Firstly, before playing the video, keep in mind is is Redman and it is mainstream rap music, so if you’re sensitive, don’t listen. It does strengthen my point though.
So why are rappers in Smarts important?
It’s important because it represents a paradigm shift. It’s not a joke, and it’s not a poignant statement, it’s just something different. In most music videos, you see things like Ferraris, BMWs, spinners, and waste. This video isn’t about being thrifty, but it’s being “cool” in a different way. During the video Redman drives up and down off the sidewalk and otherwise acts as if there were nothing unusual about the car he were driving.
Anyway, you can draw whatever conclusions you want, but it’s definitely a fun video.
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A while ago, under little fanfare, GM announced that it was adding the Chevy Cobalt XFE to it’s product line up. XFE stands for “Xtra Fuel Economy,” and with the XFE’s highway rating of 36 a full 5 MPG better than the next-best Cobalt, it’s certainly not a misnomer. It’s been a while since car companies like Honda and GM went out of their way to build mpg models of their normal cars (remember the Metro XFi? Civic VX/HX?), but ever since GM went live with the XFE I was wondering if we’d see more models.
Traditional automotive speculation would suggest that companies like GM wouldn’t make high-mpg versions of existing cars that might compete with hybrid sales. For example, if the normal Cobalt gets 31 highway mpg, the XFE 36, and the hybrid 40, but the hybrid has a bigger price premium than the XFE, GM would be bound to lose some hybrid sales to the XFE. This idea is often cited when people wonder why European or Japanese product configurations never show up in the US. Who would buy a hybrid when they can get a cheaper car that gets similar mileage?
Either way, it seems GM is bucking the trend. They realize that not only do they need to change their ways, but they can’t rely on hybrids. Their hybrid truck sales have been slow (perhaps due to cost premiums), and people are demanding more change, more quickly. In response, GM has released XFE models of the Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra, Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon. These models will be out in 2009, and even though they only bump mileage up an extra 1 mpg, they’re still a significant effort on GM’s part.
The bigger news here, I think, is that GM is working on better fuel economy across the board, but I know you’re going to want to trash these XFE models for only getting 1 mpg better than their normal counterparts. I won’t stop you, but do here me out. On these vehicles (with a original EPA ratings of 14/20 mpg), the 1 mpg increase means an almost 6% increase in fuel economy. And considering that these trucks use the most gas, that 6% increase will reduce a lot more gas usage than making the Prius 6% more efficient (though, obviously, driving a Prius an not an SUV would be even better).
Baby steps, right?
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This is a new thing, but in the interest of getting a little bit more interaction between the forum and the blog, I thought I would start using Sundays to show off some of the forum highlights. Anyway, I’ll try to keep it interesting and not get too deep into the description, but if you’re interested, just click on through to join the discussion!
Making a permanent Metro kammback: Darin has been working on this project for a while now, but it’s nearly done and promises some good results.
DIY Moon Discs: An inventive and cheap way to clean up your car’s aero without buying caps or new wheels.
iDuino MPGuino Update: It seems like the nice folks at Fundamental Logic may be making a custom set up for the MPGuino, which should pretty it up and make it more accessible.
Smooth wheel covers tested: Some good testing done on the effects of smooth wheel covers on aerodynamics and fuel economy.
Anyway, that’s it for this week! Of course, there’s lots more, but I don’t want to just drop a million links. If you’d like to see more next week, just let me know in comments. Have fun a good Monday tomorrow!
The Cannonball run was one of those things I grew up wishing I could do, but knowing I never would. Well, now that I’m all grown up, it doesn’t seem like it matters anyway, because the Cannonball run isn’t done in the US anymore. Luckily, for entertainment’s sake, it’s still on in Europe, and this year there were some pretty interesting results.
This year’s winner was, somewhat suprisingly, a BRABUS-modified Smart car. The BRABUS package definitely gives the Smart a kick in the pants, but it’s nowhere near as powerful as some of the cars you’d expect to see. However, the European site does point out that “it’s not what you drive, but how you drive it.”
How did the Smart capture the glory?
