“The engine captures thermal waste energy that is utilized to generate electric energy to run hydrogen fuel cells using the potable water as a source for the gas,” GORD announced in a press release. Initial studies show that this technology emits 50% less carbon monoxide (CO) & nitrous oxide (NOX) than conventional oil or natural gas-powered vehicles.

GORD unveiled their Eco-Hybrid car at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP18) meetings in Doha.

The car’s fuel cell is powered in part by a thermoelectric generator which recovers heat from exhaust-gases and a thin film photovoltaic that is installed on the sunroof. This system slashes fuel consumption by approximately 20% and it can be applied to existing vehicles as well.

Explaining the difference between GORD’s Eco-Hybrid vehicle and other hydrogen power concepts, GORD Chairman Dr. Yousef Al Horr said that their car requires no extra electricity since it produces its own by capturing wasted thermal energy.

“Also, bulky compressed-hydrogen cylinders are a thing of the past, as our concept accomplishes the production of hydrogen by using water through fuel cells integrated within the car,” he continued.

That Qatar is the world’s biggest per capita consumer of fossil fuels has been a source of valid criticism, but GORD, the non-profit governmental research subsidiary of Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, is helping to clean up the country’s act.

Dr. Al Horr said that hosting the COP18 conference gave GORD the opportunity to showcase the fruits of their R&D labor.

“The hybrid concept that is fully designed, built and installed in Qatar, is a landmark achievement and testament to GORD’s alignment with Qatar National Vision 2030,” he said.

“This indigenous product demonstrates Qatar’s capability to reduce environmental impact and to make a contribution to sustainable development.”

:: GORD

The post Eco-Hybrid Car From Qatar Unveiled During Climate Talks appeared first on Green Prophet.

Better Place launches another brand new business in Israel – used electric car sales.

Better Place, the company bringing an electric car infrastructure to Israel, has been changing so much about how the Israeli public thinks about transportation.  It has educated the public about the benefits of using electric cars, taught us that a whole new electric infrastructure can be created to replace fossil-fuel-guzzling gas stations, and now it is teaching us that yes, there is such a thing as a used electric cares salesman.  According to a recent agreement between Better Place and Trade Mobile, Better Place customers will be able to enjoy car trade-in services when buying or selling Renault Fluence Z.E. electric cars.

This is the first such agreement of its kind in the Israeli electric car market and is opening up a whole new green industry.

The trade-in agreement is environmentally significant in two ways: firstly, customers will be able to trade-in their traditional cars when buying an electric car, and secondly, electric car users wanting to upgrade can trade-in their Renault Fluence and let someone else enjoy it second-hand.  In both instances, cars are kept out of the landfills and consumers are moving to electric.

Menashe Barak, the CEO Trade Mobile, said that “from the beginning Better Place expressed its desire to establish a high level trade-in system to provide quality service to its clientele, and this is out of an understanding of the importance of the ‘second-hand market’ to the company.

“We believe that a stable and valuable second-hand market of electric family-sized vehicles will develop in Israel over the next few years,” Barak said.

Read more about Better Place::
Israeli Electric Cars on the Fast Track
13 “Better Place” Cars Hit the Streets of Israel to Test “Charge”
Better Place Launches Test Drive and Electric Car Education Facility in Israel

Image via: Hakan Dahlstrom

The post Better Place Announces First Trade-In Agreement for Electric Cars in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.

One and a half years after the Japanese launch of the Honda CR-Z, the world’s first manual hybrid, it has come to Turkey, where high fuel prices could create a strong market for the automobile — if the price is right.

Next time you find yourself complaining about high gas prices, consider this: Turks currently pay nearly $12 per gallon of petroleum at the pump. Despite this, hybrids haven’t found much of a market in Turkey until now, largely because they’re sold for far higher prices in Turkey than in most European countries. While the government has expressed its desire to wean itself off the foreign resources that comprise 80 percent of its primary energy supply, its efforts to do so have been half-hearted.

