Jan 30, 2009/
Here are BYD's claims for it's new Hybrid Car.
Safety
Dual Mode (DM) Electric Vehicle features BYD's new-generation Fe battery, which has high efficiency, a long cycle life and excellent safety performance.
Excellent Performance
BYD's Dual Mode (DM) Electric Vehicle system features increased power and torque
Total output of 125kw (168hp)
The BYD F3DM performs like a car with a conventional
2.4-liter gasoline engine
It will give owners a new driving experience.
Low Cost
The F3DM consumes 16kwh of electricity per 100km (62mi)
The Dual Mode (DM) Electric Vehicle system adopts BYD's latest-generation gasoline engine
Convenient Recharging
The F3DM can be recharged by using a normal household power outlet.
Environmentally-Friendly & Energy-Efficient
In everyday driving, most people (about 95%) will drive less than 100km (60 mi) per day
BYD's Dual Mode (DM) Electric Vehicles can run at zero fuel consumption and zero emission levels in EV Mode
The F3DM can travel 62 miles using only batteries. After that, a 1.0-liter all aluminum gasoline engine kicks in to generate electricity for the vehicle's battery pack, which in turn powers the vehicle's 75-kilowatt electric motor.
The Fe battery used in BYD's Dual Mode (DM) Electric Vehicle system is non polluting and safe, and can be easily recycled. The F3DM is easy to recharge from a standard household power outlet. It can be charged to 50% of capacity in 10 minutes and full in 60 minutes via quick charge, or to 100% of capacity via a standard household power outlet in seven hours.
The midsize sedan is expected to sell for about $21,700. BYD Auto attributes its ability to offer the F3DM at about half the estimated price of GM's comparable Chevrolet Volt PHEV, due out in 2010, to the breakthrough development in FE battery technology.
BAJAJ AUTO ULC
May 12, 2008/ PARIS/PUNE/TOKYO- Mr. Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director of
Bajaj and Mr. Carlos Ghosn, President and CEO of Renault and President and CEO of Nissan, today announced they will form a joint-venture company to develop, produce and market the car code-named ULC with wholesale price range starting from 2500 USD. The new joint-venture company will be 50% owned by Bajaj Auto, 25% by Renault and 25% by Nissan.
Targeting the growing Indian new vehicle market, the ULC will be made at an all-new plant to be constructed in Chakan (Maharashtra state) in India. Initial planned capacity will be 400,000 units per year. Sales will start in early 2011 in India, as a primary market, with growth potential in other emerging markets around the world.
The feasibility has already extended into Joint Product Development and the project is on line to meet targeted performance & cost.
press release may 12, 2008 Bajaj Auto
THE TWIKE
June 6, 2008/ Not quite a car, nor a bicycle. To this date the Twike Mobile has not received Canadian Federal approval as a licensed motor vehicle.
Images courtesy of twike.com
The Twike is a human pedal assisted NiCd (NiMH) battery powered vehicle that can cruise at speeds up to 80kph (55 mph). It seats 2 people. The range is about 80 to 130 Kms, depending on how much pedal power you are willing to invest towards your journey. Based on European standard 220 volt household current at a draw of about 16 Amps the Twike will fully recharge from empty in about 2 hours. energy consumption equal to 0.43 litres per 100km (550 mpg). The vehicle runs on motorcycle wheels, it has an aluminium chassis and a recyclable resin body. Steering is done with a joystick, and the Twike is started by entering a pin number into the onboard computer.
The Twike was digned in Switzerland and is currently built in Rosenthal, Germany. There it retails for the equivilent of approximately $25,000 Canadian. Visit twike.com for more info.
ZENN (Zero Emission No Noise)
Zenn has exclusive rights to a new, potentially disruptive power technology. Zenn is working on a next-generation car that uses EEStor's ultracapacitor to achieve dramatic capabilities, including:
-five-minute charge time, can be charged in comon electric outlet
-250-300 mile range
-battery cost of 1/3 to 1/10th that of lithium ion batteries
-eight times the power of lead acid batteries.
The ZENN Motor Company builds 100% electric cars in Canada.
It has a manufacturing facility in St. Jerome Quebec.
The company has been selling cars in the US for the last eighteen months but only received approval to sell the electric cars in Canada in early November. To date you can only buy them in British Columbia.
