Gas 2.0

For many years, electric cars didn’t look so much like cars, as they did… well… they didn’t much look like anything anyone would want to drive. I never understood half-covering the rear-wheels (that has never been cool) or the funky lines and shapes electric cars inevitably filled out. And so, in recent years, electric cars have begun to look more like… well… cars. Whether or not this is a good thing is up to you, but Protoscar apparently thinks electric cars should look funky.

Hence the undramatic unveiling of the Protoscar Lampo 2. An awkward name for an awkward car that actually has some impressive features, like a ten-minute charge good for about 60 miles and a 0-62 mph time of under 5 seconds.

So why the horrid name?

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According to Edmunds.com’s Green Car Advisor blog, ever since the news about potential Prius braking problems broke in the mainstream media, shopper interest in the Prius on Edmunds.com has risen significantly. “Both consideration and purchase intent for the Prius have risen about 10 percent among car shoppers doing research on Edmunds.com since the Prius brake story became news earlier this week,” said John O’Dell in a post on Green Car Advisor.

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For me, the biggest letdown in recent memory was the Honda CR-Z. Touted as a spiritual successor of the CR-X, the CR-Z managed to get it all wrong. Whereas the original CR-X was lightweight, sporty, and frugal with its fuel, the CRZ is underwhelming at best. The hybrid manages to get just 37 mpg in a two-seater that has a combined horsepower output of just 122 ponies in a 3,000 pound package. Like I said, underwhelming, at least in the Americanized version.

But Europe is also getting the CR-Z. Strangely enough, their version gets two extra (albeit small) seats, converting the CR-Z into a more practical 2+2 for people with small children or petite friends. But what really got me is that the European CRZ gets much better gas mileage… 47 mpg, in fact. How did that happen?

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Last summer Chicago upped the ante on next generation EV charging stations with the nation’s first solar powered one, and now they’ve done it again, but this time with wind. For a town known as the windy city, it only seems to make sense, but how they decided to go after solar before wind is beyond me.

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Toyota’s certainly been having a hell of a time recently. Millions and millions of cars recalled, public relations disasters, seemingly aloof executives—the scope of the whole thing is so mind-boggling to me that it’s almost hard to imagine that this is the same Toyota I grew up with. So I’ll admit it, I’m a Toyota fan boy. My family owned way more Toyotas than anything else and my first car was an ‘84 Tercel hand-me-down I got from my parents.

But none of that stops me from objectively evaluating the company and judging for myself if there really is a reason to stop buying Toyotas. Certainly now that even their untarnishable Prius seems to be tarnishing, my trust in Toyota is more shaken than at any point in my life. On top of the stuck accelerator pedals, the Prius braking problems threaten to put a stake through the very heart of a car company that hundreds of millions of customers worldwide hold so dear.

But when I take a step back, I’m left wondering what this is actually all about.

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I love blimps and zeppelins. Besides my fascination with steampunk and my hatred of airplanes, there is something just inherently cool about airships. I’ve never gotten a chance to ride on one, but I would jump at such a chance.

Maybe, just maybe, one day I will. And if this AIRCRUISE zero emissions airship ever gets off the ground and past the pretty-picture design stage, it is definitely the airship I would want a ride on.
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Commercial vehicle sales are a big part of Ford’s portfolio, and most commercial buyers are looking for two things; efficiency and utility. Knowing this, Ford elected to import its popular Transit Connect light van to America beginning last year. The Transit has already proven rather popular with commercial buyers, selling 2,000 units in the first month. The Transit was even popular with the motoring press, who elected it the 2009 Truck of the Year.

Keeping the momentum, Ford plans to unveil an all-electric version of the Transit Connect at the upcoming Chicago auto show, which should make it the first mass-market electric truck or van to come to the U.S. market.

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Well Jag has taken the plunge—making yet another luxury auto maker to jump on the electric bandwagon. It really makes you wonder… what were all these knuckleheads doing five years ago?

