alternative fuel

Ford Focus Electric Test Drive – NYC

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Fifteen months after first showing the Focus Electric in New York City, Ford brought a trailer-load of the battery-powered beasts to the Big Apple for a media drive. I let the mass media journalists and well-funded bloggers take their turns first, before I covered a Focus Electric with cameras and took a ride through mid-town Manhattan in late-morning traffic with Ford Engineer, Gil Portalatin.

The Focus Electric pulled into traffic effortlessly and I instantly felt at home in the urban environment. The first application of brakes felt a little grabby, but not overly so. This is to be expected with a vehicle that aggressively regenerates energy.

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2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas (CNG) Review

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2012 Honda Civic CNG MPG-o-Matic 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas Review Summary: The Honda Civic Natural Gas might not burn rubber, but it doesn’t burn a single drop of petroleum, imported or otherwise. On a car-per-car basis, it does more to reduce America’s reliance on foreign oil than any hybrid, whether plug-in or not. Its tailpipe is the cleanest of any vehicle sold with a tailpipe today. With 100% compressed natural gas (CNG) selling for just a fraction of the cost of unleaded gasoline, it’s win-win-win. But be sure to check for sufficient CNG stations in your area before you sign on the bottom line.

The 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas is equipped with an inline four-cylinder engine displacing 1.8-liters and a five-speed automatic transmission with Grade Logic control. The SOHC i-VTEC four produces 110 horsepower (HP) and 106 foot pounds of torque. These numbers are substantially lower than the conventionally fueled 1.8-liter Civic engine, which produces 140 HP and 128 foot pounds of torque.

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How to Drive Without Gasoline

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Why are gasoline prices so high? It’s quite simple, actually. Never mind the unrest happening on the other side of the world. There’s no real competition at the pump right here in America. Big Oil effectively holds a monopoly on transportation fuel – from sea to shining sea. Not a traditional one, mind you, but a monopoly all the same. If you want to pass go, you’ll have to fork over $200 to fill your tank … to one of the usual suspects.

Now that’s not to say there’s a total lack of competition. But you’d be hard-pressed to find an alternative to conventional gasoline sitting across the street from the vast majority of service stations in America today (with some notable exceptions). If you want to drive without gasoline, you’ll need to do a little legwork.

The good news is that there are at least half a dozen viable alternatives that work today. These fuels are readily available across the country, but you might need to do a little digging to find a local source. Some fuels are better suited to certain geographical locations and climates. Some fuels are simply inappropriate in specific locations. But some fuels are remarkably inexpensive for the industrious …

Six ready-to-go alternative transportation fuels:

  • Electricity
  • Biodiesel
  • CNG
  • Propane
  • Ethanol
  • Reclaimed Vegetable Oil

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Jeep Wrangler Gas Mileage Improvement – SEMA (Part 2)

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Our Jeep Wrangler gas mileage improvement project is proceeding, albeit slowly. We headed out to SEMA last month to see what the aftermarket options exist to help squeak an extra mile or two out of a gallon of gas. Lo and behold, we quickly tripped into two very cool alternatives that offer a peek into a domestic energy-independent future.

One thing’s for sure. If you’re serious about improving the fuel economy of your Jeep and have serious money to spend the options are out there. The first article in this series mentioned the HPA Motorsports TDI diesel engine swap. We found another cool diesel swap option while scouring the aisles of SEMA’s off-road exhibit hall at the Bruiser Off-Road booth.

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New Gas Mileage Standard:
54.5 MPG by 2025

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Hold onto your hats. The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have finally pulled the curtain on their proposed rule for the Obama Administration’s new gas mileage standard. An average of 54.5 miles per gallon (MPG) by 2025 may seem like a huge leap in a short time, but the numbers are not what they appear.

The 54.5 MPG figure is the EPA number for passenger vehicles, not what you’ll see on the window sticker. It’s a fudge factory powered by greenhouse gas emissions. The automakers will be able to use a range of technology incentives in one place to offset their numbers in another, including flex fuel, hybrid, and electric power trains. In real world terms, we might expect a sticker average of 40 MPG for cars that run on liquid fuel. That’s not all that extraordinary, considering all the cars with gas mileage ratings around 40 MPG highway that we can buy today.

And they wonder why so many Americans are so skeptical of what goes on in Washington.

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