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Hello everyone, and happy 2009. For years, the Union of Concerned Scientists, along with supporters like you, have been campaigning for cleaner vehicles and making noise wherever we could about the need to increase fuel economy standards. Now it seems that this noise was heard and our efforts have paid off. Our new president put his policy money where his mouth is this week when it comes to clean cars. The winds of change were also blowing in Detroit, as the electricity of the auto show buzzed around not just clean car concept vehicles, but ones that we’ll soon be seeing on the road.
Let’s ring it in,
Scott Nathanson
UCS National Field Organizer &
HybridCenter.org Administrator
In this issue:
That title just about sums it up. I was going to write something for this month’s DCN newsletter about the momentous event at the White House this week, but Clean Vehicles Program Director Michelle Robinson put it better than I ever could. So without further ado, here’s Michelle:
Simply put, these are the moments that make all our hard work worthwhile. For years, the Union of Concerned Scientists and our supporters, activists, and scientists have been campaigning to ensure that reining in pollution from vehicles is a part of our country's global warming solution.
President Obama announcing measures to make clean cars a top priority. |
UCS President Kevin Knobloch speaking with John Holdren, President Obama's science advisor.
Photos taken by UCS Director of Strategy & Policy Alden Meyer |
A few days ago, our work paid off. I was invited to the White House, along with UCS President Kevin Knobloch and Director of Strategy and Policy Alden Meyer, to witness President Barack Obama make clean cars a top environmental priority.
The president paved the way for states to implement strong clean car standards and called for swift action to implement federal fuel economy standards for cars and trucks—policies that will significantly reduce global warming pollution and our dangerous dependence on oil.
President Obama instructed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider the Bush administration's decision to block states from implementing breakthrough clean car standards for global warming pollution. In addition, he directed the Department of Transportation to move quickly to implement federal fuel economy rules that will ensure stronger standards apply to the earliest model year possible.
It is thanks to UCS supporters and Driving Change Network members like you that this moment was possible—in the face of great obstacles, you stood up to be heard. Together we:
- Sent more than 16,000 letters to the EPA demanding that Administrator Stephen Johnson obey the Clean Air Act, and listen to his own staff scientists, by granting the waiver California and other states needed to implement strong clean car standards.
- Flooded the EPA's "Flow of the River" blog with more than 700 heartfelt and eloquent comments expressing the need for sound science to guide EPA policy making—actions that garnered major media coverage and prompted a direct response from a top EPA executive.
- Placed crucial Letters to the Editor in newspapers in key states using the standing of hybrid drivers to “drive home” the need for cleaner car choices for everyone.
- Submitted thousands of letters in Florida, New Mexico, Minnesota, and Illinois encouraging them to adopt the clean car standards—breaking records in New Mexico and even prompting a "Wow!" response from the Florida Department of the Environment.
- Built a groundswell of public support for strong, federal fuel economy standards—resulting in the 2007 passage of stronger standards for the first time in more than a generation.
The fact that this issue topped the President's environmental agenda is testament to the sustained and determined work that UCS, our allies, and supporters like you undertook over the past few years.
So thank you for being such a huge part of this historic, and, let us hope, transformative moment in America. There is much work to be done to see these issues through to concrete regulatory action, but in this moment, let us savor what we have accomplished together.
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Sincerely,
Michelle Robinson
Director, Clean Vehicles Program
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There’s no need for me to give you a detailed rundown of all the neat new hybrid and electric models that got introduced at the Detroit Auto Show a couple of weeks ago. The Department of Energy’s office of energy efficiency and renewable energy has a great synopsis of it all here. Instead of giving you the list, let me instead do what I do best—rant about what was there:
 Toyota Prius Gen. 3—Showing The Love: As you might remember from DCN Newsbytes way back in April 2007, we had been hearing rumors about the Model Year 2010 Prius being bigger and more powerful, with very opaque rumors about fuel economy improvements. Well, the vague has now become reality, and that reality is an EPA-estimated 50mpg combined. Toyota has obviously worked hard at further refining its Hybrid Synergy Drive, and even with the more traditional nickel-metal hydride batteries, has managed this breakthrough jump in fuel economy. And with cool extras like a solar roof to help vent hot air from the cabin, the Prius shows no signs of relinquishing its hold as the hybrid standard-bearer.
