Why go through the trouble of shipping oil dug up from the ground when you can produce it from stuff you were just going to throw away for less?
That’s the attitude of LS9, a company specializing in the production of “DesignerBiofuels.”
LS9 is using genetically modified strains of bacteria (industrial yeast, or non pathogenic strains of E. Coli) that produce crude oil as a by product. You can feed them pretty much any food that can be broken down into sugars, such as wheat straw or wood chips, and they’ll provide you with oil.
They’ve deemed the renewable petroleum produced by the bacteria “Oil 2.0.”
Advantages of LS9 DesignerBiofuels Technology:
- Unlike with hydrogen fuel cell technology, this technology would not require our current infrastructure to change since we’d still be using oil, it’d just be coming from a different source.
- LS9 also claims that their oil is runs at a carbon negative which means that the amount of carbon thrown into the atmosphere by burning the oil is actually less than the amount of carbon the plant from which the oil is made initially absorbed.
- It requires less refining. The refining process of light sweet crude is a fairly energy intensive process. The oil produced by LS9 bacteria requires minimal refining and could theoretically be put into your tank without any further refining at all.
Disadvantage of LS9 DesignerBiofuels Technology:
- Of course, it’s not quite ready for prime time yet, because just like the first computers, it’s a rather space intensive process. A plant that could supply all of our oil in America would require a plant that covered roughly 200 square miles – about the size of Chicago.
- A full scale commercial facility won’t be ready to go until 2011, so even if this technology took hold, it’s still probably a decade from putting a major dent in the amount of oil we need to import from foreign countries.
While there may be greener technologies in the pipeline, I am still encouraged to see this type of technology being worked on. While one type of alternative energy like solar or wind power may not take over 100%, if all these new technologies did a little, we could greatly reduce the amount of oil we use on a daily basis, and could produce enough of our own oil that we wouldn’t need to import it from foreign countries.
If I hear anything further about this technology, I’ll be sure to keep you posted.
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As I mentioned last week, SUVs are grinding to a halt and trade in values on SUVs is plummeting (good news if you’re in the market for a used full sized SUV). So this week I thought I’d cover some of the fuel efficient alternatives to large SUVs that still give you plenty of cargo space and a higher ride without draining your pocketbook. One nice thing about these vehicles is they’re also cheaper than the larger SUVs they’re replacing.
1) Scion xB
First up is the Scion xB. This newly redesigned vehicle has plenty of interior space and lots of little nooks and crannies where you can store stuff. This vehicle gets 28mpg on the highway and 22mpg in the city and will run you $15,750.
2) Mini Cooper Clubman
Next is the Mini Cooper Clubman which gets the best gas mileage of all the vehicles in this list. The Clubman is about 10 inches longer than a standard Mini. And if you’ve never sat in a Mini before you’ll find that it’s surprisingly spacious inside for such a little looking car. I have a friend who tips the scales at over 300lbs and says that it’s one of the most spacious vehicles for him to ride in so don’t let it’s little size fool you. The Mini Clubman gets 37mpg highway and 28mpg city and will run you $19,950.
3) Toyota Matrix
The Toyota Matrix gets 32mpg on the highway and 26mpg in the city. This vehicle also comes with available all wheel drive so you don’t have to give up ability to drive in snow with the Matrix. This car will run you $16,190-$20,660. It has a unique look that some people love and others hate so you’ll have to make that determination yourself.
4 ) Kia Rondo
If you’re a fan of ugly vehicles then the Kia Rondo is perfect for you. Seriously, this thing is hideous – it looks like a cross between a station wagon and minivan that hit every branch of the ugly tree on the way down. However, this thing is capable of hauling people around and even has available third-row seats. It gets 26mpg Highway and 19mpg in the city and will run you $16,395-$20,195.
5 ) Ford Escape Hybrid
A couple years ago I helped one of my good friends drive a Ford Escape from Lincoln, Nebraska to Boston, Massachusetts so I can give you some first hand feedback on driving an Escape (and the hybrid is pretty much identical, it just gets better mileage). I’ll admit that I’m a fan of this vehicle and the 30mpg highway, 34mpg city (that’s not a typo, remember hybrids get better city mileage due to regenerative braking) certainly makes this an attractive option especially if you spend a lot of your time commuting through the city. This is an SUV, not a car, and it even comes with available all wheel drive, so if you’re not ready to give up your SUV in the name of fuel efficiency, you don’t have to. The one trade off is price – the Ford Escape Hybrid will run you $27,445-$29,215.