The release of the CR-Z, however, has the potential to actually reduce Turkish fuel consumption.

Hybrids in Turkey: what’s the current picture?

Honda’s CR-Z will be available in Turkey at a starting price of around $30,000. At 35 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 39 mpg on the highway, its fuel economy isn’t quite as strong as that of automatic hybrids on the market. But the price of the vehicle itself could allow it to succeed in the Turkish market, where other hybrids have not.

The Toyota Prius, the world’s most high-profile hybrid automobile, is available in Turkey, but it costs about $50,000 — nearly one and a half times as much as it does in the Netherlands or the United Kingdom.

This is tied to the high price of gas in Turkey. Both cars and liquid petroleum are double-taxed in Turkey. Consumers must pay both a sector-specific value-added tax and something called a “special consumption tax” —  a type of tax the government introduced in 2002 to specifically target imported products such as alcohol, tobacco, and petrol.

So far, the special consumption tax also applies to vehicles that run on petroleum, which is why the Prius costs so much more in Turkey than in other countries.

How to boost demand for hybrids? Lower their prices.

The special consumption tax has been very good to the oil distribution sector in Turkey, whose companies have seen their profit margins nearly double in the past several years.

Among clean car manufacturers with operations in Turkey, it’s widely acknowledged that the tax must be eliminated or sharply reduced on hybrids to make them economically feasible in the country. The Turkish government has acknowledged the need for a cleaner energy economy, and expressed its desire to introduce tax incentives that could bring Turkey in line with European Union environmental tax criteria.

But in the most recent government strategy document on the subject, no concrete goals are set on this matter.

Until the government offers material support, hybrids in Turkey will only attract significant consumer interest when they come at a price that is competitive with conventional vehicles. Time will tell whether the CR-Z’s price is low enough.

Almost 34,000 CR-Zs have been sold around the world since Honda introduced the car in 2010. At least 60 are expected to be sold in Turkey over the next three months.

:: Today’s Zaman

Read more about energy independence in Turkey:

Renewable-Energy Cars Heat Up in Turkey

Turkish Government Renews Efforts to Reduce Dependence on Foreign Energy

Ecological Conference in Istanbul Questions Wisdom of Rapid Economic Growth

Image via Today’s Zaman

The post World’s First Manual Gear Hybrid Introduced to Turkish Market appeared first on Green Prophet.

How can eco-friendly transportation be improved in the suburbs?

When contemplating whether to live in a city or in the suburbs, most people weigh the pros and cons of having more space or less space, being closer to better schools for their kids or having the convenience of everything nearby in an urban environment.

But not normally at the top of everyone’s list of issues to consider is the environmental impact of living in the suburbs.  Suburbs mean more space, remoteness from the city, and therefore also necessitate more transportation (and often wastefulness).

Chances are, if you are moving out of the city and into the ‘burbs, you will have to give up your urban car-free existence (like Green Prophet’s Arwa) and get a vehicle (with so many cars going green now, hopefully an energy-efficient one).  You can try to cut your car costs a little searching around for some cheap car insurance, but at the end of the day your carbon footprint costs will still be much higher than when you lived in the city. Here’s why:

Urban dwellers can usually get around fine with a combination of walking and public transportation.  The density of city living means that distances are smaller, and there are usually multiple forms of public transportation to accommodate folks without cars (such as buses, trains, taxis, and sometimes bike rental services).

Living in the city can be expensive, but when you take into account the seriously reduced costs of urban transportation it seems to balance out a little.

When walking and public transportation don’t cut it, city folk have more car-sharing (and now bike-sharing) options than suburbanites.  But maybe these options could be brought to the suburbs.

Bringing the idea of collaborative consumption (or, in other words, sharing) to the suburbs where people often take great pride in their possessions may not be easy, but it could be possible.  A combination of car-sharing services such as Car2Go, carpooling into work, or even renting out/sharing personal vehicles with neighbors could significantly reduce the environmental impact of commuting from the ‘burbs.