Anyway, Jaguar has supposedly come up with an electric version of its new XJ sedan. The rumor mill seems pretty specific as far as rumors go, painting a picture of a car with almost 300 ft-lbs of torque and a supposed range of 600 miles in a luxury-laden sedan that weighs nearly two tons in petrol motor configuration. Since this is supposed to be an extended-range EV, it also has an on-board, petrol-powered generator motor, plus the electric motor, plus battery pack, and all that high tech stuff is gonna suck up a lot of electricity. Needless to say, I’m skeptical.

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A cornfield at dusk on the Great Plains (Photo: James Jordan/flickr)

Last year the U.S. produced 11.1 billion gallons of biofuel. Obama’s new plan states that by 2022, 21 billion gallons of renewable fuels will need to come from so-called advanced biofuels.

[Ed. Note: Yesterday, Tim Hurst over at Ecopolitology asked me to break down the recently released Obama administration plan to increase the amount of renewable fuels produced in our country from the current 11.1 billion gallons per year to 36 billion gallons per year in 2022. I happily obliged. The following is an excerpt from the post on Ecopolitology with a link at the end to read the full post.]

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Phill—Honda's home CNG refueling station

If a bill currently working its way through the Utah legislature becomes law, the installation cost of compressed natural gas (CNG) conversion retrofit kits in gas-powered vehicles would drop by about 57% in the state—from a current average of $14,000 to a much more reasonable $6,000.

CNG powered cars hold a ton of promise as an alternative to gas and diesel due to their extremely low emissions, low wear and tear on engines, low cost of fuel, and the abundant availability of natural gas from domestic sources.

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Turbine cars have long been a pipe dream since the dawn of the jet age that first spurred imaginations all over the world some sixty years ago. But practically speaking, turbine cars have never really taken off. They were either incredibly dangerous or prohibitively expensive (or both, like the Chrysler Patriot). They have also been beset by noise issues in the past.

But British luxury car maker Jaguar is giving it another go—and the British government is bankrolling the project. Rather than using a turbine to turn a driveshaft (which required a huge flywheel), Jag plans to use the turbine engine to power electric motors. Brilliant!

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Tesla has been making a lot of news lately. First, the spunky electric car maker announced the completion of its 1,000th Roadster. Then they filed papers taking the first steps in an Initial Public Offering to make anyone with the money a part-owner in Tesla. Buried in that paperwork though, it was revealed that Tesla would be ceasing production of its Roadster next year.

That means a lot of hopes are pinned to the Model S, a $50,000 sedan which won’t debut until 2012. But word on the street is that Tesla plans to spin off at least two other models from the S sedan, including a coupe and a crossover. But will it be enough?

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When BMW unveiled its awkwardly-named Vision EfficientDynamics concept car, audiences were enthralled. The plug-in hybrid combined sleek, futuristic styling with a lithium-ion battery stack and two electric motors to produce 356 horsepower and 590 ft-lbs of torque. That is a lot of power for a hybrid. But as cool as the concept was, few of us expected it would ever come to production.

But apparently enough positive press and remarkable response from the public has convinced BMW to actually build the Vision EfficientDynamics. It just needs a shorter, better name (BMW VED?).

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Over the last year, the Renault-Nissan Alliance has been aggressively seeking partners in their zero-emissions mobility quest—stitching together a veritable patchwork quilt of cooperators from a diverse variety of sectors. Now they can add one more feather in their cap in the form of a partnership with the All Japan Ryokan Association of hotels.

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All hybrids have some type of premium associated with them that makes them more expensive than their conventional counterparts, but is that premium really worth it when you consider cost versus reduced environmental impact and fuel savings? It’s a question that thrift-conscious and green-minded consumers often find themselves asking when doing new car research.

It’s a tough question to answer and one that will clearly be different for each individual based on how important it is to reduce environmental impact and fossil fuel use. Yet, even though the process is highly subjective, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has developed the Hybrid Scorecard to help consumers determine if that premium is worth it for each hybrid on the market.

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