Even though the other cars in the race were much faster, the Smart made the trek at an average of 61 mph by cutting down on stops. As one of the driver’s states, it was the car’s fuel economy and not its speed that allowed it to win the iconic endurance race:
The downfall of the bigger cars was that they were forced to stop so often, so while they kept overtaking us, we eventually went past them at the next petrol station when they needed to fill up again,” said David…. “We kept at a decent speed and still averaged around 35 miles per gallon.”
I can sympathize with this, as I often find myself passed by speeders on long road trips, only to pass them again as they fill up while I can cruise up to 700 miles on a single tank. Given the Smart’s success this year, I wonder if we’ll begin to see more people competing in fuel efficient cars in future Cannonball runs. I guess time will tell!
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Recently, I spent time at HybridFest, a car show dedicated to emerging green technologies and fuel economy. The kind of person who attends HybridFest is that same kind that talks around the water cooler about their MPG and how much money their hybrid has saved them. And this kind of person is exactly who companies like GM need to convince to buy their products.
That’s probably why GM was the #2 sponsor, right after Toyota. That doesn’t explain, however, why GM didn’t show up. Show organizer, Eric Powers, told me that GM representatives were on hand for dinner Friday night to kick off the show, which began officially on Saturday morning, but after that no one saw them.
Instead of putting their floor space at the show to use, GM chose to leave a musty old city bus sitting in the corner looking inconspicuous (see first photo). Not too many people wondered where GM was, but personally, I was excited to see what they’d have at the show to counteract the Toyota party van:
Seeing the GM logo on everything made me sure that at some point I would see GM there. But alas, it was not to be. There was no clash of automotive giants, and no GM reps to talk about upcoming designs with.
So, what happened?
Firstly, let me say that this article is not some cookie-cutter condemnation of GM. I have spent time with GM and discussed their plans, as well as test-driven their HCCI technology, and I can honestly say that there are a lot of smart people at all levels in the company working to rebuild their image and their product lineup as one that is fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.
We all know that GM is going through hard times, posting $15.5B losses and still two years away from releasing the earliest production models of the Volt, which they hope will be their saving grace.
Part of me hoped that GM would come to HybridFest with some surprise mock up of the Volt, or perhaps even one of their drivetrains strapped to the body of another car. I’d also hoped to strike up a conversation with someone from GM about the future of the Chevy Aveo, that small, affordable car that seems to get no media attention and surprisingly bad fuel economy (GM has promised to make it a class leader in 2009 with a total redesign, and I wanted some insight into this).
Another, perhaps pernicious part of me didn’t want Toyota to steal the show. I knew HybridFest would be like a Prius collectors show, but since I knew Honda wouldn’t be there I feared that Toyota would only increase it’s legacy as “the hybrid company.” Obviously, other companies can do it (and Honda did, with the Insight, which was released in the US earlier than the Prius and with better fuel economy), but somehow Prius and hybrid have become pretty much the same thing to some people.
Anyway, one can only assume that all the pressures weighing down on GM right now finally got to them, and caused them to back out. HybridFest is great, but it’s not like the media is buzzing with this story, so there has been little word of why GM suddenly disappeared.
What does this mean for GM?
Well, GM is in a tough place, but this wasn’t the right place to cut corners, I think. As I said earlier, the type of people that go to HybridFest are influencers and pushers. They want to brag about hybrid tech, take their friends on test drives, and change the way people look at fuel consumption. Sure, GM might have only reached a few thousand people, but they missed an opportunity, for just one weekend’s work, to have high-quality interaction with the people they are trying to win over to their side.
By not showing up, HybridFest allowed Toyota to dominate, with the only GM in sight (Honda pun!) being a modified Equinox that showed up with the University of Wisconsin. No one is impressed by a shallow advertising blitz talking about fuel-efficient truck hybrids. What GM needs to do is generate real, meaningful buzz around their products, and they need to do it at the grassroots level or else their efforts will just be passed off as another round of corporate greenwashing.
I will be in contact with the company soon about their future plans, and there marketing strategies, and am excited at the possibility to share that with you, so stay tuned.
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Lots of advertisements will tout “real world” fuel economy increases and testing procedures in an attempt to make their product look more desirable. Surely, if you wanted to buy something to increase fuel economy, testing that proves it actually does would be good, right? And what’s more conclusive than someone actually taking the thing you plan on buying and driving around with it?
