Choosing a Car Donation Charity Generally, there are three different outcomes when donating your car to charity: It will be used and operated by the charity It will be given to a person in need It will be passed on to a 3rd party for a flat fee or percentage for resale/recycling Unless your car is in good or excellent …
Volta Free Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
Leave it to the land of Teslas and Leafs to come up with a free charging network provided by advertisers. Volta has combined classic start-up innovation with electric vehicles to provide a free EV charging service. Owning an electric car just gets better and better. With rebates at purchase, reduced maintenance costs, and miles costing pennies compared to traditional gasoline, …
Reclaimed and Repurposed Automobile Furniture – Oxyd Factory
I love the idea of re-purposing discarded trash into art and functional pieces, just as Oxyd Factory has done with junked automobiles. The idea of repurposing and upcycling is a common topic here on The Chic Ecologist, primarily because I love the creativity and reduced environmental impact born out of the transformation. You may have seen other recycled automobile tables …
Tesla Model X – Gullwing Electric Crossover
Unveiled yesterday, Tesla has done it again, this time with an electric crossover for the Porsche Cayenne crowd. Blend a sportscar, an SUV, a minivan and drop in a 4 wheel drive zero emission electric drive-train and you have the Model X by Tesla. Production of Model X is scheduled for late 2013, with deliveries expected in early 2014. Priced …
Leaf vs Volt – Who is Winning Sales?
With six months of sales under their belts, which is coming out on top when it comes to sales in the plug-in EV battle? Apparently the Nissan Leaf has the lead with 3,875 sold LEAFs so far in 2011 while Chevy has 2,745 Volts sold. Granted they are different cars targeting different consumers with some overlap (see our Leaf vs …
Electric Car Showdown – Chevy Volt vs. Nissan Leaf
It’s so exciting to have affordable full electric highway legal cars back on the market! Brings me back to the mid 90’s all over again. This time we have some choices with Chevrolet launching the Volt right around the same time the Nissan brings out the Leaf. While they are both electric cars, they are targeting very different markets with …
Ford Focus Global Drive
In an effort to promote the Ford Focus, the Ford Motor Company is promoting a competition called Global Drive. While I am optimistic of future electric cars such as the Chevy Volt, I myself am a fan of this small, fuel efficient car until we reach that place. Ford is interested in making contact with individuals passionate about environmental causes, …
Government Vehicles Going Green
As some of you know, I work for a lab run by the Department of Energy. I get the opportunity to not only witness exciting research that furthers tomorrow’s sustainable lifestyles, but also to see the changes the federal government is making to make their sites as ‘green’ as possible. Current government regulations stipulate that “each agency shall reduce annual …
Chevy Volt’s Battery Backed by Extensive Warranty
The Chevy Volt’s Battery will be backed by an extensive 8 year / 100,000 mile warranty from GM.
Platinum For Fuel Cells Gets Cheaper
The DOE laboratory I work for recently published some promising results of one of our fuel cell experiments. Researchers with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Houston recently found a way to get platinum to be more conductive. It doesn’t sound like much, but this is big for fuel cell technology. Anders Nilsson, one …