Navistar Will Sell Electric 2-Ton Commercial Truck in Oregon First

Earlier this month Navistar announced it had begun production of the first Class 2c-3, 2-ton, medium-duty commercial electric truck in the U.S. — the eStar. It’s also the same vehicle that FedEx has announced it will be testing for fleet use in LA this year. Now Navistar says that the first market the eStar will [...]

Nissan Plans on Selling an Inexpensive, Under 30-Minute Fast Charging Station in the U.S.

Mark Perry (left) next to the Nissan LEAF battery mock up Nissan shocked everybody a bit earlier this week when they announced they had developed a DC fast charging station that had the capability of getting a Nissan LEAF’s 24 kWh battery pack from zero to 80% full in under a half hour. It wasn’t [...]

Nissan LEAF Will Include Fast Charge Capability and Emergency Charging Cable at Launch

At the Nissan LEAF battery plant groundbreaking yesterday in Smyrna, Tennessee, I made it a goal to squeeze as much detailed information as I could out of Nissan regarding the LEAF and what kinds of equipment it will ship with. To this point — as is usually the case in the echo chamber that is [...]

Japanese Team Pushes Electric Car 623 Miles Without Recharging

Driving in a Daihatsu Mira equipped with a huge 74 kWh lithium-ion battery and a brushless DC motor, the Japan EV Club has achieved a new world record for an electric car: 1003.184 kilometers (623 miles) without recharging. Although the team didn’t exceed 25 mph and was on a racing oval at a constant speed, [...]

Nissan Breaks Ground on Their U.S. Electric Car Battery Plant

The hot, sweltering Tennessee sun baked us under a big white-top tent this morning as Nissan dedicated the future site of their $1.7 billion dollar, state-of-the art Nissan LEAF battery plant in Smyrna. Encompassing 1.3 million square feet (22 American football fields), when the plant comes online in late 2012 it will be one of [...]

Nissan LEAF Early Adopters Won’t Get Gouged By the Dealer – Here’s Why.

The Nissan LEAF is the world’s first truly mass-market, affordable electric car and there are plenty of folks who’ve plunked down the $99 reservation fee with plans to be one of the first to own one when they start going on sale at the end of this year. But, from those intrepid early adopters, I [...]

Report: Porsche 918 Spyder Eco-Supercar Being Readied to Race

The plug-in hybrid Porsche 918 Spyder was the best concept to come out of the Geneva Motor Show this year. With a claimed 0-60 time of about 3 seconds, the ability to return a fuel efficiency of 78 mpg, and a 15 mile electric-only range, it quickly became an object of lust for millions. And [...]

Electric Cars are Coming, But Where are the Fast Chargers?

In the brave new world of electric cars, charging is perhaps the most critical element of the equation. For early adopters, almost all of it will be done from the comfort of your own garage in the wee hours of the morning, and it will take no more effort than plugging in your cell phone [...]

Back to the Future: A Revolutionary $1,000 EV With Battery Swap Tech and a 100 Mile Range

Think electric cars are great? Well, they’ve been great for the better part of a century now — a fact that most people seem to be unaware of. Before Big Oil got its greasy paws in a death-lock stranglehold around our puny little necks, electric cars were the way of the future. Everyone from Ferdinand [...]

NEVs: They May be Small, Low-Speed Electric Cars, but They Raise Big Safety Concerns

Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) have been touted as a low-cost way to quickly electrify much of the daily driving that people do. They typically don’t go faster than 35 mph and are increasingly showing up in cities as a way to make short commutes and run errands in a fuel-less and environmentally beneficial way. But [...]

Honda “Lacks Confidence” in Electric Car Business, Adopts Wait and See Attitude

Having dipped their feet in the waters of electric vehicle sales in Japan once before, Honda’s president of research and development, Tomohiko Kawanabe, said that they still “lack confidence” in demand for electric cars, according to a report from Bloomberg. “It’s questionable whether consumers will accept the annoyances of limited driving range and having to [...]

Survey Says: 65 Percent of Americans Want Government-Enforced 50 MPG Standards

The consequences of our almost hopeless relationship with oil are clearly on everybody’s minds these days — and for good reason. The disaster on the Deepwater Horizon and its incomprehensible effects on both the ocean ecosystem and people’s livelihoods, for likely decades to come, has hit the message home that our oil addiction holds us [...]

