Autoblog

Environmentally-friendly California is putting an end to lead balancing weights on wheels and tires. The heavy metal neurotoxin is polluting the state's ground water supplies, according to the Center for Environmental Health. The group claims that more than 500,000 pounds of lead weights are inadvertently flung off wheels each year, making it the state's leading cause of environmental lead contamination. Under a court settlement approved this week, Chrysler and the three largest lead weight wheel manufacturers will all phase out lead in wheel weights by the end of 2009. While California is taking the initiative in this country, we are still years behind the European Union, which banned lead weights in 2005. With lead on the chopping block, future wheel weights will be made from either steel or zinc alloy. Those metal weights are larger and more expensive to produce than lead, but much safer for Mother Earth.

[Source: Business Week]

The European Parliament has called for Formula One to adopt more environmentally-friendly engine alternatives, and the FIA seems to be all for it.

The CARS 21 report, passed with 607 EU legislators in favor, 76 against and 14 abstentions, praised the FIA's actions to make F1 greener, but called on the sanctioning body to do more. The report concluded by calling on the FIA to revise its formula to include "environmentally friendly technologies like bio-fuels, four-cylinder engines or hybrid". FIA president Max Mosley, who has been vocal in his desire to make F1 greener, subsequently issued a statement supporting the EU report.

Several racing series - including A1GP, ALMS, Champ Cars and IndyCars - are now running on bio-fuels, and Formula One has been toying with electric hybrid regenerative braking technologies. As we reported earlier, the moratorium on engine development in F1 was shortened from ten years to five, and the FIA is preparing to launch a new engine formula within the next couple of years. If regulatory bodies like the EU and the FIA get their way, F1 cars in a few years could be powered by four-cylinder electric-ethanol hybrids.

[Source: Autosport]

Switching a racing series to ethanol? Smart. Shipping the ethanol around the world to show how green that racing series is? Less so.

A1GP has announced that its upcoming race in New Zealand will mark the inauguration of the series' switch to E30 Hiperflo ethanol-gasoline blend, which, as organizers point out, cuts CO2 emissions by 21% and, of course, reduces the use of fossil fuels. The mixture is specially made for use in A1GP and consists of 30% ethanol and 70% gasoline. While IndyCars and Champ Cars have run on methanol since the '60s, both series are based in the US and have to ship their fuel to fewer races abroad than A1GP.

Logistical considerations aside, overall we say it's a good thing that motorsports are shifting to more sustainable and environmentally-friendly fuel sources. At the 2008 Detroit Auto Show this week we heard all about the American Le Mans Series and its green intentions. Ferrari, which is set to begin supplying the engines for A1GP in two years, revealed its bio-ethanol-powered 430 Spider in Detroit, as well. Meanwhile, the FIA has revealed a preliminary timeline for introducing a new F1 engine formula that's anticipated to include environmental measures.

Excerpt from the press release after the jump.

[Source: A1GP via AutoblogGreen]

In an interview with Whatcar?, Ford's global product development boss Richard Parry-Jones said car buyers need to embrace greener cars if global warming is to be overcome. In fact, Parry-Jones goes on to say it's the role of the consumer, not car manufacturers, to save the planet from polluting automobiles. Government incentives for eco-conscious car shoppers, not punishment of manufacturers, is the way to go, he said.

This environmentalist push is brought to you by a company producing at least 40 Ford-branded models rated at less than 20 mpg city by the EPA. Only eight 2007 Fords get more than 30 mpg on the highway. Though to Ford's credit, Parry-Jones says 66% of his company's future R&D budget is devoted to increasing fuel-economy and reducing emissions. We've reported in the past, however, that not all agree with Ford's green push.

[Source: Whatcar?]

As the song goes, "Blues had a baby, and the called it rock n' roll." Well, Autoblog has just birthed its first spinoff, and we're calling it AutoblogGreen.

With gas prices surging and more interest in alternative fuel vehicles and their attendant lifestyles than at any time in recent memory, the time couldn't be better for the Weblogs Inc. network to launch a new site to provide a home for the burgeoning movement, and that's what ABG is all about. In the words of lead blogger Sebastian Blanco, "AutoblogGreen is not just about autos themselves, but also about the environments in which they're driven."

We've already assembled a crack team of contributors to the site, with the aforementioned Blanco at the helm. A seasoned journalist specializing in matters automobiles and environmental, he brings experience and good judgment to the effort. Aiding and abetting him will be the one-and-only Bruno Vanzieleghem, who is the ABG equivalent of Autoblog's own Eric Bryant--  he's a gifted engineer in the automotive supplier realm, albeit with an emphasis on developing eco-friendly technologies.  The two gentlemen will be in good company, as they'll be accompanied by the boundless energy and optimism of self-described 'neo hippy' Cheryl Morrissette, who will imbue her writings with spirit and first-hand knowledge that only a life long 'Green' can offer. And in a chance meeting that can only be described as 'fate,' fellow Autoblog co-lead John Neff was able to use his powers of persuasion to woo green activist/entrepreneur/author Ray Holan, founder of Biodiesel Cleveland, an Ohio-based business preaching the gospel of the alternative fuel. Oh, and he just put the finishing touches on his book, Sliding Home: A Complete Guide to Driving Your Diesel on Straight Vegetable Oil.

