2015 DOE Clean Cities Buyer's Guide

[G. David Felt]

G. David Felt
Alternative Fuels & Propulsion writer
www.CheersandGears.com

 

2015 Vehicle Buyer's Guide

Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy

 

 

The U.S. Department of Energy has released their Clean Cities 2015 Vehicle Buyer's Guide. This covers the following types of auto's; 

 

Propane

Natural Gas (CNG)

Biodiesel

Electric

Hybrid

Ethanol Flex-Fuel

 

In this guide you will find the following information to help one make an informed buying choice. The guide starts off by covering Fuel Economy, Energy Impact, Smog Scores, Greenhouse gas Emissions just to start. Once you have gone over that information, you then have a section that covers Auto cost and Emissions before buying. the follow up section to this is about Converting auto's to run on alternative fuels.

 

Once you have reviewed this information you start down the line of specific auto types to best understand their use and benefits. You will find after the Propane and CNG auto sections a section covering fueling infrastructure as an important factor.The report then goes into details about Biodiesel, electric auto's and how to read the EPA labels on all the auto's.

 

An important section is how to compare fuel costs before you buy. A perfect example is how cheap electricity is in Seattle where they have plenty of Water generated electricity compared to the Midwest or east coast where you have coal generated electricity or nuclear and much higher costs.

 

The section on finding charging stations, Hydrogen and ethanol fueling stations will come into benefit to those that have those type of auto's.

   

The final section covers 2015 incentives.

 

As an addendum starting on page 31 is a chart covering all the auto's and how efficient they are on each fuel type or what they call the Energy Impact Score. Pretty amazing to see E85. I have to really question why bother to make E85.

 

Check it out and come to your own conclusions on what you think is a good Alternative Energy Auto.

 

Clean Cities 2015 Vehicle Buyer's Guide