Toot our green horns
|
It's easy being green — now more than ever before. With advancing technologies in diesel, biofuels, hydrogen and electricity,
getting behind the wheel of an environmentally friendly vehicle is a reality for drivers. And use will continue to increase
with new laws potentially being enacted following U.S. Supreme Court rulings and the ever-growing popularity of more economical
rides to combat soaring gas prices.
That also means technicians who aren't necessarily ready to arm themselves with knowledge of these new models must be ready
to perform repairs on these vehicles, and their suppliers need to be ready with the increasing number of parts to follow.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this spring was charged with putting together a guide of regulating greenhouse
gas emissions from vehicles following a Supreme Court ruling.
In mid-June, the U.S. Senate was to begin debating an energy bill (H.R. 6) that would mandate the use of 15 billion gallons
of biofuels annually by 2015 and 36 billion gallons by 2022. The first biofuel would be ethanol, but others would be mandated
after 2016. The bill's other main focus is to increase average fuel economy standards from 25 miles per gallon to 35 miles
per gallon, about a 40 percent increase, by 2020. Alternative fuels are being discussed throughout the automotive sector and on Wall Street, as noted at this year's Global
Automotive Aftermarket Symposium in Chicago. Tony Cristello, senior vice president at BB&T Capital Markets, talked about hybrid
vehicles in his presentation at the annual gathering and that there probably will not be many do-it-yourselfers working on
their hybrids.
"That's not the audience, that's not the demographic, plus you can kind of get shocked if you don't take the batteries apart
the right way," he says. "But I think there's an opportunity here maybe for the distributors, maybe for the installers — again,
education, you know, working together. But it's still a small space and so...the jury's still out on this."
Marc Graham, president and CEO of InstallerEDGE, a WD in Vista, Calif., says this is an ever-changing market with hybrids
rising to the top.
"We've gone through two decades of analysis of what alternative fuel-powered vehicles could be. It wasn't one decade ago it
was going to be all electric, and then hydrogen was going to be the next big thing," he says. "We're a public that is very
concerned about emissions and concerned about the environment. But at the same time, we apply the fact that we don't have
time to do anything."
Whatever the power source, it must be able to last for a few days, he says. So far, only hybrids have been able to offer that.
But there are more than hybrids on the road, and shop operators need to be ready.
A sugar-coated solution
It seems almost like vehicles nowadays can run on practically anything, and if it isn't possible now, that doesn't mean it
won't be available in the next several years. While hybrids get the most attention for how they run on both gasoline and electricity,
increasing fuel efficiency, other options are out there.
Ethanol has been a topic for years, and is available most often as E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, it most often is used to increase octane and improve emissions quality. All gasoline
vehicles can run on up to E10 — 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline and not be considered an alternative fuel — but
to use E85, you must have a flex fuel vehicle (FFV). There are a number of FFVs available, including the Dodge Durango and
Caravan, Chevrolet Suburban, Lincoln Town Car, Nissan Titan and many others.