The company is still awaiting approval in other provinces that need special legislation for cars with a maximum speed of 40 km/ hour.
The car is for sale in the United States for aprox. $15,000 .
It'll make a nice in town car, so get our provincial governments moving to get a cheap fuel efficient car on our roads.
See the ZENN Web site for more info at www.zenncars.com .
Air Car Presentation for the UK Market
On the 20th September 2007 a car with an air-compressed engine, invented by the Frenchman Guy Negre, will be presented in London. The presentation will take place at 10 am in the Millennium Hotel (17 Sloane Street, Knightsbridge, London SW1). The aim of the event is to present MDI's technology to the public before its imminent arrival on the market and to offer to businessmen and institutions the chance to take part in establishing the factories in the UK.
One of the many challenges of today's society is maintaining our lifestyle with minimal repercussions to the environment. This is why Guy Negre has invented a "zero pollution" car which involves no combustion.
The MDI car can reach a speed of 68 mph and has a road coverage of roughly 124 miles -some 8 hours of travel- which is more than double the road coverage of an electric car. When recharging the tank, the car needs to be connected to the mains (220V) for 3 to 4 hours or attached to an air pump in a petrol station for only 2 minutes.
Economy and the ecological benefits are the main advantages for the client since the car's maintenance cost is 10 times less than that of a petrol-run car, costing 1 pound for the car to travel for up to 8 hours or to cover 124 miles in an Urban area.
How does it work?
90m3 of compressed air is stored in fibre tanks. The expansion of this air pushes the pistons and creates movement. The atmospheric temperature is used to re-heat the engine and increase the road coverage. The air conditioning system makes use of the expelled cold air. Due to the absence of combustion and the fact there is no pollution, the oil change is only necessary every 31.000 miles.
At the moment, four models have been made: a car, a taxi (5 passengers), a Pick-Up truck and a van. The final selling price will be approximately 5.500 pounds.
The Company
"Moteur Development International" (MDI) is a company founded in Luxembourg, based in the south of France and with its Commercial Office in Barcelona. MDI has researched and developed the Air Car over 10 years and the technology is protected by more than 30 International patents.
MDI's expansion has just begun and they have already signed 50 factories in Europe, America and Asia. The company is offering 20 licences in the UK as exclusive manufacturing areas for cars as well as offering other licences in the nautical and public transport sectors.
The Factory
It is predicted that the factory will produce 3.000 cars each year, with 70 staff working only one 8-hour shift a day. If there were 3 shifts some 9.000 cars could be produced a year.
MDI is undertaking a long-term franchise business. The graphs show an important profit margin, which will be increased by the subsequent exclusive spare-parts market.
You can find more information on the Web page: www.theaircar.com or telephone +34 93 362 37 00
Moteur Developpment International Press Release
ALTERNATIVE FUELS
Alternative Fuels PumpAlternative fuels are derrived from resources other than petroleum. Some are produced domestically, reducing our dependence on imported oil, and some are derived from renewable sources. Often, they produce less pollution than gasoline or diesel.
To promote alternative fuels, the Federal government offers tax incentives to consumers purchasing qualifying alternative fuel vehicles.
ETHANOL is produced domestically from corn and other crops and produces less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels.
BIODIESEL is derived from vegetable oils and animal fats. It usually produces less air pollutants than petroleum-based diesel.
NATURAL GAS is a fossil fuel that generates less air pollutants and greenhouse gases.
PROPANE, also called liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), is a domestically abundant fossil fuel that generates less harmful air pollutants and greenhouse gases.
HYDROGEN can be produced domestically from fossil fuels (such as coal), nuclear power, or renewable resources, such as hydropower. Fuel cell vehicles powered by pure hydrogen emit no harmful air pollutants.
Before we get too far into this, a primer on the ZEV Mandate changes and what the over-compliance rule actually is is important. The basic idea is that CARB wants to reduce the amount of CO2 and other pollutants in the air that come from transportation. Zero-emission vehicles - whether they be plug-in or hydrogen powered - will do this, so CARB decided that at least 15.4 percent of all the cars sold by a major automaker in California needs to be either an EV, a plug-in hybrid or a hydrogen fuel cell vehcile by 2025. To go along with this new rule, some automakers asked for - and got - an over-compliance rule that will "allow manufacturers who systematically over comply with the proposed LEV III GHG fleet standard to offset a portion of their ZEV requirement in 2018 through 2021 model years only."
