Prius

Google.org funds V2G demonstration projects

Sweet mama! Google.org is going to give vehicle-to-grid technology a much-needed boost, to the tune of $10 million. The company is going to modify six cars, a mix of Toyota Priuses and Ford Escape hybrids, with batteries that can draw juice from the grid and feed juice back in. The promise of this technology is […]

Plug-in aftermarket kits just around the corner?

Business Wire tells us that A123 (what a catchy name) just bought out Hymotion, the company it had been working with to develop a plug-in kit for the Prius. The kits may be available next year for about $10,000, allowing you to go about 30 miles on a four-hour charge.

Don't get too excited just yet. Putting one on your car will void the manufacturer's warranty and Hymotion presently plans to guarantee the kit for only two years, until they are confident it will last longer than that. At some point we enviros will need to step in to expose whatever environmental downsides are associated with nano technology, lithium mines, and the like. Get ready.

The lost art of conversation

I passed a big rabble of bikers on my way to downtown Seattle yesterday evening. Several complimented my bike as I passed. There were a couple of talls in the mix. I assumed it was another Critical Mass ride, but maybe not. Sure looked like fun. I need to participate in one of those someday.

I periodically attend a monthly gathering of Seattle atheists. There are always new faces, and they pick a different restaurant every month for variety's sake. We chatted about things like global warming, the recent shootings in Virginia, diesel verses hybrid cars and, of course, the American propensity for religiosity.

So keep it up

Think about this article -- descriptively titled "Legislature flooded with bills about climate crisis; poll driven politicians see need to tackle global warming" -- the next time you get an email asking you to call or email your representative on an environmental issue. You keep it up long enough and they get it:

Where is the leadership?

The Ford Motor Company has come upon hard times. I may no longer qualify as a Grist brokeass, but I am still one at heart, and empathize with those thirty-odd thousand people who have lost or will soon lose their jobs. I have owned six cars in my life. Four of them were Pintos. Ford is a sinking ship and its captain was the first one to jump.

The pre-Oscar buzz is green, all green

Anyone who sneaks a guilty peek at Access Hollywood or Extra after dinner knows that it is officially Party Week in Hollywood. Everybody and her over-pedigreed dog is in town, boozing and schmoozing it up before the Academy Awards on Sunday. So when I scored an invite to the Global Green pre-Oscar party, I was pretty pumped.

This is the third year the organization has thrown the blowout, complete with a plethora of hybrids and alternative energy vehicles in the parking lot, chic sustainable building materials on display inside, and a long list of big names in attendance. Among the biggest: Petra Nemcova and James Blunt, Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson, Orlando Bloom and his new spiky haircut, and Oscar nominees and event co-chairs Leonardo DiCaprio and Penelope Cruz.

Unfortunately, I and the rest of the print media were stationed in front of the fans on the street and after a looong line of photographers. So many of the stars didn't stop to chat, either because they were suffering from sheer media fatigue or because they mistook us for a gaggle of screaming autograph seekers. (I'm sure my shrill cries of "Orlando! I want to ask you about the environment!" didn't help.)

Duh!

As if it were news, a report by Intellichoice.com found that over a five-year span, the owner of a Prius saves more than $13,000 compared to the owner of a similar non-hybrid.

In fact, the savings apply "across the board," to all 22 hybrids evaluated. What's more, the study was the most inclusive of any yet: It factored in insurance, fuel, taxes, maintenance, and the works.

Read it to believe it, but it just confirms what many of us have been saying for years.

Prius consumes more energy in lifetime than Cherokee

I thought this article hit a little too close for comfort. If you really want to call yourself an environmentalist, do what my sister-in-law did: Buy a small Toyota hatchback and put 5,000 miles a year on it for two decades.

Then there was this interesting article in the Economist discussing the future of diesel cars in America:

The dirty little secret about hybrids is that their batteries and extensive use of aluminium parts make them costly to build in energy terms as well as financial terms. One life-cycle assessment claims that, from factory floor to scrap heap, a Prius consumes more energy even than a Hummer III. Diesels are unlikely to consume anything like as much over their lifetime. That could change, of course, if some bright spark decides to replace a hybrid's petrol engine with a diesel--to launch a family car capable of 100mpg. Now there's a thought.

Actually not, Economist staff writer person. That assessment you refer to says that the diesel Jetta wagon will also use as much energy in its lifetime as the H3. And guess what? In all likelihood that diesel hybrid you cite will too, for the same reasons as the Prius and Jetta. But you would have known that had you bothered to actually read that lifecycle assessment. I don't blame you, actually. The damn thing is over 400 pages long. I know because I did read it. In fact, I built a spreadsheet with the data I gleaned from it to answer some burning questions I had.

Thanks to Jamais Cascio …

… for making my Prius dreams come true: