bemoreeco

The team at BBCGreen have carried out some investigation on the myths surrounding Green cars.  My wife is pushing me to replace our current car with a more Eco-Friendly one, but I am not to sure what is the best path to take. Hopefully this 5 part series we have put togther about the myths of buying a Green Car will help. This is the last myth.

It’s what you drive that counts -  How you drive matters a lot too. Eco-driving can be fascinating and quite fun. Imagine there’s an unbroken raw egg between your foot and the accelerator pad – be smooth rather than sticking to the bumper in front.

The trick is to think ahead: read the road, anticipate where the traffic will be and how it’s moving. If you adopt this kind of driving style, you’re less likely to encounter any nasty surprises. 

You won’t have spurted on the accelerator, only to jam on the brakes seconds later and throw away the momentum from the fuel you burned.

With practice you’ll get along pretty much as quickly and you’ll be safer. On motorways, dropping your cruise by just 5 mph will reduce fuel use by up to 10 per cen

 

This was the last Green Car myth which we are going to publish from BBCGreen. If you are now clearer on what car strategy you should take  please post your comments. I have now provided my wife with the information we have published and I am waiting to see what her Green Car choice is going to be.

The team at BBCGreen have carried out some investigation on the myths surrounding Green cars.  My wife is pushing me to replace our current car with a more Eco-Friendly one, but I am not to sure what is the best path to take. Hopefully this 5 part series we have put togther about the myths of buying a Green Car will help. Below is green car myth number 4.

Manufacturing matters more than mpg - The usually infallible green mantra ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ stumbles when it comes to cars. Refurbishing old vehicles and giving them a long life isn’t always the greenest solution – not if they’re thirsty and dirty. The manufacture and recycling of a modern car accounts for 10–15 per cent of its lifecycle energy consumption – the rest is in driving it.

It follows that the biggest win is to cut the fuel used as you drive – and modern cars are more economical than old ones. Only drive an old car if you clock up very few miles a year.

As with local food, local manufacture has an effect too. BBC Top Gear Magazine calculated that the CO2 emissions of the ship that brings a hybrid car from Japan can negate the fuel savings from a whole year’s driving. But many of the other Japanese-badged cars on sale here are actually made in British factories, so research where a potential purchase comes from.

 

BeMoreEco will be publishing a new myths each Monday over the 4 week so come back .

The latest in-car navigation system will promote green driving by telling the driver when to change gear to maximise fuel economy and chastising the motorist who drives erratically, prompting some to dub it a ‘sat nag’ rather than a sat nav.

 

Vehicles equipped with video cameras, GPS and gyroscopes are currently building the three-dimensional map of British roads that will form the basis of the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS).

 

The ADAS sat nav will give users a three-dimensional view of the road, including obstacles and road width. It is hoped that the system, which will be in shops within three years, will help prevent articulated lorries getting stuck in narrow country lanes.

 

Thanks to ETA for this article.

The team at BBCGreen have carried out some investigation on the myths surrounding Green cars.  My wife is pushing me to replace our current car with a more Eco-Friendly one, but I am not to sure what is the best path to take. Hopefully this 5 part series we have put togther about the myths of buying a Green Car will help. Below is green car myth number 3.

 

Biofuel is perfect - Biofuels certainly sound great - after all, they’re a renewable solar energy store made from plants. The problem is that much bioethanol (the petrol substitute) is grown using land that might otherwise be feeding people and is refined in energy-inefficient factories. So far, it is also available in very few parts of the country - no fuel is green if you have to drive miles to buy it.

As for biodiesel, a high proportion is derived from palm oil, often in damaging monoculture on slashed-and-burned ex-rainforest land.

In a decade or so, it’s likely we will have biofuels produced with efficient processes from waste organic matter, or made by bacteria. The field is wide open and hopeful, but we’re talking mid-term for a solid answer.

 

BeMoreEco will be publishing a new myths each Monday over the 4 week so come back .

 

 

We all know that the great British Mini could be considered as an iconic car symbol, but it is now going that one step further and becoming an Eco icon symbol…well maybe!.

The iconic Mini is going electric. Set to make its debut at the  LA Auto Show in November. The car will be rolled out to select private and corporate customers in California, New York and New Jersey before the end of the year.

For all you car eco  fans the rumour is that it is powered by a 150kW rechargeable lithium-ion battery, it will have a range of 240km per charge. Maintaining BMW’s commitment to performance, the car accelerates to 100km/h in 8.5 seconds. The company said this project will allow it to gain widely applicable hands on experience it will be able to factor into the engineering of mass produced vehicles.

Based on the current Mini it will be available as a two-seater, with the space ordinarily taken up by back seat passengers used by the lithium-ion battery. Does this still sound attractive.  The mini fans out there will soon let us know. The team at BeMoreEco will keep you posted one these eco Mini events.

