American Oil Crisis News and Info
“Premium … (adjective): finest, exceptional; premium quality.” So says Chambers Dictionary anyway. For me it usually translates to “bloody expensive”.
Come to think of it, that’s also a good description of the Lexus range: priced between $32,000 and $106,000, “cheap” is not the first word which springs to mind.
To many Americans, India is just another one of those countries with LOTS of people in the general vicinity of China where they sometimes get routed when they call customer support with questions about why the new HP they just bought won’t turn on.
And that’s a shame, really, because India has so much to offer. From excellent food to the funky movie scene, India has some pretty great stuff. And now we can add another bean to India’s basket — the country has been stealthily gaining a reputation with auto manufacturers as the place to build fuel-efficient, small cars for export to the rest of the world.
Where is the mainstream media when you need them? Probably off chasing another Micheal Jackson’s baby’s daddy. But they could do a lot more use into investigating the court case of Paice LLC vs. Toyota. In the lawsuit filed by Paice against Toyota, Paice claims that several of Toyota’s popular hybrid models infringe on patents held by Paice. Having won a similar case back in 2005, Paice is now seeking an exclusion that would keep Toyota hybrid imports from entering the U.S.
Total US hybrid sales jumped 48.6% in August from last August, buoyed up by Cash for Clunkers.
We Americans did the right patriotic thing with our clunker money last month, it turns out. We bought more American. And we bought more hybrid cars. Ford was the big winner, making a big dent in Toyota’s hybrid sales.
Consumer reports tells us that 80% would rather buy US cars and 46% of us now prefer fuel efficient cars.
In an effort to drum up attention and support for their algae-based biofuel, Sapphire Energy has announced they will conduct a coast-to-coast journey in their “Algaeus” plug-in hybrid. Part electric hybrid, part biofuel vehicle, Sapphire claimes the Algaeus will get 150 miles per gallon from its hybrid/biofuel drivetrain.
The Algaeus will visit 10 cities, starting in San Francisco on September 8th and ending in New York City on the 18th.