Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 11
Ken Liu’s Hybrid Discussion Part 2
Mazda-3 5-door
The electric motor also acts as an electric generator, used for charging the hybrid’s battery pack. In simple terms, when the electric motor is not assisting the engine with power, the electric motor becomes a large alternator, and charges the battery pack located behind the rear bulkhead (rear seat). When you apply the brakes to slow down the vehicle, the brushes in the electric motor produces electricity. The electricity is then transferred to the battery pack. New improvements in Honda’s IMA system allows the IMA system to charge the battery pack while coasting or very during light acceleration, compared to the old system which relied mostly on the braking to charge the battery. All of this means that you never have to plug the car in to charge the batteries – in fact you cannot charge the batteries except via the on-board charging features.
Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 10
Ken Liu’s Hybrid Discussion Part 1
The 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid. The current generation Honda Civic Hybrid is the fourth iteration of Honda’s Hybrid system. Its genealogy consists of the Honda Insight, the 2003-2005 Honda Civic Hybrid, the 2005-2007 Honda Accord V6 Hybrid. During those generations Honda learned a great deal and has applied these lessons to the latest technology in today’s Honda Civic Hybrid. So what’s changed compared to the previous generation? Mainly a higher capacity battery and a more efficient electric motor/generator.
Southern California
A brief background on how Honda’s hybrid system works. Honda’s hybrid system consists of a thin electric motor/generator that is sandwiched between the gasoline engine and the transmission. It measures roughly 3 inches wide. The transmission is more compact to retain about the same drive train dimensions as a “regular” Civic. How does the electric motor/generator work? To better illustrate how the system operates, picture yourself when you were young learning how to ride a bicycle. When you were pedaling and your parent pushed you to gain momentum, you did less work to achieve a greater speed and acceleration. Your parent “assisted” you in increasing your speed. That’s how Honda’s hybrid system works. The electric motor “pushes” the gasoline engine to achieve better acceleration at lower speeds thus requiring less fuel. The main propulsion of the Civic Hybrid is its gasoline engine. The electric motor assists it when the computer system deems necessary. This is why Honda calls its hybrid system the IMA (Integrated Motor Assist). It’s a very elegant and simple solution.
Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 9
Car Pool
The 2009 Mazda3
If we think of our costs and emissions in per capita terms, the more people in the vehicle, the better for the wallet and the environment. It isn’t always easy to find the right person to carpool with, especially given our complicated schedules and our sprawling cities. It definitely won’t happen if you don’t look for the opportunities. But even if you can double up for one day a week on your commute to work, you will reduce your commuting gas usage by 10% (only half the gas credited to you on that shared day). If you can get a third person in the car for that one day, it goes to 13%. Two days is better than one. Every little bit helps.
Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 8
Drive Off Peak
2009 Mazda6 Near Los Angeles
Nobody is getting good miles per gallon on a congested highway. When you are crawling along in a traffic jam, you are wasting time, gas and engine life. It’s just not what the engine was built to do. You and your car are much happier when you can go the speed limit. Going the speed limit, of course takes less time, but also uses less gas, leads to lower maintenance costs and is probably better for your mental health as well as your physical health (as anyone who’s ever been in a traffic jam can attest to, traffic jams can be stressful).
Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 7
Drive Less
Southern California Beach
This may seem obvious, but a hybrid driven 20,000 miles a year is probably polluting more than a new SUV driven 7,000 miles per year. To the extent that a hybrid owner feels liberated to drive more because of the efficiency of his or her vehicle, the impact on the environment could be detrimental rather than beneficial. Keep in mind also that miles-per-gallon is only a measure of the impact on global warming. The emission of criteria pollutants (NOx, lead, CO, particulates, ozone and SOx), which are responsible for smog, is a different measure than for CO2, which correlates with miles per gallon and global warming. Low miles per gallon comes with high CO2 emissions which will change the climate for our children. Criteria pollutants hurt us now.
Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 6
Drive Gently
Los Angeles Mazda Driving
There are many driving habits you can develop to save gas and reduce emissions. Avoiding idling time is key. This means avoiding drive-through lines, congested highways and intersections that you have to wait through a couple of cycles of the light to get through.
Consumer Driving Tips Pdf (click to download)
Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 5
Maintain Your Vehicle
The 2009 Mazda 6
It really is the little day to day things that added up, can make a huge difference in gas mileage.
Keeping your tire pressure up with the right tires on the car, doing the recommended maintenance at proper intervals and keeping your car clean all help get a few more miles per gallon, all the while with less emissions. Fuel efficiency drops one percent for every 3 PSI your tires are under-inflated. Proper tire inflation is also a safety and handling advantage. Also, take all of the heavy things out of your car.
Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 4
Natural Gas Vehicles
The Honda Civic GX is truly engineered for the environment. Honda gives you the details at this Honda Civic GX link, which is worth checking out. It is an advanced technology partial zero emission vehicle (AT-PZEV) and, if you lease an in-home refueling system, you can re-fuel in your own garage. The Civic GX gets between 220 and 250 miles per fill-up. You can fill up quickly at special service stations located around Southern California or, if you have the home system, it can take up to 16 hours to fully refill the tank.
Southern California Sunset
Conventional gasoline, high-miles-per-gallon vehicles Sierra offers
The California Air Resources Board categorizes new vehicles for sale in California as Low Emission Vehicles (LEV), Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV), Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (SULEV), Partial Zero Emission Vehicles (PZEV), Alternate Fuel Partial Zero Emission Vehicles (AT-PZEV) and zero emission vehicles (ZEV). For detail on what these categories mean, see the ARB’s pdf at:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/factsheets/calemissions.pdf.
These designations apply to criteria pollutants (hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, particulates, lead, ozone and oxides of sulfur). Next year there will be a new label on new vehicles in California that shows the relative effects of the vehicle’s carbon dioxide emissions which affect global warming, but really that measure has been there for a long time in the form of the EPA mileage estimates, which correlate directly with CO2 emissions.
Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 3
Hybrids
Los Angeles California
Hybrids use two sources of energy to power the vehicle – gas and electricity – either in combination or alternating, depending on what kind of driving you are doing. The vehicle’s computer figures out whether to use the gas or the electricity or both without you even being aware of the decision. They get better mileage because of the advanced power train, but also because of a host of other technologies used on hybrid vehicles, including regenerative braking (charging your batteries when you brake), turning off at idle speeds (they turn right back on when you step on the gas), lower profile/higher pressure tires and generally a vehicle design that emphasizes weight reduction. For a history of the Honda hybrid program and more detail on how it works, search for Ken Liu’s article on the subject.
Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 2
Buying The Right Car for Green Driving
Buying the right car for you also entails identifying what features you need and want in your car or truck, including how many miles you will be driving it each year and what type of driving (city, highway, combination) you will be doing. Consider how many seats your really need, how much stuff you need to carry around (it takes extra gas to carry extra weight) and how much power you need (these days a 4 cylinder engine can delivery a surprising amount of acceleration). You can compare the mileage ratings of the vehicles you are considering at www.epa.gov/fueleconomy. This guide lets you compare similar vehicles (like small cars like Mazdas, or large SUVs) for their fuel efficiency. It won’t, however, be a true measure of the miles per gallon you will get because how you drive is a huge variable in determining miles per gallon. Also, you can compare new cars for their emissions at www.epa.gov/greenvehicles. Make sure you only look at the drive trains that include the California emissions controls, which are better and included in any new vehicle you buy from a California dealer.
2009 Mazda 6
As you check out the differences, you might want to calculate how fuel efficiency affects your costs of driving. Buying a new car or truck will almost always be an environmental plus for criteria emissions. For carbon dioxide, which is the key greenhouse gas contributing to global warming, increasing miles per gallon decreases your CO2 emissions. It also reduces your cost of operating the vehicle (by requiring less gas). If you want to get an estimate of how much you could save by buying a higher miles per gallon vehicle, this calculator should be helpful.
