On Wednesday Tuan Tran, the UH fleet coordinator, was showing off some of his cool new toys. On display were several electric or solar powered vehicles that UH has been using in order to contribute to a greener campus. There were a couple of electric powered golf carts, which while not breaking news are still a step in the right direction in terms of our transportation. However, what was much more impressive were the other vehicles on site.
First there was the Solar Powered golf cart that was generously donated by Brittish Petrolium (BP) to the school. This looks like a suped up golf cart that has a luggage rack on top but this is much more than a luggage rack. This is just what you may assume that it would be. It is powered by the sun and has a small, but useful, storage battery that will save aproximately one hours worth of usage without sun light. There is also the option of charging it electrically if need be.
However, the most exciting thing on display were the two new MILES cars. MILES is a car company that is committed to making vehicles that produce zero emissions. This has recently beome a more popular option around campuses such as Stanford, Yale, California State Polytechnic University, Queens College, UC Irvine, UC Davis and UCLA. They have also been used at NASA, the US Navy, the National Park Service, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
Here at UH we have the ZX40S, which is a four door S.U.V. that looks like it has been shrunk to something a little larger than a smart car. In addition to that there is also the ZX40ST which is almost like a miniaturized Ford Ranger. This has a bed that is large enough to carry almost anything that you may need but, once again, produces no tailgate emission. This may not seem like a huge deal at first glance. After all it is only two cars out of the many that UH owns but each gallon of gas used produces over 19 pounds of carbon dioxide. Over the course of a year that can add up.
According to the web site either of these cars are for sale for $19,900. This may seem like a lot for a car that won’t be able to make it on to the highway, because it has a top speed of 25 miles per hour, but there is a calculator on the web site www.milesev.com/ that can break down the total savings for their cars. In the quick calculation that I ran my average cost of driving my car was nine cents per mile and the cost of driving the ZX40S would only be slightly over two cents per mile. Over the course of a year this would save a total of $700. Of course my driving is slightly different than what the ZX40S would be capable of (thanks to the devil known as US-59). While in terms of the functionality there is still plenty of room for improvement but they are almost on par with their luxury items. The ZX40S has airconditioning and a CD player that makes it much more user friendly.
In the end we have made massive improvements in terms of our technology and our ability to create green machines but we still need to integrate it into our daily lives so that we can reap the benefits of the technology that we now have. Hopefully we will be able to take this next step forward along with Detroit and it will be a win win situation both for the economy and the environment.
-Job Tennant
Leave a Comment
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