Some argue that the over-compliance rule will lead to a smaller environmental benefit from ZEVs because, quite simply, there will be fewer ZEVs on the roads than there would be without the rule. This is true. It's also true, as others will argue, that what matters most is lowering the amount of nasty pollutants and emissions from the air, so who cares if this happens because there is a true ZEV driving around or a much-improved (read: cleaner) gas-powered car that emits fewer greenhouse gases than today's vehicles?
We didn't want to try and answer that question. But we did think it made sense to try and capture the landscape of the recent battle over the rule, and so we asked some of the involved automakers and other concerned parties for their opinions. We put together a list of responses after the jump.
This is why some people didn't want to settle with Honda. Heather Peters, who took Honda to small claims court in Torrance, CA recently over claims of the Civic Hybrid's fuel economy, has been awarded $9,867.19 in damages. That's almost the maximum allowed in small claims court ($10,000) and is a decision that might have a big impact on future class-action litigation.
A refresher on the situation: In 2007, John True sued Honda because, he said, the automaker made misleading claims about the fuel economy of the Civic Hybrid. In 2009, after it became a class-action lawsuit, Honda settled with Civic hybrid drivers, giving them either up to $1,000 off the purchase of a new Honda or a $100 check. This didn't sit right with Peters, so she sued.
The court commissioner ruled that Honda "negligently misled" Peters with claims that Civic Hybrid could get 50 miles per gallon, the LA Times writes. In a statement, Peters said:
I am absolutely thrilled at the reports that I won, even though I won't see the actual judgment until it comes in the mail. It's a victory for Civic Hybrid owners everywhere! Sometimes big justice comes in small packages.
Honda says it plans to appeal, and this may all just be the beginning. Peters is encouraging other Civic Hybrid owners who are disappointed in their real-world mileage to file suits against the automaker in small claims courts across the country.
Maybe this will calm some of the "plug-in cars are scary!" fears that are out there. Recently, a Nissan Leaf driver rear-ended a school bus in Oregon, causing minor injuries but no fire, the Yamhill Valley News-Register reported.
The Leaf's front and side airbags deployed during the accident, which occurred in Gaston, about 30 miles southwest of Portland, the newspaper said, citing Oregon State Police. The bus, which was stopped at the time, contained only the driver, and no children. The Leaf driver suffered minor injuries, was treated at the scene and was cited for careless driving, the newspaper reports.
With sales of electric-drive vehicles such as the Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in expected to surge over the next few years, some have expressed concern over potential safety issues involving the cars. While each case is different, this minor story proves that an EV can be just as safe as a gasoline car - sometimes safer.
Last week, Chevy parent General Motors launched an advertising campaign touting the safety of the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in electric vehicle just as its CEO testified to Congress that a recent Volt fire that took place after a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash test would never occur under real-world circumstances. NHTSA said earlier this month that it finished its a two-month investigation into the crash test that resulted in a fire three weeks after the fact last summer, and concluded that neither the Volt nor other electric vehicles pose more of a fire risk than conventional vehicles.
Last November, the Boise State University student team called Greenspeed broke the land speed record for a truck (in its class) that uses vegetable oil with a run of 155 miles per hour. Now, they're confidently ready to go after the faster, dirtier, petroleum-powered trucks.
To get that record, the modified 1998 Chevrolet S-10 pick-up truck - which has a dual-fuel powertrain that burns both regular diesel to start and then straight vegetable oil - will need to go faster than 215 miles per hour. The Greenspeed team announced its intent at the Washington Auto Show last week and hopes to set the new record during Speedweek at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah this August.
Even though the team of students is filled with confidence, the truck has not exactly been put through the on-road ringer. Thus far, it's only driven about 4.5 miles burning SVO, since it only does so on the test track. The 155-mph record was set on a 1.3-mile dry lakebed called El Mirage in the Mojave Desert at a Southern California Timing Association race. That short distance is also why the team is confident it can hit 215 mph. At Bonneville, the 780 horsepower powertrain will have three miles to really get going.
Idaho Senator James Risch (R) came by during the show to stand on a piece of Boise State's famous blue turf and congratulate the team. He said that, "This is one way we can move away from dependence on oil and to a self-sustaining nation." This may be true, but Sen. Risch still supports importing more fossil fuels into the U.S.