6 ) Saturn Vue Green Line
If you’re a fan of Saturn vehicles (or if you prefer to do the Patriotic thing and buy American), but the Ford Escape Hybrid is a little out of your budget, then the Saturn Vue Green Line might be the better option for you. It uses Chevrolet’s “mild hybrid” system and while I’m not entirely sure what the heck that means, I do know it’s a cheaper system to install in a vehicle but still boosts gas mileage. The Saturn Vue Green Line will run you $23,640 and gets 32mpg highway and 24mpg city. And you still get the higher up ride you may have become accustomed to with your SUV. So what’s the catch? Well, you gotta find one first. Saturn isn’t producing many of these vehicles right now and they’re pretty doggone hard to find. But if you do manage to find one, you know exactly what you’re going to pay for it since Saturn doesn’t negotiate on their vehicles (which means in this case they can’t charge more than sticker price.)
7 ) Mazda5
The Mazda5 is the slightly better looking cousin to the Kia Rondo as far as I’m concerned. I’d say this thing looks like a little minvan. However, it’s attractively priced at $17,995-$22,515 and gets 28mpg highway and 22mpg in the city while offering plenty of space for passengers and their stuff. It even comes with a third row of seats.
8 ) Subaru Forester
With Subaru you know you’ll be getting four wheel drive, and the Forester has been redesigned to look a less like a high riding station wagon and more like the SUVs we’ve all come to know and love. The Forester gets 27mpg highway and 20mpg in the city and comes with a price tag between $19,995 and $28,195.
So there you have it – eight alternatives to your gas guzzling SUV that will still give plenty of space to put your people or stuff but will be far more friendly to your pocketbook.
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Maximizing Gas Credit Card Rebates
As many of you know if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’re certainly aware that I’m an advocate of getting a gas card as an easy way to help you save money on gas.
However, as many readers have pointed out, the gas card that I tend to recommend, the Discover Open Road Card, only gives you a 5% rebate on the first $100 you spend each month. And I’m well aware that with gas prices being what they are that just about all of us are spending more than $100/month in gas right now.
While there are several other cards out there with higher limits, none of them offer the 5% cash back at any station that the Open Road Card does.
This dilemma got me to thinking about how we can “have our cake and eat it too.” And then it became pretty clear to me how to maximize the gas rebates you get in any given month… simply get another gas card.
Now for those of you who don’t live in an area with many lots of gas stations (who doesn’t) and you don’t want to tie yourself to one company, then I’d recommend you combine the Discover Open Road Card with the Chase Freedom(SM) MasterCard (5% cash back).
The one trick to pulling this off is that your credit needs to be in the good to excellent range. If you have bad credit, you’re going to have a hard time getting approved for both cards.
I’d be interested in hearing your feedback on “maximizing gas card rebates” and what you think.
And if you need to apply for the cards I mentioned above, here are the links:
Apply for the Discover Open Road Card
Apply for the Chase Freedom(SM) MasterCard
In the adding insult to injury department comes the news that gas prices could go up another 15% but not because of the rising cost of oil per barrel or due to violence in the middle east or because of refinery issues. Nope, this is a problem of the home grown variety.
Farmers are having trouble growing corn because their fields are flooded. I remember that back when I was a kid helping my dad on the farm it was better if things were too dry rather than too wet. If the field is too dry, the crops won’t grow as tall and the yields will be lower. However, if the fields are too wet, the crops don’t grow at all. In some cases, you can’t even get out in the fields to plant because your tractor will simply get bogged down in mud.
And that’s the situation farmers are facing in the Midwest “corn belt” region. (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas) This is the part of the country that has been hit the hardest by heavy rains and widespread flooding.
I actually spoke to my mother last night who lives in southeastern Wisconsin and she was telling me how just about every city that was near a lake or river had been declared a state of emergency. Entire cities had had been shut down because every road in and out of the city was flooded.
And the heavy rain has caused Corn prices to skyrocket. In the past two weeks alone, corn has jumped from $6.10 a bushel to $7.50 a bushel. And if this trend continues, gas prices could increase another 61 cents per gallon. That will push gas prices close to $5/gallon, and if we have a bad hurricane season like the one from a few years ago, then $7/gallon gas prices will become a reality before the end of the year.
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I just got back from a trip doing some whitewater rafting in Colorado, and one of the rental cars we had was using what I thought was some pretty cool technology to that can definitely help you save money on gas.
One of my friends had a Chevy Impala as his rental. Normally, this is nothing to write home about. However, since my friend is an engineer who works for an ethanol company he made sure he got one of their flex fuel vehicles that can run on E85. While I may not agree that ethanol makes sense as a fuel right now, there’s no denying that it costs less at the pump, I’ve seen it cost up to $1.00/gallon less than regular unleaded gasoline.
But that really wasn’t the cool thing about this car as far as I was concerned. I was much more excited about the Active Fuel Management technology on the vehicle.