Survey Says: 65 Percent of Americans Want Government-Enforced 50 MPG Standards

The consequences of our almost hopeless relationship with oil are clearly on everybody’s minds these days — and for good reason. The disaster on the Deepwater Horizon and its incomprehensible effects on both the ocean ecosystem and people’s livelihoods, for likely decades to come, has hit the message home that our oil addiction holds us [...]

New Compact Land Rover Crossover to Get Diesel Hybrid in 2013

The Land Rover LRX concept has been a subject of much speculation and critique over the past few years. For a company such as Land Rover, the LRX represents a huge departure from what they’ve been associated with for decades — an attempt to appeal to a younger, broader crowd and meet the ever increasingly [...]

Hawaii Joins List of States Offering Big Incentives to Buy Electric Cars

It’s been a whirlwind of EV news for Hawaii recently. As we already knew, they’ll be getting Better Place’s battery swapping technology, an electric car factory and they were just listed as one of the first areas you’ll be able to buy a Nissan LEAF when it goes on sale at the end of this [...]

Have an American Express? Buy a Ford Fusion Hybrid for Half Price

Yep. If you’re an American Express cardholder, and you’ve had your sights on brand spanking new Ford Fusion Hybrid (and who wouldn’t?), this Thursday, May 20, 2010, could be your day to shine. American Express’ “Daily Wish” website will be offering the car for half price at an as yet unannounced time on a first-come, [...]

Dept. of Energy Gives Out $106M in Research Grants for “Electrofuels” and Better Batteries

In a Recovery Act cabinet meeting yesterday, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Vice President Biden announced a large amount of research funding for three different types of advanced projects directly related to the future of transportation. The funding comes from the Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy (ARPA-E) stimulus funds and will go to [...]

Next Generation of Car Sharing: You Rent Your Car to a Complete Stranger

In the last 3 years, car sharing services such as ZipCar have seen tremendous growth. According to some estimates, between 2007 and 2009 the industry saw a 117% increase in the number of users in North America. By 2016, that same study expects there to be 4.4 million car sharing users in North America and [...]

Tesla Forging Ahead with Ambitious Plans; Model S in 2012, 4WD and Crossover Coming

According to an AutoWeek article, Tesla’s Elon Musk says that the company will be unveiling an ambitious line-up of EVs over the next several years. With the $50,000, 4-door Model S sedan already in the works for 2012, Musk says they have even more exciting plans for 2013 and 2014, including introducing 4WD to all [...]

GM Makes Amends With Former EV1 Drivers; Even Chelsea Sexton Likes the Volt

Those of you familiar with the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” know exactly what kind of emotional connection former GM EV1 drivers had to their vehicles. The depth of their outrage and sadness when the EV1 program was killed off and their beloved cars recalled and subsequently crushed has led, in large part, to [...]

GM to Invest Almost $1 Billion in Upgrading Small Engine Plants

In a bid to increase capacity for the next generation of small-block, fuel efficient engines, GM has announced that they will be investing $893 million in upgrading 5 existing North American engine-related facilities. According to GM, the move will preserve or create 1,600 jobs. The upgrades are necessary to meet the increasingly stringent fuel economy [...]

Ford Fusion Hybrid Garners Another Win, But is it Bad Journalism?

Ford is having a great run of it. Just today they announced a $2.1 billion first quarter 2010 profit, which is up from 2009’s first quarter by $3.5 billion (yep, they lost $1.4 billion in Q1 2009). I don’t think there’s any other greater vote of confidence in their new line of products than that… [...]

China Primed to Dominate Electric Vehicle Market

It was a couple years ago, when China overtook the U.S. as the largest new car market in the world, that it started to become clear to me the U.S. wouldn’t have the same influence in the development of this next generation of automobiles as we did in the first. As witnessed by the incredible [...]

GM Posts New Chevy Volt Video; Tries to Simplify Explanation of EREV Tech

As we get closer to the launch of the Chevy Volt extended range electric vehicle (EREV), it’s becoming clear that GM has some hard work ahead of themselves trying to figure out how best to explain to the average consumer everything from EREV fuel economy to how a range-extender system works. In a new short [...]

Porsche 918 Spyder Potential Buyer List Now 900 Strong

We’ve seen it, we’ve lusted after it and we’ve dreamed of owning it. Combining amazing fuel economy (78 mpg) with rockstar performance (0-60 mph in 3 seconds) and sexy curves, the Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid concept supercar has been on the minds of green speed freaks ever since its debut in Geneva earlier this [...]

