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Little by little.

Illinois "Anti-ICEing” Law Signed

QOTD: Why Hasn’t Anyone Out-Gas Mileaged The Prius?

Fifty-one miles per gallon city. Forty-eight miles per gallon highway. Still the best numbers in the industry for nearly a decade now.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m referring to the Toyota Prius, which is a 5-door hatchback that looks a bit like an egg mated with a shopping cart. It’s been a decade since the Prius came out in hatchback form, and a decade since it achieved those impressive fuel economy figures: 51 miles per gallon city. 48 miles per gallon highway. And still, no one has unseated the Prius.

(more at the link)

This week Tony and Russell bravely go forth to wrestle with…
Audi A3 e tron pricing 2016 Audi A3 Sportback e-tron US Pricing Announced | CleanTechnica
Fisker makes it’s return…to the Inland Empire New competition for Tesla: Fisker to open factory in Riverside County - LA Times
While FCV owners search for an open refueling station, plug-in and EV drivers seem to like their cars Electric Car Drivers Tell Ford: We'll Never Go Back To Gasoline
BYD rising? Tesla and Nissan trumped by BYD in world EV sales | Auto Express We’re going to force you to do what you should...

Love it or hate it, most of us with 2012 and up Prius models have Toyota's Entune system, which has search powered by Bing. Until August 20th, that is. After then an update will hit Entune systems removing Bing as the search engine and replacing it with what I assume is an in-house Toyota search system, "Destination Search".

Toyota is promising enhancements like sorting results by distance (my, how 2004 of them!), and providing automated suggestions while you type on your smart phone.

Here's the email from Toyota about the change:

Source: AD #1677 – JLR to Build in Slovakia, Cyber Concerns Not Going Away, CAFE Making Impact – Autoline Daily

Bob Wilson

Does any website or authoritative source such as AAA have a usable compendium of cross-country roads that have low speed limits but minimal interruptions such as stop signs and traffic lights?
I would nominate the Natchez Trace Parkway (444 miles, 50 mph maximum speed) and the Blue Ridge Parkway (469 miles, 45 mph maximum speed limit) to be on such a list based on my own driving experience, but I am hoping other folks have already compiled a usable list of such roads.
U.S. Route 2 near the Canadian border was also a slow, pleasant way to cross parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana, but I sure there are other such Prius-friendly routes.
Any suggestions?

2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid First Drive Review - CleanMPG Forums

This week Danny, Russell, Patrick and Paul take on…
The dumbest possible law we could make… U.S. will finalize long-delayed ‘quiet cars’ rules
Please for the love of all that is holy, please, stop…Link bait of the decade… Google
Chinese continue their creativity explosion making more direct copies of other country’s products… Youxia Electric Tesla Clone From China: So Bad It Makes Us Laugh
We’re all driving bugs now… Volkswagen overtakes Toyota as world's biggest carmaker| Reuters
Infotainment…...

Source: Iconic Old Volkswagen Bus Gets Solar Power | CleanTechnica



I used to own one. Great hack!

Bob Wilson

Another excellent report:

	model	Jul_15	Jun_15	May_15	Apr_15
1	Prius Liftback	11203	9559	11921	8822
2	Ram Pickup Diesel	4775	5050	5647	5072
3	Prius c	3517	2756	3763	3523
4	Camry Hybrid	2756	2755	3174	2650
5	Prius v	2620	2272	3152	2462
6	Passat Diesel	2372	2489	2769	2182
7	Golf Sport Wagon Diesel	2174	1506	1419	928
8	Fusion Hybrid	2157	1691	2440	1820
9	Jetta Diesel	1999	1852	2141	1949
10	Sonata	1837	2334	2943	2481
11	Model S	1800	2800	2300	1900
12	Accord Hybrid	1481	1241	1463	1118
13	CT200h	1374	1118	1436	1170
14	Volt	1313	1225	1618	905
15	C-Max Hybrid	1225	1814	1892	1237
16	Avalon Hybrid	1175	973	1114	906
17	Leaf	1174	2074	2104	1553
18	i3 *	935	551	818	406
19	Golf diesel	903	955	1 011	821
20	ES Hybrid	891	711	911	789
21	Optima Hybrid	873	897	1 046	892
22	Fusion Energi	852	727	986	711
23	MKZ	725	700	1 005	810
24	C-Max Energi	693	667	715	...

This week, Russell Tony and Paul take on… Consumer Reports looks at CarPlay and AndroidAuto… http://www.carscoops.com/2015/06/consumer-reports-reviews-android-auto.html Kind of like “unlimited data” cell phones, unlimited charging may, in fact, be limited… http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1098831_teslas-contradictory-messages-is-supercharging-unlimited-or-not Toyota says they’re going to make more fuel cell membranes… http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1098818_toyota-fuel-cell-megafactory-matches-tesla-gigafactory-in-impact On one hand, fixing things is good, on the other, the need to […]

Read more about this episode on WhatDrives.Us

Patrick Connor, Paul Guzyk and Russell Frost spend the entire talking to Intel’s Senior Product Manager, Transportation Solutions, Ryan Tabrah. It’s an incredible show with lots of great talk about the future of cars from infotainment systems to autonomous driving. Here’s Ryan’s page at Intel. You can follow Ryan on Twitter, @red_stapler.

