While participating in the 2011 Montreal Green Rally, Auto123.com's Marc-André Hallé and Olivier Delorme stumbled upon a pretty strange happening: the organizers chose to use a good old gas-powered generator to charge the Chevrolet Volt, Toyota Prius Plug-In and Mitsubishi i-MiEV.
How shocking to see an event specifically aimed at promoting the industry's latest environmentally-friendly technologies not be 100-percent green!
Other people witnessed the scene as well.
A few pedestrians on McGill College Avenue, where the cars were on display day and night, clearly seemed mystified by the fact that these so-called ''green'' vehicles required gasoline. A man even took the liberty of shouting something like: ''The engineers might as well have saved the effort and put a combustion engine under the hood!''
Don't you think it's ironic to use petrol and a dirty machine to feed automobiles that promise little to no emissions and supposedly exist to reduce our oil addiction?
The funny (or sad) part in all of this is that charging stations were available less than a minute away – by foot – in the parking lot of Place Ville Marie.
Of course, the organizers had every reason to keep the cars on the street at all times. Anyone, meaning any potential customer, could stop by and get a closer look, which participating manufacturers no doubt love.
Moreover, installing a level 2 charging station for a mere three days would have hardly made financial sense, while using a 120-volt power outlet simply wouldn't have been enough to fully charge the vehicles overnight.
In hindsight, this little anecdote perfectly illustrates the herculean challenge awaiting governments and cities around the world in their quest to accommodate a maximum number of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road.
How shocking to see an event specifically aimed at promoting the industry's latest environmentally-friendly technologies not be 100-percent green!
Other people witnessed the scene as well.
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| Photo: Auto123.com |
A few pedestrians on McGill College Avenue, where the cars were on display day and night, clearly seemed mystified by the fact that these so-called ''green'' vehicles required gasoline. A man even took the liberty of shouting something like: ''The engineers might as well have saved the effort and put a combustion engine under the hood!''
Don't you think it's ironic to use petrol and a dirty machine to feed automobiles that promise little to no emissions and supposedly exist to reduce our oil addiction?
The funny (or sad) part in all of this is that charging stations were available less than a minute away – by foot – in the parking lot of Place Ville Marie.
Of course, the organizers had every reason to keep the cars on the street at all times. Anyone, meaning any potential customer, could stop by and get a closer look, which participating manufacturers no doubt love.
Moreover, installing a level 2 charging station for a mere three days would have hardly made financial sense, while using a 120-volt power outlet simply wouldn't have been enough to fully charge the vehicles overnight.
In hindsight, this little anecdote perfectly illustrates the herculean challenge awaiting governments and cities around the world in their quest to accommodate a maximum number of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road.