Hybrid Fest 2008: July 19th & 20th in Madison, WI

Hybrid gest

Now that you know when it is and what it’s called, I’ll tell you a bit about what it is. Firstly, it’s a bit of a misnomer. Hybrid Fest isn’t really all about hybrids. I know this because my website is a sponsor this year, and we’re definitely not all about hybrids. So what is [...]

Ethanol Use in US and Brazil Rises Sharply

In Europe, not so much… Brazil, which has to a large degree lead the ethanol charge because of its ability to use sugar cane for ethanol production rather than corn, now relies on the biofuel for 16% of its energy needs. This puts ethanol at #2 in Brazil for largest energy sources, right ahead of [...]

Run Your Car on Wood? No Joke.

wood_truck051008-4

I’ve heard of making fuel from wood before, but rarely does using wood as fuel come up. However, just today I was pointed to this site, hosted by a local radio station, with a real-life example of someone burning wood as a fuel in his truck. I can’t say for sure how the system works, [...]

100+ EcoDriving Tips to get Better Mileage in Your Car

Fuel gauge

Source: greefus groinks There’s been a lot of buzz on the internet and on TV about ecodriving, hypermiling, ecomodding, or  other techniques for saving fuel. EcoModder.com, a site dedicated to modifying cars and driving habits for fuel economy, recently released a list of 100+ hypermiling tips. These tips are definitely worth a look for anyone [...]

VW Confirms 1L Concept Will Become Reality in 2010

VW 1L Car

Image source: Wikipedia There’s been talk about the VW 1L concept for years. Since VW built the original, fuel economy, safety, price, and release date has been speculated upon and argued about, and I’d finally stopped thinking it was ever going to happen. However, according to VW’s CEO, it should hit the market in 2010. [...]

Six New Technologies Will Help Manufacturers Reach the 35 MPG Goal (Without Hybrids)

As the automakers scramble to make plans for achieving 35 MPG by 2020, it seems that our suspicions that the task is entirely possible without fancy hybrids or hydrogen cars has been confirmed. The manufacturers been achieving high mileage in Europe and Japan for years now, so I expect to see it in the US [...]

Formula 1 Racing to Go Hybrid from 2009-2013

It’s not quite the same type of hybrid drive-train you’d see in street vehicles, but in an exciting announcement, Max Mosely of F1 has announced that all cars will become hybrid by 2013, along with other changes to the vehicles. The hybrid system that will be phased in is known as KERS, which stands for [...]

MIT Study Predicts Well-to-Wheel Vehicle Emissions for 2030

MIT Graph of Plug-In Hybrids

Recently, I discussed the interaction between clean energy and the future of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The study cited makes it clear that unless we clean up power production, there isn’t much point in moving to PHEVs from regular, old hybrids (HEVs). Interestingly enough, MIT has just come out with a new study, profiled [...]