Read more about this episode on WhatDrives.Us

This week Russell works the topics below with Patrick Connor, Paul Guzyk and Tony Schaefer… Subaru sport hybrid comes to Japan http://www.topspeed.com/cars/subaru/2016-subaru-impreza-sport-hybrid-ar170047.html Bugatti Chiron will be a hybrid http://blog.caranddriver.com/electric-bug-bugatti-chiron-hypercar-to-get-hybrid-powertrain/ Chevy Bolt http://boingboing.net/2015/06/29/chevys-200-mile-electric-car.html 4th Gen Prius debut http://priuschat.com/threads/4th-generation-coming-2015.117745/page-246#post-2202352 Terrible reporting, stupid people or both? https://thenewswheel.com/indianapolis-orders-employees-not-to-charge-hybrid-vehicles-at-home/ The LATimes says the Prius is DeadBeforeArrival, more or less http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-new-prius-20150626-story.html […]

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This week Evan, Tony, Patrick and Russell discuss… Next gen PiP to have 30-35 miles of EV range, according to an anonymous source http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1099222_next-toyota-prius-plug-in-hybrid-to-have-30-to-35-miles-of-range-source Toyota starts taking Mirai orders, unicorns everywhere cower in fear http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mirai-hydrogen-car-arrive-october-809923 Craig Scott, national alternative fuel vehicle manager at Toyota, “With batteries there is a fundamental science problem that we don’t […]

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This week Danny, Russell, Evan and Paul talk nothing but Volt with Mark Coughlan of the Waterloo Region Voltec Group. From Mark regarding the Volt: Largest Chevy Volt Community (3rd Party) GM-Volt.com Live Chevy Volt Statistics Site VoltStats.net Twitter: @WRVoltec From Evan, if you want a discount on your Tesla vehicle from a Tesla owner: […]

Read more about this episode on WhatDrives.Us

SHOCKING ACTUAL COST OF A TESLA:

Driving a Tesla Model S 265 miles burns 10 gallons of OIl at the power plant. This means a Tesla Model S gets about 26.5 miles per gallon of oil. This is worse than a Volkswagen Jetta Diesel which gets 32 mpg highway, 27 mpg combined miles. And definitely this is much worse than a Prius V.

This data is from an interesting article from a person who has managed to completely live only on DC Power:

"How I Gave Up Alternating Current" How I Gave Up Alternating Current | Mostly Harmless

QUOTE:

WITHOUT SUSTAINABLE POWER PRODUCTION ELECTRIC CARS ARE NOT THAT GREAT.

Charging an 85kWh Tesla would still burn the equivalent of 10 gallons of oil at the power plant.

With a range of 265 miles the Tesla Model S really uses 26.5 mpg, barely over the average american fuel economy of 23.6 mpg.

CALCULATIONS:

ENERGY TO CHARGE A TESLA TO DRIVE 265 MILES = 85kWh = 306MJ

Grid loss is 75%...

2016 Chevrolet Volt Rated At 53 Miles Electric Range, 106 MPGe, 42 MPG On Gas

Unlike the gen I volt that fell short on the epa test, the gen II seems to hit its numbers well - increasing range 39% and range 13.5% from the gen I with a price drop to $34,000 before tax credits and other incentives. It won't sell like the gen II prius, as it has a lot more competition, and is a 2+2, but it shows how fast phev technology is improving.

Wow lots of late breaking news. I will try to add details later:

1. Washington State at the last minute saved its EV tax credit and extended it to Plug-Ins. Only cars less than $35k but Plug-In Prius is excluded for insufficient battery capacity (need 30 miles). So we can possibly see why Toyota needs a bona fide 30 miles next PiP2.

2. Delaware has added ~$2000 EV/Plug_in incentive looks like PiP might be included! Not sure if PiP gets the full amount. The DE FAQ section specifically mentions PiP as an example, unless PiP is unobtainium it appears PiP is included. DE is CARB-Lite (not 150k for batts).

3. California has modified the CVRP rebate program slightly for less payout to higher income folks

4. Bad news: Idaho had added a new Hybrid tax of $75/yr and EV fee of $150/yr ...more on this later...I can only quote what Va. Gov Terry McAuliffe said when asked by a reporter: "Do you really think a hybrid fee discourages sales (in Va.)?" Va....

Airbus E-Fan all electric plane crosses english channel.

GE Claims Fuel Cell Breakthrough, Starts Pilot Production - IEEE Spectrum