Hybrid Ranks High, Luxury Low
October 18th, 2006 by Carbon CoalitionThe newest word on the street: fuel efficiency. On Monday the Environmental Protection Agency released their annual list ranking vehicle fuel economy. The hybrid-electric Toyota Prius received the top ranking, and luxury cars had the least efficient ratings with the Lamborghini Murcielago bottoming out the list with an average 9-14 mpg. The Boston Globe reports on it here, and visit MSN to view the entire list.
The New York Times recently ran this article about Honda’s goal to “develop a new generation of high-efficiency diesel engines that would lead a major company into a fuel-sipping low-emissions future.” The company introduced such an engine (i-CTDi) in their 2003 Accord in Europe, and hopes to release the the i-CTDi engine in the US within the next 3 years. Because this newly developed diesel engine is cleaner, it meets California’s and the Northeast’s automobile regulations, which have prohibited the sale of diesel vehicles due to tailpipe pollutant levels.
The green “L” in Google on the search engine’s home page is no longer going to stand alone. This article in the New York Times reports on the companies new plans to become “green.” Google announced Monday that it will build a 9,200 cell solar electricity system (an amount that could electrify 1,000 homes in California) at its 1 million square-foot office complex in Mountain View, California. The solar electricity system will provide 30% of the daily electricity used at the office complex, and the company expects the project to pay for itself within 5-10 years of completion.
David Radcliffe, VP for real estate at Google, says the company is building this power system to save money over time, but more importantly to be socially responsibile and to help attract “smart, high level engineers who want to work for a company trying to diminish the damage it does to the environment.”
