As we’ve talked about on these pages before, the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation of car purchasers is starting. By the end of the year many major auto manufacturers will have some kind of electric vehicle for sale on the mass market and by 2014, nearly all major manufacturers have [...]
Reading Tea Leaves: Future Biofuels in the Bottom of a Cup?
March 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Here in the US, tea is essentially a niche product, falling way behind coffee in terms of popularity. But in places like the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, tea far surpasses coffee as a national past time. In 2008 alone, the world production of black tea was more than 3.8 million tons. Typically, all those [...]
Aurica Motors Plans To Keep California NUMMI Plant Open With Electric Cars
March 11, 2010 By 4 Comments
In 1984, General Motors and Toyota joined forces to produce cars together at a single plant in Fremont, California. Called the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., the joint venture gave Toyota its first manufacturing base in the U.S., and GM a chance to learn from its rival Toyota on quality and lean manufacturing techniques. Over [...]
Would You Like A Coffee To Go? "Scirocco-ccino" Storms Europe
March 11, 2010 By 4 Comments
Much hilarity and cracking of bad puns has greeted the arrival of a coffee powered car over in the UK. “The Car-puccino” which runs on “expressos” and needs its own “filter lane.” Groan. The car used was a Volkswagen Scirocco, apparently because of its resemblance to the DeLoren in Back To The Future. This prompted [...]
Kuwaiti Scientists Say Peak Oil Will Arrive in 2014
March 10, 2010 By 28 Comments
New research out of Kuwait, using a new method of calculating the crude oil production potential of 47 of the world’s largest oil producing countries, has found that peak oil — the period in time when oil production reaches a maximum and then begins to decline — will come much sooner than expected… 2014 to [...]
Hummer Plant Reopens For a Final, Huge Fleet Order
March 10, 2010 By 8 Comments
Hummer is another one of General Motor’s zombie brands that will likely soon cease to exist (if no last minute buyer steps up). The builder of gas-guzzling SUV’s was thought to have been saved when Chinese construction company Sichuan Tengzhong, but the Chinese government squashed the deal. GM was preparing to wind down the brand, even as [...]
Flying Solar-Powered Sailboat Concept Inspires
March 10, 2010 By 8 Comments
I’m a big fan of science fiction. The genre has instilled some high expectations in me for the coming decades, as well as tempered my imagination against vaporware that works only on paper. But it is good to loosen the grip of reality sometimes. This flying sailboat concept is just such vaporware, although it is [...]
Honda CR-Z Almost Didn't Make It To America
March 10, 2010 By 2 Comments
Imagine for a second you are the President of Honda’s North American division. The closest thing you have to a performance car right now is the Honda Civic Si, and your main competitor to the Prius, the Insight, is getting killed in the market. The CR-Z two-door hybrid should be a godsend then, right? Apparently [...]