Watch a short video of the team being interviewed after the jump.
"The Muppets" characters Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are going toe to toe with Fox News after the news organization accused "The Muppets" movie of peddling liberal-backed, anti-oil messages to unsuspecting children.
Speaking in a press conference following the movie's London premiere, Frog and Piggy denied that the Walt Disney-released movie, which debuted in the U.S. in late November, was pushing a Hollywood-backed, anti-conservative, anti-oil message.
"They were concerned about us having some prejudice against oil companies, and I can tell you that's categorically not true," said Kermit in the conference. "Besides, if we had problems with oil companies, why would've we spent the entire film driving around a gas-guzzling Rolls-Royce?"
The movie, which stars Jason Seigel and Amy Adams and features the Muppet characters that actually debuted on the first-ever Saturday Night Live broadcast in 1975, includes an evil oil executive character named Tex Richman. Fox Business's "Follow the Money" used that story line as a springboard to accuse the film as being pro-liberal.
"It's amazing how far the left will go to stoop to manipulate your kids to convince them, to give the anti-corporate message," said Media Research Center's Dan Gainor, speaking with Fox Business "Follow the Money" host Eric Bolling in December. "The only thing green up on that screen should be Kermit the Frog."
To this, Miss Piggy had the perfect response: "It's almost as laughable as accusing, uh, Fox News as, uh, being news. If they take what I say seriously, they've got real big problems." See for yourself after the jump.
Owning an electric car with a reasonable range could be a very practical solution for many drivers. After all, pulling into the garage at the end of the day and plugging in your car can be a huge time saver if it means you can forgo the gas pump, not to mention the potential environmental benefits. That is, if you have access to a plug.
As we recently found out after driving a 2011 Nissan Leaf for a week, the availability of electrical outlets can be a major downer on EV ownership. Our test car spent a week in the Phoenix, AZ area, and was parked overnight in a covered parking garage. No problem, since there were indeed unused outlets in the structure, so we could plug it in. Except that we couldn't.
It seems the property management company that oversees the garage decided that electric cars were not allowed to draw power. The problem, as so often is the case, came down to monetary concerns. It seems that, without having a way to measure how much power was being consumed by the electric car, management decided it could not accurately charge the driver for any electricity consumed. This is despite the fact that the garage serves a building with tenants that pay the electricity bill.
We understood the monetary aspects involved, so we offered to pay the property management company a fee of their choosing (after jointly considering local rates) to use an outlet for a week, which was declined. The end result? We charged the Leaf at the nearest local Nissan dealer free of charge.
It turns out ours wasn't an isolated issue. According to a report from TheTruthAboutCars.com, at least one Chevrolet Volt owner in Ontario, Canada has been blocked from charging his car in his unit's parking garage unless he installs his own separate charging system. Interestingly enough, something similar also happened to Derek Kreindler, who wrote the story for TTAC.
We don't really see an easy solution to this problem, so we suggest speaking to your property management company, if applicable, before signing on the electrified dotted line... or at least know where your nearest fast charger is located.
Heather Peters is suing Honda in small-claims court in Torrance, California over the lackluster fuel economy she's gotten out of her 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. It isn't really a new lawsuit, it's one that sprung from Peters not signing onto the settlement of an earlier class-action lawsuit brought by one John True, who sued Honda over the same issue. The meat of the claim is that Honda's window sticker attested to an EPA combined 42 miles per gallon figure, but unhappy drivers are getting closer to 32 mpg.
True's suit was settled out of court in 2009 and plaintiffs have until February 11, 2012 to partake of redress that the Attorneys General of 26 states declared "not fair, adequate or reasonable." Peters didn't sign on, taking her own case to small-claims court where cases aren't tried by lawyers. According to Automotive.com, Honda's point man Neil Schmidt didn't appear at the previous hearing, but this time he showed up and provided several dossiers to Commissioner Carnahan. Most of the paperwork submitted into evidence was reportedly "testimony from happy Civic Hybrid owners," which the judge dismissed.
Schmidt first suggested that Peters did not adhere to the right service procedures with her car, then Honda's EPA certification engineer said that Honda had no option but to follow the EPA's testing procedures. While that is correct regarding following testing protocol, Peters argued that automakers have the discretion to use lower fuel economy numbers in their advertising and on Monroneys if they see the need. Peters claims Honda didn't lower the number because it was trying to take advantage of "the green revolution."
