Sipping Fuel Feeling Fuelish
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After showing you the Aptera Motors 2e, I decided to look into some additional choices for those of you who would like to keep it green as well as buy American.

All of these are American or Canadian companies and are on the cutting edge of the electric/hybrid technologies.

ZAP’s Xebra sedan - Zap stands for Zero Air Pollution has a top speed of 40 mph, can run up to 25 miles on a single charge and seats up to four.

The Meyers Motors NmG -NmG for No More Gas seats 2 and has a range of up to 45 miles and a top speed of 80 mph.

Persu Mobility - the tilting, three-wheeled Hybrid that its builders have devised a new term for the vehicle — an Urban Life Vehicle, or ULV. Sales of the Persu Hybrid are planned for early 2010.

Green Vehicles - three-wheeled Triac plug-in hybrid has a top speed of 80 mph and a driving range of 100 miles that can be boosted by as much as 25 percent with an additional battery pack.

Bombardier Recreational Products - Can-Am Spyder is neither a bike nor a car, but rather something in between. It  comes with features like pedal brakes, a reverse gear and power steering.

Campagna Motors - T-Rex has combined the look and handling of a car with the size and fuel-efficiency of a motorcycle.  The six-speed T-Rex is zippy with a top speed of 144 mph and can do 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds.

Tesla Motors - The Tesla Roadster, the all-electric, emissions-free sports car can do 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds, has a top speed of 125 mph and does 244 miles on a single charge, according to the company.

Yes, this is tough confession to make, but I in fact like most of you. I have found myself simply following the crowd just like the sheep that I am.

So what is it that I am doing? What horrible, awful, and atrocious act am I doing along with the rest of America?

I have (temporarily) abandoned my attempt at saving fuel. I’ll say it again, I have (temporarily) abandoned my attempt at saving fuel.

This of coarse is because gas has hit a two year low of under $2 a gallon and the “crisis” seems to have past. But in reality I’m thinking that we are still smack in the middle of said crisis. Sure gas is again “cheap”. Not the $.57 per gallon it was when I started driving, but cheap for the current times.

Unfortunately unemployment is at a seven year high and a lot of people can barely feed their family, never mind a gallon of gas. But thise of us who are still blessed with a decent paying job, we have again started to waste fuel like there is no end to the supply. The for sale signs on the big gas guzzlers have gone and far too many people think that our new president will solve all of their problems like he will personally be paying their bills.

Sorry to burst a few bubbles, but there is no way any one person can or will solve the mess we have put ourselves in. He may or may not help with some things, only time will tell, but we can not afford to simply sit back and let things happen (to) for us. It will only be a matter of time until the price of gas jumps to an even higher high then it was during the worst of this past year. and it will again be our own short sighted fault. We need to conserve what we have and work towards a different source of energy to power our cars. Too many companies are waiting for “someone” to start the ball rolling.

I admit that I am as guilty as the next guy and will be spending my commuting time a bit more conservatively and again try to reach my goal of 45 mpg.

I hope you will all join me in this lofty but much needed goal of conserving what fuel we have left.

Find out more at SippingFuel

Did you know that April 20th thru April 26 is Tire Safety Week? I didn’t but I know about it now.

Tire safety is an important item that largely gets ignored by a lot of people.

I believe it was Mark Donahue that said “your tires are all there is between you and eternity”, or something like that.

When it comes to saving gas, tires are just as important. Under inflated tires reduce your gas mileage by as much as 3% to 4%.

So if you normally get 30 mpg, under inflated tires will reduce your mileage to 28.8 mpg.

The technical reasons are fairly straight forward. Under inflation causes more rolling resistance then a properly inflated or slightly over inflated tire does.

Its like trying to roll a bean bag down a hill vs. a basketball. You can get a bean bag to roll but it takes a lot more effort and constant attention. A basketball will just go with the slightest amount of effort.

I say over inflated because you could over inflate your tires slightly above what the auto manufacturer recommends as long as you do not exceed the maximum pressure that is printed on the sidewall.

You will have to watch your tires carefully for un-even wear. An over inflated tire can wear out in the middle of the tread where an under inflated tire will wear on the outsides. If you see excessive wear lower the pressure a few pounds and continue to watch.

I personally have my tires inflated to 40psi with a maximum of 44psi on the sidewall and there has been no excessive wear at all.

Find out more info about saving money on gas at SippingFuel

We here at SippingFuel have decided to take this Saving at the Pump a little more seriously and have begun an experiment. We will be taking our daily ride and will be applying some of the techniques and technology to save some green. You can follow along at The Sipping Fuel, Fuel Economy Experiment
Please feel free to offer comments or suggestions as we travel down this road.
For more info please go to SippingFuel

Thanks and we’ll see you there.