Liz Phair drives a Prius. She went to a NASCAR race, and she has some thoughts. Also, Sheryl Crow likes something called "V-12 American muscle." Oof. [The Atlantic]
The Protoscar Lampo2 is built on GM's Kappa platform but dispenses with the attractive Solstice/Sky shell for bad sci-fi styling and replaces the gasoline engine with two separate electric powertrains tied together to deliver 408 HP.
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Attention, Mr. Tiny Electric Car of My Dreams: Of all the internets, in all the digital spaces, in all the world, you roll into mine? Here's looking at you, you lovable kei-car kid, you.
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We called a Geo Metro-mino the ecomod work truck, but this Toyota T-100 is so slippery it'll probably glide through the air with just a push. We just hope the increase in efficiency is worth the ugly.
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Let's say you've got a Toyota MR2 sitting around and you're bored. What to do? Well, if you're Japanese engineering tuner Gazoo, you put an electric motor on the front wheels and create the four-wheel-drive Gazoo Sports Hybrid Concept.
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The Garmin ecoRoute hd is a transmitter connected to your car's onboard diagnostics port that sends all sorts of car data to a Garmin nüvi GPS unit to assign a score based on your eco-driving cred.
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Thanks to 25 MPG fuel economy and a $22K price, the Ford Transit Connect is being sold as an affordable, efficient commercial vehicle. Pshaw. The Metro-amino will get twice the mileage for a tenth of the price.
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Darin Cosgrove, the founder of hypermiling site Ecomodder, has built himself a boattailed Pontiac Firefly, a.k.a. the Canadian-market Geo Metro. The result? 64 mpg and all the rubbernecking he can stand. [Ecomodder via Wired]
If you've got the cash, Oklahoma is practically giving away Kandi Coco plug-in electric cars. With Smart-like styling and Chinese production techniques, $895 buys you a lot of street legal electric action. How does it work?
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Remember when everyone was excited about the prospect of a diesel hybrid C30? They did it! Minus the diesel part. Hold onto your Detroit Auto Show hats, it's another electric car concept.
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The organizers of the first-ever electric motorcycle race on the Isle Of Man, the TTXGP, are bringing electric car racing to the streets of Paris next June. The cars may be electric, but don't expect them to be slow.
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Wuliangye Yibin makes a popular Chinese alcoholic beverage. Brilliance makes popular, but dangerous, Chinese cars. Combine them to get cars with spotty safety records powered by liquor-company-built engines. Truly, Brilliance. [ChinaCarTimes]
Using Lotus’s Halosonic noise control system, pedestrians used to being freaked out by silent hybrids can now be freaked out by intergalactic buzzing.
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Conventional wisdom states all rear wings do on FWD cars is increase drag and reduce fuel economy. Chinese designer Leon Zhu wants to challenge that notion, using the vast empty space inside them to store a solar shade.
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There's some concern the pending crop of plug-in hybrid vehicles will put a strain on the US power grid. Relax, they're not going to sell enough of them for it to matter.
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The Chevy Volt runs virtually silent in all-electric mode. To combat the potential electric car "silent killer" threat, GM's built in a "chirp" feature for drivers to announce and warn pedestrians when they drive by.
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GM just dumped an unnecessary presser letting everyone know the officially-official US-spec Chevy Cruze debuts at the LA Auto Show along with its 40MPG 1.4-liter turbocharged, direct-injection inline-four. They also mentioned the still-over-a-year-away Chevy Volt for the 25,761st time.
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A new non-profit study, "Automobiles on Steroids: Product Attribute Trade-Offs and Technological Progress in the Automobile Sector," criticizes all automakers over lower fuel economy due to higher power and vehicular weight gains since 1980. It's a complete load of crap.
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Remember the fake electric car program Chrysler showed off earlier this year in a transparent attempt to get bailout money? Fiat just canceled the entire ENVI program. So predictable. Frankly, we're more shocked Chrysler still exists.
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Dutch scientists have demonstrated how this aero tail, attached to the backside of tractor trailers, reduces fuel consumption by 7.5%. The device folds back to allow for loading and unloading, but it'd probably get bashed anyways. [ScienceDaily]
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