Hey, all you people that read this site to learn what car to buy: the Green Car Journal says that your 2009 green car of the year is the Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Treehugger gives us a report:

The 2009 Jetta TDI is a quiet-running, diesel-powered car. It beat out hybrids and mini-cars to take the title. The Jetta uses a technology called “clean diesel” which actually lives up its name pretty well. It has a very clean tailpipe, and an EPA estimated 41 mpg highway fuel economy.

Also, it’s a Jetta, which means that you can drive it and it makes you trendy and hip, automatically.

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With all the talk spiraling around these days about what GM is doing wrong, let’s focus on one thing they’re doing right: the Chevy Volt.  The plug-in electric, slash hybrid electric gas automobile is on the frontline of General Motors push into the realm of more energy efficient vehicles.

We all know the Volt will achieve much better energy and fuel economy than the SUVs that loom over Detroit’s recent past.  But exactly what kind of mileage will this new Chevrolet get.  The answer is not so simple.  The current rating method by the EPA for evaluating mileage standards in automobiles relies on on a 10.3 mile test track which is well within the initial 40 mile range the Volt’s plug-in battery can reach, making it an inaccurate measure of exactly what kind of efficiency a car that has the capability of switching between two systems - battery to gas - can get. However by any reasonable measure the new Volt should achieve a mileage rating popping up over 100 MPG, making it the most fuel efficient model available from a major producer on the American market.  Let’s just hope GM is around long enough to mass market the Chevy Volt.

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Many months ago, I told you that New York City was working on greening its taxi fleet, which is part of the PlaNYC initiative to get the city more environmentally friendly (I notice, too, that I mentioned Mayor Bloomberg’s term limitation in that post…haha, he changed the law so he could keep being mayor).  Part of the overall plan with the taxis was to make it mandatory that all cabs are hybrids by 2012.  And last week, a federal judge said no dice to that.

The judge, Paul A. Crotty, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, issued an injunction to stop the city from enforcing the rule because, he said in a written order, the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in a key legal argument —that only the federal government has the right, under existing laws, to set fuel efficiency standards. [nytimes.com]

Mayor Bloomberg says he is “disappointed” that “archaic” Washington laws are preventing these measure from going into effect (and, no, those are no sarcastic quotes…I’m quoting a statement).

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Lexus is trying to make the luxury car even more luxuriouserish by going hybrid, according to treehugger.com and Reuters news.   The managing officer of Toyota, which owns Lexus, “intends to introduce hybrid versions of its Lexus luxury vehicles as early as possible,” says the news report.   He went on to say that the firm is “considering making the Lexus lineup hybrid-only.”

This is certainly great news for the future of green cars, if Lexus follows through.   But what really caught my eye when looking into this story was this quote from treehugger:

The cause of this change of strategy is probably higher fuel costs (even if they went down a bit lately) and, especially, the fact that the global sales of Lexus fell 9% on the year to 310,000 in the January-August period.

That obviously makes sense, but did Lexus really sell only 310,000 cars in half a year?  I think I saw 310,000 Lexus ads in that timeframe.   Literally.   And I mean that in the Joe Biden sense of the word, which of course means not literally at all.

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Hybrid cars could have some competition from another eco-friendly vehicle, the electric car, in the coming months if Mitsubishi has it’s way. Of course it depends on you, as Mitsubishi plans on brining a only a few of their electric cars to the US to see if there is a viable mass market for them here in the states.

This is pretty exciting considering that there is only one company selling electric cars in the US these days, Tesla. They make the 100,000 dollar Roadster, which is no doubt out of most folks price range. In Japan, Mistubishi’s MiEV, goes for between 45,000-50,000 (not counting a 15,000 government incentive) which seems much more reasonable.

Also getting ready for the electric car market is Nissan and General Motors, who plan on releasing “the volt” in 2010.

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The Mindset Six50 is the latest in innovative, super energy efficient car developed by a startup company working outside the traditional confines of the industry. But Mindset is hardly some fly by night strewn together on a whim. Former Volkswagen Head of Design, Murat Gunak has partnered with Swiss Multimillionaire Lorenzo Schmid to create a new standard in energy efficient ground transportation coupled with truly striking design.

The Mindset Six50 mixes power sources creating multiple energy options for its owners. Plugin Lithium Ion Batteries, a two cylinder hybrid gas engine and even solar panels installed on the roof of the car work in unison to provide the owner with a range of nearly 500 miles on merely one charge and one tank of gasoline. Central to the efficiency of the machine is its light weight, about 1400 lbs., from its state of the art aluminum frame. Large 22″ wheels provide for greater safety. All told the car is Marat Gunak’s answer to the major industry players who used to employ; an industry he says has become “too big, too heavy, too expensive”. Expense is the one thing the Mindset needs to work on however, with the first models, scheduled to arrive in 2009 priced at 50,000 EUR or $77,200. But just think how much the DVD player was when it first came out - then take a trip to the Wal-Mart Electronics section.

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Energy reporter for The Economist, Vijay Vaitheeswaran, says that cars are the solution, not the problem, in our battle against global warming. Vaitheeswaran doesn’t think getting Americans to give up their vehicles is the answer, and in fact, says a world without cars would be a a dim, joyless place with much-diminished freedom, mobility, and prosperity.”

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The drama, the cat fights, the drunken binges ” it’s baaaaaack ” and it’s all going down in their new energy-efficient Hollywood digs! The 20th season of MTV’s reality television program The Real World premiers next week, and the show has incorporated a variety of environmentally-friendly features including a solar-heated swimming pool, bamboo flooring, and a hybrid car.

The Real World is also giving viewers the option of “taking up residence” in the Virtual Real World, where users can click on different parts of the house to learn environmental facts and tips, create eco-friendly virtual clothing, and share environmental activism stories with other viewers.

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If you’ve ever ridden in a hybrid car, I’m sure you’ve noticed the peculiar silence when the engine starts, and the way it simply “rolls” onto the road ” but are hybrids too quiet for their own good? Some pedestrians, and particularly blind pedestrians, say that they are.

Jana Littrel, who is blind, had her foot run over by a Toyota Prius while walking through a bank parking lot in the East Bay town of Albany a year ago. Although she managed to avoid injury, Jana says the incident has put her on edge. So far, no deaths or serious injuries have been attributed to hybrids. Still, The National Federation for the Blind is currently working toward getting hybrid automobile manufacturers to install a “noise emitting device” so that blind pedestrians, as well as joggers, children, animals, and cyclists can be made aware of the oncoming vehicle.

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The HGTV Green Home Giveaway is on! Home and Garden Television is giving away a new “green” home located in Hilton Head, South Carolina, complete with eco-friendly appliances and a brand new GMC Yukon Hybrid. Sure, your chances of winning it are probably on par with winning the lotto, but it certainly beats a toaster oven or a gas-guzzling SUV. Kudos to HGTV!

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