lithium battery. Exxon-Mobile $39 billion$ *06 profit.

Meanwhile, Canadian and American automotive journalists chose Saturn's Aura and Chevrolet's Silverado as the car and truck of year. The Aura beat the Honda Fit and Toyota Camry for the award. The Silverado was picked over the Ford Edge and Mazda CX-7 crossovers.

The honours have been handed out annually since 1994. Japanese and European brands have taken top marks seven times. With this year's wins, North American carmakers have also come out on top seven times.

=== Hint, buy American. Malibu, Impala and Cobalt are good value.= TG

Labels: auto, battery, electric vehicle, future, GM, hybrid, new, NiMH

Auto consumers are voting with their dollars for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, as auto makers are scrambling to provide alternatives, such as hybrids and fuel cell.
January 06, 2007: Gerry Malloy
http://www.thestar.com/article/167911

We looked into the future ...

Although they still represent a relatively small proportion of the market, hybrids have been the most visible of these technologies. And their availability is growing.

Nissan and Mazda will soon have hybrids on the road [Altima and Tribute, respectively].

Saturn will be offering a gas-electric version of its Aura mid-size sedan, followed by a similar variant of the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu.

Others are just over the horizon. One of the most significant will be the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Two-Mode Hybrid – the first fruit of a hybrid collaboration among BMW, DaimlerChrysler and General Motors.
====
Excellent example of pooling a technical standard for group economy of scale savings. = TG
====
It will be followed by a Dodge Durango hybrid, as well as more GM variants and others from BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

While they will share core hybrid systems, the rest of the vehicles, including their internal combustion (IC) engines, will remain unique to each brand.

While these early applications will be rear-wheel drive, GM will offer a green package in front-wheel-drive form in the next-generation Saturn Vue.
==================
PLUG-IN HYBRIDS


The next major step in fast-moving hybrid technology may be plug-in hybrids. Ford, GM and Toyota are working on them, with production applications in mind.

With greater battery capacity and the potential to be recharged from the electrical grid, as well as by their IC engines, they offer many of the advantages of pure electrics, without many of the disadvantages. The ability to charge a larger battery pack yields an increased driving range on electric power only.

As with pure electrics – and we haven't seen the last of them – the issue remains of how electricity for the grid is generated. If not from renewable, non-nuclear sources, it may be a case of simply shifting the environmental burden from the automobile to somewhere else.

Nevertheless, plug-ins are going to happen, perhaps sooner than you think.
======================
HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS

These remain the Holy Grail of powerplants for many.

GM will build 100 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicles in 2007 – right here in Canada. They will be put into fleet service throughout the U.S.

Honda has announced that it will put 100 of its recently revealed FCX fuel-cell sedans into similar service, probably in 2008.

Of course, the same question applies to hydrogen as it does for electricity: where will it come from, and what energy source will be used to produce it?

Looking a little further out, the driveable version of GM's Sequel fuel-cell vehicle takes the technology a whole lot further. Built from the ground up as a fuel-cell vehicle, Sequel takes advantage of everything the technology has to offer, including a fully electric/electronic drivetrain, with drive-by-wire steering and brakes that spurn hydraulics. (Electric motors squeeze the brake pads against the calipers and release them.)

Such features are another step toward the demise of mechanical componentry – the bedrock of the auto for more than 100 years.
=====
Iran*s intensity can be reduced through the coming drop in oil demand. Oil prices are now on the decline as the market looks forward, taking super efficient cars and alternate fuels into account. = TG
=====

Labels: battery, electric vehicle, EV, hybrid, hydrogen, motor, oil, price

Is government ready for EV [Electric Vehicle] Era?

New super power cells like the ones being developed by Eestor will usher in the new EV era of quiet reliable and non-polluting transport. The EV wave is well under way.

http://TonyGuitar.blogspot.com

Big oil and Big auto did lobby the US government to reverse stringent California emission standards in 1993. The result was all of GM*s EV-1 leased Evs were recalled and crushed at a secure GM site in Arizona.

Dilemma: Above all, Canadian and US governments want to be re-elected.

Has government looked ahead and developed a tax income model for Evs that will provide the huge cash flows that oil and gas provide for government today? Not much room for that when 8 cents of hydro power pays for 250 km of travel.

Has government thought up a transition plan for the massive unemployment coming in the oil and gas distribution and auto-mechanical manufacturing sectors?

Government re-election is very doubtful if future plans are not carefully designed and carried out.
This future planning for Evs is an urgent priority for many reasons, not the least of which is removing the fire from a fast moving terrorist movement financed through oil revenues to

http://tinyurl.com/yk3hgb

countries like Iran, Pakistan , Saudi-Arabia, Indonesia, and soon, Venezuela.

Oilwars.blogspot.com

Labels: auto, battery, car, electric vehicle, EV, hybrid, hydrogen, power