Instead of running on all six cylinders 100% of the time like a standard engine does, this vehicle automatically deactivates half of the cylinders in the engine when they’re not needed and then reactivates them when they’re needed like when you’re stopped idling at a stoplight or once you’re up to speed on the highway. These enhancements can actually get the full sized sedan nearly 30mpg on the highway, and if you’re filling up with E85, it can make a dramatic improvement in your gas consumption.
One other feature that I thought was really cool was a real time gas mileage indicator so you can see how your driving is affecting your gas mileage. I think just being able to see how much their gas mileage is affected when you are driving aggressively would make people think twice about doing it next time.
One other feature on the car that I didn’t know about was that the vehicle as has a tire pressure monitor that automatically alerts you if your tire pressure is low, and having properly inflated tires can improve mileage by up to 3% according to fueleconomy.gov.
While the Chevy Impala Flex Fuel Vehicle with Active Fuel Management is certainly no Aptera Typ-1 (300mpg car) or even a Toyota Prius in terms of fuel mileage, it’s certainly a step in the right direction to help you get better gas mileage.
If a hybrid really doesn’t pique your interest or isn’t practical for you as your next vehicle, I’d recommend you take a look at vehicles that are flex fuel and use Active Fuel Management or similar technology. If you need a larger vehicle, then I’d recommend that you look into vehicles that run on diesel since diesel tends to get significantly better gas mileage than their gasoline counterparts.
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If you’ve been following my blog posts for a while, you’ll know that this site can help you find the cheapest gas in your area just by doing a quick search with you zip code. You’ll get a bunch of gas stations close to your home and you can easily sort them to find the gas station with the lowest prices.
And I know that I use it myself pretty frequently and find it pretty darn accurate, however, it certainly does have it’s limitations. After all, if you’re travelling it’s pretty much useless. Even if you have a cell phone with internet access (like an iPhone), you probably don’t know what zip code you’re in. Usually, you just have to stop at the closest gas station or if you’re at a stop along the Insterstate, you may have three of four choices, but cheaper gas may just be one more exit down and you won’t know until you get there.
And if you’re like me, you hate paying more than you need to for gas.
I just took a trip to Colorado with some friends to do a little whitewater rafting and we never knew if we were paying more for gas than we had to. Sometimes we did okay, and other times we paid more than we needed to.
However, this is now a problem that nobody need suffer with anymore.
You can get real time gas price information on TomTom Go 720/920 and newer models like the 930. I personally use an older model of TomTom’s GPS devices and I can say that they’re excellent GPS units. And this gas price perk is one that has certainly got me thinking about an upgrade.
If you’re coming up on an exit, you’ll be able to not only see where the gas stations are, but you’ll be able to see just how much each gas station is charging for gas.
There is a small annual fee of $15 on this device which I think most people would find to be worth it if they do a lot of driving especially since gas stations along the Interstate can vary in price by 20 cents or more from one gas station to another (especially from one exit to another).
The gas price info is provided by the OPIS (Oil Price Information Service) and IPIX and covers more than 100,000 gas stations across the country.
And the information is updated every four hours so you’re likely to get up to date information most of the time.
You can learn more about the TomTom Go 930 by clicking here.
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Now here’s something you don’t see everyday. A car that gets 300mpg, can travel safely at highway speeds, can actually hold two adults, and doesn’t need solar panels.
It’s called the Aptera Typ-1, a three wheeled, highly aerodynamic car that can get up to 300 miles per gallon for the first 100 miles. This thing can actually drive across the country on a single tank of gas.
Here are some videos you can watch about this really nifty car:
Aptera Promo Video
Aptera Test Drive
CNN Report on the Aptera
Aptera on ABC
And while you can’t get one just yet, you can reserve yourself a production slot when the Apteras do start rolling off the assembly line by putting a $500 deposit on your credit card, but only if you live in California. Right now the website says that they expect to start delivering these vehicles to their new owners in about 12 months.
It comes in two configurations – all electric or plug-in hybrid. The all electric version can only go 120 miles on a single charge, and costs about $27,000, but the plug-in hybrid version can drive over 1000 miles on a single tank of gas and costs just under $30,000.
If I lived in California, this would definitely be on my list of vehicles to consider buying in the near future, and I hope they’re able to expand to make these vehicles available to the rest of the country soon… I want one.
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A few weeks ago when I was interviewed on the radio the guys asked me how to get twice the gas mileage out of your car, and I told them it wasn’t possible. Well, as it turns out I was wrong. And no, in this case you don’t need to use any funny additives or devices in your vehicle.
Instead, you do what has been coined “hypermiling.” The best hypermilers are able to double the gas mileage that their cars are supposed to get by driving quite conservatively most of the time.
CNN just ran a news story on this very topic and you can watch a video with the person who “invented” hypermiling, Wayne Gerdes. This guy manages to get up over 50mpg from a Honda Accord – not a hybrid – just a regular old Accord.
