Ford is really throwing down the guantlet by showing how dedicated it is to the new EcoDriving initiative we talked about the other day. I really liked it because it validates a lot of what we’re trying to do on the forums in terms of improving fuel economy on an individual level, but also showed that automakers were willing to commit (at least in name) to supporting fuel efficient driving. However, it seems Ford has really stepped up to the plate by offering ecodriving lessons over the course of several days to see how effective it really is.

Ford takes on ecodriving

Recently, Ford and a group called Pro Formance decided to take on ecodriving in the form of a 4-day long seminar with 48 different drivers taking part. Using the ecodriving tups taught by Pro Formance, the participants increased their fuel economy between 6-50%, with and average increase of 24%.

With the gas crunch hitting people hard, it’s good to see a company like Ford stepping up and showing consumers that there’s more than just air up your tires and cleaning out the trunk. Here’s their take on ecodriving:

“By working with Pro Formance to conduct validation testing, Ford is proving that eco-driving techniques are teachable and work across a broad spectrum of vehicles and drivers,” said Drew DeGrassi, president and CEO of Pro Formance Group. “It’s a great initiative for Ford to lead in this country. It’s not the end-all solution for America to obtain energy independence, but it is an important part of it.”

I would love to see what the training program is like, but for the rest of us Ford give us 10 ecodriving tips. Sure, they pale in comparison to EcoModder’s ecodriving tips list, but most drivers aren’t interested in getting really involved, and Ford’s hands-on approach is a good way to get results without asking too much of people.

Evidently they have been doing this since the 1990s in Germany, where gas mileage has been an issue for longer than it has in the US. Hopefully, this will encourage other manufacturers to bring their most efficient vehicles and programs to a ready-and-willing US market.

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It may be a little uncharacteristic, but I wanted to give a shout out to my friends over at BIG INK, who have converted their entire fleet over to Priuses. I’m obviously a big believer in individual action, but it’s great to see when that action trickles up to the company level. I think they’ve done something really creative to help the environmental movement and show off their car-wrapping savvy, plus I just love the motto “Little things make a BIG difference.” Anyway, congratulations to these guys, I hope more businesses follow in their footsteps. You can read more in the press release below:

Prius Fleet Drives BIG INK’s Green Business

Eagan, MN, August 26, 2008. During a brainstorming meeting the BIG INK
summer intern, who drives a hybrid Toyota Prius, half joked about
putting graphics on his car to launch the company’s Eco-Green campaign.
The idea took off and BIG INK partnered with Image Haus of Minneapolis
to create green inspired vehicle graphics that would garner customer and
industry attention to their green efforts.  The cars feature one of four
integrated designs and the simple yet powerful message of, “Little
Things Make a BIG Difference.”  Aside from being driven around the Twin
Cities, cars are being used for client visits, as well as being
strategically parked at local business events and the response has been
tremendous, people have taken notice.

Although the digital graphics industry is not well know for
environmental initiatives, BIG INK decided to start where it could.  An
internal Green Team was assembled, simple changes were made and the
company immediately felt the results.  “Even the small changes we made
had impact,” notes Tom Trutna BIG INK president. “From the onset we
started recycling over 2400 pounds of scrap waste each month along with
600 pounds of office paper.”  In order to educate the industry about the
initiatives they took, Trutna wrote an article entitled Kermit Was
Wrong! It Is Easy Being Green(er) that was published in Digital Graphics
magazine, encouraging other printers to adopt the easy practices that
make a difference.

With the internal processes in place, BIG INK started wondering how to
educate clients about green options as well as how to fulfill the needs
of eco-forward clients.  With that in mind, they launched more
environmental substrate options and a Zero-Waste recycling program to
customers.  “Event, trade show, even retail graphics are often used for
a short time and then tossed,” says Trutna, “with our Zero-Waste
Recycling Program, we’ll take back anything we produce and have it
recycled, keeping tons of graphics out of the waste stream.”  Customers
have taken note, the Eco-Green page of BIG INK’s web site now gets four
times more traffic than the other pages, bloggers are commenting on the
program and customers are starting to send items back to be recycled.
Notes Trutna, “the Prius fleet has proven to be a great marketing
vehicle that has brought attention to our many green efforts.  It drives
the ‘Little Things Make a BIG Difference’ message, features graphics we
produced, gets people thinking about being green and puts a smile on the
face of everyone who sees it.”

