I’m perhaps more fortunate than most because I don’t live in a big city … I don’t even live in the ‘burbs of a small city. My partner and I live in a small coastal town with quite a small population and so we don’t have to put up with all the noise and pollution that city-dwellers have to experience each day.

While we get to enjoy relatively clean air anyone who lives in a city has to put up with a lot of trucks belching plenty of exhaust fumes that not only damage a human’s health but damage the environment as well. Sometimes I guess people in cities wish we could survive without those trucks but we’re society that’s built on transport and if the trucks go then society will collapse.

But when you see those trucks and all the exhaust pollution coming from them you just know that we have to provide an environmentally friendly solution to our transport needs and that’s where a Kansas City based truck manufacturer comes into the equation. Smith Electric Vehicles has been building mid-sized electric delivery trucks for some time now and slowly but surely they’re making real inroads (pardon the pun) into the truck market here in the United States.

Already major companies that need large fleets of mid-sized trucks for use around cities in the United States are knocking on their door and the company is currently supplying trucks to Coca-Cola, AT&T and Frito-Lay.

While car companies are struggling to build electric cars with a range of 60 miles before they need a recharge Smith Electric Vehicles is building 12 ton trucks with a range up to 120 miles and a top speed of around 50 miles per hour.

Big fleet owners are currently getting plenty of government subsidies to change from gas and diesel powered trucks to electric trucks such as those built by Smith Electric Vehicles so we can expect to see more of these clean and very environmentally friendly trucks appearing on our city streets in the future and that has to be a win for the environment.

If you haven’t already worked it out from some of the posts I’ve made here in the blog I have to tell you that I’m a bit of a petrol-head … or at least I used to be when I was younger. Give me a big booming V8 with more cubic inches than anything that had ever gone before and I was happy.

Actually I still am … but in a more reserved and environmentally friendly kind of way.

Last weekend my partner and I went on what we jokingly called our ‘Big Christmas Road Trip … over 1600 miles of driving there and back to see some of the kids and some of the grandkids.

When our family gets together it’s huge so we decided that we needed a little peace and quiet so we stayed at a motel and what should I find in the motel owner’s garage but one of those big V8s that I used to love so much. He had fully restored it and for a couple of hours the owner and I talked cars while I drooled over the perfect finish … we fired that monster up and listened to the burble of an exhaust that was almost as moving as a symphony.

Then I wandered back to our room and did some sums. These days I drive a small SUV and for the trip down we had averaged just under 30mpg. That beautiful V8 that I had gone all weak at the knees over would probably do no better than 15mpg.

I looked at those two figures and suddenly realized that I felt good about our fuel consumption … of course I want to do better but considering the driving conditions 30pmg was ok … and it was definitely being environmentally friendly. It also dawned on me that if I had driven that V8 and only achieved 15mpg I’d not only be feeling very guilty but I’d be a whole lot poorer as well.

When we left the motel to head home I wasn’t sorry to be leaving that V8 behind at all. The future is smaller and more economical cars and they may not sound as good as a big booming V8 but they’re still going to make the environmentally friendly future an exciting and interesting place to be.

… a complete change of attitude.

One of the easiest things to do is to pretend that you’re environmentally friendly. You throw a few things in the recycling crate and suddenly you’re doing your bit towards saving the planet.

But seriously folks that’s not being environmentally friendly at all … if all you do is put some paper and cardboard in your recycling crate every week all you’re really doing is pretending to be interested in the environment. If you’re serious about being environmentally friendly then you have to have a complete change of attitude and you need to reject the way you have lived in the past.

Now that doesn’t meant that you need to live any less comfortably than you live now but it does mean that you need to change your approach to just about everything you and your family might do.

For example General Motors has just announced that a new family car will go on sale in the third quarter of next year and this new car will give you a return of 40 miles per gallon when you’re out on the open road. 40 miles to the gallon … can you believe that?

That’s an extraordinary fuel consumption figure compared to many of the cars that are out on our roads … or even parked in your garage. Owning a car that does 40 miles to the gallon sounds like something that every American should aspire to if they’re serious about being eco-friendly doesn’t it?

But unless a whole bunch of attitudes change between now and when that new GM model is released most Americans are not going to be interested in buying it. You see General Motors has been a little coy about this new car … they’ve made a lot of noise about the fuel consumption but they have tended to be a little quiet about the fact that it’s a small family car.

They’ve also been a little quiet about the fact that not only is it a small family car but that it only has a four cylinder engine. And right there are two aspects of this new 40 miles per gallon car that many American drivers won’t like … it’s small and it’s only four cylinders.

