October 14, 2007 by Rob.

This gem appeared on the EVDL:

“According to a department of energy report a few years back, the largest single user of electricity in California are the refineries with the average of 12kwh used per gallon of gas produced.”

This means that your gasser is also an EV!  I’ve seen lots of “long tail pipe” arguments against EVs, this is the first example of gas’ impact on electricity that I’ve heard.  It nicely moves adds another positive conservation impact to the EV side of the equation.

Let’s talk real numbers: the RAVolt uses about 0.6kwh/mile.  Assume the RAV4 got 24 mpg as a gasser.  That’s .5kwh/mile of electricity input for gas production.  Ignoring additional polluting raw materials, the RAVolt’s net pure electricity use compared to it’s gas use is 0.1kwh/mile.  That’s a real savings and a real impact!

Posted in Green Tech, EV Tech | 1 Comment »

October 14, 2007 by Rob.

I attended some very interesting sessions at the Austin InnoTech conference with a common theme: Social Media.  The core of social media (blogs, social networks, etc) is that it they must have an authentic voice.  That is the foundation for building trust with their audience.

The Blog Action Day is an interesting experiment to use create an authentic shout about a single issue: the environment.  The RAVolt is supposed to be a declaration of environmental crisis and prove that everyone had the ability to create new choices.

I encourage you to participate in this effort.  Everyone create social media together!

• Email a link to your favorite blogs
• Upload green pictures to Flickr or YouTube
• Comment on a post
• Post to your blog

Posted in Green Tech | 1 Comment »