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TechnoratiWASHINGTON - As General Motors vied with Toyota over who sold more cars during 2007, U.S. environmental activists were sending a different sort of sales message to automakers gathered at the Washington Auto Show: "Increase fuel efficiency." 
Noting that consumer demand for fuel-efficient, plug-in hybrid vehicles is rising in the United States, Co-Op America spokesperson Yochanan Zakai called on domestic automakers to "keep their assembly lines open and meet consumer demand by mass-producing plug-in hybrids before 2010."
Some 10,000 consumers signed a petition designed by Co-Op America urging Ford and General Motors to devote more resources to producing a car capable of running 100 miles or more on a single gallon of gasoline -- for which the technology is already available.
Environmental innovator Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, agrees: "The United States could easily cut its gasoline use in half simply by converting the U.S. automobile fleet to highly efficient hybrid cars. No change in the number of vehicles. No change in the miles driven. Just doing it with the most efficient propulsion technology on the market," writes Brown in his new book Plan B 3.0.
Hybrids run mainly on electricity, using batteries that can be plugged in at home or at the workplace. Producing more cars of this type would greatly reduce consumers' cost at the pump and U.S. reliance on imported oil.
But instead of gearing up to mass-produce cars using these new technologies, American automakers are promoting corn-based ethanol as a primary solution to energy security, charges Co-Op America.
The amount of corn required to produce the huge quantities of ethanol needed to meet U.S. demand means that vast amounts of water, energy, and land are devoted to corn for cars, instead of corn for people.
Corn is a staple crop consumed by the poor in many developing countries. Conversion of cropland to ethanol production robs people of a life-sustaining resource.
The United States, Brazil, China, and other countries are increasingly converting land previously devoted to grain crops -- such as corn, sugar, and wheat -- for use in producing alternative fuels. In addition to contributing to food insecurity for the poor, this practice is likely to increase food prices for everyone, writes Lester Brown.
Together, Ford and GM account for more than half the carbon emissions from U.S. cars, yet they resist a rise in fuel economy standards, charges Co-op America. The two behemoths could better compete for consumer dollars by looking to the future and producing fewer SUVs and more fuel-efficient hybrids, the group says.
Co-Op America is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that seeks to harness the economic power of consumers and others "to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society."
Copyright © 2008 OneWorld.net.
30 Comments so far
Show AllLowest emission transportation available on the market today: Feet.
Use of feet reduces greenhouse gasses, increases health, promotes longevity. Daily feet transportation also gives you the peace of mind and time to figure out ways to starve and disassemble the military-oil-complex. Somehow humanity got along great with feet for millions of years until the last two generations. Get out and sniff the roses, like your forefathers did. When you drive you are voting Bush . . .
Yep, manual stick shift saves between 10 and 15% of gas. They are good too: transmission dont fail after 100000 miles, allows for brakes pads saving and give a better control of the vehicle. Are people so lazy?
And what about this unnerving habit of iddling cars everywhere instead of turning off the engine?
I place the threshold at 5$ a gallon before people start to think about fuel economy.
Agreed Jacques,
Yet with every year, even the smallest cars here in the US grow bigger and heavier. The BMW so-called Mini is a bloated joke compared to the old Morris Mini.
And Paul B. I agree,
I am getting down to having to search junkyards to keep our 1988 factory-second Corolla (aka Chevy Nova) running. If fuel economy is the prime consideraton, one has to find a used car from the mid 90's, because size, weight and fuel economy of all US cars have all been going steadily up, up, down respectively, since the mid 1980's - Just compare a current model Honda Civic or Toyota coralla, or Hyundai Accent, to one just 10 years old. And, is also getting near impossible to find manual transmissions - which also always improve fuel economy by about 15%.
And then the Mfg. say they build these wasteful, bloated tanks because it is what the consumer wants - what nonsense! Someone correct me here, but I never recall any great clamor from grassroots for the kinds of over sised, overweight cars sold in the US these days.
I look forward to spring and returning to using the penny a mile electric scooters - the car stayed parked for a month at a time last summer.
I do not get it. Everything is here already. In Europe we have tons of cars which achieve 50/60 miles a gallon. Citroen, peugeot renault do it everyday with sleek turbo diesel cars.
This without all the cost and complexity of the hybrids.
The enemy is the weight. STOP DRIVING 3 TONS machines! Seeing american builders trying to sell hybrid SUVs which barely reach 30mpg makes me puke.
Wake up people!
I drive a hybrid, and get a blended (highway and local) mpg result of 45.5. I feel this type of car is just an interim solution. I'd like to have access to a similar car with the plug-in feature so some of my local errands can be all electric. I know a guy in California does an expensive conversion job on Prius cars to accomplish this. There may be better solutions to come, but where revolutionary is not yet available, evolutionary will do, won't it?
pjd
I own a car for 10 years or 100,000+ miles. As the production increases the price of a Prius should go down. For a new technology under $25,000 is a good price and all of the cars should now be using hybrid technology imo. The Prius is loaded with features that aren't necessary but are part of the package now ( CD player, automatic windows...)
