Nissan Electric Car Already On A Role

Starting December 2010 Americans will begin taking delivering of Nissan’s first mass market electric vehicle, called Leaf. The first batch of pre-orders began April 20 and already the demand appears to exceed availability.

In just over a week Nissan received 8,000 registrations and capacity for the US market is capped at 25,000 a year. Last month Nissan announced pricing for the Leaf at around $25,000 after a $7,5000 federal rebate kicks in.

This pricing puts the Leaf in the same category as the hybrid Civic and Prius. The big difference between the Leaf and hybrids is the drive train. While the Prius and other hybrids use a blend of gas and electricity for propulsion, the Leaf relies solely on an electric motor.

In some regards this makes the Leaf a whole new type of vehicle. Instead of a gas tank the Leaf stores all its energy in batteries that must be plugged in to refuel. Fortunately Nissan has plans to install a network of fast charging stations in major metropolitan areas that will be able to charge the battery to 80% capacity in 26 minutes and complete a full charge in 45 minutes. Four of these charges will be installed at Northbay Nissan in Petaluma.

According to Mark Perry, director of product-planning at Nissan North America, people spend approximately 20 minutes at fast food restaurants, hinting at Nissan’s strategy for charging infrastructure.

Additionally Nissan is offering customers a home charging station. On top of the cost of the Leaf Nissan estimates that installation of the charger and the charger itself will cost $2,200. The good news is that a 50% federal rebate will cut this price down to a more palpable $1,100.

The Leaf will be the first time many Americans experience an electric car so range anxiety will likely be a top concern. Nissan advertises that the Leaf will travel 100 miles on a charge and believes this is enough to satisfy the driving needs for 80% of Americans.

Performance wise the Leaf will be similar to gas powered four cylinder cars, like the Sentra. 0-60 will be around eight-seconds and top speed is 90mph.

In California an additional statewide rebate of $5000 will be available, further lowering the estimated $25,000 price tag. The Leaf will be a 5-door hatchback with seating for five. Size will be similar to a Focus.

Perry said that a lot of information can be found on the website (www.nissanusa.com/leaf) but noted that the whole process from registration to delivering will be very personal.

To Buy or Not to Buy

By now everyone probably has talked about or heard a conversation about the iPad. Despite the horrible name the iPad is actually a pretty innovative product, but that does not mean that everyone should rush out and buy one. Though the iPad certainly does a lot well Apple did not create the perfect tablet. One of the biggest omissions is flash support, though according to Mr. Jobs Adobe is lazy and anyways HTML5 will be the new web standard for video, at least that’s the message Apple delivered. But there are other issues with the iPad as well, despite Apple's criticism of netbooks the iPad is not the best productivity tool. There is no physical keyboard, you can buy a keyboard accessory from Apple for $69, or stick with the 85% virtual keyboard. Of course the iPad runs Apple’s mobile version of OS X, the same as the iPhone OS, and therefore third party apps have to go through the same review process as iPhone apps. Currently there is no office app for the iPad so productivity users will need to rely on iWorks. Of the two iWork apps, each is $10, my favorite is Keynote, and theoretically this could work well for doing presentations on the go.

So would I recommend purchasing an iPad, maybe. Really, the iPad is primarily an entertainment device that just happens to do email, web surfing, and even lets you read books, interestingly Amazon has released a Kindle app for the iPad. So, if you want one device that fits all, music player, web browser, email, and eBook reader then the iPad is probably a good choice. If you need something for composing long emails, taking notes, editing a Power Point presentation, or you want to play Farmville then you should probably stick with a netbook, like the HP mini 311 or something from ASUS. One more thing, if Apple slashed the price to $299, then I’d go out and buy one, sadly Apple wants us to shell out $500.

McDonalds Sustainable Packaging

When you see the golden arches you probably do not think of sustainability, however McDonals is taking steps to makes it’s packaging more environmentally friendly.

McDonals Europe announced last year it’s plan to use packaging made from 100% renewable sourced material.

This announcement was part of the Global Best of Green 2009. McDonals collaborated with it’s packaging supplier Havi Global Solutions - Perseco on a global package scoreboard to be used for packaging and buying choices. The scoreboard focused on criteria such as weight, maximizing recycled materials, and favoring renewable sources.

Other key elements were, reducing chemicals, CO2 and green house gas emissions, and maximizing recycle possibilities.

McDonals says on their website that to build their scorecard they worked with their European and North American markets and NGO’s (Non-Government Organizations) such as the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

The partnership with the EDF has helped McDonals to reduce over 300 million pounds of packaging, 1 million tons of corrugated boxes, and 30% of restaurant waste.

