Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com Autoblog http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/feedlogo.gif Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Some cars to be as clean as electric train travel by 2020]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2012/04/28/some-cars-to-be-as-clean-as-electric-train-travel-by-2020/http://www.autoblog.com/2012/04/28/some-cars-to-be-as-clean-as-electric-train-travel-by-2020/http://www.autoblog.com/2012/04/28/some-cars-to-be-as-clean-as-electric-train-travel-by-2020/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Chevy Volt

Ex-Ford engineer Richard Parry-Jones is now chairman-designate of the UK's Network Rail. Having looked into the futures of both car and train development, he believes that by the end of this decade the most Earth-friendly internal-combustion engine cars will be about as polluting, on a per-passenger basis, as high-speed electric trains.

Parry-Jones says carmakers are targeting 40g/km of CO2 tailpipe emissions by 2020. If the "average" occupancy of 1.6 people-per-vehicle stays the same in eight years, that would equal 25 gm per person per kilometer and put such cars in the same environmental category as the cleanest mass transit.

Since the emissions of electric cars and trains is usually given as zero, we're assuming he means diesel-electric high-speed trains; life-cycle emissions wouldn't be a valid comparison since those aren't factored into a car's tailpipe number. According to The Guardian's table of emission numbers by transport, right now you'd have to load four folks in a small diesel topped up with ultra-low sulphur fuel to get down to 42 grams per passenger per kilometer (gpkm), which would put you right with one of Virgin's Voyager class diesel-electric trains at 75-percent capacity. If you want to go all the way low, though, you'll need a 50cc two-stroke and a passenger: at that point you're rocking just 19.5 gpkm. Slowly.

Some cars to be as clean as electric train travel by 2020 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2009 was not a good year for car sales. No surprises there. An interesting side effect of lowered sales last year, though, is that the total number of vehicles in the overall U.S. car fleet dropped. There were 250 million cars here in 2008, and only 246 million at the end of 2009. We may have been buying fewer cars than we usually do in a year - there were around 10 million sold in 2009 - but we still got rid of 14 million units.

Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, will be speaking to reporters Wednesday about why he thinks these numbers mean that "America's century-old love affair with the automobile may be coming to an end." Part of Brown's reasoning is that he sees the shrinking U.S. fleet trend continuing through 2020 thanks to market saturation, economic uncertainty and a "declining interest in cars among young people who have grown up in cities," among other factors. The end result? Brown believes the shrinking fleet "will also largely eliminate the need for building new streets and highways, and will set the stage for increased investment in public transit and high-speed intercity rail." Is Brown on to something, or will a widely-expected rebound in new car sales due to pent-up demand render his argument spurious? Check out the EPI's press release after the jump, then be sure to leave your thoughts on the matter in 'Comments.'

[Source: Earth Policy Institute | Image: kodiax2 - C.C. License 2.0]

Continue reading Report: Number of cars in the U.S. dropped by four million in 2009 - is America's love affair ending?

Report: Number of cars in the U.S. dropped by four million in 2009 - is America's love affair ending? originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>auto salesAutoSalescar salesCarSalesEarth Policy InstituteEarthPolicyInstituteepic-gamesgreenlester brownLesterBrownmass transitMassTransitu.s. fleetu.s. vehicle fleetU.s.FleetU.s.VehicleFleetMon, 04 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/19302512/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2010/01/04/report-number-of-cars-in-the-u-s-dropped-by-four-million-in-20/19302512/article-detail.xml 19302512 http://www.blogcdn.com/green.autoblog.com/media/2010/01/3808980537_fd15d95731_b_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/green.autoblog.com/media/2010/01/3808980537_fd15d95731_b.jpg <![CDATA[DeLorean's stillborn 40-foot bus]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/09/deloreans-stillborn-40-foot-bus/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/09/deloreans-stillborn-40-foot-bus/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/09/deloreans-stillborn-40-foot-bus/#commentsFiled under: , ,



Glomming onto a Federal program in the 1970s meant to spur the development of more accessible buses, DeLorean Motor Corporation saw a potential revenue stream. Not that the DMC 80 had anything to do with their now cult-classic sports car, it wouldn't have even been built by DMC. An example of how badge engineering and pimping platforms has been going on forever in the automotive business, DeLorean was essentially planning on affixing the DMC badge to buses from Germany's FFG.

Like the DMC-12, success was not to be had. The Urban Mass Transit Administration's (now Federal Transit Administration) Transbus program was cancelled in 1981 after several years of floundering. DMC couldn't continue to devote resources to the effort, so they abandoned the licensing effort and scrapped a proposal for a bus assembly plant in New York, too. While DeLorean may be little more than a passing curiosity in automotive history, the fact that they got an automobile into production and on the market means that there are plenty of enthusiasts looking for any remaining vestiges of the company. The nature of launching an automotive enterprise also means that there's a ton of material to be strip-mined on eBay. If you find this little footnote in DeLorean's history as fascinating as we do, you can pony up bids and get your hands on a small trove of goodies like blueprints to the non-starter bus plant, a brochure for the DMC 80, and a random DeLorean certificate of achievement. Our favorite item, though, is the memo from John DeLorean to Bill Haddad, essentially saying "call this guy, he can help us, oh yeah, he was also convicted of fraud."

[Source: eBay via Winding Road]

Gallery: DeLorean bus

DeLorean's stillborn 40-foot bus originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 09 Dec 2007 11:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>auctionautomobiliablueprintsbusdeloreandmcebayffgmassmass transitMassTransitpublicpublic transportationPublicTransportationscrappedtransitSun, 09 Dec 2007 11:31:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/1057419/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2007/12/09/deloreans-stillborn-40-foot-bus/1057419/article-detail.xml 1057419 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/12/dmc80_for_post_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/12/dmc80_for_post.jpg <![CDATA[Survey: U.K. gas prices not high enough for switch to mass transit]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2006/06/13/survey-u-k-gas-prices-not-high-enough-for-switch-to-mass-trans/http://www.autoblog.com/2006/06/13/survey-u-k-gas-prices-not-high-enough-for-switch-to-mass-trans/http://www.autoblog.com/2006/06/13/survey-u-k-gas-prices-not-high-enough-for-switch-to-mass-trans/#commentsFiled under:

As U.S. cities take a new look at mass transit services (anticipating increased demand following rising gas prices), transportation planners might want to take a look at a recent survey sponsored by U.K. insurer esure. The survey of U.K. drivers finds that gas prices would have to reach the equivalent of a stratospheric $13.48 per U.S. gallon before they'd consider switching to mass transit.

A remarkable 55 percent of drivers said they'd never switch, no matter how expensive fuel becomes.

There are lots of ways to interpret these results (existing mass transit may be perceived as too inconvenient and/or too expensive, but improved systems might change peoples' thinking, for example) but one thing's for sure - automakers must be breathing a sigh of relief.

[Source: Reuters]

Survey: U.K. gas prices not high enough for switch to mass transit originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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