As you can see, AutoblogGreen is in more than capable hands, and will be a fine compliment to your daily surf here at Autoblog. For those worried about such things, the advent of ABG does not mean that AB will be handing off all automotive stories of ecological import to its new sister-site. It simply means that so-inclined readers will have another, more focused resource and outlet to frequent.

If you're willing to pardon our dust pollen, stop over at AutoblogGreen and have a look around. Kick off your sandals and stay a while, if you like. After all, today is Earth Day.

 

 

Six years on, French automaker Peugeot is finally seeing one of its environmental initiatives bear fruit... so to speak. 

The manufacturer actually began a forestry project back in 1999 by embarking on a plan to build a living 'carbon sink,' in the form of two million trees. Six years on, Peugeot's Fazenda São Nicolau forest (in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso) is coming of age and is now able to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

When it undertook the plan, Peugeot actually started out by figuring out how much C02 its vehicles produce, then it picked a commensurate number of trees to plant in an effort to level the environmental scales.

According to new analysis, the forest has already zeroed out some 55,000 tons of CO2.

[Source: MotorTorque via AskaPrice.com]

Best Syndications has posted an article on how hybrid vehicles are part of the demographic category Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) or "metrospiritual. " (Pictured is actress Gwyneth Paltrow, considered by many to be a member of said category).

The writer goes on to argue that hybrids are the four-wheeled embodyment of this $227 billion segment, which includes members shopping at Whole Foods grocery stores; drinking tea versus coffee or soda; and practicing yoga. To a metrospiritualist, a hybrid states that its owner cares about the world, just like a HUMMER broadcasts its owner's views.

The article continues by discussing how owning a hybrid can be cost-effective, with discounted insurance and free use of municipal parking spaces.


[Source: Best Syndication]

Boom shalaka-laka, the 28th Autoblog Podcast is here. On today's episode, the intrepid Christopher Paukert and myself go over Audi's ostentatious debut of its new TT coupe, observe a moment of silence for the industry's loss of MPH Magazine and finally, we get all green up in this thing talking about my experience with a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta TDi that runs on grease from a dumpster. Good times... hope you enjoy.

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Hosts
John Neff and Chris Paukert

Producer
John Neff

Length
34:08

The results of a new study conducted by CNW Marketing Research Inc. is sure to generate some arched eyebrows. The firm's report stems from their two-year effort to collect and analyze data on the "energy neessary to plan, build, sell, drive and dispose of a vehicle from initial concept to scrappage." CNW then assigned their findings a new comparative metric - "dollars per lifetime mile" - or, said another way, total energy cost per mile driven.

The findings? America's most expensive vehicle in calendar 2005 was the Maybach (presumably a 62), tallying up at a staggering $11.58/mile. The thriftiest? Scion's boxy xB, just $.48 cents/mile.

But here's where it gets interesting: CNW's findings indicate that a hybrid consumes more energy overall than a comparable conventionally powered model. It judged showed that the Honda Accord Hybrid rang up an Energy Costs Per Mile of $3.29, while a gas-powered Accord was significantly cheaper at $2.18/mile. The study concludes that the average of all 2005 U.S. market vehicles was $2.28/mile.

The reasoning goes that hybrids use up more energy to manufacture, as well as consume more resources in terms of the assembly (and eventual disposal) of things like batteries and motors. By CNW's reckoning, the intrinsically lower complexity of, say, a Hummer H3 ($1.949/mile) actually results in lower total energy usage than any hybrid currently on the market, and even a standard Honda Civic ($2.42).

While the study's findings don't take issue with what vehicles are more financially economical to own (read: those with better mileage), it does pose some interesting questions about total energy usage in hybrids.

Obviously, in order to best judge the merit of CNW's findings, a clearer explanation of the study's criteria and processes is in order.

[Sources: CNW via Yahoo Business, QCNetwork.com]

According to a new article in Wired, saw corn stalks and wood scraps may be the salve to ease the world's seemingly insatiable appetite for oil.

Scientists are hard at work working on 'bio oil,' biomass-derived fuel arrived at via a process known as pyrolysis, which essentially involves heating the organic detritus to 400-500 degrees Celsius without oxygen after it is finely ground up.

Experts now believe that the U.S. has the ability to cut its yearly petroleum reserves by 30-percent by using the more than one billion tons of biomass it produces annually.

[Source: Wired]

(Appreciate the tips, Wintrode and Keith)