Some observers believe the reduced mileage is an effect of a mandatory software upgrade applied to 2006-2008 Honda Civic Hybrids. The upgrade was meant "not just to prolong the life of the battery, [but] it also helps improve the performance." While there were complaints about the mileage before (as there are of a great many cars), it was after the upgrade that forums began to light up with tales of poorer mileage. That could have been because the upgrade reduced the car's reliance on the battery, a fix to allegedly offset the battery deteriorating more quickly than Honda anticipated.
Commissioner Carnahan is expected to rule on the case as soon as next week. Peters hopes it's before the February 11 deadline to participate in True's lawsuit settlement. At stake is not just the $10,000 Peters is seeking, but a figure potentially in the billions as other unhappy owners could flock to lawyer-free small-claims court to fight their cases. In the event of a loss, Honda is expected to appeal, to which Peters says, "I'm ready!"
2011 was a good year for VW - the best since 2002 - said Jonathan Browning, president and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America, and this gives the company a license to think outside the car. Thus, at the Washington Auto Show, Volkswagen announced support for another type of pedal power: for the next two years, VW will sponsor Bikes Belong, a national organization that works to get more people on more bikes more often, as part of the automaker's expanding Think Blue campaign, which was launched in the U.S. last May. In D.C., Browning said that the Think Blue initiative is about "delivering sustainable mobility on all fronts," and that now includes two-wheeled, human-powered bicycles. It should go without saying, but the benefits of biking include reducing traffic congestion while improving health and lowering travel's impact on the environment. It's good to see VW embracing this alternative in a real way. Previously, VW showed off the bik.e, a foldable bike concept that fits into a spare wheel well.
VW's Bikes Belong sponsorship will include these three major areas:
Peopleforbikes.org: A way to get people to publicly promote bike riding. The goal is to get a million riders together to "urge policy makers to endorse cost-effective legislation that improves bike paths, lanes and trails nationwide."
Safe Routes to School National Partnership: Sort of a "hey, let's have kids walk and bike to school" program. Also known as being sensible.
Bicycling Design Best Practices: An effort to "create more bike-friendly communities across the United States by helping cities adapt the world's best bike facility models, policies and state-of-the-art designs."
Browning called the sponsorship, "a perfect example of our Think Blue initiative," and Bruno Maier, vice president of Bikes Belong said that VW "complements our mission." The automaker "understands that when people ride bikes, great things happen," he said.
Revenge of the Electric Car filmmaker Chris Paine's sequel to 2006's Who Killed the Electric Car? is now available on DVD and videostreaming. The film, which was released in theaters last fall, became available on Tuesday through retailers such as Wal-mart, Barnes and Noble, Best Buy and Amazon.com. The title is also being distributed via video-on-demand through companies such as Verizon, DirecTV and Netflix. (UPDATE: Also, Hulu.)
The film, which was released in theaters last fall, follows the progress of industry executives and electric-car players such as former General Motors executive Bob Lutz, Renault-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn and Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk, and includes commentary from Wall Street Journal auto writer Dan Neil. AutoblogGreen reviewed the film here. The home-video version includes extras such as footage of a 35-minute panel discussion at the Tribeca Film Festival that included Paine, Musk, Ghosn and Neil that was moderated by actor David Duchovny.
Paine's Who Killed the Electric Car? documented the demise of GM's beloved but ill-fated EV1.
Unigard Insurance Co. sued Young's company, LincVolt LLC, over the November 2010 fire, which led to the insurance company having to pay the owner of the San Carlos, CA, building for fire damages, which totaled about $1 million, the newspaper reported. Young, who lives in the Bay Area, declined to respond to a request for comment, the Mercury News said, adding that the building's landlord continues to rent space to Young and is on good terms with the musician.
The company's website, which is tracking the continuing work on the 1959 Lincoln, had no statement addressing the lawsuit. The car is being designed to run on electric power and will include an on-board generator that will run on cellulosic ethanol. Cellulosic biofuels are produced from grasses, wood and plants.
Young, whose four-decade-plus music career includes stints with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in addition to a lengthy solo career, was inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
Consumers in the 19-to-31-year-old age range - also known as Generation Y - favor hybrid-electric vehicles over gas-powered cars and many are willing to pay an extra $3,000 for 10 more miles per gallon of fuel economy. These numbers come from a Deloitte LLP survey that was released Thursday.