Well, unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
How the EPA does testing
The EPA doesn’t just stick a driver in a car, give them a course, and tell them to drive around it and hope that they do it consistently every time. Instead, they put test vehicles up on a dyno and run a course designed to simulate driving.
Many people fault the EPA for this method, but I believe they have put a lot of effort into developing and refining their testing methods, and at the very least, they are internally consistent, which is what’s most important when comparing vehicles. In fact, it is internal consistency that the EPA is most concerned with, and also the reason that their EPA ratings often conflict with our own real life observations.
Sure, the EPA may have rated my car at 27 mpg combined, and I might get 40 mpg by EcoDriving it, while you might be upset that you only get 25 mpg by driving normally. But therein lies the great flaw of “real world” fuel economy numbers. No driver, road, traffic, or weather condition is ever consistent enough to make comparison fruitful.
How scammers do testing
Using acetone as an example of a scam (and not wanting to link any pages for fear increasing their reputation with Google), you can see that it’s proponents will often talk about “beating the EPA” or the “inefficiency of modern internal combustion engines.” They use these buzzwords to lead you into their story, which hinges on “real world” benefits for “drivers like you.”
Acetone rests on a very shaky, some would say fraudulent, technical background, and relies mostly on “evidence” from fuel economy “tests.” Most of these tests, however, consist of walking up to someone who has never thought much about fuel economy and telling them, “Hey, I’m going to put this stuff in your tank and you’ll see 30% better fuel economy.” From there, the testers, who sometimes don’t even calculate fuel economy, will give reports like, “I’ve driven my car with acetone for two weeks now and the needle is still above the halfway line! OMGLOLWUT.”
Other, slightly more intelligent scammers will run tank-to-tank testing, meticulously recording their findings, but ignoring major variations in weather, type of driving, or driving technique. Just take a look at my fill-up history from the last three years and tell me if you think it’s a consistent enough to base tests on:
Other, even trickier scammers, usually companies, will pay for “3rd party” testing to be done at some “university” or other credible place. This is a tricky area, because there are many reputable places working on fuel economy testing, but there are also many devices that’ve “shown increases” at such facilities that have also been declared scams when brought to court by the government or investors.
How I do testing
I use my MPGuino to record fuel economy over predetermined courses using predetermined driving techniques. I try to be meticulous about what RPM a shift at, how much throttle pressure I use, and control as many factors as I can. However, I’m not here to say that even given how much effort I put into it, I’m not much better than those scammers.
Recently, I attempted to test fuel economy changes when removing the alternator belt on my car. It’s relatively well-known that the parasitic drag from the alternator reduces fuel economy. However, I was interested in seeing for myself the difference that it made on my own car.
In NJ, where I usually reside, I have a test loop where I can usually get mpg reading within +/- .5% through consistent driving. Generally, others have high confidence in these tests due to the low deviation in my results. In MO, where I am now, there is a similar loop, albeit a hilly one. I used the same ideas to test my fuel economy with the alternator, without the alternator, and then with the alternator again, and these were my results:
First, I’d like you to notice that the distance was a very consistent 7.31 miles. Now, please notice how inconsistent the mileage readings were. I lost mpgs without the alternator, then lost them again when I reattached it! These numbers are, of course, not good, and a result of faulty testing. Not only are they not internally consistent, but they are inconsistent with the results that many others have demonstrated.
So who should you believe?
The takeaway here is that you can’t take fuel economy testing at face value. Not from me, or anyone else. The people most worth trusting are those that are transparent about the difficulties of accurate numbers and their testing methods. Take a look at the methods used and decide for yourself if they are prone to error or not. And remember, even the most well-intentioned testers can make errors.
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Back in January 2007, the Washinton post reported how the Ford Motor Company had reported a loss of $12.7 billion in 2006, the worst in its 103 year history.
In the same article, “Ford…blamed the loss in 2006 on a profit collapse in its truck-dependent North American division.”
Today, Ford reported a second-quarter loss of $8.7 billion - the worst quarter ever.
Of course most of us sort of expect that. We hear in the news every day about the cost of food, energy, and healthcare. We hear about the housing market and banks going bankrupt.
But we plan ahead, we change as we have to, as do the motor companies.
In May, the F-150, the “best-selling vehicle in America” was outsold by Honda’s Civic and Accord and Toyota’s Camry and Corolla. None of which are pickup trucks, and all of which are know as well-built, fuel-efficient vehicles.
