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Tesla Motors, hailed by all as the savior of the planet, has been selling the all-electric Roadster model since 2008. Three-and-a-half years later, the automaker reports it has sold "more than 1500" of the electric-powered two-seaters. More »
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Argonne National Laboratory's developing a low temperature combustion system to offer diesel-like efficiency without the diesel-like emissions (or performance). Sound familiar? Ultimately, diesel's higher energy density makes attempts to dismiss its use misguided.(Hat tip to Elhigh!) [Wired Autopia] More »
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Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. 500+ vehicles into this series, we've finally got an electric car! More »
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MINI's added a special sticker to the charger ports on their MINI E reminding drivers not to put fuel in it. Perfect time for a JaloPSA to remind everyone that electric cars and gasoline do not mix. More »
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Sugar in your gas tank doesn't have to be that bad, thanks to inventor Paul Patone, although you still have to mix your Mtn Dew with 20% gasoline or it'll run X-tremely rough. [Oh Gizmo] More »
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The long-brewing, all-electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV has finally gotten the production green-light and a sale price. It's a rather bracing $47,000 for the Japanese market. Spendy, but no gasoline necessary is a pretty killer feature, right? More »
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Want to check out the Golden Mean, a fire-belching Volkswagen Beetle-based giant snail that seats six and packs an 800-watt sound system inside its shell? With snake charming to boot? Head to Oakland tonight! More »
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Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Today we've got a couple of cars with just one thing in common: insanity! More »
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A new report shows the number of E85 ethanol pumps in the U.S. has grown nearly 28% in the past year, surpassing the 1,800 mark with 1,693 available for public use. The states with the most E85 pumps are, as you'd expect, in the corn belt, including Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri. Just don't expect to find them in every corner of the country: Despite the growth in E85 availability, seven states still don't have any E85 pumps, including Alaska. Considering E85 expansion is part of our current national energy policy, it makes us wonder if Governor Palin should revise her favorite chant to "distill, baby, distill." More »
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This morning, I headed over to Shipyard Labs in the Berkeley flatlands (not very coincidentally, located just a few blocks from the 24 Hours Of LeMons HQ in Emeryville) to witness preparations for the start of the Escape From Berkeley race to Las Vegas. The rules are pretty simple: vehicles can't run on any form of petroleum fuel, they can only bring 10KWH equivalent of fuel to start with, and the teams must obtain all further fuel for free along the race route. Otherwise, anything goes- and they've managed to get permits to stage this madness on public roads! Make the jump to see some of the machines that will be competing for the $5,000 first prize. More »
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The City of Berkeley is now a maximum security statist dystopia… Cars are illegal… Petroleum is a controlled substance… Now, geeks and gearheads unite to escape from Berkeley by any non-petroleum means necessary! That's right, a 600-mile race in vehicles not only prohibited from burning petroleum-based fuel but prohibited from buying any fuel whatsoever along the way- it's all got to be obtained free along the route. Steam-powered cars burning wood chips left behind by tree-cutting crews! Gasifiers converting dead possums and heaps of fast-food wrappers into go-go-gas! Batteries charged by sweet-talking locals into allowing power-outlet access! Mules eating grass! Whatever it takes! The race starts tomorrow morning and I'll be making the jaunt from nearby Alameda to check it out- come back tomorrow and you'll see some of these dystopia-fleeing machines. More »
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Welcome to Nice Price Or Crack Pipe, where you make the call on vehicle asking prices. On Monday, we saw the most one-sided vote yet, with over 92% of you judging the $41,000 VW Vanagon Syncro Westy's price tag to be ridiculously high. The Syncro is pretty cool, all right, but how about one of John Z's Irish-built machines with the PRV V6 torn out and replaced by a WarP 9 electric motor? Remember, an electric motor grunts out 100% torque at zero RPM, so this DMC-12 ought to move as well as sting-operation cocaine in '82… but well enough to have a Buy It Now price of a hundred grand? Make the jump, cast your vote! [eBay Motors] More »
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We got a look at the Chrysler "Peapod" this morning, though at the time we didn't know it was actually the GEM Peapod. The "Global Electric Motorcars" all-electric range of "community vehicles" has been on sale for ten years now. The Peapod is the latest concept set up for a debut in GEM's 2009 lineup, which also gets an updated and greenwashed name - GreenEcoMobility (blech). If you're into the details of an electric, four-passenger, 25 MPH, 30-mile-range overgrown golf cart, there are plenty of 'em in the official press release below. More »
