The Hybrid Done Good

September 21, 2009

My 2005 Toyota Prius company car has 120,000 miles on it, and so soon will be sold out of the fleet to the highest bidder. How'd it do? 

Well.

It averaged something like 50 miles to the gallon over the life of the vehicle. Maintenance costs besides preventative stuff and tires? A changed belt, and a lamp for the driver side tail light. Never even changed the brake pads. After 120,000 miles! 

I don't know what price it will fetch, but blue book is $10,195 (the equalized blue book for the Crown Vic it replaced is $6,090).

The analysis that lead to the trial incorporation of the Prius into the fleet was a life cycle cost of $35K for the Crown Vic and $20K for the Prius, based on gas at $2.15 a gallon and trade in values of $4,500 for the Vic and $7K for the Prius (current resale values are a grand or so better than initially assumed).

The hybrid done good.

Photo: TailspinT on flickr

Dawn of the New Energy Order

October 26, 2008

How will America change the way it uses energy? Last month we offered a draft speech that would let the new US President to tell us how. Here's the speech updated with the most excellent insights of our readers.

Big Green Taxi

October 24, 2008

You want to change the world a little bit?  Next time you need a car service in Boston or San Francisco (why be anywhere else?) try hailing a Planet Tran Prius. Planet Tran is an all hybrid car service in operation since 2004. For the geeks out there, there's tech galore in these babies beyond the  hybrid engines and regenerative breaking systems. The Boston Globe covered the GPS-based schedule optimization and in-car wifi aspects nicely here last year.

In addition, other great social responsibility aspects of PT are:

• PT drivers are employees get a regular paycheck along with benefits (i.e., they'll take tips, but won't go hungry without them)
• PT clients get Impact Reports that show the carbon savings of each trip and multiple trips over time

I have an friend at Forrester Research who covers Corporate Social Responsibility - he's going to love this.