Get your green on

Posted November 1st, 2006 at 6:30 am by Nicki Dugan, Blog Editor

 4 Comments / Filed in: Guest Opinions, Trends & News

I saw “An Inconvenient Truth.” It made me want to shoot my car. But with such a dizzying array of solutions to our oil addiction — hybrid, flex fuel/E85, bio-diesel, compressed natural gas, hydrogen, electric — the fetal position sometimes feels like the best response. Enter Yahoo! Autos’ new Green Center, which will help the growing numbers of tree huggers among us easily research the pros and cons of various alternative fuel technologies.

The site is jam-packed with resources like car review videos, the latest news headlines, Yahoo! Answers content, del.icio.us links, myths debunked, and tools like gas-impact calculators, federal and state incentive programs, and alternative fuel station locators. Oh, and a cool new Green Rating system, which Yahoo! Autos developed with Environmental Defense, helps you gauge (on a scale of 1–100) how environmentally friendly your combustion engine is (or isn’t).

To demonstrate that green can also be macho, the Yahoo! Autos team has built the world’s fastest peanut-oil-powered vehicle — a 3,500 horsepower truck with Boeing 747 rear wheels and a parachute for brakes. On November 12, at the edge of the Mojave Desert, they hope to hit 240 mph and set the record as the fastest “greasel” ever driven. Our monster truck needs a name. Can you help?

In honor of all this greenery, we sat down with Martin Eberhard, CEO of Tesla Motors, who recently came to show off his incredible cars as part of our TechDev speaker series. (Watch the video of his interview with Yahoo! Autos’ Jon Guzik below). Martin’s little company has resuscitated the electric car with a vengeance. The Tesla Roadster goes from 0 to 60 in about four seconds, yet gets the equivalent of 135 mpg. And you can drive 250 miles on a single charge. The only catch is there aren’t many available (they only have a few 2007s left), and they go for $100,000. But hang tough until 2009 when the Tesla sport sedan will debut for less then $50,000 in mass production. I’m saving my nickels.

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4 Comments Add your own

Mark Alan Effinger | November 1st, 2006 at 10:42 am

I applaud Tesla for not only their killer brand (the logo reminds me somewhat of the edginess the Mazda Wankel logo represented when the RX-series first launched), great intentions, and excellent execution.

I believe this is the first electric car manufacturer with the bandwith, support and commitment to really make it happen. Solid venture backing, excellent use of existing technologies (no “unobtanium” here) and sex appeal ought to help American’s support a strong IPO that actually turns this into the commuter car company of the future, not just a Lotus-killer.

A company in Bellingham, Washington is also carrying the torch by promoting and developing electric and low-carbon emmission vehicles, http://www.GreenPeopleMovers.com (a company PRWeb’s CEO David McInnis funded to provide a source of alternative transportation solutions in his fast-growing college town).

I believe this is finally catching momentum: The electric car is no longer a laughable “golf cart”. If Tesla sets the marker, we’re in for a wild, and big grin producing ride.

best of success to you,
Mark Alan Effinger
http://www.ThoughtOffice.com

DarthKleber | November 2nd, 2006 at 3:52 pm

Way to go tesla . Keep up the good work . please…
Maybe the big for will get w/ the program…

Byron | November 3rd, 2006 at 8:41 am

The suprise about Green Center was ruined for me today. Here is why. I was logging out of my email when i saw a beaver using a chain saw cutting down a tree and a cartoon holding up a sign that said, “NOW YOU CAN USE BETTER TOOLS TO GET THINGS DONE”.

In my opinion, that is the wrong message to send. Compare the number of people who will see that ad to the number of people who visit Green Center.

Being “green” should be a wholistic experience for a company as well as an individual. I think the ad compared to the Green Center initiative sends the wrong message.

Thanks,

B

zppkqma | December 23rd, 2006 at 7:54 am

Hi all!!! Cool site!!!