Fool Economy/Fuel Economy

By Natalie Carter, Marketing Manager

Ferrari Scuderia

Now admittedly, I am in the business of marketing green technology, fuel efficiency, and sensible consumption.  But earlier this month I attended the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association) Trade Show in Las Vegas, NV where I had, quite possibly, my adventure of the year.  (No, nothing I have to hide from my husband – but he WAS jealous!)

 

 

 

As part of an advertising spiff from the awesome Craig Mura at Source Interlink, I had the killer opportunity to drive 5 supercars around Lake Mead for an entire Sunday afternoon.  The Belgians at World Class Driving did a stellar job facilitating the cars and the driving.  (Love the Belgians- good beer, good chocolate, GREAT cyclists!)

The line-up of supercars: Ferrari Scuderia, Audi R8, Callaway C16, Maserati Gran Turismo, and the Nissan GTR. 

All had their unique features to fall in love with – the plush luxury of the Maserati with its seductive shape and styling; the raw, screeching power of the Callaway’s supercharger; the pure Italian Ferrari race car; and the almost decadent torque of the AWD’s – the R8 and the GTR. 

My favorite was the Audi R8, stylish, sporty and uber-responsive.  Coming in second was the Nissan GTR – powerful, fast, and aggressive but alas, a “boy car.” 

Audi R8 - my favorite

 

Not one of these cars has a thing to do with practicality or fuel-efficiency.  And you know what?  That’s just fine because what they do offer is an utterly visceral and experiential lesson in automotive design and performance.  And that’s something I AM in the business of marketing.  I can always return to my nerdy fuel economy calculations in my environmentally-friendly and practical, yet sporty Volvo C30.

Blogging about Pulse Plugs (Who Cares?)

By Natalie Carter, Marketing Manager

From the new book: Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000.

“…There no longer exists a top-down relationship between businesses and consumers,” according to Mr. Blackwell (the author). “While marketers used to have control over the message and could count on the masses to follow along whether they liked it or not, today, the consumer is the boss…”

Mr. Blackshaw also noted that this amplified customer voice also opens up opportunities for brands to bond with consumers on a more personal level. That bond must be built around ‘credibility.’

While I agree that marketing has dramatically changed (for the better), and companies are no longer in control – something bothers me about this quote. It’s putting the word, credibility in quotes – as if it’s some sort of special marketer term or tool to be used. In fact, it should be a given – not a concept or cool buzz word to be used (and abused) by marketers.

So, why would a company who sells an aftermarket auto product get into blogging? After all, it’s a pretty simple product (once you understand that while the Pulstar pulse plug looks like a spark plug, its insides are dramatically different)…and most people buy plugs at places like AutoZone…don’t they? The key word here, though, is “people.”

We’ve just begun to develop and implement our social marketing strategy – but we realize that we’re selling to people with feelings and emotions. So, while we certainly must provide a good, scientifically proven product, backed by lots of data about how it works – we also have to develop relationships, for the good of our company and our customers. It’s impossible to get better if you’re not talking (and listening.)

Our CEO, Dan Parker, is diving right into blogs and user forums, for all types of customers and cars. And, we’re gradually learning and appreciating the difference between advertising and social marketing. So, yes, we’re blogging about something that may seem boring to some…but certainly isn’t to us or our customers.

Homemade Fuels – Are We Really There Yet?

By Natalie Carter, Marketing Manager

As a follow-up to my post Things To Do At Home: Whipping Up A Batch of Ethanol – here’s more from Popular Mechanics: How to Make 4 Alternative Fuels at Home: Goodbye, Big Oil!They list four options for Ethanol, Biodiesel, Solar, and Hydrogen.

Of course, as Branden commented on my Ethanol post, “But are we truly addressing the problem or creating a larger one with many unintended consequences? That’s the debate I’d like to encourage at a new site I created called BioFoolish?.”

