Toyota took zero-emission motoring to the next level with its Mirai fuel cell electric vehicle, which is currently available only in California. The Mirai, which needs hydrogen fuel to power its electric motor, emits nothing but water vapor. The FCV will be featured on a new billboard (nothing new about cars on billboards) but this one, fittingly, helps to clean the air.
The Toyota Mirai eco-billboard campaign, working in conjunction with Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, will launch 37 billboards in Los Angeles and San Francisco. From April 3 to May 28, these structures will create 24,960 square feet of pollution-scrubbing surface, and reverse the nitrogen dioxide (NOx) emissions of an equivalent 5,285 vehicles per month, according to a Toyota press release. NOx is a contributor to acid rain and smog.
The billboards operate something like a catalytic converter with titanium dioxide-coated vinyl to clean the air. Oxygen reacts with the energized titanium dioxide catalyst, and NOx is converted to nitrate and removed from the air. The billboards are light-activated and will continue to purify the air as long as light, humidity, airflow, and the titanium dioxide coating are present.
“Toyota consistently searches for new environmental technologies across all operations,” Mark Angelacos, advanced technology general manager, Toyota Motor North America, said. “When Clear Channel Outdoor Americas brought us the opportunity, we saw it as a perfect match. This new campaign delivers Toyota Mirai’s ‘vehicle of change’ message on a medium that lives up to that promise.”
The titanium dioxide coating technology used on the eco-billboards was developed by the PURETi Group, and Clear Channel Outdoor Americas has exclusive usage rights in the outdoor advertising category.
“We are pleased to offer our environmentally conscious clients, like Toyota, an even more eco-friendly printed vinyl option for their Out-of-Home (OOH) media campaigns,” Gene Leehan, executive vice president and senior regional president, Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, said. “This campaign marks a U.S. first for the use of this technology on OOH, and we look forward to making it available to other like-minded advertisers.”
The eco-billboard campaign was highlighted during the first Environmental Media Association Impact Summit in Beverly Hills, California. A Mirai was wrapped with the titanium dioxide coated vinyl, and it purified the air as guests entered the event.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.