I don’t want this to come across as an “I’m just putting something on my blog because ohmygod I haven’t posted in ages!” kind of effort (even if at some level it may be), so here are a couple quick updates. In particular I’ll try to highlight some of the things I’ve posted about “recently.”

• My parents are doing quite well after their house fire last year. I just received word from them today that their construction loan has finally gone through. They are rebuilding on the same piece of land their old house was on, but starting literally from the ground up. They hope to start digging footers for the new construction next week (mid-May) and to be in the house by fall.

• The new Honda Insight has launched, to pretty good reviews I might add, but I’m still not convinced. It is about 4/5 of a Prius at a lower price, both size and mileage-wise. While the $20k price is attractive, I still have significant reservations about the overall environmental impact of all those hybrids’ batteries, even if they do use less fuel.
• I survived my first time through all the major seasons of the church (especially Christmas and Easter) and have emerged unscathed as I prepare to celebrate my 1 year anniversary of being a pastor on June 15th. It’s incredibly hard to believe it’s been almost 11 months, though I guess if you judge by the continually decreasing frequency of my blog posts, it’s not all that surprising.
• Part of the blame for my lack of blogging should also go straight to Facebook and Twitter. The more I seem to get sucked into these social-media oriented sites, the less I create original content for my blog. I do intend to remedy that though …

Rather than inundate you with more semi-interesting updates, I’ll leave you with news about this blog:

No, I am not abandoning it. Yes, I am actively planning new content!

• A review of my recent “road test” of a 2009 Nissan Versa. I’ve had my eye on the Versa as a possible next car for a while now, so you might be interested in my impressions after spending 350 miles with one.
• Some tech updates on “recent” purchases – Lenovo S10 netbook, Nikon D60 Digital SLR camera, and several others.
• Some insight into bicycle commuting – continuing the irony that this gearhead car-blogger often doesn’t even drive a car unless I can’t avoid it!
• A revew of Phyllis Tickle’s The Great Emergence – a wonderful, insightful (and relatively short) book about “how Christianity is changing and why.”
• A semi-regular feature for posting recipes, particularly for the soups and breads I make every Monday night as part of the dinner and conversation group I host.

So, there you go … proof that <montypythonvoice> I’m not dead yet! I’m getting better! </montypythonvoice> Stay tuned for new content coming soon, and feel free to leave your suggestions for interesting posts in the comments section!

However, it seems the rest of our country is sold on the idea, including the automakers that sell to our market. In the past few weeks quite a few announcements have been made about more hybrids that are getting ready to roll down the assembly line: the Chevy Volt, the (new) Honda Insight, and the Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid. Call me skeptical, but I’m still not convinced …

2011 Chevy Volt

The one that seems to have people most excited is the Chevy Volt. Due out for the 2011 model year,  Chevy is hoping to break new ground in the hybrid market with the first mass-marketed plug-in hybrid. The Volt is different from other hybrids on the market now in the fact that the gas engine is not connected to the drive wheels in any way, but instead only serves as a generator to recharge the batteries and supply electricity to the electric drive motors. By plugging in the car over night, it is capable of driving up to 40 miles on electricity alone. Therefore if your average daily driving amounts to less than 40, you could go for long periods of time without ever using any gas.

While this sounds great at first blush and is definitely innovative there are some issues that could throw a wrench in whether the Volt is ultimately a success. The first is its cost. Early estimates show that the Volt could cost up to $40,000. That’s a lot of money for a 4-door 5-passenger Chevy. The company is currently lobbying congress (ack) to give Volt buyers a sizable tax credit for their green-ness that would help offset this initial cost, but that still remains to be determined.

A technical issue that could come into play is the fact that if buyers were to spend several months only making short trips and never using the gas engine they could run into gasoline stability problems. Without added stabilizers, gasoline only has a limited “shelf-life” before it begins to deteriorate. As gasoline ages and breaks down it becomes dirtier when it is combusted and provides less energy. In worst-case scenarios Volt drivers could find themselves with a tank full of fuel that produces excess pollution, causes the car’s engine to run poorly, or even not run at all!

