Chrysler is arguably in the toughest shape of the Big Three Detroit automakers, both financially and with its future lineup. You can point plenty of fingers at reasons why, including the lack of effective, fuel efficient vehicles, but Chrysler was once considered the most innovative of the big three, always thinking big while breaking the bank.

One little-known car from the annals of the Auburn Hills automaker is the Patriot, a purpose built hybrid electric race car that was to use turbines and natural gas to achieve purported speeds of 200 mph.

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Proving once again that CARB is a political machine with something more than “clean air” in its agenda, the board is set to deal a punishing, bureaucratic body-blow to startup companies like 3 Prong Power and A123 Systems.

It gets worse:  CARB just got carte blanche to do whatever it wants.

Find out what the guys at CARB have to say about the evil of plug-in hybrid cars after the jump (and feel free to guess which corrupt CARB members will have to be bribed in the comments!).

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With the world focused on fuel economy, advanced car design seems to be converging around one point in space. And I do mean, literally, a point in space — a point sometimes seen flying over Roswell, or crashing in the Bermuda triangle.

Regardless of what you think about this type of design, it begs the question: do cars need to look like alien spacecraft to get decent fuel economy?

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Last month I reported on some Car & Driver spy photos that indicated Honda would be building a hybrid-only car that looked almost exactly like the Prius. Today, Honda confirmed that those spy photos were genuine — and that their designers don’t have any creativity.

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Car and Driver

Although we can’t reproduce the photos here due to copyright issues, suffice it to say that the Honda test model looks almost exactly like a Prius. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — but in this case Honda appears to have crossed the line to outright copycat.

With the exception of the headlight and taillight shapes, the Honda is a carbon copy.

I mean really, I’d expect the Honda designers to have a bit more creativity.

Check out the original Car and Driver article and pictures.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2008/07/23/late-to-the-high-gas-price-party-honda-building-prius-clone/feed/ http://gas2.org/2008/07/07/toyota-prius-to-get-solar-power/ http://gas2.org/2008/07/07/toyota-prius-to-get-solar-power/#comments Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:29:27 +0000 Nick Chambers http://gas2.org/2008/07/07/toyota-prius-to-get-solar-power/ Toyota’s next generation Prius, due out as early as next spring, will be outfitted with solar panels to help run the on-board electronics, according to a report from the Nikkei newspaper.

Smaller start-up car companies, such as Th!nk, have plans for solar power augmented cars on the books too, but the incorporation of solar panels on the Prius would mark the first time a major car manufacturer has done such a thing with one of its models.

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My, how things have changed. There are more fuel choices, and a trip to the MapQuest Gas Prices website will show you what I mean.

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