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The idea of an air-powered car may remind of you that Simpsons episode featuring Ed Begley, Jr. and his car, which is “powered by [his] own sense of self-satisfaction,” but it’s a real idea. Modern gasoline and diesel engines use the force of combustion to push the pistons downward and generate power. Similarly, air-powered engines feed bursts of highly compressed air into the engine to force the piston downward and create forward momentum.

It works, but is it practical?

Yes! Or, at least, possibly. As with many of these emerging technologies there are both upsides and downsides compared to existing petroleum based cars. Surely not an exhaustive list, but here are some of those issues.

Pro

• Air can be compressed using power from the grid, which has cleaner emissions than normal cars and can come from renewable energy sources.
• Air cars could be filled up at home or on the road. Unlike electric cars, air cars could fill up more quickly and therefore get the necessary range boosts for long trips.
• Air cars can be hybrids, just like gasoline vehicles, for range-extension.

Con

• There are still a lot of questions about the safety of carrying around large amounts of highly compressed air.
• Unlike electric cars, air cars still have a lot of moving parts that could fail.
• They are untested on the large scale

Coming in 2010: 106-mpg, $18,000 air car

That’s if you believe the claims of the inventors, MDI. MDI is a European company that has been working with the concept of air-powered vehicles since it was founded in 1991. Though they won’t be bringing the car Stateside themselves, they’re working with a NY-based company called Zero Pollution Motors to do so.

The first thing you’ll notice is the “106-mpg” figured. Since it doesn’t use gas, how can it have a “miles per gallon” figure tagged on with it? Well, as ZPM explains, that is really an mpg-equivalent figure used to compare the air car’s efficiency to gasoline-powered vehicles:

If you can, imagine a vehicle that runs on air, achieves over 100 gas-equivalent mpg and over 90 mph, has zero to low C02 emissions, seats six, has plenty of space for luggage, cuts no safety corners, and costs no more than an average economy to mid-size vehicle.

106 is definitely a high number, and as ZPM points out, is much higher than any car on the US market at the moment. I don’t know if I believe it, but I know that number is easily in reach for many electric cars, so I don’t see why it would be impossible in this case. Once the car hits the market, however, I’m sure will hear a lot more about the claimed efficiency ratings.

Similarly, you can check out the price tag here. ZPM states that using sales techniques like direct marketing, they can drive the starting-cost down to $17,800, which is a pretty good deal when you consider that it’s cheaper than any hybrid on the market.

The car will feature a 75hp engine, which allows it to reach speeds of 90 mph and have a range of up to 800 miles on any given “fill.” Though the car will be a bit more complex to operate than an EV, it will only need oil changes every 30k miles and can cost as little as $2 in electricity to fill up the air tank.

I’ll be excited to see how it does in the upcoming X-Prize competition. For now, you can find out more details at the ZPM site.

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You may not know it, but long before Darin Cosgrove was the co-founder of our little site here, he was chatting about fuel economy related to his car of choice, the Pontiac Firefly (a clone of the Geo Metro/Suzuki Swift). He started MetroMPG long before fuel economy was cool, and since then he’s noticed the same trend that we just talked about on EcoModder yesterday: fuel efficiency is driving up used car prices and prestige.

Today, Darin talks about how Metro prices have gone crazy and even the news media is picking up on the car as an icon of thriftiness. Back in the day, when the car was new, it seemed that no one wanted one, too the point that it was ridiculed on the Simpsons as Flanders’ nerd-car extraordinaire. The only difference is that the car holds its thrift-icon status, but without the “hey, look at that loser” edge to it! Check out Darin’s article for more on the Metro’s prominence in the media.