Finally, there are also environmental implications of such a plug-in hybrid. While GM estimates that it would only cost 40 cents per day to charge the Volt, thus making it much less expensive than powering it by gasoline, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is more environmentally friendly. When charging from the electrical grid most of the environmental impact is transferred from the car itself to the power plant that generates the electricity. If everyone were to start using plug-in hybrids the electrical infrastructure would need to be updated and potentially cause more pollution from power plants. I therefore repeat my mantra that “hybrids aren’t as green as you think they are.”

My final comment on the Volt is that it truly embodies “love it or hate it” styling. You can see more pics using the link above, but I’ll simply say that I fall into the “hate it” category.

2010 Honda Insight

Set to be officially launched at the 2008 Paris auto show, the new Honda Insight is supposed to be on the road in April 2009, probably as a labeled as a 2010 model.  Honda has revived the Insight name from its first foray into the hybrid world.  The original Insight was actually the first hybrid sold in the US and remains one of the most fuel-efficient vehicles you can buy, despite the fact it has been out of production for several years. The new Insight is being billed as Honda’s “Prius fighter”, though I would call it more of a Prius clone. If you swapped the front grille and emblem you could probably convince people this was the next-generation of the Prius.

The Insight will likely be a bit smaller than the Prius, and is supposed to undercut it in price. Some reports have said it will debut with a starting price of $19,000. Of course, that’s before dealers mark up the price because if the fact that everybody will be clamoring for one.  Honda is hoping to sell somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 Insights annually, so prepare yourself to start seeing these everywhere.

2009 Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid

Why would I include the new Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid in this lineup? For two reasons: It is significant because it marks Mercedes’ first foray into hybrids. Prior to this model, Mercedes-Benz was sticking to super-efficient diesels, which they happen to do very well. In fact, the S-series diesel model returns approximately 40mpg, whereas the S400 Hybrid is expected to get about 30mpg. Ah, but diesels aren’t as sexy as hybrids, despite the fact that most other world markets have been gravitating towards them for decades.

The second reason I include this car is because it marks the first mass-market application of lithium-ion batteries in a hybrid. Lithium-ion batteries are more expensive but much more energy-dense than nickel metal hydride batteries, which are used in most other hybrids. That means that lithium-ion battery packs can be much smaller and lighter while producing the same performance. I must admit I don’t know as much about lithium-ion’s environmental impact as compared to nickel metal hydride, but I’m sure there is still some impact to be considered when taking into account the overall impact of the vehicle during it’s lifespan.

Make no mistake, this car marks the beginning of a new era of hybrids. In a few years I expect that all hybrids will be using li-ion batteries, or even something that is developed that will surpass them. Making battery packs lighter and more powerful will allow for increased efficiency which might make hybrids a more compelling environmental argument than they are now.

My take

I’m still not sold on hybrids. Yeah they have cool technology. Yeah they’re more fuel efficient than gasoline-only powered cars. But in my mind there are better, more environmentally friendly ways of reaching the same efficiency. I remain a big fan of diesel technology, in part because most modern diesel-powered cars can easily run on bio-diesel, unlike gas-powered cars and E85 (ethanol).

I’d love to see companies start selling cars like the 65-mpg Ford Fiesta ECOnetic here in the US, however the facts that their engines are built overseas and the dollar is so weak means that they aren’t economically viable. One vehicle I will be watching closely is the 2010 Volkswagen Rabbit TDI, due here in the Fall of ‘09. While it’s not as efficient as the VW Golf (aka Rabbit) BlueMotion for the European market that gets about 62pmpg, it should still return mid 40’s to low 50’s depending on driving conditions.

Now the question is how long can our family get by with only one car, and can we wait for automakers to get around to selling more small efficient diesel cars here in the U.S.? I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

What’s your take on the seemingly ever-increasing hybrid hype?