6,635 Nissan LEAF Reservations in Just Over Two Days

And just like that, we have proof that the upcoming Nissan LEAF will be a big seller. Today I got a quick note from Nissan spokesperson, Katherine Zachary, who wrote to tell me that as of this morning 6,635 people have plunked down the $99 refundable deposit to get in line for the first truly affordable, [...]

BMW Says First Electric Car, The Megacity, is Coming in 2013

Ahead of the 2010 Beijing Auto Show BMW has announced that the company’s first mass-produced electric car will be released in 2013. Having just completed a year’s worth of electric vehicle testing with the Mini E, the BMW group now feels it has collected enough data to go full steam ahead with battery-powered cars. Although [...]

The Rumored Chevy Volt Electric Minivan is Real

I’ll admit, it’s hard to get all hot and bothered about a minivan… but there’s a reason they have been a perpetually popular option for decades now. They’re practical, functional people movers with gobs of cargo space, comfort and convenience. Ever since the original Dodge Caravan defined the segment back in the 80’s, families the [...]

ZeaChem Wood-to-Ultra Cheap Fuel Process Validated

Last Summer I brought you word of the potential for ethanol made from woody crops such as poplars with a yield of up to 2,000 gallons per acre… per acre. On top of that, the process could result in ethanol cheaper than $1.00 per gallon without any government support. And today ZeaChem, the company behind this [...]

Are Electric Cars Really a Risky Business Strategy? The Big Picture Says Otherwise

As we get closer to the impending launch of the next generation of electric cars from manufacturers like Nissan, Mitsubishi, Ford, GM, Tesla and Fisker, the chorus of commentators claiming they will be a flop and are likely to never pay back their investment for the automakers that choose to build them is getting larger. [...]

Utah Passes Law Sidestepping EPA to Make Natural Gas Conversions Much Cheaper

As I’ve been covering for the last few months, a bill that makes converting vehicles to run on compressed natural gas about 57% less expensive was signed into law in Utah yesterday. The law should bring the current $14,000 average cost of installing natural gas conversions in Utah down to about $6,000. (more…)

Survey: 78% of People Believe Plug-In and Hybrid Vehicles are the Future

While it’s easy for those of us in the thick of it to simply “know” that the eventual domination of plug-in vehicles and hybrids is a foregone conclusion, what we pundits conclude is essentially irrelevant (yes, that does represent an existential crisis of sorts). Truly, in the end it comes down to what the average [...]

Coal, Oil, Natural Gas Industries Butt Heads; Natural Gas May Not be as Clean as Thought

As we chugg along into whatever alternative transportation and energy future we’re creating for ourselves, it is clear that it shouldn’t involve such a singular dependence on one energy source as we’ve had. If anything, our last 100 years have taught us that relying so completely on oil can have many disastrous effects, ranging the [...]

With 115,000 People on the Interest List, Nissan LEAF Reservations Start Tomorrow

Just a friendly EV enthusiast reminder: the official process of buying a new Nissan LEAF starts tomorrow! Up until now the world of LEAF waiting lists involved a non-committal “interest” list that you could sign up for through the Nissan website. Although there are now 115,000 people on that list, it in no way put [...]

MyFord Touch Driver Interface is Light Years Better Than the Rest; Adds Useful Fuel Economy Coaching Features

In my view, one of the most important aspects of next generation vehicles is how well their drivers (and passengers) can interact with them. As our cars become much more complicated machines that provide increasing access to valuable information available through features such as detailed navigation, energy usage statistics, vehicle status reports, and Internet access, [...]

GM, NASA Sending ‘Robonaut’ to Space Station; GM Aims to Improve Manufacturing

It’s a bit of a NASAriffic day in the next generation automobile world! First we heard about a burgeoning relationship between Chrysler and NASA, and today brings word that GM has also teamed with the space agency to work on building advanced robotics for both automobile manufacturing and future missions to space. (more…)

Renault Finalizes Designs of Fluence and Kangoo EVs, Accepting Pre-Reservations

The finalized design of Renault's Fluence Z.E. for the European and Israeli markets Not to let its sister company Nissan get away with all the electric car press, Renault has also been busy finalizing its plans for releasing electric cars to Europe and Israel early next year. Today Renault showed off the finalized designs of [...]

