[UPDATE]: Video of the switching station in action and photos added below.
YOKOHAMA, JAPAN- Last night at approximately 10:30 PM PST (1:30 AM EST), electric vehicle services provider Better Place will demonstrate key elements of their battery switching station technology. This is the first public exhibition of a battery switching station—which Better Place lauds as the final piece of a “total electric vehicle solution.” The company was invited by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment to set up an exhibit in Yokohama.
“Range anxiety,” as it’s called, describes the most fundamental fear expressed by would-be adopters of electric vehicles. It’s no different than the fear of driving through sparsley inhabited parts of the United States, where it’s important to know your car’s mileage and the distance to the next gas station. Read the rest of this entry »
The domestic auto industry may be in turmoil, but for at least one of the Big Three things are starting to look up. Ford Motor Company, the only American auto company not to take government aid, has been moving forward full speed with their green car initiatives, and as such has been awarded the Green Choice Award by Natural Healthmagazine. Ford has expanded in every direction by trying to become a more green car company, building on the success of its Ford Escape Hybrid SUV by introducing the Ford Fusion Hybrid, which gets 41mpg in the city and 36 on the highway, besting Toyota’s Camry and equaling its initial quality, according to recent surveys. Read the rest of this entry »
For the moment, the price at the pump is reasonable. A spike in demand or a terrorist disruption, however, will quickly remind us that we are desperately dependent on oil as we continue to consume 140 billion gallons of gasoline per year. Even in these recessionary times of moderate demand, we are running out of easy to extract oil from dessert sands. We are turning to sources of unconventional oil, such as tar sands in Canada, to produce oil with ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
For a while, corn ethanol was viewed by some as a step in the right direction. Now we are like the character in a Woody Allen comedy who explains, “I used to be a heroin addict; now I’m a methadone addict.” At a time when a billion people go hungry, many as a result of disappearing water on this heating planet, fuel from food is not the answer. Read the rest of this entry »
Most every major auto manufacturer has announced plans for some sort of electric or electric-hybrid production model for future production, but to date there are still only a handful of hybrid models on the road.
A few months ago in keeping with trends, Chrysler unveiled the Dodge Circuit, a Lotus Europa-based electric car that would be faster than an SRT-8 Challenger while running purely on electric power. But that was before Chrysler declared bankruptcy, and now word has come through the grapevine that the Circuit may already be dead, even after Chrysler published an ad a few weeks ago about “A new car company” which predominately featured the Circuit.
A Ford Motor Company engineer has built a 3-wheel motorbike capable of getting 125 mpg.
The fuel economy expert crafted the vehicle at his home shop in Belleville, MI. It’s a street legal, two-passenger, 3-wheel motorbike that is made from aircraft materials. Oh, and it is capable of a top speed of over 100 mph. Read the rest of this entry »
Vehicles fueled by biomass-fired electricity would travel 81% farther on a given crop and produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than vehicles powered by ethanol, a new study finds.
In a new study published online yesterday in the journal Science, researchers led by Elliott Campbell of the University of California, Merced modeled entire fuel systems all the way from crop cultivation to vehicle propulsion, comparing cumulative greenhouse-gas emissions for both biofuels and bioelectricity. They found that the bioelectric pathway came out ahead of both corn ethanol and advanced cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass. Read the rest of this entry »
GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily speaks to Henrik Fisker, CEO and lead designer of Fisker Automotive. Henrik Fisker is not your average green car designer. Considered something of a legend in the luxury automobile industry, the 45-year old master designer is famous for an array of well-known luxury class automobiles including the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9 and the Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Read the rest of this entry »
While domestic manufacturers have in recent years returned to the “retro” look, reigniting the nation’s passion for the muscle cars of yesteryear, the rest of the world has been giddy on egg-shaped hybrids and fuel efficiency vs horsepower.
There is an understandably large gap between the fuel-conscious and horsepower heavy crowds, but Popular Mechanics has undertaken a project to bridge that with their Eco+Muscle hybrid Dodge Challenger. Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese manufacturer Chang’An offered up this hybrid concept at the 2009 Shanghai Motor Show. Being a concept vehicle, there aren’t many details on the design outside of the aesthetics. Mostly because I don’t read Chinese.
It looks like a cross between the Batman Tumbler and the Delorean from Back to the Future, if you ask me. But the best part is the statement “Fun Hybrid Concept” which brands the rear of the car. I think they should add that to the Prius!
Gas 2.0 digs into the viscous world of biofuels and the fast-paced transit arena, exploring the technologies and substances that are the future of transportation.