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Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Yesterday, we saw a cat-piss-enhanced, meth-head-damaged, Camaro-suspended '53 Chevy take a beating in the Choose Your Eternity poll at the hands of the Jaguar-powered, bugs-in-face customized '51 Chevy. But you ask me, all these internal-combustion vehicles are getting a trifle monotonous. We need to change things up today, by looking at a pair of external-combustion vehicles. Yes, steam-powered cars! Thanks (and a PCH Tipster T-shirt) go to dwegmull for finding these cars for us. More »
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Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Yesterday, we saw the triple-'49-Mercury deal obliterate the six-four by what may be the biggest-ever margin in Choose Your Eternity Poll history: 80-20 for the Mercuries in the Low And Slow Edition poll. Today we've become so excited over the possibility that the $30,000 $40,000 Chevy Volt will be on the street in the not-so-distant future that we're going electric, and we're not talking about golf carts or even AMCs here- no, we mean electric vintage European sports cars! More »
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There is no good reason at all for Nissan to take their fuel-cell-powered X-Trail to the Nordschleife, but that's what they've gone and done. An 11-minute, 58-second lap time and putting a fuel cell-powered SUV on the 'Ring are both patently ridiculous. Enough. Nissan, it was great when you blasted round the 'Ring with the GT-R, but now you've just Fonzied yourselves. [EdmundsInsideLine] More »
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Two-thirds of California's population lives in the southern part of the state, so it stands to reason that the Down On The California Street series would have to return to SoCal after a few Bay Area machines. Makeopalpyse, of Team Make:Way fame, shot this car in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles. Yes, folks, you're looking at a hyper-rare Electra King here, with a blistering top speed of 18 MPH. Hmmm... wonder if it would be possible to stuff enough electrons in it to beat Plasma Boy's electric Datsun? Jump to read Makeopalypse's description. More »
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You want to drive a car powered by the most reliable automobile engine ever produced, you want to burn non-petroleum fuel, yet you don't want to drive a boring ol' Mercedes sedan like every other anti-dinosaur-juice diesel demon in town? Loyal reader Vance has pulled our coat about this '67 Cougar with a freshly rebuilt turbo-equipped Mercedes-Benz OM617 installed; this setup looks like it was done right, though the price seems on the painful side and the performance is likely more tortoise than hare (albeit a tortoise that could win a 500,000-mile race with ease). [Craigslist Los Angeles] More »
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While the 2011 Chevy Volt is proceeding down the path from vaporware to successful range testing to production ready, its price seems to remain stubbornly in the land of the lost. The original goal was to have it on the road for around $30,000, in April, Maximum Bob dropped the bomb saying the price may come in at $48k. Well, Minimum Rick seems to be following his "Wait a month and clean up after Bob" modus operandi yet again. Wagoner, who definitely gives a shit about global warming, is now saying the Volt may actually come in below the original target. More »
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We had another close race down the highway to the Lake of Fire yesterday, with the so-called win going to the triple helping of '55 Austin FX3 cabs in the Choose Your Eternity poll. Today, however, I'm inspired by the big drums of used tempura-frying oil I saw waiting for disposal behind the Japanese take-out joint near my house; think of all that potential carbon-neutral fuel just sitting there, waiting for some enterprising sort to put together a veggie-oil diesel machine to burn it up! Actually, what we really want is a diesel that runs on liposuction fat harvested from cosmetic surgeons- imagine the sheer coolness of driving a car that runs on human flesh- but the next best thing is a project fueled by your soul! More »
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In today's episode of The Holy-Shit-Gas-is-High Alternative Fuel Chronicles, we encounter researchers in Romania and Turkey that have devised a way to turn the circuit boards from old electronics into a potential fuel source. The process uses a combination of catalysts, high temperatures and chemical filtration to extract toxins from old electronic junk that could be a fuel for vehicles and more. In 20 years will you be cramming old, outdated iPhones into the gas tank of your flying car? We'd bet against it, but it shows that it's not just the United States thats freaking out about gas prices. [Live Science via Giz] More »
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For those that just can't get green enough, here comes a new accessory that will make your Prius even more deadly. The SEV Solar Roof Module is essentially that. What makes this vehicular solar panel a bit better than the average bear is the fact that it installs seamlessly onto the Toyota Prius roof. The entire roof-panel is replaced with these solar cells and can provide 20 miles of electric range as well as upward of 29-percent increased fuel efficiency. This module is capable of fitting 2004 through 2006 Prius models. Watch out, deaf kids! [SEV via TFRJ] More »
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The French car beat the German one in our last Choose Your Eternity matchup, which means we need to give France's cross-Channel rival an opportunity to snatch the PCH Trophy (which features several rods hanging out the side and a spreading pool of oil below) today. We're going with something a bit different this time, however; ever since the What Should Mad_Science Drive To Work QOTD, we've been thinking about non-petroleum-fueled car projects. Not boring ol' electric cars that can barely buzz up to highway speed, or seen-one-ya-seen-em-all veggie-oil-powered Mercedes-Benzes, though. Something fun! Something... HELL! More »