 

For more eco spy pictures and information <click here>

The team at BBCGreen have carried out some investigation on the myths surrounding Green cars.  My wife is pushing me to replace our current car with a more Eco-Friendly one, but I am not to sure what is the best path to take. Hopefully this 5 part series we have put togther about the myths of buying a Green Car will help. Below is green car myth number 2.

 
Big is best - However a car is powered – diesel, petrol, biofuel or hybrid – the fact is if the engine has less metal to move, it will use less fuel. So buy a car no bigger than you need.
If you only fill your car on family holidays, think about buying something smaller and – crucially – lighter, and renting a hulk just for the holiday. It’ll be cheaper in depreciation and insurance as well as, obviously, fuel.

Don’t imagine that only big barges can be safe or comfortable – not any more, anyway. A new Vauxhall Corsa is safer, more refined and better equipped than a Vectra, a car two sizes up, was in the 1990s. Four-wheel-drives are usually heavy, that’s their crime.

 

Bemoreeco will be publishing a new myths each Monday over the 4 week so come back .

Over the last few weeks have been looking at various eco car stories which have been coming out of the Paris Motor Show. I thought that was it for car post for a while until I found this eco car article at treehunger.

There’s nothing inherently special about being faster than the Porsche 911 which can get from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5-5.0 seconds. It’s not like you actually need that kind of acceleration in regular driving…But, it does strike the imagination of gearheads everywhere and create a halo effect. If that can help make eco-cars more desirable, why not?

The treehunger team found 5 green cars which are actually faster off the line than the Porsche 911. They were (in order of beauty);

• TZero by AC Propulsion
• Roadster by Tesla Motors (our favorite)
• Ultimate Aero EV by Shelby SuperCars
• Tango Electric Car
• Wrightspeed X1
• Karma by Fisker

To read full article <click here>

At the moment the Paris Motor Show in running. We have already commented on the new eco cars, but not the eco concept ones. Andy McCue at GreenBang has seen the eco green concept car of the future. This week Nissan unveiled their eco green car of the future. Called the eco Nuvu, the motor company claims we’ll all be driving cars like this by the middle of the next decade. It is, of course, an electric vehicle and at just three metres long is compact and made for the urban city dweller familiy of the future.

The Nuvu has two regular seats and a third ‘occasional’ chair that can be folded down when required. In the interests of saving both weight and space, the third seat has a centre section made from hammock-like netting, which allows cool or warm air to circulate around the occupant’s body for extra comfort. Which sounds nice

All the major functions – steering, braking, transmission and throttle – are ‘By-Wire’ while the steering is controlled by an aircraft-style steering yoke with just one turn from lock to lock for better agility and maneuverability in the city.

The batteries used are the latest laminated lithium-ion type and have a capacity of 140 Wh/kg (watt-hours per kilogram) but the total capacity of the batteries and number of modules in the Nuvu are not being disclosed by Nissan yet

Will we ever actually see an eco car like this on the road or di I have to stick to my pub bike? To read the full article at GreenBang <click here>.

The team at BBCGreen have carried out some investigation on the myths surrounding Green cars.  My wife is pushing me to replace our current car with a more Eco-Friendly one, but I am not to sure what is the best path to take. Hopefully this 5 part series we have put togther about the myths of buying a Green Car will help.  

Hybrids are the only answer

As green statements, the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid are unrivalled but as green cars, that’s not always the case. Hybrid systems excel in stop–start town driving – their efficiency derives from the kinetic energy recovered as you hit the brakes. This energy is stored in the battery and then reused with an electric motor – so the engine doesn’t have to work as hard when you next hit the gas.

But on the open road, your speed is near-constant and this is when hybrid cars have less of an advantage. So if you live out of town, a diesel engine can compete with a hybrid petrol one. 

You can see this by comparing a car’s official fuel figures, which give an ‘urban’ figure and an ‘extra-urban’ one. For example, the Honda Civic Hybrid achieves 11.5 more miles per gallon than its diesel counterpart in town, but fares exactly the same in the extra-urban test. 

Combine this wisdom with the small-car advice below. The Toyota Prius hybrid is a big, roomy car, so makes a good economy choice if you need that space. If you don’t, dropping down a size can tip the balance the diesel’s way. The diesel Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion, for example, has the same CO2 figure as the Prius or Civic hybrids.

 

BeMoreEco will be publishing a new myths each Monday over the 4 week so come back .

This week a a number of eco driving teams have been taking part in the 2008 MPG Marathon - a competition to find who can use least fuel over a 411 mile course. The MPG marathon challenges drivers to improve upon the published “combined cycle” fuel consumption figures for their vehicles.

Tom Symonds from the BBC has been taking part in the MPG Marathon travelling with the AA’s entry (AA’s president Edmund King), but theirs 73 mpg was not good enough to win. This two day Eco Driving mile race ended with first place going to the Toyota Yaris 1.4 diesel at 84.66 mpg and second place to to the Mazda 2 1.4 diesel at 84.58 mpg.  

For Tom’ full story <click here>