Americans still love their big cars with big motors and if you’re a person who thinks that a car isn’t a car unless it’s big and powerful then you’re going to have to change your attitude if you’re serious about being environmentally friendly.

I have to admit that for quite some time I’ve been one of those people who simply can’t accept the suggestion that a non-hybrid mid-range SUV might be anywhere near being environmentally friendly. The concept that something that big could be anything but a gas-guzzling waste of space seemed entirely delusional to me and I didn’t think that I might ever be persuaded to see it any other way.

However earlier today I was chatting on Skype with a friend of mine who lives over in Australia. Among other things he’s a motoring writer and he was telling me that he’d just been off at one of those media days where motoring writers get to test drive a whole bunch of vehicles and this one was for the launch of a new Toyota SUV that’s called the Prado over there.

I’ve had a look at Toyota’s website and I don’t think that the Prado is sold here … even under some other name … but I could be wrong. Actually it doesn’t really matter whether it is or isn’t sold here because this isn’t about Toyota. What it is about is the fact that you can get mid-range SUVs that don’t guzzle a whole lot of gas … in fact the one my friend test-drove was giving figures of around 27 miles per gallon and that’s as good or better than some cars that are still on the market.

So if you really do have a need for a mid-range SUV … other than the fact that you want to be like all the other soccer moms out there … then you really don’t have to feel guilty about buying a mid-range SUV that returns gas figures like that.

I guess I’m beginning to realize that some car makers are serious about doing something for our environment. It’s sad that other care makers aren’t and many of our politicians are trying to do even more to destroy the environment

Now you may wonder why that’s such an important piece of news … Elk Horn Iowa … where the heck is that?

Well it is a very important piece of news because it shows that some businesses are serious about electric vehicle technology and we’re sitting at the sunrise of electric vehicles. It’s that moment when electric vehicles are getting ready to make the transition from an around-town vehicle with very limited range to a serious piece of transport that will one day take you right across America.

Currently electric vehicles are still very limited by the storage capacity of their batteries and about the best range of heard of in an electric vehicle is the BMW Electric Mini with one driver managing to wring 141 miles out of the battery in his car. Add to that the fact that charging the batteries in an electric vehicle is nothing like pulling into the gas station and filling up your tank.

Charging an electric car takes a lot of time so the range of an electric car is very limited and a trip out of town is really not something an electric vehicle could really handle. Even if it could the number of charging stations throughout the US are limited and until now there hasn’t been one between Denver and Chicago.

But now that’s all about to change and the first step is happening in Elk Horn Iowa. Coulomb Technologies is building one of their ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations in Elk Horn and they promise that soon there will be many more along the I-80 corridor.

So if the only reason you haven’t bought an electric car is the fact that charging stations have been scarcer than hen’s teeth maybe you should start thinking about which electric vehicle best suits you. If you’re serious about being environmentally friendly then maybe an electric car should be high on your list of essential purchases

Cars are huge resource hogs and even worse when it comes to putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere but there are ways that we make them more environmentally friendly and here are five ways that you can do just that.

Don’t leave your car idling
If you’re waiting for someone don’t sit in your car with the motor idling. Yes, I know it might be hot or cold outside and you want to keep the car warm or cool but your polluting the atmosphere and using up limited resources so turn the engine off.

It won’t be long before cars will be fitted with technology that will turn your engine off while you’re sitting at traffic lights so start getting used to it now.

Use the cruise control
If you’re traveling anything more than just a short distance then switch to cruise control. It’s designed to keep your car moving along at a steady pace rather than slowing down and speeding up as so many drivers tend to do. You would be surprised at how much fuel those people can waste on a trip.

Use E85
It’s only older vehicles that can’t handle ethanol based fuels so if your car is relatively new then think about used a blended fuel. The planet will love you if you do.

Keep short trips to a minimum
The best fuel consumption is achieved once the motor has warmed up to its normal operating temperature so keep short trips to a minimum. If you have a whole bunch of errands to run spread over a variety of distances try to make the longest trip the first one you do.

Use tires that are suited for your situation
We all know about running our tires at the right pressure don’t we but are you running the best tires for your situation? If you simply must drive an SUV but you never actually take the vehicle off-road then plain, bland street tires are going to be far more fuel-efficient for your car than those big hairy off-road tires that so obviously show that you’re an off-road playa and use up so much more fuel.