Almost 59 percent of Generation Y consumers chose hybrids as their vehicle powertrain of choice, compared to 37 percent for gasoline and just two percent for battery-electric vehicles, Deloitte said, citing a Fall 2011 survey of more 1,500 Americans and 550 people overseas. About half of those polled said they'd pay $300 per every mile per gallon of fuel-economy improvement. Deloitte estimates that the average hybrid costs about $350 per additional mile per gallon of fuel economy compared to a similar gas-powered vehicle.
"Gen Y is familiar and comfortable with hybrid technology, but not so much with battery-only technology," said Craig Giffi, vice chairman and automotive practice leader at Deloitte LLP, in a statement.
The survey spells good news for automaker's who've invested in hybrid technology, as Generation Y totals about 80 million people in America and will account for 40 percent of the vehicles sold in the U.S. during the next decade. Hybrids account for about 2.5 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S. today, though that number may rise this year, as 2011 sales of the Toyota Prius and some of Honda's hybrid models were hampered by supply issues stemming from the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan last March.
Here's a thought: the constant but not overly dramatic climb in the price of gas these past few years is numbing us to just how much we're paying for the privilege to fill our tanks. After what it calls "the worst year ever for gas prices" in 2011, the Charlotte Observer found that - locally, at least, in North Carolina - people just don't really care any more. They're stoic. They shrug.
The locals that the newspaper talked to aren't exactly excited to be paying over $3.42 a gallon (that's the average local price; nationally, it's $3.378, according to the AAA), but they realize they need to do what they need to do. This attitude speaks to an apparent dearth of alternatives, and makes us wonder what it will take for alternative-power vehicles to make a mainstream impact beyond the plug-in vehicle success we saw in 2011. Will it just be more availability of these new cars? Or will we need to see more financial pressure to push people into changing their gas-fueled habits?
So, here are two questions for our readers: does the price of gas bother you right now? What will the expected climb to over $4 a gallon this spring do to your attitude?
Representatives for Pope Benedict XVI continue to talk to Mercedes-Benz about making a custom-made vehicle that could use a hybrid or battery-electric powertrain to make what's commonly known as the Popemobile more fuel efficient, The Detroit Bureau reports.
The German automaker is faced with the dual challenges of making an electric-drive vehicle that is both non-aerodynamic - the current version has an upright cabin that fits two people - and heavier - because the cabin's bulletproof - than normal. One reason for the distinctive bubble is that Pope John Paul II was wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt.
Last year, reports surfaced that Mercedes-Benz was working on a hybrid-electric Popemobile that would be a customized version of the automaker's M-Class and would be able to travel in all-electric mode at low speeds for as far as 16 miles before its gas-powered engine was engaged.
Mercedes-Benz sells a hybrid version of its M-Class that's powered in part by a six-cylinder engine and gets an EPA-rating of 22 miles per gallon combined. Through the first 11 months of last year, Mercedes-Benz sold fewer than 100 of those models in the U.S.
San Francisco-based electric vehicle advocacy group Plug In America is planning a one-hour webinar later this month that the group says will answer many questions both electric-drive car owners and novices have about plug-in vehicles.
Plug In America will cover subjects such as vehicle features, single-charge range, reliability and costs related to driving electric-drive vehicles. The webinar will take place Jan. 18. Those interested in attending the webinar can register here.
Plug In America has long advocated the use of electric cars as a way to both cut greenhouse-gas emissions and reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil. The group last October helped organize the first-ever National Plug In Day, which included extremely quiet EV parades in San Francisco, Orange County, New York City and Detroit. The parade in Santa Monica, CA., was the largest, attracting more than 150 EVs and their drivers.
And in late 2010 and early 2011, the group released a handful of 30-second public service announcements that promoted EVs by spoofing Apple's "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" advertising campaign (with EVs in the Mac role and gas-powered cars as the PC). The spots, whose efforts were largely led by ex-"Baywatch" actress and Plug In America boardmember Alexandra Paul, were directed by Eric Swenson, whose visual-effects work includes "Jurassic Park" and who owns a Tesla. One of the PSAs even featured Fabio. You can watch it here.
