Escape Hybrid a campus star for Earth Day!

April 22nd marked Earth Day this year, and what a beautiful day it was! To celebrate the occasion, UWM sponsored an entire week of Earth-friendly events and information. Of course when they invited Braeger to participate, we jumped at the opportunity.

In their week-long lineup, April 18th was "Clean Energy" day. To show how auto manufacturers were joining in the effort to help reduce pollution, UWM asked us to put together a display addressing hybrid vehicles. After much research and preparation, when the day arrived we were ready! We took a brand new Escape Hybrid to Spaights Plaza, and almost completely covered it with information describing how hybrid vehicles work, how they reduce emissions, why reduced emissions are important, and the rewards a person can get for doing their part.

The Escape Hybrid drew attention from UWM students throughout the day.

Here's a quick list of some interesting things we learned while putting together this presentation:

• The EPA estimates a hybrid vehicle can produce 5.8 or less tons of greenhouse gasses in a year, while a conventional powertrain will produce 8.2 tons, or more!


• If you drive 15,000 miles in a year, and if gas costs $2.50 per gallon, you save $804 if you get 35 MPG instead of 20 MPG. If gas costs more (and it does!) your savings go up!


• At its debut, the Ford Escape Hybrid was driven for 37 straight hours, covering 576 miles on the streets of Manhattan, all on one 15 gallon tank of gas!


• Since Carbon Dioxide is a natural result of any combustion, the only way for a car to produce less carbon Dioxide (a major contributor to global warming) is to burn less gas.


• The Ford Escape Hybrid is a "Zero Evaporative Emission" vehicle, which means it actually produces less emissions while driving than conventional vehicles do when standing still!


• It's been estimated that if all motor vehicles sold within the Los Angeles basin were "Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles" (like the Escape Hybrid) the area's severe smog problem would disappear within 15 years!

That's some pretty impressive information! For more, you can visit the EPA website (www.fueleconomy.gov) or the state of California's Driveclean (www.driveclean.ca.gov) webiste.

If you're interested in saving money on fuel, and helping the environment, remember to chck to see if your car can use E-85 fuel! Even if your car can't use E-85 fuel, be sure to check out our list of things anyone can do to get better gas mileage.

Happy Earth Day!