Chevy Volt on Track For Production, EPA Still Doesn’t Know How to Rate Mileage

In an update on the Volt, GM says they’re charging ahead towards full scale production of the Volt for general release later this year. They’ve completed all sorts of harsh weather testing in the cold and will be conducting extreme hot weather testing this Summer. They’ve done marathon test drives and taken the car up [...]

Ford Needs a *Little* Convincing When it Comes to Small Diesels in the U.S.

If you’re a fan of small to mid-sized diesel passenger cars and are frustrated with our lack of choice on the matter in the U.S. listen up: Ford says that they won’t bring diesels here until they see enough demand. So get on the horn, type out an email, write letters to national magazines and [...]

First Electric Car to Race Around the Legendary Nürburgring is a MINI E

There is no race track steeped in as much history as the Nürburgring Nordschliefe in Germany. With over a hundred corners (by some counts) along its 20.8 km length, the course is considered by many to be the most technically demanding in the entire world. Yet, although it is uniquely challenging, one of its largest attractions [...]

Brazilian Sugarcane Ethanol Launches Marketing Blitz in Face of U.S. Tariffs

Calling themselves the “underdogs,” the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) has today launched an advertising campaign and a new website, sweeteralternative.com, to bring awareness of the successes of the Brazilian ethanol industry to a U.S. audience. The UNICA campaign claims to simply educate the U.S. about how beneficial Brazilian sugarcane ethanol is for both consumer’s [...]

Up Close With AeroVironment’s Nissan LEAF Home Charging Unit

Just before the New York Auto Show, Nissan officially announced the incredibly affordable price of the Nissan LEAF, which will go on sale this December. At $32,780 — or a $349/month lease after Nissan claims a $7,500 federal tax credit per car — Nissan surprised the world. The LEAF will be the first truly affordable, [...]

Electrification Coalition Says 1.9 Million New Jobs Will be Created From Adoption of EVs

Following on the heels of their ‘Electrification Roadmap‘ — a comprehensive document written in conjunction with global consulting group PRTM that details how to best shift our transportation sector to plug-in vehicles over the next couple of decades — the Electrification Coalition has just completed an analysis that finds huge benefits to the US economy would [...]

Honda Planning Larger Sport Hybrid to Join the CR-Z?

In a bid to try and win some hybrid market share from Toyota and beat back the hybrid gains of Ford, Honda has adopted the stance that dominating the sports hybrid realm is the place to be. The recently released Honda CR-Z — a throwback to the cultish glory days of the beloved CRX — [...]

EIA Predicts 2.1% Fossil Fuel Emissions Increase in 2010 Due to Improving Economy

While the recent fluctuation in the price of crude oil is being driven alternately by irrational hope followed by despair, the U.S. Energy Information Agency (the EIA, yep, it’s all bean counters there) is predicting that 2010 will bring enough economic growth that global CO2 emissions will increase by a modest 2.1% and that crude oil [...]

Nissan Gives EV Advocacy Group, Plug In America, $25K to Expand Programs

We’ve written about Paul Scott many times on these pages. In fact, just a couple of days ago he was featured prominently in a piece about treating electric cars fairly in the new fuel economy and emissions rules recently enacted by the federal government. Personally, I’ve met him and his wife, Zan Dubin Scott, a [...]

Company Turns Beetle-Plagued Dead Forests From Tragedy into Fuel

The scale of the mountain pine beetle’s destruction of Western North American forests is almost unimaginable. Already more than half of the 5 million acres of lodgepole pine forests in Colorado have been destroyed, and 10’s of millions more acres across the Western U.S. and Canada are affected — with an estimated 40 million acres [...]

Renault-Nissan-Daimler Officially Announce Cooperation on Electric Cars, Smart EV coming in 2013

Yesterday I brought you rumors of an impending tie-up announcement by Renault-Nissan and Daimler. Surprise, surprise. The companies have today made it official… and provided some more tidbits about what the cooperation actually means. Chief interesting bits among them: technology sharing on upcoming fully electric versions of the Renault Twingo (very popular in Europe) and [...]

MIT Researchers Make Significant Advance in Lithium-Air Batteries

Lithium-air batteries are one of those technologies that could be truly revolutionary. With a theoretical maximum energy storage capacity 10 times greater than your garden variety lithium-ion battery, lithium-air batteries could be much smaller and lighter but still provide a huge range. How’s 500-700 miles per charge for you? Unfortunately, as is usually the case [...]

Do New Fuel Economy and Emissions Rules Treat Electric Cars Unfairly?