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It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that buys gas that the market for fuel-efficient vehicles has exploded recently. Not only is gas expensive, but the psychological effects of paying big time at the pump has driven people toward hybrids and small cars, making many models scarce and putting the Civic up on top.

Recently, GFF took a look at some numbers, which show that hybrids, which already had a comparatively high residual value, have gotten a further bump. They make an interesting comparison between the discontinued Honda Insight, still the MPG king as far as production vehicles go, and Acura’s very popular sports car, the RSX:

For instance, in the US, values for a three- or four-year-old Honda Insight are almost identical to the more upmarket Acura RSX Sports Coupe at around $14,800 for a 2005 and $13,500 for a 2004.

This made me want to do my own research to see how big the gap is between vehicles on opposite ends of the spectrum. Using values from KBB, I compared the Ford F150, Honda Civic, Toyota Prius, and Dodge Caravan to see how values held up when comparing 2008 models to still-young 2004 models. Read on to found out what I learned.

Efficient cars, not just hybrids, are holding their value

First, I compared the F150 and the Civic head to head. Not because they represent the same market, but because they symbolize the American market shift from big trucks to sensible cars. Here are the raw values from KBB:

• 2008 F150 MSRP: $26,140.00
• 2004 F150 Suggested Retail: $9,670.00
• 2008 Civic MSRP: $16,280.00
• 2004 Civic Suggested Retail: $11,980.00

So, where the 2004 F150 only has 37% of the value of a new F150, the non-hybrid Civic still has 75% of the value of a new car. Even though Honda usually receives top marks for value retention, there is a huge difference between two of the country’s most popular vehicles.

On the other side of things, I chose the Caravan and the Prius because they are both icons in the auto industry. For years, the Caravan has been the “family vehicle” of choice, but recently, with the “green” movement in full swing, more and more families have been giving up the sliding doors and hopping into Priuses. Here’s what KBB has to say about the prices:

• 2008 Caravan MSRP: $22,470.00
• 2004 Caravan Suggested Retail: $9,070.00
• 2008 Prius MSRP: $22,160.00
• 2004 Prius Suggested Retail: $21,035.00

As you might have expected, the Prius wins, with 2004 models still bringing in 95% of new values while the Caravan only brings in 40%. The Caravan is pretty much on par with the F150, but the hybrid Prius is definitely beating the Civic. Since it’s not obvious if this is because of the hybrid premium of the current “green appeal” surrounding the Prius, I decided to put the hybrid Civic up head-to-head with the Civic I’ve already calculated. Here’s the results:

• 2008 Civic Hybrid MSRP: $23,270.00
• 2004 Civic Hybrid Suggested Retail: $16,230.00

While the normal 2004 Civic has about 75% of the value of the 2008, the hybrid model only has 69% of the value in the same comparison. Perhaps this suggests that the Prius is an outlier due to it’s iconic status and recognizability.

Buy efficient, save gas and money

The takeaway here is that if you’re looking at a fuel efficient car because of gas prices, you should also be thinking about the day you want to sell or trade-in that vehicle. Lots of people will complain that your Prius won’t save as much in gas as you’ll pay compared to other cars, but if you can sell it in 4 years for the same price you paid, you’ll end up way ahead compared to swallowing the depreciation on a less efficient vehicle.

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This week a forum member got in touch with me to suggest that I highlight some of the “ecomodders helping ecomodders” type stuff that goes on in real life, outside of the site. So, in addition to the normal links, I’ll toss out some about the recent camaraderie on the forums.

• Metroschultz and Coyote X meet up: Not only was the thrashing epic, but a lot of good work got done.
• Ohio/PA get together: I really with I could make it out to this, because it sounds like a lot of fun, but sadly it’s at a bad time. Luckily a lot of folks will be showing up, so consider it!
• Dealers blame the scangauge for electrical issues: Kind of silly, if you really want to think about it, but it just goes to show how unfamiliar dealerships and mechanics can be with fuel economy displays.
• How to accelerate: An important and ongoing discussion about acceleration techniques and fuel economy.
• AMEC Fuel Economy Run: Personally, I’d prefer a competition based on digital fuel economy readouts rather than fills, but this still looks like it could be good, clean fun.