You can weigh in with your opinion and comments at biofoolish. Like anything else, alternative fuels have costs associated with development and distribution including real investment in the supply and transportation of the raw material. Are we, in fact, consuming more resources and energy with the “good” alternatives? (example: Pulling power off the coal-powered grid to make hydrogen.)

Pulse Ignition: Mo’ Better Mo’ Faster

By Kyle Jones, Enerpulse Web Master and All-Around Tech Geek/Gearhead

WARNING: Gearhead terms ahead. But, if you want to know the “techy” detail behind the Pulstar science, keep reading.

In some of the forums I read around the Web people are skeptical about how our pulse plug works. “If it did that, wouldn’t the engine burn up?” In short, no. Lets look at the combustion cycle and see what is really happening:

I am referencing our high speed video available to view here throughout this explanation.

When the plug fires we begin the combustion process and cylinder pressure begins to rise (working against the piston because we are still Before Top Dead Center or BTDC). The Iridium on the left has a smaller flame initially, like any other plug, and the Pulstar, on the right, has the flame front moving faster and much, much larger than the spark plug – there is no “burning up” happening. Now, I’m NOT saying that we change the speed at which gasoline and air burns at. The intense spark generates much more infrared radiation (heat) which lights fuel and air at a distance, not just at the spark. Remember, what you are seeing there is a 2D representation of the flame kernel. If you wanted to calculate the actual volume difference between the two you would need to take the diameter and calculate for volume.

The primary goal in the ignition system is to ignite the mixture as early as possible without causing knock(when the flame front hits the piston face and it’s either at or before TDC sending a damaging shock wave through the piston, connecting rod and crankshaft bearings) and landing peak cylinder pressure around 10-15 degrees After Top Dead Center (ATDC).

Lets take a look at a theoretical engine running about half-throttle at 4500 RPM. With a normal plug you’ll fire this engine it at 25 deg BTDC to achieve combustion without knock and land our peak cylinder pressures where we want them. That means that for 25 deg of crank rotation you are burning fuel that is working completely AGAINST the engine (the piston is still moving up on the compression stroke), and this is not only wasted energy in itself but working against energy already released in prior combustion events.

With Pulstar, the flame travels faster initially, some say this is like a timing advance but that is not true if you analyze exactly what is happening a bit. In this same engine under the same conditions, if you were to fire the Pulstar at 25 deg BTDC the engine would knock (such as seen in a previous Corvette test) and we see this all the time (until the computer pulls timing which the stock ECU easily handles). In this theoretical engine we have, we are firing now at 21 deg BTDC to avoid knock with Pulstar Plugs installed, giving us 4 less degrees of crank rotation that we are wastefully burning fuel.

This is a 16% reduction but not all engines run the same ignition advance and it can vary greatly depending on engine load and RPM. Under certain conditions, engines can run as much as 45 degrees of ignition advance.

Again, to see what is going on, watch this high-speed video(shot at 68,000 frames per second), where you can actually see, in slow motion, the ignition plume of Pulstar™pulse plug growing at more than twice the speed of the iridium spark plug.

Read More: How Pulstar Plugs Work; How To Buy

Is Obama Right? (About Tires That Is)

By Natalie Carter, Marketing Manager

(Short Answer: Yes. Popular Mechanics did the math.)

Is everyone as glad as I am that the election season is almost over? We’ve been bombarded with sound bites about everything from lipstick to “controversy” about tire pressure, of all things. Only in an election year would such a mundane topic be worthy of a news cycle.

There was lots of eye-rolling (real and virtual) over Obama saying that one solution to the fuel problem is keeping your tires properly inflated. But, it’s also a valid tip (and to be fair to him, he didn’t say that it’s THE solution.) As a commenter on one blog grumpily noted, “We all already know that keeping tires properly inflated helps with fuel economy.”

Of course, knowing and doing are two different things. I know, for example, I shouldn’t load up on junk food before a big bike race…yet when it’s sitting there in the break room, I find myself elbow deep in the Fritos bag and going back for seconds on the chile con carne.

“We all” don’t know it either. Call three of your friends and ask them about their tire pressure. My bet is you’ll get a resounding silence. And, no, I haven’t checked my tires lately.