After more than a year of wrangling, the new fuel economy and emissions standards that have emerged from the coordinated efforts of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, all of the major automakers, environmental organizations, and dozens of various other stakeholders are truly an amazing accomplishment. As my fellow [...]

Report: Renault-Nissan and Daimler to Swap Car Tech in Face of Increasing Environmental Regulations

As we come out the other end of this global recession, automakers are struggling to adapt to a new world in which fuel economy standards are getting increasingly tighter and environmental regulations are taking center stage. One way for carmakers to quickly do that is by sharing what they know with other companies so that [...]

Japan Securing Battery Raw Materials With Economic Aid to Bolivia

In the quest to secure the raw materials that are required to build next generation automobile batteries and motors, Japan seems to have grasped the importance of locking down supplies now. A report in the Japanese Nikkei newspaper (subs req’d) says that Japan will loan tens of billions of yen to Bolivia this summer to [...]

Portland, Oregon, Finds That Cars Produce Less Than 25% of Region’s GHG Emissions

A new report by Oregon’s Portland Metro has found that emissions from driving cars and providing energy only account for about half of the GHGs emitted in the northwest Oregon region. The other half is a direct result of the consumption habits of the region’s inhabitants. (more…)

VW Says 85% of Jetta SportWagens Sold in March were Diesels

It’s hard to believe how much difference a couple of years makes. I remember when those of us that were banging our gongs to the European automakers to bring diesels back to the US were dismissively waved away as “not understanding the American market” or “not in touch with reality.” How wrong the high paid [...]

Porsche Cayenne Hybrid Makes U.S. Debut, Will Start at $67,700

Although luxury hybrids will never really make a dent in the changes we need to solve our problems, they are a part of the solution too — no matter how small. Plus, they create a lot of high profile attention for the green car industry. And if you are well-off and concerned about our global [...]

THINK Finally Unveils Plans to Sell its City EV in U.S. This Year – New York First

THINK has had a rough road in its long history. Having been on the brink of collapse several times, this little Norwegian company just can’t be kept down it seems. Scrabbling back from the nearly dead, THINK now has plans to start selling its itty bitty City EV in New York and a few other [...]

Fuel Efficient VW’s Pick Up Two 2010 World Car of the Year Awards

They may be small cars, but them’s some big, shiny, golden cahones! VW picked up a brand new pair at the 2010 New York Auto Show, winning both the 2010 World Car of the Year Award for the VW Polo and the 2010 World Green Car of the Year award for their entire BlueMotion lineup [...]

4WD MINI Countryman to Offer Best Fuel Economy in Crossover Segment

MINI used the big stage at the 2010 New York Auto Show to show off the Countryman 4WD small crossover in the US for the first time. As far as I know, the Countryman will be the world’s smallest crossover when it hits showrooms early next year. It’s so small, in fact, that it essentially [...]

Mazda Bringing Brand New SKY-D Diesel Engine to US in 2012

Having just announced that they will be licensing hybrid technology from Toyota, it is clear that Mazda has never had any real desire to develop its own hybrid platform. But Mazda has always been good at engine development, and regardless of what our distant future looks like, nearly everyone agrees that the combustion engine will [...]

Kia Unveils Gorgeous New Optima, Hybrid Coming in 2011

Kia is having a stellar year, and with the new products in their pipeline it’s starting to look all nice and rosey over in the glow of their campfire. At the New York Auto Show today, among other high profile unveils including a great looking new Sportage, Kia took the wraps off its brand new [...]

Scion Unveils iQ Mini-Minicar for the US Market; Good Looks, Only So-So Mileage

First rumored more than a year ago, the much-anticipated US debut of the Toyota iQ is finally upon us… but it’s been badged as a Scion and the expected fuel economy numbers are not really all that impressive when you consider just how tiny this vehicle is. Scion says the car will eek out mileage [...]

Hyundai Enters the Hybrid Market Late, But With a Bang

At the 2010 New York Auto Show today Hyundai unveiled its brand new 2011 Sonata Hybrid Bluedrive. The car will be Hyundai’s first hybrid offering when it goes on sale later this year. Sporting a bunch of firsts on a mass market hybrid including a set of next generation lithium-polymer batteries and a 6 speed automatic transmission, [...]

Lincoln MKZ Hybrid is Highest Mileage Luxury Sedan Available in U.S.