Thanks for tuning in this week! Hope your weekend was relaxing.

Sad, but true. After the buzz surrounding the announcement of a Honda Fit hybrid trim, there were rumors that it might make it to the United States along with the $18,500 base-price hybrid and the CR-Z hybrid coupe, but according to ABG, it’s not to be.

The good news, however, is that this decision isn’t due to some corporate silliness that advises us that “there is no demand.” In fact, it’s quite the opposite: too many people want the Fit, and Honda just can’t keep up the demand for a worldwide offering. Perhaps in the future, though.

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No, there hasn’t been a government decree, and no, this not the proclamation of some automaker. Recently, IBM interviewed auto executives anonymously about the future of the industry, and came to the conclusion that, among other things, all or almost all new cars would be hybrids by the year 2020.

If it’s not apparent to you already, the report makes it even more obvious that the auto industry is changing rapidly. Not only has the Prius sold over 1 million units, but companies like Mitsubishi are already working on fully electric vehicles.

It seems like a bold statement to make, doesn’t it? Currently, there are very few new hybrids on the market, but in 12 short years we’re supposed to expect that every car will be a hybrid? Well, in my opinion, the industry is definitely moving in that direction. Even if there are a few conventional gas sports cars running around, the main takeaway from this report isn’t the conclusion, but more the impression from the top automotive executives.

Whatever the market looks like now, you can be sure that the people at the top are looking for change, and towards a market comprised of hybrids, electrics, and eco-friendly options.

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Recently, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers announced an initative called EcoDriving, aimed at educating consumers on how to drive more efficiently to reduce fuel usage. When you head on over to the site, the first thing you will notice is Governor Schwarzenegger’s welcoming voice, as he explains to you a bit of what EcoDriving is about.

First, I must say that I feel slightly vindicated by this announcement. I have long been a fan of the term EcoDriving, since it hints at many of the reasons people do it (eg, environmental, economics, etc). Hypermiling, by contrast, just sounds extreme. Knowing nothing about either hypermiling or ecodriving, I think most people would choose ecodriving just because it doesn’t sound insane. And when you couple that with all the negative press surrounding hypermiling (regarding issues like drafting and hyperinflation of tires, which I am against), ecodriving is by far the friendlier, more accurate term for the way most efficiency-minded people drive, in my opinion.

Compared to EcoModder’s list, the EcoDriving campaign is definitely much simpler, but it’s those core practices that can be expanded upon by people who want to get even better mileage. The most exciting things about the fledgling EcoDriving initiative are the interesting tools to help drivers understand EcoDriving, like this game. Granted, it’s a little hard to steer in the game and you’ll likely crash a few times (killing your EcoRating), but it’s an interesting, interactive way to show people how driving style impacts efficiency.

In the end, it all comes down to education and accessibility. So if you’re really interested, go check out some of the printed materials and show them to your friends, family, or just drop them around work where other interested people might find them. If you’re really motivated, sign up for the EcoModder forums to discuss getting the most out of your car on a daily basis. I really like this campaign’s hands-on approach, and I think it will work to make ecodriving accessible to a lot more people.

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A day late, a buck short, but here it is! Sorry I didn’t have this up for the Sunday slowness, but here’s the highlights of the last week!

• Making a permanent Metro kammback: This was the first last week, too, but this week he’s finally done and it’s looking pretty good.
• New MPGe record in the ForkenSwift: Another Darin update, but he’s obviously been busy! The ForkenSwift keeps getting cooler by the minute.
• MPGuino software gets an update: Forum member dcb has been hard at work churning out some updates for the MPGuino.
• 220 mpg hybrid scooter: A little something for all you two-wheel fans out there.
• 41 mpg in a Celica: Tim (Daox) takes his sister’s car out for a little EcoDriving.

Thanks again for playing along, another exciting week, more exciting projects and ideas!