Kickstarter is an amazing idea: let people with ideas pitch them directly to the masses with money. For alternative-powered vehicles, though, the website has not been too successful in bringing about people-powered change. Perhaps that's because the big OEMs are already providing the new and different cars that people want. Perhaps it's because the pitches simply aren't persuasive enough. Whatever the case, we went looking through the KS archives to see how alternative powertrains did there (most of these projects were attempted in 2010) and found, well...
The idea of an electric car music tour came close, receiving $30,000, or 60 percent of its $50,000 funding target. Thus, we never did see a journey to "promote our electric car technology and our music in the same tour ... to promote the conversion of automobiles from gas to all-electric - one of the themes in our environmental song and video, 'Our World.'" The "Frankencar" project, which wanted to build an EV that could go 200 miles per charge and recharge in 45 minutes that only got $637 pledged of its $14,000 goal. Another EV hope that died on the KS vine was the open-source Paxterra Photon S3. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the idea of a "self-sustaining electric vehicle" also went unfunded. Oh, where there was this: "Sorry, no results for 'hydrogen car,'" so it looks like H2 advocates have stayed away from KS for now.
What has been successful on Kickstarter? No electric or biofuel or hydrogen vehicle projects that we could find, but the electric rollerskates called spnKiX (pictured) got twice as much money pledged as the project organizers say they needed, and the funding window is still open for another month. When it comes to battery-powered transportation, KS teaches us to aim small.
This story should be enough to - at the very least - give Chevrolet Volt detractors pause: a solar-powered home that pays its owner delicious double dividends.
An Orlando, FL man used the cash from selling solar-panel-generated electricity back to the grid as a down payment for his Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in vehicle and he's using the power from the panels to fuel the sedan, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Bob Stonerock used the $5,600 he made during the past two years selling power generated from his roof and backyard solar panels back to the Orlando Utilities Commission as a down payment for his $46,000 Volt. Stonerock, a retired doctor, estimates that he will be able to fuel the car almost exclusively from the electricity from the solar panels that power his vehicle-recharging station.
Stonerock is one of the more than 15,000 Americans who will attempt to replace at least most of their gasoline use with electricity by purchasing vehicles such as either the Volt or battery-electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i. Through the first eleven months of the year, General Motors sold just over 6,100 Volts - compared to about 8,700 Nissan Leafs - though both vehicles were constrained by limited supply for at least some of the year.
The Chevy Volt can go about 35 miles on electric power alone before a gas-powered on-board generator kicks in to provide an additional 340 miles or so on a full tank. In November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy named the Volt the fourth-most fuel-efficient vehicle sold in the United States. The federal agencies' latest edition of their Fuel Economy Guide rates the Volt at 60 miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent, which trailed only the Mitsubishi i, Nissan Leaf and Ford Transit Connect Electric battery-electric vehicles.
If you missed out on seeing Revenge of the Electric Car in the theater or just want to watch Carlos Ghosn, Elon Musk and Bob Lutz push their respective companies to getting EVs out the door, mark your calendar for January 24th. That's when the DVD version of the movie hits, and it will offer repeat viewers a few fun extras once they've worn out the grooves on the main feature.
The big special bonus is the 35-minute panel that took place after the premiere screening during the Tribeca Film Festival. The DVD producers write that, "We especially love the moment when Wall Street Journal columnist Dan Neil says, 'you're not going to see electric tractor trailers out there any time soon...' and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk replies, 'yes you will,' then the crowd cheered."
Other bonuses include extra footage (Iceland?) and celebrity interviews. The movie, which is still playing in some theaters, will be coming to Netflix as well. If you're interested in owning it, you can buy the movie from Amazon for $21.99 or directly from the distribution company for $29.99. Why spend the extra money? The movie producers write:
As an independently distributed film we've done a lot of work ourselves to bring this film to you, and we ask that you please consider ordering the DVD directly from our distributor - which brings more money directly to the filmmakers and less to the middleman.
It doesn't appear that a Blu-ray version is coming, based on the DVD page. Read our review of the movie here.
What would Amelia Earhart drive? If she were alive today, she might be keen on getting behind the wheel of a Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt, figures Jim Motavalli of the New York Times.
