American Oil Crisis » Cash for Clunkers http://americanoilcrisis.com American Oil Crisis News and Info Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:10:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 The 21st Century Car Industry: Why Plug-in and Electric Car Retrofits Could Fix it http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gas2/org/~3/K-QYnjVfhoc/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gas2/org/~3/K-QYnjVfhoc/#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:14:15 +0000 Felix Kramer http://gas2.org/2009/08/10/the-21st-century-car-industry-why-plug-in-hybrid-retrofits-could-fix-it/ plug-in hybrid conversion

Entrepreneurs have begun to retrofit ordinary combustion vehicles into all-electrics or plug-in hybrids. Here’s why this could be the “big fix” that the auto-industry needs.

Are we stuck with our oil addiction? What if millions of our middle-aged vehicles could be reincarnated as superior versions of their youthful selves, while developing new revenue streams for Detroit? What if that “fix” could start reducing the billion a day we spend on imported oil, while creating tens of thousands of local jobs in communities and cutting greenhouse gases from fossil fuels?

Automakers could do all this—by thinking of vehicles as upgradable high-tech products. For example: A pioneering Chicago startup makes a prototype Ford F-150 pickup with an all-electric range of 30 miles per charge. After that it’s a hybrid, boosting the best-selling truck’s 15 city miles per gallon to 21.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/08/10/the-21st-century-car-industry-why-plug-in-hybrid-retrofits-could-fix-it/feed/ 0 Won’t Someone Please Save Our Clunkers! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gas2/org/~3/TyiYcL_iXyw/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gas2/org/~3/TyiYcL_iXyw/#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:42:41 +0000 Susan Kraemer http://gas2.org/2009/08/10/wont-someone-please-save-our-clunkers/ Jalopnik has issued a call to arms to its fans: Won’t someone please save our quirky classic cars. Ford Explorers - - fine, that’s one thing….but…


…this is the very last straw: “A classic example of vangenieering, is being sacrificed at Galpin Ford in Los Angeles. For what? A Ford Focus? We must let people know of the horrors. If you see a great vehicle being sacrificed take a picture and post it here. We must bear witness to the atrocity.”

Jalopnik is a site for the auto-world equivalent of Fashionistas, and the CARS Carpocalypse is hitting them hard. For the most part its devoted readers are putting a very brave face on it. But the agony:

“I saw a mid 80’s El Camino get traded in. I… I didn’t cry. I know it wouldn’t want to be looked at with misty eyes of mourning.”

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/08/10/wont-someone-please-save-our-clunkers/feed/ 0 Creating the Infrastructure of Innovation http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gas2/org/~3/jwNLm1FvANA/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gas2/org/~3/jwNLm1FvANA/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:57:02 +0000 Nathan Isaacs http://gas2.org/2009/08/06/creating-the-infrastructure-of-innovation/

August is hotter than ever for those of us who envision a future where the streets are populated with plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles and powered by renewable energies.

The month began with the unveiling of Nissan’s Leaf electric vehicle. On Wednesday, President Obama and the Department of Energy announced $2.4 billion in grants to fuel the development of the electric vehicle industry and reduce our nation’s dependence on oil.

Next week opens with the second annual Plug-In 2009 in Long Beach, Calif.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/08/06/creating-the-infrastructure-of-innovation/feed/ 0 Detroit Captures Market Share of Dumped Clunkers http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gas2/org/~3/7ls_sx33Ihw/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gas2/org/~3/7ls_sx33Ihw/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:19:43 +0000 Susan Kraemer http://gas2.org/2009/08/04/detroit-captures-market-share-of-dumped-clunkers/


Washington’s hugely popular cash for clunkers program has boosted all auto sales 16 percent from June to July as desperate and grateful Americans unloaded the gas guzzling behemoths they had been lured into buying with huge SUV tax credits by the Bush administration. (Small business owners like doctors, lawyers, and real estate agents had been able to use fossil friendly incentives to deduct more than $100,000 of the cost of an SUV from their taxes.) Now that they have the chance, Americans are unloading those gas guzzlers.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/08/04/detroit-captures-market-share-of-dumped-clunkers/feed/ 0 Cash for Clunkers Program Out of Money? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gas2/org/~3/MkUG927_8S0/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gas2/org/~3/MkUG927_8S0/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:53:32 +0000 Joanna Schroeder http://gas2.org/2009/07/31/cash-for-clunkers-program-out-of-money/ You can’t turn on the TV and avoid the ads for the dealers promoting the Cash for Clunkers program. Experts predicted that the money would last at least two to three weeks, but alas, it is not so. The LA Times is reporting that in less than one week, the $1 billion dollars for the program is already gone and the government is scrambling to find more money to keep the program going. Worst case, I suppose they can just write “IOUs” like the state of California is doing and according to Governor Schwarzenegger, may be bailing out the federal government some day.

“We are working tonight to asses the situation facing what is obviously an incredibly popular program,” the White House told the LA Times. “Auto dealers and consumers should have confidence that all valid CARS transactions that have taken place to date will be honored.”

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