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Apparently an idea and creation from the past that holds promise for future applications was just too much for the CBC's crack team of comedy writers to resist — the Back to the Future puns in this piece are a real riot. Greg Vezina managed to convert a Chevy Impala to run on "Hydrofuel", or the very smelly chemical ammonia to everybody else. Though there was interest from Canadian officials in at the time in 1981, the fact that the car is now a rusting away beside his garage speaks volumes of its success. More »
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A few months before I started writing for El Jalop, one of the few Mercedes-Benz F-Cell fuel cell cars parked on my block for while, and I'm still kicking myself for not photographing it. The anonymous tipster who sent in the shots of a Tesla Roadster he found parked in Palo Alto, on the other hand, had his camera primed and ready when the moment of truth arrived. Good work, anonymous tipster! More »
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Kings of ethanol and new GM buddy, Coskata, has announced it has broken ground on an new cellulosic ethanol plant in Pennsylvania that could be churning out the alternative fuel as early as next year. Coskata claims it can produce the two carbon alcohol at a cost of $1 per gallon so unless they aren't interested in getting to step three, expect pricing on the more renewable fuel to be higher than that. Regardless, it will likely beat the hell out of that $5.40 gallon gas bullshit going on in California. More »
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We took a break from the PCH Superpowers and watched the Rotary Honda 600 pound on the Rotary Starlet in yesterday's all-Japanese Choose Your Eternity poll. However, Britain's defeat of Italy last week can mean only one thing: Britain must now take on PCH SuperGigaPower France in an attempt to claim the rusty, oil-leaking PCH Intergalactic Superchampion crown! More »
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Let's just get this out of the way up front so you can come back later: Bentley brought no new luxurious nor mega-costly glistening sheet metal hand-rubbed to a burnished sheen by ambidextrous master craft-rubbers at their lush production palace factory in Crewe, England. Instead, at this New York Auto Show they touted their new partnership with an atmospheric molecule of fraught reputation: CO2. They thoughtfully provided me with a 17-page outline of how they're going to change the relationship between high-performance 12-cylinder engines and global warming. I'm halfway through it and will return later with a summary. But until then, let's talk about those hawt English accents. More »
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A couple of days ago, we received an email from Lumeneo's PR rep Isabel giving us the business about the all-electric, leaning Lumeneo Smera we brought you. She claimed the car was not as our American eyes could clearly see, a single seater, but in fact a two seater! 'Impossible!' we said, 'Prove it with a picture.' And so she has. Seated inline, inside that tiny little car are father Daniel and son Thierry Moulène, President and Technical Director respectively. More »
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Tucked into a lightly trafficked back corner of the show is this awesome little scooter-sized concept car called the Lumeneo Smera. The Smera is a single seat two seat (!), super-narrow electric car that fits into the same footprint as most of the scooters Europe's more suicidal drivers use as daily drivers. With those huge windows and Buck Rogers steering wheel, the cabin doesn't feel quite like the claustrophobe's nightmare it should, and while cargo space is tight, it's also not as bad as we'd expected. But, what did meet expectations was the fuel economy and range. The Smera...
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Need to find a station to fuel up your Mercedes 300D with biodiesel? How about tips on how to prevent all that soy based fuel from gelling up when the hard freeze hits? Well now you can find out where all the professional hippy fuel buyers get their fix at Grassolean (it's funny cause they replaced the word gas with grass and came up with a clever wordplay version, see how they did that?). The site offers everything you need to know about the art and science of being a veganfueler. As an added bonus, the eco-warrior himself Bill O'Reilly interviews BFF Darryl Hannah about biodiesel in this clip from 2003. You can tell it's that old since Bill quotes LA gas prices that aren't a thousand dollars a gallon. More »
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We've been saying for years the only efficient hybrid with current technology is one mated to a diesel engine, and now it looks like another automaker is jumping into the conceptual fray. Our little news yesterday on the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics X5 — translated from Bruce, that appears to be an X5 outfitted with a 2.0-liter twin turbo common rail diesel mild hybrid (wow, that's a mouthful, ain't it?) — appears to be wholly true. BMW will be revealing this little concept in environmentally friendly CUV-ing at the Geneva Motor Show next month and they've now seen fit to reveal the rest of their press shots and the full press release, which we've got below the jump. Feel free to read through it if you're suffering from a strong desire to fall back into bed. For now, here's the gist of it — hybrid + diesel + BMW = Over 100 HP per liter (total of 204 HP), 295 lb-ft of torque between 2000 and 2500 RPM. Exciting, isn't it? More »