So we come to reality, Obama, and our tires. Mike Allen over at Popular Mechanics recently posted Top Five Reasons Your Car’s Tires Are Failing, following on his “August reality check about Obama. As Mr. Allen noted back in August,

Americans burned 142 billion gal. of gas last year. Sen. Barack Obama now suggests that we can trim that thirst by making sure we keep our tires properly inflated. Is he right? Let’s do the math:

A single tire that’s underinflated by 10 psi costs about 3.3 percent of your fuel economy. So to keep the numbers round for the sake of our discussion, let’s say four tires underinflated by that same amount would increase our fuel consumption by around 10 percent.

How many cars have underinflated tires? A Department of Transportation study dating back to 2001 says that 60 to 80 percent of cars on the road are running tires underinflated by as much as 10 percent. Worse yet, they say that 20 to 50 percent of them are driving with tires down in pressure by as much as 20 percent. Want more? Well, 10 to 30 percent of these cars have tires with pressure as low as 30 percent of the recommended pressure. That’s bad, folks. And it means we’re costing ourselves much more than a few miles per gallon.

He goes on to note another “boring” point – if we’ve got underinflated tires, they wear out faster and are less safe.

I’m thinking that instead of buying a big gas guzzler SUV for “‘family safety” people should simply take better care of the tires on their sedan…and they’d also get better gas mileage and reduce their carbon emissions. No drastic or expensive lifestyle changes required.

And, go check out those five reasons – some might say “well, that’s just common sense.” However, common sense isn’t very common these days – in politics or anywhere else.

Can I Save The World On The Cheap?

By Natalie Carter, Marketing Manager

I’m a self-admitted “greenie” – but I also like to save money…and I’m marketing a premium priced product that helps reduce carbon emissions.  So, a blog post Does It Pay To Go Green? really got my attention.   Here’s what drew me in:

“For those of us currently lacking cash, a few simple lifestyle modifications can leave us healthier, wealthier, and wiser.  You might be surprised to find that many of your daily activities are already eco-friendly, and the cheaper alternative.”

The post goes on to give common sense, very doable tips on Transportation, Food, Coffee and Water, and Home and Cleaning. (A friend of mine swears by vinegar and baking soda – both very cheap and very effective cleaning aids that don’t poison our water supply.)

As a avid biker, I loved this Transportation tip:

The average U.S. commute is 12 miles, and in an average 27-mile-per-gallon vehicle, with gas at $4.00 a gallon, it tallies up at nearly $900.00 dollars a year.  This represents a conservative estimate, as many commutes extend far beyond 12 miles.  Although public transportation isn’t free, it’s much cheaper than driving, especially when you figure in car maintenance, insurance, and a small allowance for parking tickets.

Riding your bicycle is the best (and healthiest) green option, and will help shed any unwanted pounds you may have.  Replacing your car with a bike ride just once a week could shave off $184.00 from annual commuting costs.

Of course, it’s not always practical (or safe) to bike around the city; but do you really need to jump in the car for a few blocks or even a few miles?

(P.S. With Pulstar you could dramatically reduce that $900 bill.  But only if you don’t also want to burn rubber at the stop lights…;-))

“Women Don’t Shop At AutoZone.”

By Natalie Carter, Marketing Manager

Part of my job is to identify and qualify target markets – which means, in plain English, finding out who would need our Pulstar plug; who would want it; and who would buy it (often three different things.) As part of that work, I do a lot of thinking about marketing to men versus women. We all have stereotypes and prejudices (me included) which influence how we buy (and sell.) For example, “Women don’t think about or shop at AutoZone.”

Then I run across a blogpost by a seemingly very traditional cookie-baking, stay-at-home Mom who says, AutoZone is So COOL!

So, go figure! I’m going back to thinking (and taking more field trips to AutoZone.)

Read More: How Pulstar Plugs Work; How To Buy ; FAQs

“Why is there a resistor in the Pulstar Plug?”