I’ve just finished writing a piece about the greenest cars that are currently available and when it’s published you may have notice that Mazda doesn’t appear anywhere in the list of the top 10 environmentally friendly cars available in the United States.

That doesn’t mean that Mazda isn’t interested in being more eco-friendly because they are … they just think that they can achieve lower emissions and produce a vehicle that people will want to purchase by improving on the current engine and transmission technology and they see that as the best way of having an immediate impact on global warming.

Mazda are certainly investing a lot of money into hybrid and electric technology for they realize that almost zero emissions from transport are what’s needed in urban areas. However they feel that long-distance personal transport will never go away and much of the current research simply won’t work over those long distances.

So, for Mazda the focus is on producing vehicles powered by conventional engines and a new automatic transmission that will reduce friction in the vehicle’s drive line and reduce the vehicle’s weight. That means that the engine won’t have to work as hard and so it produce far less in the way of emissions than what the current crop of engines do.

The savings in weight must be incredible because they’re target is to reduce the weight of their cars by around 220lbs.

The company plans to have these new low-emission engines appearing in its products from 2011 but they’ve already been doing testing with their latest concept car that was unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show this week and the fuel consumption figures are better than what Toyota can extract from the Prius.

It’s an interesting concept that Mazda has and one that may go a long way towards having a positive impact on greenhouse gases in the short to medium term but what do you think?

I love driving … there, I’ve said it … I love driving and over the last forty years I’ve driven over a million miles in everything from a 1966 Mini when I was stationed overseas to heavy trucks and semi-trailers and in between I’ve driven sports cars, family sedans and wagons, SUVs and even a few vehicles that most drivers here in the US probably couldn’t handle because they were a stick shift with no synchronized gearbox and clutch.

Hell these days you don’t even hear of cars or trucks with no synchronized gear box but back when I started driving there were still a few out there on the roads and I found that driving them was fun.

Also back then greenhouse gases and exhaust emissions were completely unheard of but not so these days. Now those terms are on everyone’s lips and people are becoming more and more aware of the damage they can be doing to the environment when they drive cars that pollute the atmosphere.

But if we want to be environmentally friendly and drive vehicles that are not going to do a whole lot of damage to the environment what cars should we be driving? Well the jury is still out on what cars are the greenest for 2009 but here’s a little list of the greenest cars of 2008.

Honda Civic GX	Right at the top of the list is the Honda Civic GX NGV. I’m sure many people would have thought that the Toyota Prius would have been at the top of the list but this Honda Civic is head and shoulders above anything else. This natural gas powered Honda is definitely eco-friendly but the only problem is that finding the fuel for this car can be quite difficult, it only has a range of about 220 miles and filling the tank can take hours.
Toyota Prius	While the Honda Civic may be the greenest car around actually driving one anywhere can be a little impractical but there’s nothing impractical about the Toyota Prius. In the Prius you get a car that runs on petrol (I’ve avoided saying gas so as not to confuse the fuel the Prius uses with the natural gas used by the Honda) as well as electricity and it’s got a range of 500 miles or more. When you drive a Prius everyone will know that you’re driving an environmentally friendly car
Honda Civic Hybrid	If the Honda Civic GX might have been a little too green to be of much use the Honda Civic Hybrid is much more practical. Like the Prius this Honda runs on fuel and on electricity and it’s very pleasant to drive. The only drawback is that this Honda doesn’t look like a hybrid so people won’t know that you’ve gone green with your driving.
Smart Fortwo	This vehicle was new to the United States in 2008 although it’s been around for years in Europe and Canada. If you like big cars … or cars that can seat more than two people and don’t look like a toy … then you’re not going to like this one. It only seats two people as the name suggests; there’s very little luggage space and it’s powered by a 3-cyclinder 71 horsepower petrol motor.
Toyota Yaris	If you want to steer away (no pun intended) from hybrid vehicles and stick with the ‘old’ technology then the Toyota Yaris is definitely the car for you. It’s powered by a regular petrol engine but its green credentials appear when you discover how little petrol this vehicle consumes when you’re on the road.
The Nissan Altima Hybrid	This vehicle is judged by experts to be number 6 in the list of the top 10 green vehicles but in reality it has better fuel consumption that either the Yaris or the Fortwo. There’s certainly a lot more room in this and the styling is very smart.
Toyota Corolla	For the seventh spot in this list we go back to a fully petrol powered car but one that gets some incredible fuel consumption figures both around town and out on the road. Think 28 mpg around town and 37 out on the highway and you’ll understand why this car makes the list.
Mini Cooper	It’s now made by BMW and is really nothing like the Mini I was driving all those years ago but it still runs lean and mean and can return 35 mpg on highway running … a figure that’s very similar to what my old Mini could produce out on the open road.
Ford Focus	This is another all petrol vehicle but it’s definitely in the mix with the same fuel consumption as the Mini when you’re out on the highway. It’s also a relatively cheap car to buy so if you’re on a budget but want to be green then this is definitely one you should consider.
Toyota Camry Hybrid	It’s rather surprising to find a genuine petrol/electric hybrid this far down the list … and especially when you consider that the Camry is so popular here in the United States. However it is a little more expensive than most of the others in this list and that may be why the experts only rate it at number 10.