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Rather than focusing vehicle-development and alternative-energy resources on finding different kinds of fuel, students and researchers at Georgia Tech are taking a couple steps back and looking at the emissions problem. The project currently being worked on involves a car that still operates on standard liquid fuels, but the kicker is the carbon emissions. The car will collect those and shuttle them back to a processing plant that can convert them back into fuel, taking out two birds with one stone. More »
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How would you like to buy a "Special Edition BugE Personal EV Transport" signed by 100 celebrities, including John Legend, Ne-Yo and Adrienne Curry? Max speed in this little electric devil is 50 MPH; range is listed at 40 miles. Sure, the starting bid is a cool 10 grand, but every dollar over the MSRP will be donated to a charity that helps autistic kids! Say, what is the MSRP of a BugE? Is this what we'll all be driving in a few years? [eBay Motors] More »
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Wouldn't it be great if we had a super-cheap way to make ethanol out of cellulosic materials such as switchgrass and wood chips? The problem is that you need to turn the cellulose into simple sugars before you can ferment it into ethanol... but termites have managed the trick for gadzillions of years, so why not figure out exactly what magic takes place in their guts and replicate it on an industrial scale? Some white coats at Caltech have taken a big step in that process, performing a vast genomic study of the microbes in Nasutitermes termites' guts and identifying more than a thousand potentially useful enzymes. Hooray, soon we'll all be running 16:1 compression alky-burners! [MIT] More »
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We've been following the saga of the amazing White Zombie, a '72 Datsun 1200 that runs low 12s on pure electrons, for quite some time now. First the Zombie makes the Wall Street Journal, and now the Gray Lady herself is covering electric drag racing (although we scooped 'em both). And the story doesn't just cover White Zombie; we also see an electric Shelby Cobra Daytona replica that ran a 13.18 its first time out, among other quick voltmobiles. [New York Times] More »
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You're looking at Honda's new hydrogen fuel cell powered FCX Clarity parked in front of the Malibu Presbyterian Church that was destroyed in the recent fires. As the Clarity emits water and achieves the gasoline consumption equivalent of 68 mpg, we thought it only fitting to shoot it parked in front of one of Global Warming's victims. The Clarity, of course, is supposed to help with all that — although we're still not real clear on the clarity of the environmental benefits of hydrogen created using currently readily available sources. But Honda claims they're working on that — and hey, it'll reduce your home's overall power bills. Oh yeah, almost forgot. Honda tossed us the keys to their multi-million dollar pre-production baby (LA Times Pulitzer Prize-winning auto critic Dan Neil claims it's worth "like $10,000,000 or more") and let us cruise from Santa Monica through the toasted canyons of Malibu. Full review coming this Monday. More »
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We see the Omni GLH has pulled ahead of the Porsche 924 Turbo by a 60-40 margin in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll, but what we aren't seeing is the big picture. As in, holy crap, the oil is running out! Yes, the wells were pumping, pumping, all thatcha like, but now we need to start thinking about what we'll be driving in a post-global-socio-econo-nihilo no-more-cheap-oil sorta world. We don't want to give up on internal combustion, and we just gotta have forced induction, so it would seem the easiest choice would be turbocharged diesel cars made to run on vegetable oil and/or animal fat (you killjoys who want to gripe about how you still need the petroleum-fueled gears of society to keep a-spinnin' to produce such oils can just go suspend your disbelief, in the same way you need to suspend your disbelief about the impossibility of actually finishing a Hell Project). More »
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Tomorrow at the LA Auto Show we'll be seeing the product of BMW's continued work with GM and the two divorced sides of what was once the German-American hybrid, Daimler and Chrysler — the Hemi Hybrids from Chrysler and GM's full-size GMT-900 hybrid SUV's. BMW's full-size SUV powered by the joint research between all of them knights of Teuton and the 'merican revolution of GM will be coming soon, but not expected to be revealed here in LA. But notice how I used the word "continued" — because an assumption can be made — based upon this here camo-ed up BMW 7-Series entering GM's Milford Proving Grounds — that the Global Hybrid Cooperation (GHC) between these three automakers is still going strong and now it appears they're working on some sedan systems. Full spy report from the sneaky-sneaks at KGP below the jump. More »
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Is "Extend" the new name for a new plug-in electric hybrid from Ford? We've no idea, but what we do know is Ford recently optioned the name in advance of the LA Auto Show and their recent team-up with Southern California Edison to explore new technologies on plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles. Will we see a new plug-in or plug-in concept at LA? Heck, will we see a new one at the Detroit Auto Show? We guess we'll find out next month when we're there live. (Hat tip to Mork!) [US PTO via Trademork] More »
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