With the 2011 Lincoln MKZ, Ford has officially entered uncharted territory: competing against Lexus luxury hybrid dominance. Today, at the 2010 New York Auto Show, Ford officially unveiled the previously rumored Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. Touting its expected 41 mpg city fuel economy and a laundry list of standard features, Ford claims the MKZ Hybrid is a [...]

It’s Official: Nissan LEAF Electric Car Will Cost $32,780 – Could Be $20K After Tax Credits

Over a morning conference call for just a few members of the media — of which I was happy to be a part during my layover in Seattle on my way out to the New York Auto Show — Brian Carolin, Nissan’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, spilled the long-awaited pricing beans on [...]

Rumor: Ford to Unveil Hybrid Lincoln MKZ at New York Auto Show

The Detroit News is reporting that “according to people familiar with the company’s plans,” Ford Motor Company’s Lincoln brand will use its press conference at the NY Auto Show this week to unveil a luxury hybrid Lincoln MKZ based on the same hybrid platform as the Ford Fusion Hybrid. (more…)

FedEx Shows Off First All-Electric Trucks for U.S. Parcel Delivery

Today FedEx took the wraps off of its latest alternative vehicle endeavor, unveiling four purpose-built electric delivery trucks for the US market. The four EVs will enter service in the Los Angeles area this June and will take their place among 1,800 other alternative-fuel and -propulsion FedEx vehicles that the company currently has deployed and [...]

Student-Built Car Gets 2,487.5 MPG in Shell Eco-Marathon

For the second year in a row, a student team from Laval University in Canada has won the prototype category of the Shell Eco-Marathon competition in Houston, Texas. Last year the team achieved a mind-blowing 2,757.1 mpg, and this year — even with the addition of an actual street driving challenge — the team still [...]

GM Unveils Chevy Cruze Eco, Touts “Hybrid-Like” Mileage at Lower Price

GM had already planned three variants of the upcoming, and fuel efficient, 2011 Chevrolet Cruze — an LS, LT, and LTZ — the same labeling scheme that Chevy has for lots of its vehicles. But Chevy plans to unveil yet another Cruze model at the New York Auto show this week: the Cruze Eco. Using [...]

Low Tech, DIY Plasma Gasifier Makes Fuel From Waste

Some interesting tidbits are coming out of the American Chemical Society conference in San Francisco this week. First we heard about a product made from renewable materials that could substitute a large portion of the crude oil currently used to make tires. And now comes word from a scientist at the University of Orleans in [...]

Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Teaser Shot Sports All-New Front End

Hyundai’s Sonata Hybrid — the first hybrid from the company to reach market — will be unveiled next week during the New York Auto Show. We’ll be covering that live, so watch out for more info, but in the meantime, Hyundai has released a teaser shot of the completely redesigned front end. (more…)

California Drops “Cool Cars” Legislation Entirely, Will Start Process Anew

In the ongoing saga of California’s embattled “Cool Cars” regulations that would have been finalized on May 7 of this year, the public safety argument has trumped the environmental argument. The regulations — which would have required automakers to put a layer of reflective material on most of the glass in cars to reduce air [...]

Tires Made From Renewable Materials Commercially Possible Within 5 Years

There are about 1 billion tires made each year; each and every one of them uses 7 gallons of crude oil to produce. Although 7 billion gallons is just a small blip (0.5%) of the overall global annual use of crude oil (~1.3 trillion gallons), figuring out a way to make tires from something other [...]

Report: Upscale Infiniti EV Coming in 2014, Will be Based on Nissan LEAF

According to a report on the Top Gear website, the much-anticipated Infiniti performance electric car won’t arrive until 2014. This comes even after previous suggestions from Nissan that we might see it as early as 2012. Top Gear is also reporting that the Infiniti EV will be based on the Nissan LEAF platform but have [...]

In Brazil, a Plan to Turn Waste Fish Guts Into Biodiesel

Already the largest market in the world for sustainable, cost-competitive ethanol production, Brazil may be setting its sights on another interesting biofuel: biodiesel made from the leftover entrails of the Tilapia farming industry. (more…)

Aston Martin Expects Cygnet Minicar to Help Boost Sales 30%

Luxury and supercar makers the world round are trying to find ways to remain relevant in a world ever more obsessed with going green. Ignore, for a moment, that all the luxury and supercars sold each year make up an insignificant fraction of all cars sold worldwide and that somebody who has $300K to plunk [...]