Read more about sustainable transportation:
Doha and Tel Aviv Launch Two-Wheel Options for Urban Transportation
How to Live a Car-Free Existence
My Parents and the Pleasures of Owning a Prius in Israel

Image via: Chris Willis

The post Is Car-Free Living Possible in the Suburbs? appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Israel Air Force is doing it (with solar panels), and now the IDF, Israel Defence Forces will save carbon emissions as it looks to buy hybrid Jeeps. Haaretz newspaper reports that the IDF is now testing the hybrid Ford Escape to see how it performs, and that the force is not making the switch out of environment concerns. They want to save money on gas.

Intended to provide support for forces in the field, the Ford Escape could also become a mobile command center, transporting a limited number of soldiers or equipment, and it may even be used to evacuate casualties. With good fuel efficiency for an SUV (12-15 kilometers per liter – depending on road conditions), gas savings will be less when the jeep is used for off-roading purposes.

According to the report, the Ground Forces unit, which will test the vehicle, has asked Ford for a few test models and a price quote. The unit already tested the Indian Mahindra SUV, and found it lacking. The army will also conduct a test of the radiation levels emitted by the Escape to see if soldiers can spend over four hours inside at a stretch.

But any army, from Israel, the Middle East, America or Europe is not serving higher green ideals. Just read the cost of conflict to the environment report. While it sounds good for the media that an army in the world is going green, the greenest army is no army. We can dream.

More on greening the army in Israel and the cost of conflict:
Israel Plans Solar Installations at All Its Bases
Israel’s Army Makes Advances in Green
The IDF Says Birds, Not Guns
The Israeli Army Tries To Go Green
Choose the Environment in Middle East Conflict

::Haaretz

The post The Israel Defence Forces Looks to Hybridize Its Jeeps appeared first on Green Prophet.

Israel probably thought it was alone in the region with its plans to lift (and then stiff) taxes from hybrids and electric cars until now: Its northern neighbor Lebanon says it will likely do the same. In the 2010 draft budget, reports the Daily Star, the Lebanon government is factoring in exempting companies and individuals from paying import taxes on hybrid cars. This announcement could boost sales of hybrids and all-electric vehicles, such as Nissan’s LEAF to the Middle East region, especially in oil-less countries where citizens tend to have more modest dealings with environment issues and transport.

Finance Minister Raya Hafar Hassan and Environment Minister Mohammad Rahal made this joint announcement after a meeting on Friday, according to the Daily Star.

“Hybrid cars will be exempted from all import duties in an effort to encourage Lebanese own environmentally friendly vehicles,” Hassan told reporters at a press conference. “We discussed ways to cooperate between the Finance Ministry and the Environment Ministry in an attempt to control pollution,” Hassan added.

The World Bank has recently told Lebanon, the “Switzerland of the Middle East,” expecting a surge in tourism this summer, that environmental degradation will cost it $560 million annually. “What is more important is that an environment disaster will have a serious impact on the health of the citizens in the country,” the minister said.

::The Daily Star

The post Lebanon To Waive Taxes on Hybrid Cars appeared first on Green Prophet.

The media gathered outside the old oil storage containers –– a remnant of the past that line highway #2 on the way from Tel Aviv to Herzylia. The news we were interested in hearing about was not about Better Place’s $350 investment earlier in January, but about the roll out of the Better Place electric education facility that invites the public to test-drive the electric car. We wanted to know when this company will make its vehicles available to the public and on what terms.

Shai Agassi, the CEO of Better Place, a man of rock star status known for propelling the idea to mainstream investors all over the world was there, as were representatives from Renault-Nissan and investor types from HSBC and other firms. I’ve never seen more black suits in one room in my life.

The Israeli press (those not wearing the black suits) were there as were reporters from the international community including CNN, NBC and Bloomberg, but the people asking the tough questions were the Israeli press like Haaretz very contrarian at times, and which wasn’t sold on the Better Place package.