And there you have the top 10 green cars in the United States last year. Sooner rather than later America is going to have to end its love affair with big cars and when they do they’ll find plenty of great fun cars to drive that have genuine green credentials.

Hybrid cars are definitely becoming more and more popular with drivers across America and even our usually very gas-centric local makers are involved in developing hybrid technology but they have a long way to go.

Japanese and European car manufacturers have been developing environmentally friendly hybrid cars for almost 20 years and that does make Ford, GM and Chrysler look very good at all. Perhaps the most popular hybrid vehicle in the world … the Toyota Prius has now sold over 1.5 million cars world-wide and is into it’s third generation of development … and now Toyota has a new hybrid vehicle about to go on sale in Japan and it should prove very popular here in the US.

While a lot of people have tended to think of eco-friendly hybrid vehicles as being quite small and not all that luxurious… an image that the Prius didn’t do much to change … the fact is that there’s no real reason why we can’t have luxury cars … available as hybrids and that’s what the new hybrid vehicle from Toyota is going to be.

Instead of being a little spartan … high on tech and basic creature comforts but not what you would call luxurious … the new Toyota hybrid is build on a Lexus platform and that means that it’s going to fit firmly into the luxury motor vehicle category.

Even a large proportion of the equipment in the vehicle is made from eco-friendly materials and all the plastics that go into the new Toyota are made from plant-derived materials. So if you like to drive a vehicle that fits into the luxury end of the spectrum but were perhaps even a little ashamed because luxury cars usually aren’t all that environmentally friendly then perhaps the Toyota Sai is for you.

It goes on sale in Japan in December and it’s sure to become part of the Toyota line up here in the United States too and it’s going to help you enjoy all the pleasures of a luxury vehicle and still allow you to be environmentally friendly at the same time.

You can read more about the new Toyota Sai here

I was interested to read the other day that we Americans have still not lost our love for big autos. I would have thought that such an attraction to gas-guzzling monsters would have disappeared with the increase in the cost of gas and the cash for clunkers scheme but that hasn’t been the case.

Sure there have been some moves towards buying smaller more fuel-efficient autos here in the United States but they have been short-lived and as soon as conditions improve or the price of gas falls back to levels that we think are ok out we go again to buy another big monster.

That makes life very hard for the manufacturers who need around a two-year lead time to introduce a new vehicle. Right now most of the big car makers have a whole raft of small cars coming close to production and right now all car-buyers seem to want is big cars.

It does make you wonder why we have such a hunger for gas-guzzlers. Do we believe that gas prices will stay low once the recession is over? Do we think that the world still has unlimited supplies of oil and prices will never rise again? Or have we been so conditioned by old advertising that we simply can’t believe that small cars are safe?

I don’t know what it is but I have a suspicion that there are plenty of us who are in for a very rude awakening as the world comes out of recession for that’s when fuel prices are going to start to rise and suddenly all those big cars we’ve bought will cost us a heap to run.

Of course there are many people who believe that big cars are much safer than small cars but don’t believe that one until you’ve done some serious research. Back in 1965 Ralph Nader’s book “Unsafe at Any Speed” showed that the size of the car really had little bearing on whether it provided safety for the occupants.

Much more recently research has shown that some of the most popular large SUVs are prone to tipping over. Many drivers involved in accidents in these vehicles believed that they didn’t have to worry about driving cautiously simply because their vehicle was so large.

Perhaps it’s not the size of the vehicle that matters at all when it comes to safety these days. Perhaps it has more to do with the way we perceive the vehicles and if that’s the case then there really is no valid reason why we should think big when it comes to the autos that we want to buy.

And we should be encouraging others to think beyond the old advertising hype that still lingers and makes us want to buy gas-guzzling giants when we should be thinking more about being environmentally friendly with the vehicles we drive.