Grist | Topics | 38 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 38
Page:1 2
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Plug It In, Plug It In Tesla Motors to build electric-car plant in San Jose, Calif.		17 Sep 2008	News
Posted at 9:09 AM on 17 Sep 2008 Tesla Motors, maker of the ultra-sleek, ultra-expensive, all-electric Tesla Roadster sports car, has announced it will build a manufacturing plant in San Jose, Calif., to churn out within two years its newest all-electric offering: a five-seater sedan. Priced at a still-spendy-but-slightly-saner $60,000, Tesla's "Model S" sedan is expected to roll off the production li ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, energy, news (all these topics)

Annals of meaningless statistics Mattel worth more than GM on strong outlook for Matchbox, Hot Wheels cars	Adam Stein	07 Jul 2008	Gristmill
At the present moment Mattel, the maker of Hot Wheels and Matchbox toy cars, is worth $6.2 billion, putting it at a premium to GM, worth a mere $5.7 billion.Created in 1952, Matchbox cars were instantly popular because they were hard for children to swallow and required no batteries.With the price of a fill-up now topping $100, drivers are likewise finding GM's line up of trucks and SUVs very hard to swallow.
Topics: Big Auto, business, cars, consumerism, economy (all these topics)

Consumers in the driver's seat It's shifting consumer demand that will drive increases in vehicle fuel efficiency	Guest author	20 May 2008	Gristmill
The following is a guest post from Charley Territo, spokesperson for the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers. ----- I frequently read about perceived (or alleged) disagreements between the environmental community and the auto industry. A few of them are real disagreements over policy, many are practical disagreements over how best to achieve common goals, but many perceived disagreements are not, in fact, disagreements at all. For instance, some people believe the a ...
Topics: business, cars, consumerism, energy, gas prices, hybrids (all these topics)

No, there need not be a way The privileged attitude of the motorhead	JMG	20 Jan 2008	Gristmill
A Washington Post columnist: I'm not making an ideological argument here or manufacturing an excuse for American super-consumers, with our Hummers and McMansions. I'm not offering a proper answer to the puzzle proffered above either, unfortunately, but just stating the rarely acknowledged facts: Probably there should be an emissions-free car available for $2,500 (or an organic granola bar for 52 cents), but, at the moment, there isn't. There must be a way to reconcile mass car ...
Topics: cars, climate, consumerism, energy (all these topics)

Meals on wheels The Chrysler Town & Country freaks me out	Tom Philpott	11 Jan 2008	Gristmill
I was leafing through the Feb. Bon Appetit -- the magazine's first 'green' issue; more on that in a future 'Edible Media' post -- when I came upon an ad for something called the Chrysler Town & Country. It shows a white suburban family standing in front of their SUV and McPalace, glowing and looking happy. Dad's holding a football; 2.5 or so grinning brats are tossing around a basketball. You know: sports utility vehicle. All of that is de rigueur -- the brea ...
Topics: consumerism, cars (all these topics)

The greening of Madison Avenue When do green ads translate to green action?	Tom Philpott	31 Dec 2007	Gristmill
The greening of the U.S. of A. still has a ways to go. We're plundering Canada's tar sands and mining the Midwest's topsoil to keep our cars on the road. We lay waste to ton after ton of Chinese coal to fuel our cheap-stuff habit. And so on. But if our habits remain environmentally ruinous, the strategies we use to sell stuff have gone decidedly green. From today's Wall Street Journal, a wrap-up of the year in advertising: Green is the new black. Madis ...
Topics: advertising, cars, consumerism, green living, Prius, shopping (all these topics)

How SUVs can save the climate When is a Tundra a better buy than a Prius?	Eric de Place	20 Dec 2007	Gristmill
This never fails to fascinate me: The chart shows how much fuel is consumed over 15,000 miles by cars of different fuel efficiencies. The curve matters a lot. It means that from the perspective of fuel conservation, it's not terribly important to trade in your Honda Civic to buy a Prius. But it's hugely important to trade in your Dodge Durango for a Toyota Tacoma. I'll use some rough numbers to illustrate. You trade in your Civic, which averages ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, energy, fuel efficiency, green living (all these topics)

Hybrid sales up 82 percent in Nov. 2007 vs. Nov. 2006 Gas prices impact car-purchasing decisions in the U.S.	Joseph Romm	09 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Hybrid sales are taking off again as gasoline prices soar: Reported sales of hybrids in the US in November rose 82% year-on-year to reach 33,233 total units, representing 2.8% of all light-duty vehicles sold during the month. GM does not break out its hybrid sales separately, and so is not reflected in the hybrid number -- thus, the actual hybrid total and new market share will [be] slightly higher. Toyota posted a strong month, with Prius sales hitting 16 ...
Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics)