And he does it by taking a lot of the gas saving advice you’ll find on this site and taking it to extremes. For example, Wayne hates to use the brake peddle and only uses it if he absolutely. Otherwise, you’ll find him slowly coasting up to stoplights, timing them just perfectly so he doesn’t need to apply the brake. And while he’s coasting he also shuts off the engine to conserve fuel. He parks at the top of hills and doesn’t use his air conditioner (and he also keeps his windows up most of the time). It’s a pretty extreme way of driving but if you’re serious about saving money on gas, then I’d definitely recommend you give it a try. Remember, you don’t need to be nearly as extreme as Wayne to start saving money on gas.
You can learn more about Wayne Gerdis and hypermiling by visiting what I think is his website – Hypermiling.com.
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Whenever I tell anyone that I hope my next vehicle is a VW Jetta TDI, they all ask me two questions – 1) what the is it and 2) why would you want to drive a diesel when diesel prices are ridiculous.
Let’s start number one. The VW Jetta TDI is simply a diesel powered Volkswagon Jetta that gets more than 50mpg with a diesel engine – no complicated hybrid technology involved.
And for number 2… with diesel prices reaching $5/gallon why in the heck would anyone want to buy a diesel powered vehicle anymore? Well, first of all, it’s twice the gas mileage that most vehicles get and is even better mileage than the Toyota Prius gets. Also, diesel vehicles have proven that they tend to last a long time, typically easily reaching 200,000 – 300,000 miles. And if anything ever needs servicing on diesel vehicle it’s certainly going to cost less since most mechanics are quite familiar with diesel technology – the same can’t be said for hybrid technology.
Of course, the coolest thing about diesels is their ability to run on far cheaper fuel – vegetable oil. Instead of paying $4 or $5/gallon you can actually get your costs down to as low 46 cents per gallon for fuel.
Filling up the tank for less than $10? You can count me in. Now can you see why I want one?
And this can make getting that diesel powered truck a far more attractive option. Yesterday I was talking about how SUV and truck sales have plummeted with diesel trucks dropping $5000 in value or more. To me that screams opportunity. I could get myself a diesel truck (which always get better gas mileage than their conventional gasoline counterparts anyway) for far less than I could have a few months ago and start running the vehicle on vegetable oil and still pay far less in fuel costs than those Prius owners. Not only that, I wouldn’t be burning any fossil fuels so it’s far more enviromentally friendly.
So have I piqued your interest yet?
Well, if you think it’s worth a try, here’s what I’d recommend you do. You don’t need to go out and do a complicated biodiesel conversion to get started. Instead, you can get this really cool product called the “Diesel Secret” which is a fuel additive you add to the oil you’re going to use as fuel. You don’t need to perform any conversions on your vehicle. You just put in the fuel additive and run the oil through a filter and you’re all set. When it’s all said and done it takes just a little more time than normal to fill up your vehicle, but you end up only paying $.46/gallon or so and many people have reported that it actually makes their diesel engine run better than it did on regular diesel they purchased at the pump.
You can learn more about the Diesel Secret fuel additive here. If you are thinking about buying a diesel or you already own one, I’d definitely recommend taking a look at it.
For years SUVs have been the cash cow of American car companies like GM, Ford, and Chrysler. However, with gas prices hitting $4/gallon nobody wants to pay the $100/tank or more to fill up their large gas guzzling SUVs anymore. These inefficient beasts have seen sales drop significantly in the last few months and trade in values are dropping thousands of dollars each month.
Some are calling this the death of the SUV. GM is even considering selling off its Hummer line of vehicles.
It’s really a lose lose for SUV owners. If they want to sell their large SUV in favor of a smaller, more fuel efficient car they’re going to find that their SUV no longer sells for what it would have just a few months ago. Let’s take a full size SUV, a Chevy Tahoe, as an example. According to Kelley Blue Book a 2005 Tahoe sold forr about $19,750 last September but now the vehicle sells for $16,400, a $3,350 drop in value, or 17%. Even with gas at $4/gallon, the three grand the SUV owner has lost in value on their vehicle would still put a lot of gas in one of those vehicles.
Diesel powered vehicles have seen an even more dramatic drop with and with diesel prices nearing $5/gallon it’s no surprise. Many models of diesel powered trucks have seen their values drop by $5,000 or more in the last few months.
Nearly all auto manufacturers have seen sales fall but America’s Big 3 have taken the biggest hits due to their dependence on truck and SUV sales. GM has taken the biggest with a 28% drop in sales which has promoted the company to close four truck plants and cut about 10,000 jobs.
And Ford no longer has the best selling vehicle in the U.S. For the past 17 years the Ford F-150 pickup truck has held that title but now that title belongs to the far more fuel efficient and less expensive Honda Civic.
It’ll be interesting to see if American auto manufacturers can recover fast enough from this blow or if it’s already too late.
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