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<title>Haaze.com / Chi11eD / Published News</title>
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<pubDate>Wed, 04 May 2011 07:10:59 +0000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[New York hails Nissan for its new cabs]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-york-hails-nissan-for-its-new-cabs</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-york-hails-nissan-for-its-new-cabs</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 May 2011 07:10:59 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Chi11eD</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=new-york-hails-nissan-for-its-new-cabs</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Nissan&amp;39's NV200 minivan will be the next NYC Taxi, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday.(Credit:Nissan)Front interior of the official Nissan NV200 NYC Taxi.(Credit:Nissan)The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission has chosen Nissan's NV200 minivan to be its next taxicab, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday.The Nissan van will join New York City's taxi fleet beginning in 2013, and be the official taxi of New York for the following 10 years. All taxis currently on the road, including the city's newer hybrid cabs, will be phased out by 2018.As part of the deal, Nissan is also providing the city with 100 plug-in electric Nissan Leafcars to be used as test vehicles by taxi owners interested in going all-electric. Nissan will also install charging stations within the city for easy accessibility.Rear interior(Credit:Nissan)The NV200 vans themselves will be equipped with a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder power train, and the option exists to convert them into plug-in electric vehicles. That's not surprising considering New York is considering eventually making its fleet of over 13,000 taxis all-electric.The taxis seem to be designed with both tourists and locals in mind. Features include a moon roof with a shade option for easy gawking at New York City skyscrapers, as well as 12-volt outlets and USB ports for cell phones and laptops. Thecar will also be equipped with a low-key horn system that blinks an exterior light, in addition to honking a gentler-sounding horn as part of an effort to reduce noise pollution.Ford&amp;39's proposed Transit Connect.(Credit:Ford Motor)It will also include GPS navigation, a tool that has been somewhat controversial in the world of taxis as many U.S. drivers, citing privacy rights, have been against the use of the device in conjunction with a tracking system. Two years after New York City did install GPS-navigation and tracking systems in its fleet, it was discovered that taxi passengers had been overcharged by over $8 million within a two-year period because many drivers had been illegally charging double rates within single-rate zones.Mayor Bloomberg claimed during his press conference that this will also be the &quot;safest taxi ever.&quot; For the first time, New York taxis will include rear passenger airbags. The van also passed its crash tests not just as the NV200 street model, but as the taxi model which includes the partition wall and other taxi components.The choice is the result of a multiyear process started by the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission in 2007 with its Taxi 07 project in conjunction with the Design Trust for Public Space that displayed concept taxis at the 2007 New York Auto Show.Karsan&amp;39's proposed taxi. As part of its proposal, it offered to build a plant in Brooklyn, N.Y., to assemble the vans.(Credit:Karsan)The commission then put out a request for information in 2009 to suggest NYC Taxi features, followed by a request for proposals by automakers and designers. The taxi commission then also conducted an online survey of its three chosen finalists for the &quot;Taxi of Tomorrow.&quot;The NV200 was chosen over other finalists that included Ford's Transit Connect van and a van made by Turkish automaker Karsan, which offered to build a plant to manufacture its vans in Brooklyn, N.Y., as part of the deal.The taxi version of Nissan's NV200 for New York will be manufactured at the Japanese automaker's plant in Cuernavaca, Mexico.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Nissan's Leaf back on track]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nissans-leaf-back-on-track</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nissans-leaf-back-on-track</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:10:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Chi11eD</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nissans-leaf-back-on-track</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Nissan Americas)Despite setbacks from last month's earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Nissan says it will be able to deliver its all-electric Leafcars on time and is ready to take more U.S. orders, the company announced today at the New York Auto Show.Originally, the Japanese automaker planned for an introductory sale of 20,000 Nissan Leaf cars in the U.S. and 6,000 in Japan for 2011. The Leaf is Nissian's first mass-marketed zero-emission car.Once Nissan reached its goal of pre-selling 20,000 cars in the U.S. in September 2010, it stopped taking orders. Nissan Americas Chief Carlos Tavares then announced in January 2011 that all 20,000 U.S. customers would have their Leaf by this September. Nissan had begun making deliveries in December, with Bill Markevitch of Hawaii becoming the first U.S. Leaf owner.But the original delivery schedule--which had already received complaints of slow delivery from eager consumers--was thrown into jeopardy following the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in Japan in mid-March. Among the massive destruction, many automotive assembly plants and parts manufacturers temporarily shut down, disrupting worldwide production and distribution.As of today, however, Nissan said it is back on track and will deliver all 20,000 Nissan Leaf cars to the U.S. by the &quot;end of the summer.&quot;&quot;Nissan is pleased to report that the first vessel carrying post earthquake-produced Nissan Leafs is scheduled to arrive to U.S. shores April 27,&quot; Tavares said in his keynote address today at the auto show. The Japanese automaker says it's also ready to expand its U.S. sales, though it did not announce exactly how many units it could deliver in a specific time frame.Nissan simply said it will reopen Leaf reservations on May 1 to people in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington who have already registered on the Nissan Web site as interested potential customers. Nissan says about 340,000 people have registered, and it will give those people preference.In conjunction with the announcement, Nissan also released data on its first 500 Leaf drivers in the U.S. who, as part of their agreement to purchase a Leaf, also agreed to take part in a data-sharing program.&quot;The average trip length of these early adopters is 7 miles' most charge on a Level 2, 220-volt charger at their homes' and the average charging time is 2 hours and 11 minutes. Nissan Leaf owners are a combination of conscientious environmentalists and tech-savvy individuals. They are highly educated, have excellent credit, and are in the nation's top 15 percent for household income,&quot; Nissan said in a statement.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Home electricity monitor hits retail at Lowe's]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=home-electricity-monitor-hits-retail-at-lowes</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=home-electricity-monitor-hits-retail-at-lowes</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Apr 2011 07:11:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Chi11eD</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=home-electricity-monitor-hits-retail-at-lowes</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The PowerCost Monitor, one of the few energy-tracking gadgets sold directly to consumers, will now be available at Lowe's hardware stores. The monitor's maker, BlueLine Innovations, said today that the PowerCost Monitor and WiFi Gateway will be available at 319 Lowe's stores in California, Washington, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland. The product has been available for sale online but this is its first big-box retail distributor.Microsoft Hohm connects to home electricity monitor (photos) View the full galleryThere are dozens of companies making electricity monitors, with many being trialed through utilities' smart-grid programs geared at reducing energy use during peak time or reducing customers' overall power consumption.The PowerCost Monitor is not as sophisticated as some of the more advanced home energy management systems, but it's a good option for people who want to better understand their overall electricity usage. It doesn't require professional installation.The manufacturer's core technology is optical sensors that can read an electricity meter and transmit that information either to a small monitor, about the size of a home cordless phone, or to the Web via an optional Wi-Fi gateway. Once online, people can use either Microsoft's Hohm or Google's PowerMeter Web application to view real-time or historical power consumption information.People need to attach a clamp with a sensor onto a meter. The Wi-Fi gateway receives information from the sensor and uses a home broadband connection to send meter data to the Web. The full retail price for monitor alone is $109, and it's an additional $159 for the WiFi Gateway.Since it's a whole-house monitor, the system won't give you details on how much energy specific appliances or rooms use, but it does help you understand your &quot;baseline&quot; power usage. To better understand how much power individual appliances use, you can use a handheld power meter, such as the Kill a Watt, which lets you manually test power by plug load.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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