By Kyle Jones, Enerpulse Web Master and All-Around Tech Geek/Gearhead

We get a lot of questions about Pulstar (man, do we get a lot of questions!) Some simply cannot believe it can do what we say. But, they’re thinking in terms of the creaky old spark plug. Our pulse plug is built on pulsed power technology by Sandia Labs – which means there a lot of screamin’ hot, super cool technology inside Pulstar that you can’t see. (It looks a spark plug because it’s designed to replace the spark plug in the space alloted for it – nothing else required.)

For example one question we receive is: “Why the resistor”? Modern cars have electronics all over the place. Everything from your power seats to the system that drives the engine and transmission is computer controlled in one way or another. These computers talk to each other and, in the case of the engine computer, take measurements and output compiled results based on those measurements.

Whenever there is a spark, there is interference generated: Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). Picture this, you are talking on your cell phone in a busy airport with a lot of people talking and commotion everywhere (noise). Those other people are your EMI and RFI. You can’t have a good phone conversation because of everything going on and the computer can’t have one either!

If you were to get into a telephone booth in that airport you could talk because the booth would filter most of the noise. The resistor in our Pulse Plug, just as in a spark plug, is your filter (phone booth) keeping the EMI and RFI generated at the spark from wreaking havoc on your electronics.

Read More: How Pulstar Plugs Work; How To Buy ; The History of the Spark Plug; Wikipedia, Pulsed Power history

The Boring Way to Save Fuel. Slow Down.

By Natalie Carter, Marketing Manager

“SLOW DOWN! Don’t drive so fast, Natalie!” My mom still says this…and I’m 40 years old. But (and I hate to admit it) she makes sense.

Via Larry Silvey of AfterMarket Business, At The Speed of Right

Based on the latest available data, Patricia Monahan, deputy director of clean vehicles for the Union of Concerned Scientists, says most cars get their best gas mileage between 45 and 55 mph. For every mile per hour faster than 55 mph, fuel economy drops by about 1 percent, and the drop-off increases at a greater rate after 65 mph. Interestingly, hybrid vehicles that average around 38 miles per gallon can reach 50 mpg when traveling at 55 mph. Take the speed to 65 mph and the mpg drops to the low 30s.

There’s even a drive55 nonprofit,which lists more benefits of slowing down, including saving polar bears (which, let’s face it, is a bit of a stretch, given the size of the climate problem. But, I give them credit for marketing.)

Going slower is a good (and yes, boring) way to help reduce carbon emissions. Of course, my slowing down for the brief drive home probably won’t save even one small tree (or polar bear cub), but if millions of us do so…well, then we’ll make some progress – even snails get where they’re going (eventually…)

More About Pulstar: How Pulstar Plugs Work; How To Buy ; FAQs

Gas Savings Snake Oil

By Dan Parker, CEO

One of the challenges in marketing Pulstar plugs for fuel economy is customer cynicism. They’ve “heard that before” and “the market is full of such claims.” And, they’re right. Gas savings snake oil continues to spread.

The reality is that there is no one AMAZING! ASTOUNDING! product that will give you AMAZING! ASTOUNDING! savings.

I’m proud of Pulstar’s ability to increase fuel economy up to 6% – but real world results also depend on how someone drives and the condition of the vehicle (One test group reported they didn’t see any greater fuel economy from Pulstar. Upon further investigation, we found out they left their trucks idling over 40% of the time.)

So, before you invest in anything, check out sources like the FTC and the EPA. This, for example, from the FTC’s Fact or Fueliness: “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has evaluated or tested more than 100 alleged gas-saving devices and has not found any product that significantly improves gas mileage. In fact, some ‘gas-saving’ products may damage a car’s engine or cause substantial increases in exhaust emissions.”

Read More: Consumer Energy Center, Gas Savings Myths

Related Posts: There’s Nothing Old-Fashioned About Fuel Savings
Fun or Fuel Economy

More about Pulstar: How Pulstar Plugs Work; How To Buy ; FAQs