My Prius gets about 45-50 miles to the gallon depending upon time of year and the speeds that I am driving.
Not only is the cost of gas a problem but who does the money go to and also cars idling... like in city driving... produce enissions which are connected to illnesses.
The smart car is soon to go on sale in the US and costs under $12,000. Reports differ on mpg... from about 40 to 70 mpg and its very easy to park.
The problem is not technology. We have the technology to make fuel efficient cars. The problem is in the car companies and has something to do with profitability. I think something has been going on that is illegal and I don't understand why there aren't some start up companies selling cars competing with the big manufacturers. Possibly the costs of setting up a production line etc are high..but still...why are there so few car companies?
An article from 2000, now almost 8 years ago, on Common dreams about new cars:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/050600-101.htm
Published on Saturday, May 6, 2000 in the Boston Globe
Coming Soon To A Car Dealer Near You:
The Beginning Of A New Era
by Jim Motavalli
....................................
This is the competitor though ..from India..at around $2500
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1702264,00.html
The World's Cheapest Car
selected quotes
Ratan Tata emphasized that the new car complies with India's emissions laws and even with Europe's much stronger Euro 4 standards. Emissions, Tata says, are "lower than a scooter's today". The company claims the car will also deliver 50 miles per gallon, or better than 20 kilometers per liter, which would make it one of India's most efficient vehicles, and vastly more efficient than the average in the U.S. Chief U.N. climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, said recently that he was "having nightmares" about the low-cost car. "Dr. Pachauri need not have nightmares," said Ratan Tata at today's unveiling. "For us it's a milestone and I hope we can make a contribution to the country."
"Eventually, Tata Motors hopes to sell a million Nanos a year. Even before it goes on sale, though, it has become an important symbol of an emerging trend in the developing world, a new brand of innovation that makes more out of less and engineers clever but cheap fixes to problems that Western companies might throw expensive technology at"
........................................................
Those Tata Nano cars will be sold in India and in Africa and will increase the amount of pollution imo. because they are so affordable and the numbers of people who buy them will be enormous.
Lots to think about..but my favorite form of transportation is the train...
Do a little research on geothermal, folks, and you will discover there is enough heat in the ground right below our feet...IN EVERY STATE IN THE WHOLE UNITED STATES...to heat all our homes...forever. This eliminates the need to generate electricity for home & hot water heat. Think about it, better yet study it.
RE: alyosha January 24th, 2008 2:27 pm
Alyosha, if you have to drive 350 miles daily you are part of the problem, not solution. Ever consider doing us all a favor and moving?
The father of a girl I play music with has a VW station wagon that gets 57 MPG. It has plenty of room & pep and makes sense. What completely baffles me is a Model-T got 25 MPG, and with our supposed more technologically advanced society why has congress only bumped MPG up th 35 in their latest effort? Shouldn't we have come farther than this in over 75 years? It is a sad commentary on a supposed democratic capitalistic society to admit Hitler, a fascist dictatorial tyranical monster, had the brains to come up with a 'people's car, ...the Volkswagon...when a free people can't do the same with far greater resources. We will have no chance at real freedom unless we can break this cycle of corporate domination in our society & world.
Edwards 2008...since he is the only candidate now vocalizing our thoughts & real needs.
On pure electric, there are parts of the country that get brownouts every summer when those commuters come home and all turn on their AC at the same time; what would happen if they came home and plugged in their electric car too? How is all that electricity generated?
PJD,
Imagine a guy who's single, can afford to live close in, no kids, has thousands tied up in Segways, etc. Would be nice...
To the family that might be able to put $1,000 down and finance the rest of a $12,000 car -- what's the best fuel efficient option? One of our vehicles is a used '96 Geo Prizm. Smallish, but gets great fuel economy.
Ironically, it would be much cheaper if I got a hobby farm and a couple good horses.
In 1999, Chrysler, Ford and GM created three cars under the PNGV program that all got over 70 mpg. They were the size of an average sedan with four doors and seated four people. They were based on diesel hybrid. After the 2000 election, the three automakers chose not to build them, but Toyota and Honda were watching and did. The rest is history.
You could make a diesel series hybrid for two, very light and very streamlined that would get 100 mpg. The question is, would a lot of people buy it. They seem to like those HUGE Chevy Tahoes that get 12 mpg.
Actually, Electric is still somewhat ahead even with power form a dirty source. Remember that idealized thermal energy conversion efficiency and the actual efficiency in kWH or mJ per passenger-kilometer are two different things.