Axial Flux Electric Motor May Not Take You Back to the Future, But How’s 0-60 in Under 3 Seconds?

This ain’t yo daddy’s Flux Capacitor. A “stealthy” (read: “completely unheard of” — stealthy would imply actively trying to stay under the radar) itty-bitty start-up company from down under has come up with an in-wheel electric motor that might just make electric cars the outright kings of speed. The “Axial Flux 3-Phase AC Induction Wheel [...]

Nissan in Talks With Daimler to Trade Electric Car Tech for Engine Tech

Nissan, looking for a way to trim production and development costs, is reportedly in talks with Daimler AG — the parent company of Mercedes, Smart, and others — to trade their coveted electric car tech for diesel and V-8 gas engines as well as develop future green automotive technology. (more…)

Porsche Establishing Business Case for 918 Spyder; Wants Firm Orders Before Building

From the moment it was unveiled to a surprised world at the Geneva Auto Show, the 918 Spyder concept super-eco-sports car has been building a head of steam to actually reach production. The 78 mpg, 0-60 mph in 3 seconds, plug-in hybrid certainly has built up a large cult following in the few weeks since [...]

Tata Nano is Developing a Bad Habit: Bursting Into Flames

“World’s cheapest car” it’s been called, and unquestionably the Tata Nano has brought about a revolution in India. In carving out a niche as an affordable, simple, and incredibly fuel efficient car for the average folk in poorer nations like India, it has also sparked a change within the global auto industry to the point [...]

ZENN Motors and Mystery of EEStor Ultracapacitor Gets Deeper

The whole EEStor/ZENN saga is getting so ridiculous that I often find myself debating whether or not I should even cover it anymore. The (so far) mythical EESU energy storage unit that’s supposed to revolutionize personal mobility by providing instantaneous charge times in a lightweight “battery” that can take a car 700 miles on a [...]

U.S. Gives Chrysler $48M to Develop Ram Plug-In Hybrid Pickups; Conventional Ram Hybrid Dead

On the heels of an announcement that Chrysler will be releasing an all-electric version of the Fiat 500 in the US in 2012, the company has also just let drop that the US Department of Energy (DOE) will be giving them up to $48 million to build a test fleet of 140 Ram plug-in hybrid [...]

It’s Official: Electric Fiat 500 Coming to the US as a Chrysler in 2012

After bringing an electric concept version of the Fiat 500 to the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year, rumors have swirled that Chrysler would eventually make the 500EV a reality. Sure enough, today Chrysler took off the wraps on their plans to bring an all-electric version of the 500 to US shores by 2012. Will [...]

Ford Investing $2.3 Billion in Britain to Build Next Gen Cars

On the heels of an announcement by the British government that Ford would get $550 million in government loan guarantees, Ford has said they will invest $2.3 billion in Britain over the next five years to modernize their facilities and build the next generation of fuel-efficient cars and powertrains — including clean diesel and EcoBoost [...]

Keeping it Real: Nissan LEAF $45K Pricing Rumor is Just That… A Rumor

The unbridled internet rumor mill is both a thing of beauty and an incredibly annoying echo chamber. The latest one to get lost in translation: Nissan has priced the LEAF electric car at $45,000. Given that Nissan has consistently said for a year now that the LEAF will be comparably priced to a conventional sedan [...]

Laser-Ignited Nanoparticle Engines Could be Way More Efficient, Less Polluting

Researchers from the University of Florida are reporting this week on a discovery that could have wide-ranging implications for everything from cancer treatment to cars. By shining very weak lasers — no more intense than those found in laser pointers — at nanoparticles known as “functionalized fullerenes,” the researchers have been able to cause those [...]

Mini E Driver Says Friends Worry More About Range Anxiety Than He Does

Here’s a little nugget that suggests range anxiety may be an overblown topic: Northeast Mine E test driver, Tom Moloughney, writes on the Inside Line blog that in the year he’s been driving the car he’s never had a problem with getting stranded. And if there’s anybody who should have had a chance to get [...]

Scientist Implores US to “Master” Rare Earth Metals For Future Transportation Security

Rare earth metals — so called because they are found in such low concentration on the Earth and are, therefore, exceedingly difficult to profitably mine — are required in everything from advanced electric car batteries and motors to new refrigerator technology. Is the US running headlong into a future where we depend on other countries [...]