So, Ford is changing right?
In June, Green Car Congress reported that “Ford Motor Company will produce the new Ford Fiesta small car for North America at the company’s transformed Cuautitlán Assembly Plant—currently producing F-Series (F-150 to F-550) pickups for the Mexican market—beginning in early 2010.” North America - that means the Fiesta may or may NOT even be for sale in the United States. And sales two years from now aren’t doing Ford any good this summer.
Take a look at Ford’s main web page. In the “Vehicle Showroom” feature for the Ford brand, six of the vehicles are “cars”, everything else is a pickup, SUV or crossover. And that’s only if you count the Focus and Mustang twice.
While the Ford Escape Hybrid offers greatly improved city mileage over it’s standard engine brother, it comes at a premium of about $8000 extra. That’s if you can find one. This spring, when I checked on availability of that vehicle, I found that there was only one, literally just one, for sale at any dealership in the entire state!
For years, auto manufacturers have been saying that they just are giving the public what it wants, and that’s trucks and SUVs. Ford has continued its manufacturing based on outdated modes of thought about what people want in a vehicle.
Right now, what the public wants is something affordable to operate - not another gas guzzler.
Will Ford make changes to its lineup quick enough to continue as one of the major manufactureres, or will “Built Ford Tough” simply not be good enough?
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I’ve posted about HybridFest a few times already, but I just wanted to point you all in the direction of something I just wrote for Popular Mechanics about some of the neater things that could be seen hanging around HF 2008.
Anyway, I hope you join us next year, I know the event will be even better.
NOTE: The above readout may seem a bit unclear at first glance, but from left to right, top to bottom, here’s what the information means: Instantaneous MPG, Speed, Trip MPG, Distance. I took this photo after a short drive.
By now, we know about devices like the PLX Kiwi and the Scangauge II, but what about those of us who don’t have 1996 or newer cars? How about those who don’t want to spend $170-$300 on instrumentation or prefer to support open-source projects?
Well, the MPGuino is the answer! A few months ago, Darin posted on the forums looking for someone to help him build an open-source MPG gauge for all fuel injected cars. From there, forum member dcb stepped up to the plate and has taken the reigns in a really big way. Nowadays, on release v0.66, the MPGuino is a fully functioning, useful display that anyone with a bit of soldering kills can put together.
Building the MPGuino
The MPGuino is based on the arduino platform, and for it’s tiny footprint I chose to base my build around the iDuino, even though lots of folks use the freeduino. Since the iDuino doesn’t accept the car’s 12v, I used a cell phone charger to convert to 5v and wired directly to the board. Everything else, down to the LCD, which I bought on ebay, is pretty standard to the build. For more of the basic, check out the release one thread.
Anyway, here was my parts list and aproximate prices:
- iDuino: $20
- HD 44780 LCD: $10
- Parts from ratshack: $6-7
- Auto cell charger: $5 (at the dollar store)
Total: $42-43
It’d be a bit cheaper with a freeduino and some parts you might have laying around or found online, but I was trying to slap this together quickly.
Anyway, on to the assembly! The first thing I did was follow the iDuino assembly instructions, posted and annotated by the makers of the kit. However, I didn’t insert the jumper pins because I found it easier to just run the wires I would be connecting through the holes and soldering directly. From there, go ahead and follow the wiring instructions from this image:
My button and component board is a little ugly, but here’s what it ended up looking like:
The next step from here would be to find a project box and try to clean up the mounting a bit, but I haven’t quite gotten to that part yet.
Anyway, with the physical unit put together, go ahead and download the arduino 11 platform to your computer and then test out some of the sample programs. If it isn’t broken (hopefully it isn’t!), go ahead and upload the latest MPGuino software and make sure that everything is working.
That’s about it! The next is to wire it into the car. I disassembled the cigarette lighter cell charger like this and wired it into one of the spare spots on my fuse box so that it would be powered whenever the key was in I or II. From there I simply tapped into the speed sensor wire and fuel injector wire, which I’ll leave up to you to find on your own car, though some suggestions can be found here.
The next step is to power up the MPGuino in your car and figure out how to use it.
