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industry news
Chrysler Minivans To Get Hybrid, Diesel Power According To Windsor Daily
A recent report in the Windsor Star claims the cars Chrysler plans to hybridize by 2013...will be minivans. On top of that, they're even looking at a diesel version of the soccer mom-mobiles, with both to be built at the company's Windsor, Ontario plant. More »
alternative energy
Ferrari Announces Hybrid Development, World Officially Gone Mad
If you hadn't already divined it from the tea leaves Ferrari has been sprinkling around lately, hybridization is officially coming to the Ferrari stable. Whether it was the bold proclamation at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show that Ferrari would reduce its emissions by 40% by 2012, or the recent hybridized F1 cars outfitted with the KERS system, we all knew it had to happen. Apparently 2015 is where the blindly thrown dart landed on the wall of time. More »
alternative fuels
Algae Diesel Passes Final Exam, Plans For Weekend Bender
When we covered the magical algae-powered VW Westfalia, we didn't imagine there would be a commercially viable version of the faux dino-juice available anywhere in the near term. Little did we know about the happenings over at Solazyme, which has just completed the rigorous ASTM D-975 (nerd speak for standard test) certification for diesel fuels. This new green diesel is made with a combination of algae and enzymes in a big enclosed vessel with all kinds of industrial leftovers as the feedstock. Huh, sounds like some kind of silver bullet. We, for one, welcome our new algae-baron overlords. Presser below the fold. More »
alternative fuels
GM Invents Electric Deathmobile In 1973
There's an awful lot of hubbub surrounding the 2010 Chevy Volt, and rightfully so: GM isMore »
alternative fuels
GE Gets Into Hybrid Game With Giant Mining Truck
Even though this news is almost two months old, it's interesting to see GE bringing good things to life, namely giant mining trucks which improve upon the previously standard diesel-electric powertrain — especially in light of Friday's news of Chrysler tying up with Thomas Edison's conglomerate. These Goliaths of the open pits have been using monster generators to power equally massive in-wheel electric motors for years, but GE is now testing a system which puts a battery between the generator and the motors, creating a true hybrid rather than just a monstrously torquey one. More »
industry news
Peugeot-Citroen Partnering With Mitsubishi For Electric Cars
Peugeot-Citroen is teaming up with Mitsubishi to work on production electric cars in response to the current world freak-out over gas prices. Mitsubishi already has the i MiEV pictured above, but that vehicle isn't even available here. So, it remains to be seen what exactly the Franco-Japanese alliance is attempting to engineer. More »
industry news
Nissan Partners With NEC For Battery Factory, Claims Of EV by 2010 Maybe Not BS?
Nissan has announced a strategic partnership with tech giant NEC for a lithium ion battery factory in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The facility will operate under a new company dubbed Automotive Energy Supply and will be capable of putting out 16,000 batteries by next year, and 65,000 at full rate by 2011. With this $115 million announcement, Nissan's claims of putting EVs on the road by 2010 don't seem so far fetched. If Carlos the vanquisher says it will be, it will be. [Wired]
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Cadillac Readying Hybrid Chopper For LA Auto Show
The Cadillac that ain't your father's may be just be two-wheeled. Word of a new Cadillac motorcycle sporting gee whiz ethanol hybrid technology has just surfaced in D Business. The Caddy that leans will be built by V20 Consulting in New York and shown off at the next LA Auto Show. The irony of an outside company building a technology demostrator isn't lost on us, but it isn't the first time the General has collaborated with someone on a motorcycle. Just a couple hundred feet from the Detroit offices lives the first Caddy chopper, built by and currently for sale at Great American Chopper in Clawson, MI.More »
alternative fuels
Xtreme Motorsports Announces Electric Sand Car, Interest Ridiculously High
Sand cars are one of those really fun, but incredibly impractical corners of the automotive world we don't manage to get around to very often. Apparently Xtreme Motorsports out in California has decided to jump on the green bandwagon and has announced the availability of an all electric version of their popular car. Built around the same Li-Ion batteries and a beefy electric motor good for 663 lb.ft. of torque, the car should be quite a screamer as the company is quoting 0-70 MPH times around 5 seconds and a range of 200 miles. More »
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Pedal-Powered Buick Owner Stands Up To The Man In Court!