 Honda Insight—Thrifty at 40mpg: Toyota didn’t talk price with its Gen. 3 Prius, but Honda sure did with its new 5-seat Insight. I can’t say I love the name choice, as it’s a completely different car than the 2-seater they discontinued in ’05, but a 42-mpg, 5-seat hatchback coming in at $19,000 or less is hard to argue with. In this economy, it’s nice to see the hybrid “premium” coming down. It will be interesting to see whether Toyota, which still has a lot of the ’09 Priuses sitting on dealer floors and a new pre-owned hybrid program in place, will try to engage the new Insight on price points there, or perhaps even bring down the price of the 2010 Prius. Either way, the Insight’s base price and 40+ mpg is great news for consumers.
 Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan Hybrids—Camry Killer?: I have to say, for the past few years, I’ve been really impressed with what Ford has been able to do with its hybrid technology, continually improving the fuel economy on the Escape Hybrid despite not doing a full redesign. I was very curious to see how they were going to apply their hybrid expertise moving forward. It turns out they chose not to go the dedicated hybrid model route, instead focusing their targets directly on the mid-size sedan market. The result does not disappoint, as the Fusion/Milan Hybrids offer an impressive 41 city/36 highway ratio, as opposed to its main competition, the Toyota Camry’s 33/34 split. You might remember that back before the EPA revised its fuel economy tests to be more real-world accurate, full hybrids like the Escape Hybrid and Prius were getting phenomenal city mileage ratings due to the ability of hybrids’ idle-off and electric-only running capacities. It seems that Ford has focused on maximizing those features, and it’s paid big dividends.
 Lexus 2010 HS 250h—Luxury and (Fuel) Economy: In some ways, the new Lexus “entry-level” luxury car was the biggest news for me. Not because it’s the first exclusively hybrid Lexus model, but it’s the first one that uses a four-cylinder engine instead of a V6. No fuel economy numbers yet, but Toyota says it’s looking for a 30 percent improvement over its most fuel efficient model, which is the Lexus GS 450h at 23mpg. So if we’re talking 30mpg for a luxury car, we’re certainly headed in the right direction.
The main uniting factor for all these models goes beyond the fact that they’ll all be hitting the road this year—marking a significant expansion in overall hybrid options. More, it’s the proof that hybrid technologies are proving that they can make marked efficiency improvements even without lithium-ion batteries and plug-in abilities. With Honda leading the way on decreasing price-points, Ford fulfilling the promise of full hybrids’ city driving efficiencies, Lexus signaling the end of the muscle hybrid era, and Toyota pushing the pack, today’s hybrid technology offers us a very promising future all on its own.
Next month, we’ll talk about what the Detroit Auto Show told us about plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles—that’s an interesting story in itself.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it—the economy is in bad shape. Every day we’re hit with more depressing news: credit is frozen, consumer spending is plummeting, companies are closing their doors, millions of jobs have been lost, and millions more are expected to be lost in the coming year. But stomping through the economic gloom is an $825 billion stimulus package that Congress and the Obama administration are trying to hammer out. The broad goals for this huge chunk of change are to create and protect jobs, and to jumpstart and transform the economy. At the same time, the package aims to reduce our dependence on oil, increase our renewable energy production, and promote greater energy efficiency. While the stimulus won’t instantly or completely cure our economic woes, it will take us a step in the right direction.
The House version—which passed yesterday—is comprehensive and reaches into many different sectors. Let’s take a closer look at what the House bill has to offer America’s transportation needs. While much of the debate has focused on the imbalance between funding in the bill for highways versus mass transit, we’ve focused on the vehicle and technology development portions. The bill includes $200 million to fund a new grant program to encourage electric vehicle technologies. Electric vehicles are the talk of the town, and last month we discussed the opportunities and challenges of plug-in cars. With American automakers struggling to meet day-to-day financial needs, this grant program would come at a time when automakers need help to keep developing new technology. The funds would also help smaller companies who are struggling to work on this technology—but aren’t receiving any bailout money.