Setting aside the fact that airplanes use tremendous amounts of fuel, Motavalli collected anecdotal evidence that lots of today's pilots are big plug-in vehicle fans. The first Volt was delivered to Jeffrey Kaffee, a retired airline pilot in December, 2010. The president of Plug In America, Dan Davids, is also a pilot. Motavalli found plenty more examples, and the tie that binds them together is a desire to be efficient with their transportation energy - even if it doesn't reach everyone who sits in a cockpit. As Davids told Motavalli:
If you're a pilot, why wouldn't you want any kind of transportation equipment you operate to be as efficient as possible? It amazes me when a pilot is fastidious about saving money and fuel while in the air, but then arrives back at the airport and climbs into a Chevrolet Suburban to drive home. They should know better.
The pilots Motavalli interviews are also big fans of knowing exactly how much energy they have in their packs, and trying to squeeze as many miles from those electrons as possible. This all makes sense. After all, the Wright Brothers got their start in a bicycle shop, didn't they? Those two wheelers are the most efficient vehicle known to man.
Think back to 2007, and the case of John True, the man who sued Honda for what he said were misleading claims about the fuel economy of the Civic Hybrid. The EPA said the car got 42 combined miles per gallon, but True got more like 32. Honda settled what became a class-action lawsuit out of court in 2009, although even at that time we were wondering if it was a fair deal. The proposed settlement gave Civic hybrid drivers the option to get either up to $1,000 off the purchase of a new Honda or a $100 check if they could prove they complained to Honda about the mileage. The lawyers in the case were made millions, and 26 state attorneys general called the settlement "not fair, adequate or reasonable." Heather Peters was one of those Civic hybrid drivers, and she's found a way to strike back.
Peters' solution is the Torrance, CA Small Claims Court. Since California law prevents Honda from bringing in an attorney, Peters figures the sides are more balanced, and she's asking for $10,000, "to compensate her for spending much more on gasoline than expected," writes the LA Times. Peters goes to small claims court on January 3rd, and is rallying other unhappy 2006-2008 Civic hybrid drivers - of which there are many - to do the same where they live. She's created DontSettleWithHonda.org and set up a Twitter account to share information about the strategy that the Times calls "a small-claims flash mob" that could herald a whole new way of individuals asking for fairness when big corporations make mistakes or intentionally do something wrong. This could get interesting.
*UPDATE: Peters has issued a press release on the matter, which we've pasted after the jump.
Close your eyes and concentrate for a moment. Imagine that you're driving in a car, and over the course of the trip, you accelerate, travel at a specific speed and eventually stop. Done? Good. Now, what did it sound like?
Naturally, the answer to that question depends on a number of factors, such as how fast you were traveling and, perhaps more importantly, what kind of vehicle you were driving. As such, when it comes time for a movie studio to add a soundtrack to a motion picture, there are a slew of variables that will ultimately dictate what sounds to include.
Interestingly enough, this exact scenario played out at Universal Studios, and the action was captured on both the sound recorder and the video recorder. First up is a Chevrolet Corvette, which, as you might expect, sung a high-horsepower tune of screeching tires punctuated by the bass staccato of a large-displacement V8. You must admit, it sounds good.
But what if the movie plot calls for something a little less... petroleum powered? According to Universal Studios, such a sound recording is a little bit more difficult to achieve, as the sounds of an electric motor are quite a bit more subtle than the combustion of hydrocarbons in a cylinder. Check out the video after the break to see how it's done, as demonstrated by the Chevy Volt.
Here are BYD's claims for it's new Hybrid Car.
Bajaj and Mr. Carlos Ghosn, President and CEO of Renault and President and CEO of Nissan, today announced they will form a joint-venture company to develop, produce and market the car code-named ULC with wholesale price range starting from 2500 USD. The new joint-venture company will be 50% owned by Bajaj Auto, 25% by Renault and 25% by Nissan.
The ZENN Motor Company builds 100% electric cars in Canada.
It has a manufacturing facility in St. Jerome Quebec.
The company has been selling cars in the US for the last eighteen months but only received approval to sell the electric cars in Canada in early November. To date you can only buy them in British Columbia.
The company is still awaiting approval in other provinces that need special legislation for cars with a maximum speed of 40 km/ hour.
The MDI car can reach a speed of 68 mph and has a road coverage of roughly 124 miles -some 8 hours of travel- which is more than double the road coverage of an electric car. When recharging the tank, the car needs to be connected to the mains (220V) for 3 to 4 hours or attached to an air pump in a petrol station for only 2 minutes.
If you missed out on seeing 