It turns out that John Law takes a dim view of human-powered cars on the streets of Toronto, as artist Michel de Broin discovered to his dismay when he attempted to take his pedal-powered 1986 Buick Regal out for a little spin last year. In Mr. de Broin's view, the Shared Propulsion Car, with its perfectly functional brakes and steering, is safe for street operation. Safer, in fact, than gasoline-powered vehicles, and so he is fighting his Operation of Unsafe Vehicle ticket. [National Post]
found on ebay
One-Off Steam-Powered VW Kit Car
When we hear "steam car" we imagine a car with wooden wagon wheels that spends it's time in Jay Leno's garage. What we don't think of is a fiberglass-bodied VW kit car from the '80s. This is apparently a one-of-a-kind creation of a former Steam Automobile Club of America member. We're thinking of it as a kind of grown man's science project. It allegedly ran at speeds up to 80 MPH at one point, but we're not so sure we would know how to run it even if it's still capable of driving.More »
alternative energy
New Methanol Fuel Cell Unveiled, No, It's Not Fart Powered
Sleeplessly cramming hour after hour for organic chemistry in college has proven to have been a complete waste of time, cause we can't understand how the newly unveiled Oorja Protonics Methanol Fuel Cell works. "Methanol you say?" Yes, the alcohol with one less carbon atom is now making news as a possible fuel of the future. Seems these new fuel cells are two to tentimes more powerful than previous methanol fuel cells, and it's only a matter of time before the Envirocrats start using "Methanol Fuel Cell" as their latest buzz word. Expect bills in Congress, concept cars, hippy rallys and pogo sticks which tout methanol fuel cells any time now. [Via Oorja Protonics] More »
found on ebay
So you want a plug-in electric but don't feel like waiting to buy a Chevy Volt or a Tesla Roadster? Do you also only need to hit 40 MPH on a straightaway and said straightaway is only 40 miles long? Then maybe you need to get yourself a 110V plug-in 1979 Sebring-Vanguard electric CitiCar. Oh, you can't find one of the 2,200 little 3.5 HP two-seaters powered by eight 6V golf-cart batteries made by the Sebring-Vanguard car company from the Florida city of the same name? No worries, there's one up on EBay and you've got about two hours left before the gavel drops. The current bid's just $1,550. Wait, you want to know more? Hit the jump — we'll pass for now, we're waiting for a second one for the other foot.
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The Sebring-Vanguard Electric CitiCar Takes You Anywhere At 40 MPH...As Long As It's Only 40 Miles
So you want a plug-in electric but don't feel like waiting to buy a Chevy Volt or a Tesla Roadster? Do you also only need to hit 40 MPH on a straightaway and said straightaway is only 40 miles long? Then maybe you need to get yourself a 110V plug-in 1979 Sebring-Vanguard electric CitiCar. Oh, you can't find one of the 2,200 little 3.5 HP two-seaters powered by eight 6V golf-cart batteries made by the Sebring-Vanguard car company from the Florida city of the same name? No worries, there's one up on EBay and you've got about two hours left before the gavel drops. The current bid's just $1,550. Wait, you want to know more? Hit the jump — we'll pass for now, we're waiting for a second one for the other foot.More »
alternative energy
BBC Discovers Air Car, We Chuckle At Fill Up Procedure
We heard about the Tata backed and French developed Air Car back in January and are intrigued by the brilliantly simple concept. It seems the Beeb has caught wind of it too and recently ran the coverage you see above. The numbers on it are pretty exciting for something running like an air compressor with its valves reversed. A top speed of 110 km/h and a range of 200 km makes it seem almost useful. Predictions on production dates are to be taken with a grain of salt, but claims of the end of the year are bandied about. Wonder if it will be an available option on the Tata Nano?
alternative fuels
Futuristic Radio-Fuel to Save Planet
Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same. This page out of the August 1936 edition of Inventions magazine features a form of doom and gloom everybody is familiar with seventy two years later - pending depletion of known oil reserves. Todays saviors are hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells, the solution in 1936 was "Radio-Fuel". This vaguely worded bit of gee-whizery presents a fantastical feat of far fetched engineering. More »
alternative fuels
Get On Your Hydrogen Bus and Ride
Those crazy Welchmen. A development team at the University of Glamorgan have created a "tribrid" 16 passenger bus that will be pressed into duty as a short range student and faculty hauler. A tribrid, in case you're slow, is a vehicle that relies on a three part motive system. In this case we're looking at power from a combo of hydrogen fuel cell, an ultracapacitor, and a battery pack. While the fuel cell and battery pack are pretty conventional, the advantage of the ultracapacitor is what's interesting here. More »
alternative fuels