Sierra Mazda’s Guide to Green Driving: Part 1
Welcome to our ten part, Sierra Mazda Guide to Green Driving series…
Drivers are becoming increasingly aware of both the financial and the environmental costs associated with the vehicles and trucks they drive. Drivers seek to balance the utility we need from our car or truck against the expense of operating it (meaning the amount we pay for gas). We are also increasingly aware of the environmental “footprint” we leave behind when we drive. This guide gives you some tips about how to minimize both the financial and environmental cost of meeting your transportation needs whether you drive a Mazda or any other brand of cars.
Southern California Beach
It’s not necessarily what you drive that defines your environmental impact. How and when you drive might be more significant. This is an extremely important point and it is generally overlooked in the judgment of environmental behavior. But when trying to reduce your impact on the environment, the real concern is the total pollutants coming out of your tail pipe measured against what you accomplish. This can be minimized in a number of ways without changing vehicles.
USB Data Drives as Mazda Keys?
We here at the Southern California Mazda, want to let you know about a development in Mazda technology. Mazda has in its recent past explored the possibility of using USB flash drives as Mazda keys. Mazda, known for it’s light-weight and sporty cars, has always embraced the obsessive gadget lover in all of us, our inner-Batman. Besides, cars, especially Mazda Cars are just like huge gadgets that get us from one place or another, and Mazda cars do that in style. We at Sierra Mazda, hope that this sort of stuff will make you want to run out and test drive one of Sierra Mazda’s cars, new or preowned…
Mazda Interior Concept
The Mazda Sleak Nagare Concept Car as Shown in Moscow
The following are sketches for the new concept SUV, otherwise known as Nagare, from Mazda.
Mazda Nagare Sketch for Front
Mazda Nagare Sketch Side
The new This Mazda concept vehicle is designed especially for the SUV-hungry Russian market, which amazingly is a huge growth market. Yes, you read that right, Russians are starving for SUV’s (there’s reportedly a two year wait for Hummers).
Mazda’s Nagare design showcases how Mazda could engineer and bring to market a vehicle that is not only gorgeous and aggressive, but also exciting to drive, with an improved average fuel economy of 30 percent. The Mazda concept produces far fewer emissions than any of today’s Mazda models. Mazda’s Nazare is a powerful and efficient compact crossover, with next-generation environmental performance. We think it’s perfect for Southern California and can’t wait until it hits our Mazda Dealership.
The Mazda Future: Mazda RX-9 Concept
Sierra Mazda presents the Mazda RX-9, which is an advanced concept that came out on top as a winner in this year’s Michelin Design Challenge. The Mazda RX-9 is a hybrid featuring both a 2.5L V6 and wafer-thin electric motor. However, with the Mazda RX-9, Mazda also showcases some technologies not ever seen before in the recently all-important race for higher fuel mileage on the world’s roads.
James Owen Design is the one-man firm (no, not like Knight Rider) responsible for penning the new Mazda spec vehicle’s shape. Some of the slick skin features include electrostatic collectors that can collect electrical charges that build up on the exterior panels while driving through dry air. Turning electric garbage into energy used. The electricity take from the exterior panels is stored in capacitors that can then feed the Mazda hybrid drivetrain along with the onboard regenerative braking. We love it. The more Mazda gadgets the better…
Mazda Transforming Tires
A lot of the focus of the new Mazda spec vehicle is located around vehicle’s tires, which feature Electroactive Polymers (E.A.P.) that with varying levels of voltage from the vehicle’s electrical system can actually change the shape and depth of their tread pattern. The rubber donuts can go from flat and smooth to knobby and grippy, or even ride high on their centers for ultra-low rolling resistance. All of this is of course a huge evolutionary milestone for Mazda cars, Mazda dealers and cars everywhere.
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