Israel is still relying on coal power. How can the Better Place electric car help wean the country off oil?

Shai Agassi swamped by international press at education facility opening.

What the people have been being told all along is that the Better Place model, which would sell kilometers instead of a car would be much cheaper than a gas-fueled car. It turns out that the cost will probably be about the same, possibly a bit less than a gas car.

According to Haaretz:

Employees of Better Place and of the Renault car fitted with batteries explicitly forbid us to look under the hood or in the trunk. Secrecy is important when it comes to nascent technology, they explained, and before it can be fully revealed there are still a few international patent forms to fill out.

The issue of price is also cloaked in fog: According to Better Place Chief Technology Officer Barak Hershkovitz, “At the end of the day the costs will be similar to that of a gasoline-powered car, or less.” Significantly reducing the cost to consumers, he said, is the fact that Better Place will pick up the tab for the lithium batteries – estimated to cost about $10,000 – as part of the customer service plan.

But I found Shai Agassi handled the negative comments adeptly. He retorted to the fact that Israel uses coal as a source of energy as not something his company can solve. That Better Place is doing its part by reducing air pollution in cities; it’s also made a commitment to buy back the same amount of electricity from renewable energy sources that its car plan uses. “We aim to be a zero carbon footprint company,” says Agassi.

One reporter was concerned about the summer blackouts when the Israeli grid reaches its peak and cuts off in half hour increments to deal with the shortage. If anything, explained Agassi, the Better Place charging stations with cars around the country hooked into the grid can store an excess of energy when it’s there in off hours (like in the middle of the night) and return it to the system when there is a peak. Using software that will charge time of the car to off hours, “most cars will charged ahead of time,” said Agassi.

Another reporter was concerned about the batteries and how recyclable they will be. Agassi says that the lithium-ion/phosphate battery will be fully recyclable and 80% of the material recoverable for future batteries.

An Italian reporter didn’t understand how it could work in Europe, being such a large community, how could Better Place outfit batteries to serve a need of driving between communities and countries. Agassi says that Europe is a much bigger collection of “islands” than Israel, and in fact a more ideal place for the car network to be in place, with switching stations put in place between islands.

Agassi praised Renault-Nissan for investing 12-15% of their R&D budget in this new technology.

According to Agassi the Better Place symbol will become an international brand of Israel, like the Jaffa Orange. And thanks to this new test driving center, the first of its kind, Israel will roll out its trial run later in 2010 with 5 to 10 battery switch stations, and a few thousand charging stations (at home, at work and at shopping centers), with a few hundred cars on the road.

Want to know what the Better Place recharge station looks like up close?

By 2011 it will deploy 70-100 switch stations, and by the beginning of its full scale commercial launch later that year expect a roll out of about 1,000 cars on the road per month.

Better Place already has agreements in place with 92 Israel companies including Netvision, Strauss and Motorolla who have committed to changing their fleets (totaling 45,000 cars) to the Better Place model.

“Opening the Better Place center, it’s not just about changing a car, but a change in perception,” says Agassi. “That’s what’s happening here. We will allow every citizen of Israel to experience driving the electric car.”

Out of a massive oil container, like the one in the background, Better Place fashions its education facility, replete with auditorium seats made from gas-guzzling cars.

The public in Israel might just buy it. Now with the Toyota Prius’ tainted image over the recall, and still a long wait for the Chevy Volt expected to become available next year around the same time as Better Place, the only other great option seems to be the Ford Fusion hybrid (with a brake glitch?). For those waiting for the full electric experience, a year is probably not that long to wait.

Speaking of waiting – I didn’t stand in the long line to test the Better Place car but expect a report from GP sometime in the near future. But me and Stacy from Solveclimate did arrive in style: in a Car2Go pay as you go car, which she rented in Tel Aviv.

::Better Place website

The post Better Place Launches Test Drive and Electric Car Education Facility in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.