Infographics – DragonFlyEye.Net

The @NPR website now features a series called “Getting to 55 MPG,” which is all about the Obama Administration’s stated goal of increasing fuel efficiency in America’s auto fleet to that magical number. One interesting infographic shows just where we’re at in terms of sales of hybrid or electric cars.

The good news for Rochester, depending on your point of view, is that we lead the region. Whereas Buffalo(1.1% of sales), Syracuse and Elmira (1.7% of sales) lag well behind the average, Rochester is at around 2.1%.

Compared to the deep red (why not green?) of some California cities, its hardly a dent. But we’re leading locally and hey! That’s not nothing, right?… Right?

Map: Hybrid And Electric Sales Across The Country : NPR.

For the record, the following headline is *not* incorrect. Repeat: the following headline is *not* incorrect:

OEMs to spend more on semiconductors for wireless devices than computers in 2011 — Engadget.

The trouble is: if you look at the actual attached infographic, that graph makes it quite clear that OEM manufacturers have been paying more for wireless semiconductors in every year except one since 2008:

The other glaring issue is that what a manufacturer pays for hardware does in no way accurately reflect how much equipment they use. Are we meant to understand that the cost of semiconductors has gone up over the last three years? Or that manufacturers are producing more gear? In either case, this graph makes the difference between PC and wireless expenditures seem both negligible and consistent. If there’s a story here, I’m not seeing it.