To make these changes McDonals switched from polystyrene foam “clamshells” to paper-based wraps for its sandwiches, converted to unbleached paper carry out bags, reduces paper use by 21% and incorporated 30% post consumer content. Finally McDonals asked suppliers to incorporate 35% post consumer content into their corrugated boxes.

Sources: http://innovation.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=30747, http://popsop.com/26610

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9ejG83lrX4

Suzuki SX4

Suzuki may be better known for their motorcycles in the U.S. then the cars the company offers, but consumers might want to take a look at the SX4 before purchasing their next new vehicle. The SX4 does not offer the best fuel economy for it's class, but at around $15,000 the SX4 is one of the most affordable hatchbacks, especially when you consider Suzuki offers AWD. Feature like navigation, an iPod jack, and lots of safety features like anti-lock brakes and 6 different airbags are included. The SX4 gets 22 mpg city and 30 highway. Again, to some people the fuel economy may be a deal breaker, but if you are looking for a more affordable alternative to a VW Golf or Mini Cooper, this may be a good way to go.

TOMS of Main

These days when we buy a product we often have to think twice about the impact our purchase will have on animal cruelty and the environment. Fortunately some companies are creating products that are both animal and environmentally friendly. Some such products come form a company called TOMS of Main. Though this company makes a variety of home care products their best know products are the toothpastes that you can find in grocery stores. TOMS became the first company in 1995 to have their natural toothpaste approved by the American Dental Association. This means that TOMS products have been tested to be effective and safe. The product has also been Kosher and Peta certified.

TOMS list all of their ingredients on their product and also why they are included and what the source is. This can be important information for people who are vegetarians or who have religious views that prohibit the consumption of certain animals.

Though some people may be wary that TOMS sold the majority of their stock to Colgate the two companies have seamed to keep true to their words and kept the two companies separate. Most consumers are probably aware that Colgate requires chemical and animal testing and TOMS keeps it’s products all natural and free from animal testing. While some consumers may still be disappointed the bigger picture is that TOMS can now sell more products and have an increased ability to offer conscious consumers a high quality alternative.

Source: http://www.ecofriendlydaily.com/health/eco-friendly-toothpaste/

BugE Personal Electric Vehicle

An Oregonian company called Blue Sky Design engineered a single passenger electric vehicle as an alternative to driving an SUV or station wagon around town. The idea behind the BugE is that an SUV is over engineered for running errands such as picking up groceries or going to the post office or commuting to school or work. So Blue Sky Design engineered a vehicle that was more appropriately sized to the task. The BugE is available as a kit from Blue Sky Design’s website (http://www.bugev.net/). A basic kit cost $3500 plus shipping, while a complete kit, including lighting and power, cost $5,276 plus shipping.

An advantage of the BugE is that all the parts are common components on motorcycles, so this means they are easily available and affordable. This also allows the builder to make their own modifications to the design. For those not interested in building their own BugE Harvey Coachworks (http://harveyev.com/bugE/) offers production versions starting at around $10,000 for the standard version. A rang extended version is also available for under $13,000 and triples the standard range to 120 miles per charge. Since the BugE is designed for around town and city driving the car has a top speed of 45 mph.

Besides the fact that the BugE never uses gas and a full charge cost about as much as as running a dryer, the BugE can be especially useful for college students who have trouble parking on campus since it can be parked in the motorcycle parking space. Unlike a motorcycle though the BugE is mostly enclosed, so it will protect you from the elements when the weather is bad. There is storage in the front of the vehicle for about three grocery bags and there are hooks on the seat for attaching a backpack.

A Greener Cup

You may not pay much attention to the corrugated sleeve that Starbucks now slips on to every cup of coffee they serve, yet this simple innovation allows the company to save both resources and money. Before the innovation Starbucks simply gave their customers a second cup if the customer complained that the paper cup was too hot. This may not seam like a big deal, but when you consider the billion cups of coffee that Starbucks serves you begin to get the picture that this simple idea is indeed a big deal.


Besides the sleeve Starbucks also tries to use recycled materials in their cups. You might not think that making an environmentally-friendly cup would be that hard, but there is a lot steps involved before you can start using a new cup. For instance the cup needs to comply with regulations set by the FDA. Before the eco-cup no company in the industry had every used recycled material near food, not to mention near a steam hot beverage.


Since Starbucks introduced the new cup they have saved 300,000 trees. Currently the cup is made from 10% post consumer fiber, and the company plans to make the cup completely recyclable. One issue that still remains is that the cups still cannot be recycled in all communities in the U.S. because of the plastic inside the cups meant to prevent spillage. Starbucks is apparently running a pilot program in New York with Green Global USA’s Coalition for Resource Recovery. Paper cups will be gather with corrugated cardboard for recycling.