Earth Rated Products

So, it turns out that having a Ford vehicle (Escape hybrid) entitles us to receive the Ford Magazine. As you might expect, the “magazine” is basically a blatant extended advertisement. However, surprisingly, it did have interesting news on their cars (the new Flex, a new plug-in Escape), some fun facts on eco-driving, as well info on a new site they’ve developed called Driving Skills for Life. Wonder if they got the idea for combining self-promotion with useful information from Costco Connection? Costco’s got the whole self-promotion-disguised-as-interesting-articles thing down to a science.

Anyway, let’s start with the eco-driving facts. They really did a good job of pulling together some interesting stats:

(more…)

Geez, now that we’ve pretty much blown by the $4 per gallon mark (I filled up this morning for $4.10/gallon), looks like the next milestone is $5 per gallon. While it might seem insane to our country of SUV-lovin’, exercise/walking adverse cheap gas addicts, our petrol is still relatively affordable compared to what Europeans have been used to for decades. I remember spending about $80 to fill up a little go-cart-of-a-car when I lived in Europe almost 15 years ago (makes me sound OLD, doesn’t it?). I’m still not to $80 to fill up a much larger vehicle, and gas tank, here yet. But, I see it coming…

Right on cue, after my $4.10 per gallon experience this morning, I saw an article in MSN Autos for Volvo’s latest concept plug-in hybrid based on its C30 model. As with all things still in concept, this little gem has been given the somewhat cool name of ReCharge. Though, knowing Volvo, the actual production name will be something entirely more bland like R30.

Some interesting highlights for the ReCharge include:

• No central motor! Rather, each wheel is driven by its own electric motor. (more…)