Prius smackdown, round two High gas prices make hybrids look even better	Clark Williams-Derry	07 Dec 2007	Gristmill
A couple of years ago, I ran some numbers trying to figure out which was the better buy for the planet -- a biodiesel Jetta or a hybrid Prius. And I came to the tentative, but perhaps counterintuitive, conclusion that the best buy was ... wait for it ... a Toyota Corolla. The Corolla, you see, was thousands of dollars cheaper than the Prius (the runner-up), even after I accounted for all the savings on gas from driving a fuel-miser. And if you were a gre ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, energy, green living, hybrids, Prius (all these topics)

Who will reincarnate the electric car? Automakers want to delay the transition to electric vehicles	Joseph Romm	13 Nov 2007	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Marc Geller, who blogs at Plugs and Cars, serves on the board of directors of the Electric Auto Association, cofounded Plug In America and DontCrush.com, and appeared in Who Killed The Electric Car. ----- The IEEE Spectrum Magazine for November 2007 touts on its cover: 'Battery or Fuel-Cell Cars? A California Cabal Will Decide.' Interesting choice of headlines. Surely a strong argument can be made that something approaching a caba ...
Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, energy, hybrids, innovation, tech (all these topics)

Preorder your high-end plug-in hybrid now! Plug-in sports car to hit showrooms in 2010	Joseph Romm	11 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Fisker Automotive is taking orders for its $80,000 (only $1,000 down!) '4-door plug-in hybrid sports sedan': The specs released so far (PDF) are: Performance details for the first car are impressive achieving 50 miles (80 kilometers) on a pure electric charge [sic]. Additionally, by further utilizing a gasoline or diesel engine offered by Fisker, one can extend the total range of their Fisker to more than 620 miles (1000 kilometers). The first Fisker will a ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids (all these topics)

Truth in advertising Norway bans generic green terms from auto advertising	David Roberts	07 Sep 2007	Gristmill
This is funny and kind of awesome: No car can be 'green,' 'clean' or 'environmentally friendly,' according to some of the world's strictest advertising guidelines set to enter into force in Norway next month. 'Cars cannot do anything good for the environment except less damage than others,' Bente Oeverli, a senior official at the office of the state-run Consumer Ombudsman, told Reuters on Thursday.
Topics: advertising, cars, consumerism, green living, messaging, Norway (all these topics)

It Only Hertz a Little Rental and car-share companies get hip to hybrids		14 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
It Only Hertz a Little Rental and car-share companies get hip to hybrids Fueled by consumers' green interests, rental, car-service, and car-sharing companies are increasingly turning to hybrids. (Hear the collective sigh of relief from guilt-prone enviros who cringe with every tap on the rental accelerator.) Big renters Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis have all recently added several ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids, news, Prius (all these topics)

Test Drive New York to paste 'global warming index' stickers on some new vehicles		06 Aug 2007	Daily Grist
Test Drive New York to paste "global warming index" stickers on some new vehicles New York has become the second state in the U.S. to require new cars and light trucks to bear a "global warming index" sticker. (We'll give you a minute to guess which one was first.) The law, which begins with the 2010 model year, aims to educate consumers and cut pollutio ...
Topics: cars, climate, consumerism, greenhouse-gas emissions, New York, news, shopping (all these topics)

Easing off the gas? Well, sorta	Clark Williams-Derry	15 Jun 2007	Gristmill
One of the most striking findings from this year's Cascadia Scorecard from Sightline Institute (just released Tuesday, by the way) is that Northwesterners -- or, more properly, the residents of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia -- are using less gasoline. In fact, per person gas consumption on the Northwest's roads and highways has fallen by nearly a tenth since the late 1990s. To put the recent declines in context: cutting gas consumption by n ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, energy, oil (all these topics)

Hummer almost caught on film doing useful work What's in your status symbol?	biodiversivist	26 May 2007	Gristmill
That's right. I actually saw a Hummer pulling a trailer with stuff in it yesterday. Although stunned, I recovered in time to get a shot of his trailer as he pulled away from the transfer station. Coincidentally, I was also pulling a trailer on my bike (also visible in the lower right hand corner). We smirked at one another as we passed. I think it's adorable how he painted is little red wagon to match his big red Hummer. Hummers are a joke in some circles and a huge ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, green living (all these topics)

Hilarious and painfully true Our culture of overcompensation	JMG	23 May 2007	Gristmill
Mark Morford: Bottom line: You can hope for the big shifts. You can hope for some sort of grand awakening, some sort of removal of the tumor and a relief from the pain of excess waste and abuse and happy ignorance.But, of course, what you get instead is, well, a nice drive to the megamall in a shiny 2008 Escalade for a couple of aspirin and some compact fluorescent lightbulbs and a copy of 'An Inconvenient Truth' on DVD. Ain't that America. More excerpts beneath the fold. ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, green living (all these topics)