Using the MPGuino
Luckily, there’s really not much to using the MPGuino. The first thing you need to do is go ahead and figure out the calibration figures for your car. I’m told that most Japanese makes will use 8204 for the speed sensor and that many American makes will use 10000. However, it’s easy enough to compare the distance on the MPGuino to your odometer in order to see if any adjustments need to be made.
The fuel variable is a bit trickier. Some of them have been figured out, so I would search and then ask, but if your car hasn’t seen the likes of the MPGuino before, you might be the pioneer who figures out the numbers for a perfect calibration. The trick here is to simply keep track of your tank mileage on the MPGuino and then compare it to a standard fill up and make adjustments based on the percentage you’re off from the pump fill.
I’ll be the first to admit calibration can be a pain in the ass, but luckily it’d already been done for me. After that’s out of the way, you can check out your mileage by simply using your three buttons to scroll through the screens. See more about that here.
Personally, I tend to use the instant/current screen the most, and when I’m on longer trips or trips where the sun will hurt visibility on the screen, I use the big instantaneous numbers.
Anyway, this is really were the fun begins. The MPGuino in conjunction with your EcoDriving skills will net some good numbers (see first image).
Limitations of the MPGuino
As of writing (v0.66), the MPGuino has a few issues, the biggest of which is that you have to do all the assembly yourself. That’s not a problem for a lot of us, but for the MPGuino to go more mainstream we’ll have to figure out how to make it more accessible to your average ecomodder.
What’s more, the LCD leaves a little to be desired in terms of readability in the sunlight. However, a solution is currently being worked on.
For more issues, and more up-to-date issues, check this thread or more generally look around the MPGuino forum.
Places for MPGuino Improvement
Luckily, the MPGuino’s faults all play into it’s biggest asset: open-source. Sure, I may want an AFR display, but all that means is that I’ll have to do it or find someone smarter to do it for me. Though limited by hardware (but only to a small degree, platform changes are always a possibility), everything else is up in the air with the MPGuino and anyone can edit the code. If you’re interested, check it out for yourself in the Arduino 11 environment.
Well, I hope you’ll find this useful. If you have any questions or knowledge, don’t hesitate to post in the forums, open-source relies on all you to test and help improve the project!
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Sorry for being a little scarce recently, but it’s because I’ve been on the road with some of the other members of the EcoModder forums visiting HybridFest out in Madison, Wisconsin. Some of us were local, so the trip wasn’t such a big deal, but others of us (me!) had an 18-hour, all-night drive out from New Jersey. So, I hope you understand that updates have been a little scarce, to say the least.
EcoModder was a “Silver Sponsor” of HybridFest, which besides meaning we helped with the whole thing coming together, means we got to have a big booth where we showed my car, Ben Nelson’s electric motorcycle, and talked to everyone interested about EcoModding. I also gave a few talks about EcoModding, which I think helped connect us with some cool folks. In the image above, you can see me standing with my car before the event had even officially started. You can see more pictures on flickr.
Anyway, HybridFest was a great time, and I’d like to share with you a few of the highlights as I see them. I may take some more time to get into these things in longer posts, but if you were considering coming out, here are some of the great things you missed:
The EcoModder booth: As I already mentioned, we had Ben’s DIY electric motorcycle and my 91 CRX attracting attention. I got so many questions about the “68 mpg @ 60 mph” sign that I didn’t have time to check out any of the speakers or any of the other booths!
Toyota: Toyota was the biggest sponsor and brought a whole team of people to show several hybrid models as well as walk people through a gigantic pop our trailer bus. The sweeten the deal, they gave out non-battery LED flashlights (which you had to shake to charge up) and packets of seeds.
GM: You’ll hear more about this in a post I will write tonight, but GM came to the opening dinner Friday night and then disappeared, abandoning a city bus, their floor space, and their sponsorship of the event.
MPG Challenge: Evidently everyone expected the winner to win, but you can check out the results here. It was an open course, time-limited event, so definitely practical to real life driving…and with some amazing results.
Prii: And I thought Hanover had some massive collection of the iconic hybrids…Everywhere you turned would be a different Prius with a different custom paint job and some sort of claim to fame.
I wish I could comment more on the other booths and the speakers, which I heard were great, but I spent all my time manning our booth and not too much time wandering around. However, it was definitely a great experience, and I urge you all to come out next year.
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