In an unexpected U-turn, the U.S. Senate has agreed to continue to back research for the next generation of hydrogen cars - funding that the Obama administration had earlier proposed to cut.
The move came last Thursday as Senate members voted to commit $187 million to hydrogen research, almost as much as was promised before the indecision.
The world may have just gotten one very big step closer to viable, affordable electric cars. Fisker Automotive and the U.S. Department of Energy have agreed to loan terms for $528.7 million to bring an affordable electric car to the mass market.
Volkswagen will display an updated version of its 1-Liter concept this week at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show. The diesel-hybrid car which only weighs around 800 lbs gets an jaw-dropping 170 MPG. So who wants one?
It was seven years ago when VW first announced the idea. Dr. Ferdinand Piëch–currently the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Volkswagen Group–drove a prototype of the car from Wolfsburg to Hamburg. It was the world’s first car to travel 100 kilometers on just a single liter of fuel. But the concept wasn’t ready for production as the body’s carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) was too costly for consideration.
Earlier this year, Colorado passed House Bill 1331, “Incentives for Efficient Motor Vehicles,” which creates new tax credits of up to $6,000 for the purchase of, or conversion to, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.
Background: plug-in hybrid and electric car retrofits.
The new credit will be a substantial discount off the average price of a plug-in conversion, which generally run around $10-14,000. On top of the Federal Tax Credit of 10% (up to $4,000), plug-in retrofits could start to make a lot of sense for some car owners.
Many commuters have GPS installed in their cars, or have purchased portable devices to try to get them where they’re going. A recent study by NAVTEQ, a data provider for navigation systems has demonstrated that using a GPS device can not only save drivers time spent in traffic, it can also reduce emissions from vehicles by up to 21%.
What you see above (center) is one of the most well-engineered “Franken-cars” of all time: a factory-modified 1980’s era Mercedes-Benz 190 diesel, stuffed with the company’s latest BlueEFFICIENCY CDI engine, which makes more than double the horsepower and nearly three times the torque of the original 1988 D.
How far we’ve come in 20 years!
More photos, and MBUSA’s own comprehensive press release, after the jump.
I don’t know much about Sophia “the Angry Green Girl”, but this woman absolutely KNOWS how to get attention. Case in point? She’s hired a dozen bikini-clad LA models to wash any hybrid vehicle that happens by in the hopes of generating some press for her new website, under the banner of “Shamelessly exploiting everything I got to save our world.”
London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced plans to create Britain’s first “hydrogen highway” by building a network of hydrogen filling stations throughout the capital.
As part of the scheme, a pilot fleet of around 150 hydrogen cars, five buses and 20 black taxis will be assembled in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics.
The flamboyant mayor has gone on record as saying that he wants Britain to become a world leader in fuel cell technology and his team have made the ambitious claim that, within twenty years, up to one in three of the 31m cars in Britain could be fuelled by hydrogen.
EV manufacturer Wheego has placed the ad above in this month’s issue of Scoot! Magazine, asking “the scootering community” to weigh-in on the concept of an electric Lambretta GP under the tagline “Brilliance or Sacrilege?”
You’ve seen the title, so you know my vote already - but there’s more to it than that. My top 5 reasons a new electric GP200 from Wheego would be the brilliant-est EV ambassador since Tesla’s Roadster after the jump.
GM’s recent “230″ PR campaign (previously covered HERE and HERE) has certainly caused a lot of controversy, most of it centered on the fact that the EPA initially “backed away” from the automaker’s optimistic (?) Chevy Volt mileage claims.
Despite the fact that the 230 mpg rating will likely stand (once GM gets a final-production Volt into the hands of the EPA, that is), so much attention has been paid to the matter that the good in charge at Progressive’s Automotive X PRIZE decided it was time to chime in, asking “Is MPG still relevant?”
Short answer: No.
Read the X Prize group’s long(er) answer, and learn about their proposed MPGe rating system, after the jump.
If you’ve kept an eye on the federal government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program (which will end on Monday), you know that it’s been a huge success on a number of fronts: hundreds of thousands of people have traded in older, less fuel-efficient vehicles for new models with better gas mileage, and some auto manufacturers are even rehiring. Of course, the program’s had its downsides, also: dealers have complained about slow reimbursements, and some environmentalists have worried that the fuel economy requirements weren’t quite stringent enough.
Portland, Oregon-based businessman Joe Doebele has another complaint about the program: there’s nothing in it to get commuters to shift from four wheels to two. Rather than just throw stones, though, Doeble decided to do something about this shortcoming: he’s started his own “cash for clunkers” program at his cargo bike shop Joe Bike.
Subscribe to our RSS feed or newsletter
Some Rights Reserved • Green Options Media • San Francisco, California • Legal