The G-list The pre-Oscar buzz is green, all green	Yolanda Crous	23 Feb 2007	Gristmill
Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Penelope Cruz at the Global Green pre-Oscar party. Photo: Michael Caulfield / WireImage.comAnyone who sneaks a guilty peek at Access Hollywood or Extra after dinner knows that it is officially Party Week in Hollywood. Everybody and her over-pedigreed dog is in town, boozing and schmoozing it up before the Academy Awards on Sunday. So when I scored an invite to the Global Green pre-Oscar party, I was pretty pumped. This is th ...
Topics: cars, celebrity, consumerism, electric vehicles, Prius (all these topics)

Cleaner by the Dozen Green group produces list of top 12 eco-friendly vehicles		07 Feb 2007	Daily Grist
Cleaner by the Dozen Green group produces list of top 12 eco-friendly vehicles American autos are drowning their sorrows in foreign oil after not making the 2007 Green Book list of the top 12 eco-friendly vehicles, released yesterday by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Honda's natural-gas-powered Civic GX (available only in California and New York) regain ...
Topics: Big Auto, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids, lists, news, Prius (all these topics)

Catch up post: replying to some comments	Gar Lipow	16 Jan 2007	Gristmill
As promised, this is a catch-up post, wherein I belatedly reply to various comments. Ron Steenblik, director of research for Global Subsidies Initiative, said: 'Long distance transmission lines are good because they reduce the need for storage or backup if we use variable sources to generate electricity. (Storage is good, but transmission is almost always cheaper.)' Gar, may I make the friendly suggestion that you qualify that statement. I can recall back in the 19 ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, energy, hybrids, tech (all these topics)

Some Prius-mature celebration Car-maker planning to expand the family	Kate Sheppard	03 Nov 2006	Gristmill
The Prius may soon be more than just one oh-so-stereotyped hybrid motor vehicle. Toyota's talking about starting a family of the cars, and in this case I'd have to support wanton reproduction. The automaker announced this week that they are considering creating a line of the gasoline-electric cars. It could include a wagon and a smaller, Smart-Car-esque inner-city model. U.S. sales of the Prius fell in the first quarter of 2006 simply because Toyota couldn't keep up ...
Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids, Prius (all these topics)

Prius: the new drug dealer bling From the show Weeds	David Roberts	27 Oct 2006	Gristmill
Showtime's semi-hit show Weeds is about Nancy Botwin, a suburban stay-at-home mother of two boys who, after the death of her husband, turns to selling marijuana to make ends meet. Soon she starts growing too. I'm in the midst of watching the second season. With some partners, Nancy's just developed a new strain (dubbed "MILF weed" by Snoop Dogg himself) and started selling it. Cash is pouring in, so Nancy goes on a shopping spree. Here's a short clip of wha ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, green living, messaging, Prius, TV (all these topics)

Sticker Shock Absorber Some hybrids can pay back their price premium over time		24 Aug 2006	Daily Grist
Sticker Shock Absorber Some hybrids can pay back their price premium over time High price of hybrids got you down? According to the gurus at Edmunds.com, the cash some hybrid owners save on gas can make up for the sticker price. Hybrid cars and trucks cost between $1,200 and $7,000 more than their gas-chugging counterparts, but as analyst Alex Rosten s ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, fuel efficiency, hybrids, news, placemaking, politics, Prius (all these topics)

Consumer Reports backtracks	David Roberts	08 Mar 2006	Gristmill
Odograph will be happy to hear that Consumer Reports has admitted error: some hybrids save money after all. Including fuel savings and tax credits, Consumer Reports said, the Toyota Prius hybrid would save about $400 over five years and the Honda Civic hybrid would save about $300 compared with conventionally powered models. The magazine said it overestimated depreciation of the cars in arriving at its initial conclusion. I guess the millions thousan ...
Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics)

Biodiesel: it's what you make it out of Replacing fossil fuels with biodiesel may do more harm than good	biodiversivist	19 Aug 2005	Gristmill
I remember when real environmentalists drove smoking VW vans with bumper stickers that said stuff like, 'You can't call yourself an environmentalist if you eat meat.' They didn't get the best gas mileage, but hey, you could do worse. They were replaced by the forest-green Subaru Outback (Eddy Bower edition if you were really cool), seen by the dozens in any REI parking lot. These are presently being eclipsed by the ubiquitous Prius. But, there is stiff competition fro ...
Topics: biofuels, cars, consumerism, energy, hybrids, placemaking (all these topics)

Page:1 2		Results 1 – 25 of 38

Stories About: cars AND consumerism