h3

Hummer has been fairly newsworthy lately as General Motors has announced its plans to discontinue the SUV line and sell it off to a Chinese machinery manufacturer, and lately I've been dedicating a few blogs to the Hummer as GM plans to pull the plug on the Hummer brand. And as you may know I've become quite the fan of the popular BBC TV program "Top Gear." So I thought we'd have a little more fun with the blog with today's video featuring sharp-tongued host Jeremy Clarkson taking a spin in not one but … Read more

I'm sure by now most of you readers know that the Hummer brand was taken off of General Motors' hands by a heavy industrial machinery company in China, and that means that Hummer will no longer be produced by GM here in the United States. I suspect that a majority of readers here probably think that Hummer shouldn't let its ass hit the door on the way out, but there are a select few of us who appreciate the famous box on wheels for not just its easily recognizable style, but also for its ability to be styled … Read more

I was reading an Associated Press article recently about all the soon-to-be-defunct product lines produced by General Motors: Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn. But another brand that's been on the way out for a while now was making headlines again, as GM looks all set in its selling off the Hummer brand to China-based Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corporation. While it's not official yet, unless something goes awry it looks to be a done deal and GM will have washed their hands of the tanking SUV line.

With General Motors metaphorically taking its Hummer brand out to the … Read more

Not too long ago I delivered a few blog posts featuring some big-ol' gas guzzling SUVs like the Hummer and the Dartz Kombat. Well, I was sitting here stumped on what to write a blog about and I thought to myself that I hadn't done a full-fledged theme week with this video blog in a while, and from there I brainstormed what to do: this week's video blog posts are going to take a look at some of the worst new and ongoing offenders in gas mileage. And I figured since I was giving Hummer some air time … Read more

The plug-in hybrid Hummer H3E by Raser Technologies actually gets better mileage than originally estimated.

At the SAE World Congress and again at a Hummer event hosted by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Raser originally said (based on a prototype) its E-REV power train could give the Hummer an initial range of 40 miles on electricity only. After that first 40 miles, the SUV would then get about 33 to 35 mpg earning it the dubious moniker of a Hummer that gets over 100 mpg.

Raser's power train is an electric motor-drive system powered by lithium ion batteries, and a gas-powered generator, aka "range extender," to recharge the batteries.

But further street testing has shown the power train's engineers that the H3E could actually get by on its electric battery alone for the first 50 miles using 60 percent of the battery pack, according to statistics released by Raser.

"This initial test indicates that the vehicle should easily achieve over 100 miles per gallon in typical local daily driving," Jim Spellman, Raser's vice president of business development, said in a statement.

Note Spellman's word choice of "typical local daily driving."… Read more

The Toyota Prius is great and all, but try carrying sheets of plywood or a soccer team around in it. Oy.

Kraig Higginson, Chairman of Raser Technologies, believes there should also be hybrids that can handle some heavy lifting. His sentiment was echoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who invited the energy technology company to California last week to demonstrate its 100 mpg plug-in hybrid Hummer H3 as part of a monthly series promoting alternative-fuel vehicles in the state.

Higginson showed off the series hybrid SUV, which uses a 2.0L EcoTec engine to charge its battery. The 4WD vehicle is powered by a 200kW advanced-AC induction motor, which on an empty battery achieves 33 to 35 mpg. The 2008 Hummer H3 with a conventional gasoline power train receives a combined fuel economy of 15 mpg.

"At its worst it already meets the new CAFE standards announced by Obama," said David West, vice president of marketing for Raser.

However, West said that drivers would be able to achieve unlimited gas mileage if they charged the vehicle's battery using electricity from a standard 110-volt or 220-volt outlet, and drove less than 40 miles per day; 75 percent of all drivers typically drive this far or less daily. … Read more

Raser Technologies will unveil a plug-in hybrid Hummer H3 that gets more than 100 mpg at the SAE World Congress in Detroit on April 20. The project was developed in cooperation with GM and is the "have your SUV and drive it too" answer to automotive industry critics and increasingly environmentally-conscience drivers.

By swapping the Hummer's conventional power plant--typically a V-8 engine--for an electric motor powered by a lithium ion battery, the SUV is transformed from a gas-guzzler to a green machine. The plug-in vehicle can travel up to 40 miles in all-electric mode. After the energy is depleted from the battery, the four-cylinder engine kicks in. However, the four-cylinder engine isn't connected to drivetrain and never turns the wheels of the car--its sole purpose is to recharge the lithium ion battery. … Read more

Simple installation, user guidance, and operation make this freeware virtual encrypted disk tool a snap for anyone to use. Cryptdisk.4h's dialog-size interface doesn't complicate the process. Five buttons and a small list make up an interface even novice users will quickly master.

Some users like the simplicity of an encrypted folder on their hard drive. This tool makes it easy to install such a folder and mount it as a virtual drive. There are dozens of such programs, but Cryptdisk.4h makes sure to give new users a very detailed step-by-step guide to set up the drives. … Read more

Here's one that's sure to chap the hides of eco-warriors everywhere: An engineering lecturer from a university in the U.K. has converted a full-size Hummer H3 into a remote controlled toy.

So those folks who get bent out of shape when they see people commuting alone in ginormous SUVs will really love the idea of a Hummer that can pollute without anyone in the car. Now that's progress.

James Brighton from Britain's Cranfield University converted the new right-hand drive version of the H3 in about a month's time. No doubt it's certainly an … Read more