I did some testing with my electric motor scooter - comparing it's economic, energt and CO2 emissions with a comparable 50-150cc scooter. The discussion is in this link:
http://visforvoltage.org/forum/motorcycles-and-large-scooters/1509
also check this:
http://car.pege.org/2007-co2-mobility/45-kmh-scooter.htm
YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY
People need to understand that when someone claims "100 mpg" or even 200 or 300 for a plug-in hybrid, they're talking about an estimated average consumption of gasoline assuming some pattern of daily short-trip use, with the vehicle plugged in overnight. That is, the small average gasoline consumption reflects the fact that the rest of the energy is being provided by the electricity grid at something less than 30% efficiency, comparable to internal combustion engines themselves. Thus, unless the electricity is being provided by renewable or nuclear sources, the high mileage figure is deceptive from the point of view both of cost and of carbon emissions.
Hybrids can achieve 50 mpg and already have. A hybrid SUV getting 30 mpg or more is not out of the question. High-efficiency internal combustion engines for small vehicles may do just as well.
But beware of miracles like 100 mpg SUVs.
Somebody invent little solar powered blimps we can tool around in. Then we'll be having so much fun that we'll never want to land. If we don't land, we won't fuck up the earth.
It's continuing bad decision making by the U.S. Auto industry leadership. They seem to be asking for either foreign companies or American startup companies to put them out of their misery. Perhaps they believe they can shift their losses on to the American public through government tax.
"I drive a Prius and it is the best car I have ever driven..a truly great car and it isn't that expensive for a new car…less than $25,000."
When I hear statements like this, I realize how out of touch with the US working class so many CD readers are. Say, we empty half of our liquid savings on the down payment, then $20,000 financed over 5 years - $410 a month. Such an expenditure would bust our budget. And we're the rich people on my street.
And all this for a car that only gets the fuel economy that an ordinary, cheap, Honda Civic did in the early 1980's...
that's supposed to be the bonus with plug-ins...they're plugged in at night, when demand on the grid is low.
The Easter Islanders were wiped out by God because they didn't believe in Christ, right?
I knew there was lesson in there somewhere...
willo
The reason there is not higher gas mileage imo is because the car companies are in collusion with oil producers. Imo it is not only the big companies like Exxon but also some of the nations like Saudi Arabia that have made secret agreements to keep the production of oil high.
Since there is a hidden agreement it is difficult to use normal reasoning to cause a change in gas usage. It is of course very reasonable to produce a car that uses less gas, even if oil were not going up in price and not connected to geopolitical unrest in Iran, Iraq and Nigeria.
What other reason could it be to keep cars using so much gas except that there is some hidden collusion between oil producers and American car producers?
Notice how you can find all kinds of criticisms for the Prius and almost no ads encouraging people to buy it?
And even the Japanese company Toyota was part of an effort by the car industry to encourage the US congress not to have higher mileage for cars? There is some sort of pressure going on to stop the development of high mileage cars.
I drive a Prius and it is the best car I have ever driven..a truly great car and it isn't that expensive for a new car...less than $25,000. One of the advantages that I have not seen is that it lowers air polutants for the car's occupants too, because the motor turns off when it stops. No gas fumes from idling and that might be important for people with asthma or for children.
Better yet, don't use a car at all.
We need a return to the traditonal, sane public transit oriented neighborhoods and places of business, Rebuild the cities. Outlaw these sprawling "office parks" these shopping malls and this cul-de-sac crap, that make access by public transit, walking of biking impossible.
But, wouldn't such draconian land use regulations would be socialism?
Yes, exactly.
But as a transitional mode for the large number of households where car-free living isn't going to be practical for a while, electric cars are a good alternative. However, people should be cautioned that the energy required to run an electric car in daily use would entail more solar panel area than most homes have the room or money for.
But even for the current grid-mix, electric cars still have smaller a total carbon footprint due to their much greater efficiency.
Anyone who hasn't seen the movie "Who Killed The Electric Car?" should rent it ---
Had we begun anything like this 40 years ago, we still have much of our oil resources in the ground and peace in the world!
Global Warming is commencing rapidly --
Electric Cars are the fastest answer --
we can do this in 3-5 years ---
raise a corporation and subsidize both mfg and purchase!!!
I guess most of us have noticed that GM isn't too interested in any car that could hurt the oil industry??? --------?????????????????
QUOTE:
GottaGetOffTheGrid ---
What the heck is wrong with pure electric?
current technology (sorry, bad pun) allows you to convert a VW golf to electric. top speed 75 mph max distance 85 miles.
http://www.electroauto.com/index.html
that is all anyone needs, really
the problem for the big auto is maintanence; they need very little. no fluids, no expensive parts, just breaks and tires.
a high voltage charge station will recharge the battery pack to 85% in 5 to 10 mins.UNQUOTE
Right!!!
