Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Tags: 74, 74x, bus, culture bus, cultureBus, diesel, hyrbrid, Muni, San Francisco
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Friday, September 19th, 2008
Here’s what you’ll see tooling around San Francisco’s Mission District these days - an aging Mercedes Benz 300 SD sedan that’s been converted by Oakland’s Veg Rev to run on vegetable oil in a process called “vehicle fuel reassignment.”
So instead of inky diesel soot covering the back of this OM617 W126, we see vegetable oil. See the conversion process courtesy of this nifty video. (But just ignore a laughable MTV-style intro from the abysmal Current TV network.) The car shown can’t accelerate quickly, but in many ways is superior to (and costs about $115,000 less than) the quick, all-electric Tesla Roadster.
Of course the best way to spread the word about veggie power is to fashion a bumper sticker to make Toyota Prius owners feel bad:

Click to enlarge.
“YOUR NEW HYBRID USES GAS - HA!”
From Teh Mission with love…
Tags: 2CHJ531, 300, 300sd, benz, california, conversion, diesel, gas, gasoline, ha, hybrid, Mercedes, Oakland, oil, San Francisco, sd, veg rev, vegetable, Your New Hybrid Uses Gas, Your New Hybrid Uses Gas - Ha
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Friday, July 25th, 2008
Is this what you want to encounter on the streets of San Francisco - a mobile billboard from Do It Outdoors? You see, S.F. is having a tussle over whether we should have new fixed billboards in town, but apparently there’s nothing stopping new mobile billboards from travelling all over the place.
Rest assured, this trucking company is saying, “We Do It Green.” [Please note yet another delightful double entendre from Do It Outdoors - what a playful corporation!]. Brace yourself for more information about carbon offsets. That means the more they drive the better things get, just as the more water we import from the South Pacific, the better off we are, cause like Fiji Water is carbon negative or something.
From Vegas with love, on Hayes Street. Click to expand:

There’s lots to ponder as you drive around sipping your MGD Light - like how getting your fossil fuel hydrocarbons from coal really sucks, but petroleum, well petroleum that powers trucks, that must be A-OK.
Is that what they call greenwashing?
The mind boggles….
Tags: ads, ban, billboards, california, David Pridgen, diesel, do it outdoors, doitoutdoors, fiji, fiji green, fijigreen, green, hayes, II, mobile, San Francisco, street, trucks, we do it green
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Monday, June 16th, 2008
It seems Volkswagen is making progress with fuel cell technology. VW dropped by a few places in the bay area this past week to show off their latest effort in the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. VW just happens to be introducing their “Tiguan” (tiger plus iguana, in German) crossover vehicle soon, so why not put this experimental propulsion technology in the latest platform?
CNET was there at the W Hotel and they took some photos. Wired also took some shots, plus they have a nice rundown on the whole affair.

This Tiguan uses hydrogen fuel cell technology, which differs from what BMW has done with hydrogen so far. BMW’s approach is to just modify a typical internal combustion engine so that it will accept either gasoline or hydrogen. Comedian Jay Leno explains. But this method comes with its downsides.
VW was also pleased to show off the new fifty-state-legal Jetta TDI diesel. You can’t hardly tell it’s a diesel. Look to see lots of these TDI cars on the streets of San Francisco soon. It seems everyone who owns a TDI just raves about this high-MPG technology.

Invizabul driver in the SOMA. This new 50-state-legal Jetta has plenty of power and very high MPG - perhaps you’d prefer this VW over the slightly larger and more expensive Toyota Prius hybrid?
And let’s not forget about the Jetta TDI Cup Race, which shows the young’uns that diesel engines have come a long way since the bad old days. It’s the first clean diesel racing series evah.

A speedy TDI at the yummy XYZ restaurant in San Francisco.
VW says that their hydrogen fuel cell technology is seven to ten years away from being available. The sooner the better.
Tags: America, ballard, california, CEO, clean, compressed, crossover, diesel, electric, emissions, EPA, fuel cell, gas, gasoline, hy, HY motion, hydrogen, HyMotion, iguana, ion, lithium, motion, mpg, San Francisco, san jose, stack, Stefan Jacoby, tdi, tiger, tiguan, volkswagen, volkswagon, VW
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