GM To World: “We’re Still Developing Hydrogen Fuel Cells”

The hydrogen economy. It sounds so good on paper. All of our vehicles driving around emitting nothing but water vapor fueled from hydrogen produced by power from the sun. It’s been a dream since before I was born. I remember reading a copy of Popular Mechanics when I was in 7th grade that said the [...]

A Victim of Federal Bias? Advanced Lead Acid Battery Company, Firefly, Goes Bankrupt

When we last brought you news about Firefly nearly two years ago, it was of a more hopeful nature: I had a chance to sit down with the company’s then-Senior Vice President, Mil Ovan, and discuss Firefly’s future. At the time, Firefly seemed like it was set to take off. With lucrative military and private [...]

Same Electric Car + Different Brands = $18,000 Price Difference?

Peugeot and Mitsubishi have some ’splainin to do. Mitsubishi plans to start selling their i-MiEV electric car in Europe later this year. In partnership with Mitsubishi, the i-MiEV will also be sold in Europe as the Peugeot iOn and the Citroen C-Zero. The problem: Mitsu has said the i-MiEV will have a street price of 48,000 euros [...]

Silicon-Based Lithium-Ion Batteries with 10X Capacity Edge Closer to Reality

Over the past three years, the idea of using silicon in lithium-ion batteries to greatly increase energy storage capacity has been an on-again, off-again proposition. But some new announcements by different groups of researchers working on silicon-based lithium-ion batteries indicate that silicon may well be a viable charge-holding battery material. If so, electric cars with [...]

Ferrari Video: Under the Hood With the 599 HY-KERS Hybrid System

Earlier this month, Chris brought you the official Geneva Auto Show unveiling of the Ferrari 599 HY-KERS hybrid show car. Although not as breathtaking or groundbreaking as the Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid unveiled at the same show (Ferrari must have been cursing under their breath at having the limelight stolen), the 599 HY-KERS is [...]

California Will Change “Cool Cars” Law in Response to Police Concerns

Just a few weeks ago I brought you word that more than a half dozen of California’s largest and most influential police, safety and transportation associations had serious issues with California’s “Cool Cars” law because of concerns about everything from tracking of GPS braceleted criminals, to the ability of those EZ Pass tollbooths to operate, [...]

Exxon Doesn’t Think Natural Gas Vehicles Will Work

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, said that he doesn’t think using compressed natural gas (CNG) in vehicles makes much sense. While he sees a dramatically increasing demand for CNG in other applications such as centralized power generation, he said that it takes such a huge investment to [...]

LG Chem to Build $300 Million Battery Plant in Michigan

While it’s long been known that LG Chem — and it’s Michigan-based subsidiary, Compact Power Inc. — were chosen to build the cells for the Chevy Volt’s lithium-ion battery packs, up till now most of the research, refinement and production of those cells has been done in Korea. LG Chem has been hinting for over [...]

GM Exec Admits Volt is Stepping Stone to All-Electric Cars

As we’ve talked about on these pages before, the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation of car purchasers is starting. By the end of the year many major auto manufacturers will have some kind of electric vehicle for sale on the mass market and by 2014, nearly all major manufacturers have [...]

Reading Tea Leaves: Future Biofuels in the Bottom of a Cup?

Here in the US, tea is essentially a niche product, falling way behind coffee in terms of popularity. But in places like the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, tea far surpasses coffee as a national past time. In 2008 alone, the world production of black tea was more than 3.8 million tons. Typically, all those [...]

Kuwaiti Scientists Say Peak Oil Will Arrive in 2014

New research out of Kuwait, using a new method of calculating the crude oil production potential of 47 of the world’s largest oil producing countries, has found that peak oil — the period in time when oil production reaches a maximum and then begins to decline — will come much sooner than expected… 2014 to [...]

Gas 2.0 Nominated for Treehugger’s Best of Green Awards (We’d Like Your Votes!)

It really is shameless self promotion, but, hey, we’re never too proud to beg around here. The granddaddy of all green blog sites, Treehugger, has nominated Gas 2.0 to the “Best Transportation Website” category in their annual “Best of Green” reader’s choice awards. We’re nestled in there in the same voting block that includes “Best [...]

Porsche Says They Will Build the 918 Spyder Eco Supercar

After its surprise introduction at the Geneva Auto Show last week one thing is clear: the Porsche 918 Spyder supercar has struck a resounding nerve in the automotive community. You see, true car nuts, no matter how green they aspire to be, are always drawn to fast, sexy cars. And if there’s one thing the [...]