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A colleague of mine generously lent her Nissan Leaf for us to test drive for the week. We need to answer two questions before we head down the electric car route:

1. Will the range be enough for daily driving in our two car household.
2. Is it cleaner than a hybrid or small diesel.

The answer to first question seems to be an unequivocal yes. Total daily driving for each of us is about 8 miles. Total miles driven in the household each day – about 16. It’s not much. We’ve ended each day with plenty of range on the Leaf. We can’t envision a day where it would be a problem.

The answer to question #2 is a little more difficult. I’ve heard anecdotally about the relative cleanliness of electricity generation vs. burning automotive fuel. I discovered one paper so far in my not-exhaustive research: A Roadmap to Climate Friendly Cars: 2013

Basically, in Minnesota if you don’t take in to account the manufacturing of the car, it is cleaner than the next cleanest option (a plug-in prius). If you do take in to account the manufacturing, it is less clean.

However, I imagine you can tip that balance on an individual basis by installing rooftop solar panels.

If we head down this path, my dear readers, you can be sure that I will blog about it here in excruciating detail… more to come!

2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year: Tesla Model S – Motor Trend

“The 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year is one of the quickest American four-doors ever built. It drives like a sports car, eager and agile and instantly responsive. But it’s also as smoothly effortless as a Rolls-Royce, can carry almost as much stuff as a Chevy Equinox, and is more efficient than a Toyota Prius. Oh, and it’ll sashay up to the valet at a luxury hotel like a supermodel working a Paris catwalk. By any measure, the Tesla Model S is a truly remarkable automobile, perhaps the most accomplished all-new luxury car since the original Lexus LS 400. That’s why it’s our 2013 Car of the Year.”

Someone in our neighborhood has one. I need to figure out who it is so I can take it for a test drive.

Great article in Slate magazine about the demand for oil in developing countries. What I always find ironic about the “drill, baby, drill” nonsense is that it basically won’t work to lower our energy costs. If a higher price will be paid for the gas outside of the US – that’s where it will go.

I read elsewhere that the natural gas hoopla is the same situation. That natural gas will come out of the ground (fracked or otherwise) and head straight overseas if someone is willing to pay more.

I’m 100% behind one of the conclusions of this article: raise the gas tax. It will drive our consumption down and prepare our infrastructure for the near future where gas is likely to be a LOT more expensive anyway.

I’d tune up those bikes and move to the city if I were you…

The New Gas Guzzlers

In the real world, nothing magical will occur when the lines between rich-world and developing-world oil consumption cross in the near future. But the shift is emblematic of a changed reality that hasn’t yet been fully processed by Americans. We’re used to living in a world where rich countries were the whole ballgame and the American economy was so much bigger than Germany’s or Japan’s that we could afford to treat the global economy and the American one as largely coextensive. Those days are gone. In the near future, trends in global commodity prices—most of all the highly variable price of gasoline—are more likely to be driven by policy changes in Asia than in the United States, making America’s perennial game of political whining about the price of gasoline even more ridiculous than usual.

Congress Actually Ends Taxpayer Funding Of Ethanol Subsidies

Yay!

I would support subsidies for actual “green” energy sources, however, ethanol is not one of those sources. Not only is it a net-energy loss (takes more energy to produce than what you get out) but…

“Using corn is the least productive way to make ethanol, at roughly 300 gallons per acre of feedstock. The Brazilian ethanol industry gets twice as many gallons per acre using sugar cane, and other feedstocks like switchgrass have been projected to produce up to 1,200 gallons per acre.”

So now, where is the investment in switchgrass ethanol?

Or perhaps we put a 50 cents / gallon tax on petroleum based road fuels?

(Via Green Car Reports.)

This bugs me:

Volvo is laying claim to the first production diesel plug-in hybrid title with the company’s new V60. The vehicle makes use of a five-cylinder 2.4-liter turbo diesel engine with 215 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque coupled to a six-speed automatic transmission as well as an electric motor good for up to 70 horsepower and 147 pound-feet of torque. The forced-induction internal combustion engine puts power to the front wheels while the electric motor feeds its grunt to the rear. An 11.2-kWh lithium-ion battery pack fields power storage duties, and Volvo says the V60 plug-in diesel hybrid can travel up to 32 miles on all-electric power with a single charge.

Why can’t we buy this car in America!

As with most plug-ins, charge times vary depending on the available current, but Volvo claims the V60 can top off its cells in as little as 3.5 hours on a 16-amp line. Interestingly enough, the vehicle allows the driver to chose between three drive modes. Pure mode relies on the electric motor as much as possible while Hybrid mode splits the difference between the diesel mill and the electric motor. Finally, Power mode calls on the full 285 horsepower and 362 pound-feet of torque for the most driving enjoyment. Volvo says the V60 diesel plug-in hybrid can kick up to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds in Power mode.

What? It goes 0-60 in 6.2 seconds? It’s a plug-in hybrid AWD diesel that can go 30 miles on electric only?

Wicked ice storm last night here in the Twin Cities. Sonja and I were driving home after a dinner party. This screen shot from the gentleman behind east-lake.net pretty much sums it up.

 

Google Traffic at 1:00am:

 

(Via east-lake.net.)

This is what I’m talking about!

Amtrak Unveils Ambitious Northeast Corridor Plan, But It Would Take 30 Years to be Realized

“After months of sitting on the sidelines as states and regional agencies promoted major new high-speed rail investments, Amtrak has finally announced what it hopes to achieve over the next thirty years: A brand-new, 426-mile, two-track corridor running from Boston to Washington, bringing true high-speed rail to the Northeast Corridor for the first time.”

(Via the transport politic.)