Here in canada only 18% of people commute more that 20km (12miles) each way. in the US average commuting TIME is 20mins (I can't find distance data at the us census bureau). a pure EV is the perfect commuter vehicle for the majority of people.
a 350 mile range is at the upper end of most production ICE cars these days.
what limits the range primarily is battery technology. it is very difficult, if not impossible to retail purchase the high-reserve NiMH and NiFePO4 batteries, which could double the range of the current lead-acid-type technology.
"Hybrids run mainly on electricity, using batteries that can be plugged in at home or at the workplace."
Huh???
As every Prius owner knows, along with a good deal of the rest of the country, present-day hybrids cannot be plugged in. The battery is recharged from the ICE (internal combustion engine) and regenerative braking. It is astonishing that One World's reporter did not know or discover this fact. Many of us hope for the day when there will be PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) on the market and we can provide energy for our vehicles from our rooftop solar arrays or other renewable source, but such vehicles are not presently available.
Check out the Fisker Karma four-door plug-in hybrid sports sedan { http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/ }, its a beautiful car, but $80,000. Still, its cheaper than the Tesla, and it shows the trends in plug in hybrids (but delivery is for 2010).
It has a solar panel roof option and a lithium ion battery (probably why delivery is in 2010) and can drive 50 miles all-electric on an overnight charge.
Those million Prius cars (plus the other hybrids) have caused enough interest in automotive batteries that some serious development money was poured into lithium ion batteries, and we will soon see the payoff. Whether Ford and GM are the ones to use this next generation of batteries (GM is waiting on the lithium ion battery to be able to manufacture its Volt concept car) or some other companies, doesn't really matter. Someone will build these plug-in hybrids, and the all electric range will get longer and longer as economies of scale, and lithium ion learning curve development (and maybe ultracapacitors thrown in too to complement the battery) enables better and cheaper cars every year.
Sure, some people will wait for 350 miles of all-electric driving, but the developments that allow us to reach that will be paid for by the millions buying the existing hybrids and next generation plug-in models that aren't quite there yet.
I was at the Los Angeles Auto Show, and saw many hybrids there, unfortunately their mileage was disappointing - nowhere near the 100 mpg argued for in the article.
I also saw a couple of fuel cell cars, one of which - from Honda - is slated for production in 2008. Corn/Ethanol strikes me a short term solution (from the automakers' perspective), while they gear up for hydrogen/fuel cells - another bad idea.
I just sense that there are powerful forces behind the big automatkers, locking them into poor solutions (poor for us). I'm hopeful that small startups - like the makers of the Tesla for example - can leapfrog the big automakers. And do check out the Aptera - www.Aptera.com - 200-300 mpg, slated for production later this year.
GottaGetOffTheGrid - an all-electric should have a range of at least 350 miles - a day's drive. This lack of range is one of the things (apart from political motivations) that killed GM's EV-1 - a fantastic car that I sat in, and was memorialized in "Who Killed the Electric Car?". I'm not about to buy a short range all-electric, I can only afford one car.
What the heck is wrong with pure electric?
current technology (sorry, bad pun) allows you to convert a VW golf to electric. top speed 75 mph max distance 85 miles.
http://www.electroauto.com/index.html
that is all anyone needs, really
the problem for the big auto is maintanence; they need very little. no fluids, no expensive parts, just breaks and tires.
a high voltage charge station will recharge the battery pack to 85% in 5 to 10 mins.
My dream car is the SmartForTwo diesel, but it can't even be imported. The US will only accept the gasoline model. With the diesel, I could help recycle used vegetable oil, emit negligible pollutants, and run the car almost for free. No wonder the powers that be don't want it imported.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Fortwo
Flex fuel isn't just a marketing gimmick, willo -- it's corporate welfare, sold to the public through marketing gimmicks. Without corporate welfare (if the US' economic system were actually a capitalist one), a company like GM *wouldn't* still be in business.
Corn? Who can afford to feed their children corn? What America needs is a hay and oat based transportation system. Giddyup!
I used to post at a site about 10 years ago. One of the other posters was working on the chevy SSR. Well it's a vehicle that gets about 15 mpg has a converatble roof weighs about 2 tons and hauls two people. I asked where chevy and fords hybrids were. My comment was was not appreciated. Toyota had already released the Prius.
Here you have GM spending thier research and developement money on a rig that sold in very low numbers and got very low mileage. 10 years later they finally release their first hybrid and it is not as good as Toyota's initial offering from 10 years earlier.
I've heard a lot of people bashing GM's work force but it's the management that has been making the wrong decision's consistently for the last 50 years. I'm amazed the company is still in buisness.
Flex fuel is just a marketing gimmick. Who wants to buy a fuel that cost's more gets less mileage and makes less power.