UCS Petitions for U.S. Hybrid Minivan Release

Most mothers will tell you that size does matter. In fact, size is so important to me, that I have continued to stay in a mediocre relationship, rather than follow my heart and make the love connection that has consumed me for years – a hybrid.

Toyota released its redesigned Estima Hybrid minivan almost one year ago. This sleekly shaped van boasts fuel efficiency and emissions equivalent to a compact size vehicle. This makes my knees buckle. The fact that it seats eight makes me as giddy as a schoolgirl at an Osmond Brothers concert.

The heartbreaking reality is that the Estima Hybrid is not available outside of Japan. Thankfully, the forward thinking folks at the Union of Concerned Scientists have taken matters into their own hands. They have launched a petition drive in hopes of securing more than 14,000 signatures to demand that Toyota bring the Estima Hybrid to the United States. Making the Estima available to U.S. drivers would be a step in the right direction.

While many of us strive to be good stewards of the environment, it is difficult to balance the every day needs of our children with the long term goal of saving the world for them. The idea of whizzing past freeway traffic in an in-line seated pod sounds terrific in theory! But what do I do when my husband has to unexpectedly work late and I need to pick up the kids for cello practice? I don’t even want to think about carpooling, field trips, or the numerous excursions I have to make to deliver kids and caboodle from point A to point B.

I have only been at Automotive X Prize for a short time, but I have spoken with many potential participants and noted numerous guideline comments. Some ideas are attainable, others, I am afraid, we may never see. But, to me, the most appealing thing about the AXP is its real world application. There is an actuality that we can have it all --fuel efficiency, low emissions, and room for Fido -- and we won’t have to wait a decade to sit in the driver’s seat. Mom’s of the world are waiting!

Reaching Out to Future Automotive Engineers

I've mentioned before that we're planning a robust education program for the Automotive X PRIZE. In addition to educating the car-buying public about their clean vehicle options, we hope to inspire future automotive engineers and encourage them to think about fuel efficiency and emissions as exciting fields of work.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Foundation already sponsors a wonderful program also designed to get students interested in engineering, math and science through practical applications. The progam is called A World in Motion (AWIM) and includes 4 great challenges including projects to build a skimmer boat, a "jet toy," a motorized vehicle, and a glider. A World in Motion's impact on students to date is significant:

  • More than 16,000 schools have received AWIM kits since 1990
  • They estimate that more than 2 million students have participated in AWIM programs
  • More than 15,000 volunteer engineers have been involved in AWIM programs

If you are a teacher looking for additional resources to get your students excited about science and enginnering, there is more science-related curriculum that can be found online here:

Perhaps there are many more resources like these available...do you know of other tools for teachers looking to inspire future automotive engineers? Do you have any great ideas about how to get students involved in the Automotive X PRIZE? Speak up!

Online Educational Resources for Alternative Fuels, Clean Vehicles, Greenhouse Gases and Carbon Footprint

We plan to add a thorough knowledge base to the AXP Website that will help consumers learn about alternative fuels, greenhouse gases, carbon footprint, clean & green vehicles, and more. While we work on building that knowledge base, I wanted to share just a few helpful resources that are out there today:
  • Currently available alternative fuel vehicles: Department of Energy has a nice section in their Alternative Fuels Data Center website that compares the specifications, costs, maintenance and availability of today's alternative fuel vehicles. The California Energy Commission's Consumer Energy Center has a lot of information on alternative fuel vehicles too.
  • Environmental performance of today's cars: The EPA's Green Vehicle Guide does a great job of summarizing the environmental impact (air pollution, greenhouse gasses and  of all vehicles available today (not just alternative fuel vehicles. You can look up the model of vehicle that you are interested in purchasing, or compare classes of vehicles like SUVs. Did you know that, according to this guide, the Honda Civic is the greenest non-hybrid vehicle on the road today? It beats several hybrids on the road today. Greenercars.com also rates the greenest (and meanest) of today's cars.
  • Alternative fuel properties: Another informative section on the DOE site compares the properties of alternative fuels. Their alternative fuel comparison chart looks at the energy content per gallon, the types of vehicles available today, the environmental impacts of burning the fuels, the U.S. energy security impacts of using the fuels, and the current availability of the fuels.
  • Tips on saving gasoline today: The California Energy Commission has published 10 Driving Tips that will help you save gas now (for example, consider removing your roof rack to decrease wind resistance). The EPA has a similar list of tips, including suggestions to avoid long idles and speeding.
  • Carbon footprint: BP offers a nice carbon footprint calculator on their website, along with suggestions for how to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions and a carbon saving knowledge quiz.

Those are just a few of the many wonderful resources available online today. I encourage you to share these tools with your family and friends as they make vehicle purchase decisions or try to reduce their carbon footprint. And if you know of other great clean vehicle resources out there, please post a comment here and share them with the rest of us!

Students Challenged to Explore Alternative Transportation Technologies

One of our hopes for the Automotive X PRIZE is that it will inspire students and future automotive engineers to consider alternative technologies that produce cleaner, more efficient vehicles. We want the people who will define and create tomorrow's automotive solutions to be challenged to make cars use less petroleum and produce fewer harmful emissions.

While we're busy designing the Automotive X PRIZE competition, we are excited when we see programs are taking on this challenge today. So our hats are off to the MIT Vehicle Design Summit. 60 student engineers representing 15 countries and 6 continents are spending the summer working on 5 vehicle designs: a fuel cell vehicle, a biofuel vehicle, a human/solar hybrid vehicle, a retrofit vehicle, and a concept car.

We look forward to seeing what these students create. Perhaps they will be vehicles that will be able to enter our competition! We'll continue to work on ways to integrate programs for students into the Automotive X PRIZE.