Another component of the bill would dedicate $600 million to replace old federal vehicles with alternative fuel vehicles. This switch would help to reduce oil consumption and reduce emissions of global warming pollution. The federal fleet consists of approximately 650,000 vehicles, and 20 percent of those are alternative fuel vehicles. There’s also another $400 million to help state and local governments purchase alternative fuel buses and trucks. Again, these purchases would help state and local governments reduce oil use and carbon emissions.
The last part specific to vehicles is the consumer-friendly vehicle tax credit. Tax credits on the purchases of hybrid vehicles were a major perk to the “early adopters” who bought hybrids over the past few years. Unfortunately, there was a cap and time limit on the tax credits and they are no longer available on the popular and fuel efficient Toyota and Honda hybrids. The text for the vehicle tax credit isn’t available yet—but we will be sure to let you know the details as soon as we can.
There’s a lot to be optimistic about in this stimulus bill. And while the bill is expected to be finalized early next month, the new Congress and the new president are still shaking out the kinks and dusting off their gloves, so that deadline could slip. And there are certainly areas that are lacking. Anytime you spend $825 billion you’re bound to find something you don’t like, but the good news is there’s a lot of money for increasing the adoption and development of alternative fueled vehicles, particularly hybrids and electrics. Hopefully those pieces will survive the legislative process; we’ll keep you posted.
- G.M. to Make Battery Packs for Volt in Michigan: As part of their revitalization plan, GM announced they will be assembling lithium-ion battery packs at a new facility in Michigan. The battery packs will power the highly anticipated Chevy Volt and other extended-range electric vehicles. This announcement marks GM as the first major automaker to produce battery packs in the United States. Asian companies currently dominate the battery development market, but this announcement could lay the groundwork for a domestic battery production industry—a strategic move for Detroit's future. For more, visit the Hybrid News Center.
- Ford Unveils New Hybrid Electric Vans: Ford is looking to take the lead in uncharted hybrid territory when they announced plans to have a new hybrid electric van by 2010. Ford recognizes that consumers want hybrid choices in a variety of vehicle categories, and the huge gap right now is the hybrid van market. Their plan also includes bringing more hybrid electric cars to the market over the next four years and a plug-in hybrid by 2012. For more, visit the Hybrid News Center.
- Electric Car Charging Stations Come to San Jose: To encourage its residents to consider purchasing electric cars, officials in San Jose, California, have opened up public charging stations in its downtown district. Anyone with an electric car or plug-in hybrid can register with the network and then simply swipe their card at the stations to power up their car. Having public charging stations can serve as a partial solution to those for whom plugging in a car at home is either not an option or not enough. Officials will first monitor the success of the stations before building more throughout the city and region. For more, visit the Hybrid News Center.
It’s a new year and we’d love to hear from you! Let us know how your hybrid is treating you. Have you improved your gas mileage over the past year? Do you have any hybrid tips to share? Have you purchased a new hybrid? Are you and your hybrid part of our community? If you are a proud hybrid owner and would like to join us, please submit your testimonial here.
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Michael Seabolt of Scott Depot, WV just sent us a mileage update on his 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid. In 2008 he drove 14,142 miles and used 452.08 gallons of gas, which works out to be 31.28mpg. He reports an average price per gallon of $3.23, which equals $1,461 for the year. He’s had the car since April, 2006 and still thinks it’s a great vehicle! |
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Bill Tappan of San Pedro, CA is the latest hybrid owner to join us. He bought his Honda Insight new in 2001 and has more than 300,000 miles on the same engine and original clutch. He did replace the brakes at 250,000 miles. He loves his car and says it’s paid for itself! He’s averaged about 64 MPG over the life of the car and he claims he’s even gotten as high as 100 mpg when not in a hurry! Amazing! |
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