Tomorrow Polo BlueMotion

By mmt | Published: August 12, 2010

I am going to test the Polo Bluemotion: 87 g CO2/km better than the Prius. More than 30 km/l

polo1

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Test of the Honda CR-Z

By mmt | Published: August 4, 2010

Can a Hybrid be a lot of fun?

The CR-Z is the first Hybrid with a manual transmission. It has 3 drive modes:

ECO, normal and sport.

The 3 modes change the cars behavior a lot. This makes a lot of senses when you get used to it.

 

 crz6

I tested the CR-Z on a 25 km track with about 5 km city traffic and the rest winding and a bit hilly country road with speed limit 80 km/h. The many turns made it difficult to stay at 80 km/h all the time.

CRZ3

In ECO and Normal mode the car did exactly the same: 4.3 l/100km

crz4

 and in sports mode it did 4.6:

crz1

In eco mode the accelerator needs to be pressed fare down and the car reacts slow, so I was accelerating slowly. In normal mode the car reacts nicely and I did drive a bit faster. In sports mode the car is fast responding therefore I did accelerate faster, it impossible to drive like in ECO mode.

I did a last run in sports mode and accelerating hard whenever it was possible it gave 5.8 l/100 km which is very fine for that driving style. When the car is in sports mode the hybrid drive assist a lot when accelerating.

crz2

The car has very hard suspension making it ideal for winding country roads and in sports mode is just a lot of fun!!!

crz5

It is called a 2+2, but having kids in the back only works for very short drives.

The CR-Z has a very nice Start/stop system: when you drive below 30 km/h and set it in neutral and apply the break the motor stops.

Conclusion:

The CR-Z is able to cover both the ECO driving and VERY funny driving in the same car.

The more I drove it the more I loved it. It is the first car that I was really sorry to handle back!!!

The sound system is better than I have ever tried before with 8 speakers.

TRY IT!!!

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Interview on Thursday on LinkedIn

By mmt | Published: August 2, 2010

I am going to be interviewed on Thursday 5 PM CET on LinkedIn by Mikkel Madsen from the WACCM TOO group.

To follow the interview and ask questions online you need to join the group:

http://tinyurl.com/34mcepq

I hope you will participate and ask me questions!

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First impressions of the Honda CR-Z

By mmt | Published: August 2, 2010

I have only had the car for one day, but it has already lived up to the expectation of being able to handle two disciplines very well:

Eco mode: If you carefully the car can do more than 20 km/l

Sports mode: The car is very fast responding and handles life a real sports car.

foto

I managed to get to adults and two kids into it yesterday, but this only works on very short drives!

 More test to follow…

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Next weeks test: Honda CR-Z Sports Hybrid

By mmt | Published: July 30, 2010

I am going to pick up the CR-Z on Monday and I am having it for a week!

Honda-CR-Z-001-f

If you have any test you want me to perform please contact me :-)

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Interview with Chris Paine

By mmt | Published: June 27, 2010

I am going to have an exclusive interview with Chris Paine on Wednesday. He wrote and directed the movie “Who killed the electric car” and is now working on his next movie “Revenge of the Electric Car”.

WKTEC

If you have any questions to him that you want me to ask, please send them to me on: mmt @ easyecar (dot) com !!!

I am not sure that I get a chance to ask him all the questions send to me, but I will do my best!

I will write a post on my blog after the interview.

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EasyEcar Newsletter no.4 June 2010

By mmt | Published: June 18, 2010

EasyEcar Newsletter no.4 June 2010

Better Place Battery Switch in Tokyo:

I have just returned home from a visit to see the battery switch station working in real life operation. I must say that it was a very convincing experience to sit in a car that switches the battery in less than two minutes.

See the videos: http://www.easyecar.com/better-place-news/better-place-battery-switch-in-tokyo/

The video was also on Autoblog Green: http://green.autoblog.com/2010/06/14/video-ride-along-as-a-real-world-battery-swap-takes-place-in-le/

Nissan Leaf test:

I had an opportunity to get a ride in a prototype of the Nissan Leaf in the passenger seat – that gave many comments: http://www.easyecar.com/electric-vehicle-test/nissan-leaf-first-drive/  

EV Li-ion Battery Forum (The 2nd):

I am part of the Program Advisory Board for the second Battery forum and you can get 20% discount if you book through me. You can get a discount code if you contact me: http://www.easyecar.com/contact-me/

The Forum has 55 speakers from 16 countries including 16 vehicles manufacturers, 10 battery manufacturers – entire value chain

covers 2 wheels, 4 wheels, buses & commercial vehicles – See more: http://www.ev-li-ionbatteryforum.com/?langswitch_lang=en

Volvo hybrid bus:

The Hybrid model 7700 was on test in Copenhagen. It is supposed to reduce the CO2 by 20-30% and the NOx even more.

The bus starts on the electric motor op to about 20 km/h, but it is quite noisy. Read nore:

http://www.easyecar.com/public-transportation/volvo-hybrid-bus-7700/

Tests coming up:

Test of Renault Fluence and Kangoo electric vehicle. Please contact me if you want me to look for something specific during my test: http://www.easyecar.com/contact-me/

Test of Honda CR-Z hybrid in August

I have been asked to participate in an interview on Electric Vehicles on Cartalk in August: “CarTalk radio, every Wednesday live between 7 pm – 8 pm Israel time (noon EST time/ 6 PM Europe time/ 5 PM U.K.time) tune in and listen on www.rustymikeradio.com”

Have a nice summer and I hope you have a chance to test some nice green cars :-)

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Hertz Green Collection

By mmt | Published: June 17, 2010

I was checking prices for rental cars in California by Hertz when I saw this extremely Green car:

A full size 4. door Chevrolet Impala that did not look very exciting or green, but when I checked the details I realized that I was very wrong:

15g

 CO2 only 15 g/km!!! Prius go home with 89 g/km :-)

Sorry for the poor picture quality!

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Volvo Hybrid Bus 7700

By mmt | Published: June 9, 2010

The bus is on trail in Denmark for two weeks:

The diesel motor stops when the bus stops. Then the bus is silence. When accelerating it uses the electric motor up to about 20 km/h and then the diesel motor starts and they run parallel.
The electric motor is quite noisy so you only get lower noise when the bus is at a bus stop. This goes for both the inside and outside. That is a surprise and very disappointing for a Volvo.

The interior is also of a relative low quality and was also creaking a lot.

The from the outside:

Conclusion:
It is fantastic to save 20 to 30% in fuel but it could have been nice to have  lower noise as well.

Read more about the bus: http://kortlink.dk/7ukh

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Better Place battery switch in Tokyo

By mmt | Published: June 3, 2010

tokyo 967

Sitting in the back seat of a Better Place Taxi in Tokyo when it does a battery switch:


 
The car drives inside the switch station and gets cleaned underneath with air when it drives in. then it stops and after waiting a while the depleted battery is taken out underneath and then the fully charged battery lifted up. It is soon fitted into the car.

The whole battery switch is taking around two minutes and then we have a car that can run 100 km in the city of Tokyo.

This video is doing a bit of summary over my visit. The video is done at the airport and starts with a plane taking off:

It was a very convincing experience.

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