For my earth day post about cars I’m choosing to blog about how some of the current trends in the automotive world aren’t as green as they may seem to be: hybrids and corn ethanol. I’m excited about the fact that our car-loving culture is trying (pretending?) to find ways to reduce its impact on the planet. However I have some serious doubts concerning whether hybrid vehicles and ethanol derived from corn will be the saviors they’re sometimes purported to be. In some cases they may not even be any better for the environment than the cars we drive right now …

Hybrids

A while back there was a bit of a stir when an article appeared in a college newspaper alleging that the Prius outdoes the Hummer in overall environmental damage. While I don’t necessarily agree with everything the article says, I do think that some folks who are trying to be environmentally friendly conveniently overlook the environmental implications of manufacturing hybrid cars. All current model hybrids use some type of nickel-metal hydride battery pack. Manufacturing such batteries requires a great deal of energy and resources. While the specific process outlined in the original article may be somewhat dubious, there is no denying that some amount of damage is done to the environment in the manufacture of these batteries, even if only from generating the energy used to produce them. Therefore, each hybrid car sold bears some amount of additional environmental burden that it must overcome before it can be considered better for the environment than a traditional car.

Hybrids are en vogue right now, with new models popping up every day. Everything from full-size SUVs (Chevy Tahoe Hybrid) to large luxury sedans (Lexus LS 600h) to “mainstream” family cars (Saturn Aura Green Line.) What’s more is that often these hybrids, despite all of their illusions of environmental grandeur, barely get better gas mileage than their gasoline-only counterparts. The Saturn Aura Green Line is a prime example of this, with the hybrid version achieving an EPA average only 2 miles per gallon better in both city and highway ratings.

I’m sure there may be ways, such as “plug-in hybrid” technology, to make hybrids more eco-friendly with regards to the big picture. However, most current hybrids seem to be little more than an attempt by the automakers to cash in on the latest marketing fad. Unfortunately, this is ultimately happening at the expense of the environment.

Corn Ethanol

This country has more corn than it knows what to do with, so why not try turning it into a fuel source? Flex-fuel cars capable of running on ethanol have been around for years, however it has only been within the past few that automakers have begun touting this capability on a large scale. At first blush it seems like a good solution. It gives corn growers an additional opportunity to sell their crops and it helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil, right?

What we consumers don’t often hear is the fact that refining corn-based ethanol only results in roughly 25% more energy than it takes to produce it. In addition, even though ethanol has a higher octane rating than gasoline it contains less energy per gallon, which means that vehicles running on E85 ethanol (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) only achieve about 75% of the fuel mileage they would on gasoline alone. That means your car that gets 28 MPG using gas would only get 21 on E85 and your SUV that gets 15 MPG on gas would drop to 11 MPG. Ouch.

The government currently subsidizes the production and sale of corn ethanol so that it can be priced attractively less than gasoline. But unless it is priced 25% less than gas it still ends up costing the consumer more. According to the Daily Fuel Gauge Report the energy-adjusted price of E85 is currently about 30 cents per gallon more than regular unleaded gasoline. And that still doesn’t reflect the actual cost of ethanol because of the government subsidies.

So if corn-based ethanol is such a lost cause, what other options might there be? Soy-based fuels, such as soy biodiesel, often have a better energy balance than corn ethanol, but involve some of the same risks with regards to over-farming and competing with food sources. One alternative that I think has some merit is cellulosic ethanol, which can be refined from just about anything that has ever been alive. This includes products that are often discarded like corn stalks and wood shavings from lumber yards. Many proponents of cellulosic ethanol are currently looking towards switchgrass, a perennial grass native to the North American plains, as a viable source for ethanol production. Current estimates put the energy yield from refining switchgrass at 540% (compared to corn ethanol’s 25%.) The first cellulosic ethanol refineries have yet to come online, but when they do ethanol may finally become a truly viable alternative to gasoline.

Personally I find myself most excited by efforts like the smart fortwo where auto manufacturers are being ecologically mindful at all steps of the production process and seeking to create very efficient “conventional” cars. Even though I have my doubts about whether I could personally justify getting a smart car, it would be great if more car companies would follow a similar model of environmental management and recycling in their own business practices.

So what are your thoughts on the current (not-so) green fads in the auto world? Think I’m being a bit too critical? Want to voice your hearty support? Hit up the comments and speak your mind! You can also check out Scientific American’s article on switchgrass ethanol and Popular Mechanic’s article on converting cellulose directly to gasoline for more reading on this subject.