The 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show gives a world debut to 50 vehicles for 2013 from Ford, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Subaru, Chrysler, General Motors, BMW, Fiat, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Volkswagen. If I could select two cars for Green Car of the Year, they would be the Toyota Prius c and the Ford C-MAX.
As I approached the new Avalon Hybrid for my test drive, I noticed that Toyota had preserved the subdued elegance of the exterior while making it more aerodynamic with a .28 coefficient of drag. I sat behind the leather steering wheel in the 10-way power driver leather seat to insure my comfort even on a long drive. The 2013 Avalon Hybrid is rated at 40 MPG city, 39 highway, 40 MPG overall. Price starts $35,555.
Model year 2012 is the year of the green car, with record fleet fuel economy, record high hybrid sales, and a 228% increase in plug-in electric car sales. While it’s true that plug-in electric car sales still represent a very small fraction of total auto sales, model year 2012 saw about 38,000 Americans buying plug-in cars. The Chevy Volt, often described by critics as a failure, falls right in the middle of the pack, outselling half the cars, trucks, and SUVs on the market.
The 50,000 electric car owners in the United States are discovering more range from their electric vehicles. Range anxiety is real, but over played due to 2 car households, public charging, business model and battery innovation, and especially due to the convenience of plug-in hybrids.
I did not drive the Toyota IQ at highway speeds where the short wheel base suggests less stability, but I would consider taking the car on a road trip if I could pull a battery trailer to increase the range.
The new 2013 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid delivers more miles per gallon than any luxury luxury hybrid car in America with an EPA-certified 45 mpg across the board – city, highway and combined. It doesn’t cost a dime extra to get the MKZ as a hybrid. The 2013 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid starts at $35,925 for this richly appointed sedan. The price is the same whether you buy it as a 45-mpg hybrid or with a 2L EcoBoost engine. Other competitors charge a premium for their hybrid models.
As I drive Toyota’s sporty new electric car, sun streams through the red and yellow fall colors that grace Denver’s downtown. This is the new 2013 Scion iQ EV, Toyota’s fourth electric car that joins the Prius Plug-in Hybrid, FCHV, and the RAV4 EV all-electric SUV. This iQ-EV is a micro-compact all-electric city car.
The past decade has been a pretty incredible time for advances in sustainable transportation. All over the globe, scientists and engineers have worked harder than ever to create greener ways to get around. In looking back, three developments stand out in particular.
Gas prices in California are finally starting to drop after a series of record highs, following a fire at a Chevron refinery and a power outage at an Exxon Mobil facility, hurting Californians at the pump, and leading to calls for investigations into price manipulation. Of course, you’ve read this story many times before. Now, imagine the same series of events, but with a crucial difference ― your car has the ability to run on multiple fuels. What if, instead of just driving around for the gas station that has the least painful price, you could choose between fuels, and switch to an alternative when the price of gasoline goes through the roof?
At utility giant PG&E, 190 electric trucks are now used to keep things running. If a neighborhood has a power outage, a troubled truck rolls in. A technician is lifted high in the air to look at a transformer on a pole. Auxiliaries can be run for hours including test equipment into a communications. These plug-in trucks can be used twice as many hours per day as diesel trucks with legal noise restrictions. By switching from diesel to electric, PG&E pays for the electric trucks in 2.5 years according to Dave Meisel, Director Transportation for Services for PG&E.