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The Porsche Panamera caused quite an uproar when the German auto manufacturer first unveiled it a few years ago. A four door Porsche? Madness! Worse than a Porsche SUV! Still, after the car was a hit with many reviewers, and pitchfork-armed Porsche mobs settled done and enjoyed the car for what it is; an overpriced, fast, four-door sedan.

Now word has come down that Porsche is planning to make the Panamera into a hybrid. Grab your pitchforks!

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When President Obama came into office, he brought with him promises for new alternative energy vehicles including EV’s. He wants 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015, a goal easily achievable. Additionally, the Obama administration threw billions of dollars at electric vehicle and other alternative energy startups. But has the spigot been turned off?

Not quite. A new energy bill making the rounds in Congress would allocate $4 billion for natural gas vehicles… and just $400 million for EV’s. Has the tide turned against electric cars yet again?

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After teasing us for weeks, Ford has finally unveiled the 2011 Ford Explorer. The vanguard of the gas-guzzling SUV movement has been reimagined and redesigned as a vehicle that promotes fuel economy and the ability to handle a veritable boatload of passengers. It comes with two engines, a standard V6 and the pricier 4-cylinder EcoBoost engine, a new “terrain management system”, and a host of high-tech features on the interior.

I’ve had a few days to let the deluge of information on the new Explorer sink in, but there is still one nagging question in my mind; is this a crossover, or an SUV?

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Ever hear of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles? Neither have I. In fact, when the program came into existence under President Clinton in 1993, I was just 7 years old. I knew nothing of cars or fuel efficiency. This program involved the three major U.S. automakers and eight Federal Agencies. The initiative was to produce several high-mileage concept cars to be put into production by 2003, and each of the automakers deliver. GM came up with the Precept, Chrysler the ESX II, and Ford developed the Prodigy. Each was a hybrid vehicle capable of delivering about 80 mpg.

The Ford Prodigy is heading to auction next month in Monterey, California. So why haven’t I ever heard of it before?

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There has been so much speculation surrounding the Chevy Volt’s eventual price, that I’m just going to cut to the chase. GM has placed an official price on the Chevy Volt, its plug-in hybrid with a 40 mile all-electric range: $41,000. That is before any tax incentives, like the $7,500 Federal tax credit, (which would take the price down to about $33,500). This is pretty much what everybody was guessing the Volt would cost, so is it really any surprise?

The Volt will come with lots of standard features as well as add-ons, to a top-price of around $44,000. Even with tax incentives, the four-passenger Volt will be about $8,000-10,000 more than its nearest competitor, the Nissan LEAF. Yet GM says there is”no competitor”. O RLY?

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As much as I love driving, I know a lot of people aren’t all that fond of it. Need proof? Look at all the people who talk, text, read, or are otherwise distracted from driving behind the wheel. The Next Great Thing just might be cars that drive themselves, as so many sci-fi films have teased us with. The idea may still be rather far off, but a team of Italian engineers is taking a big step towards the future with a long-term, self-powered test of driverless capabilities.

Two pairs of vans, powered by the sun, will trek from Italy to China during a 3-month excursion to test the capabilities of self-driving technology. Will they make it?

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The most exciting story of the ePower electric motorcycle race, in my opinion, is not the state-of-the-art ultra-mega high-tech MotoCzysz E1PC win. To me, it’s actually Lighting Motor’s second place bike that I find more interesting. I deeply admire Czysz’s commitment and his ability to bring this industry to the next level, as demonstrated with their record-breaking win at the 2010 IOM TT Zero. But what’s so interesting about the Lightning is the progress the team has made since the TTXGP season opener back in May. In just two months, they have taken a bike with a CAR motor that could not make it through a corner without bottoming out, and made it into a lean, mean, Corkscrew racing machine. This bike has undergone the sort of suspension and weight distribution development only possible in race conditions. The bike handled so much better in this race, even claiming pole position with a 1:45, over Czysz’s 1:47. (more…)

America’s roads, especially around metropolitan areas, have long exceeded their capacity to move people and cargo efficiently. Having spent 3 hours on a six-lane super highway in SoCal to go just 60 miles, I now understand that better than ever. Part of the problem is all those long-haul trucks. They take up the space of four or five cars, get terrible gas mileage, and when they have an accident, it usually shuts down the highway. There has to be a better way.

And there just might. The Department of Transportation is working on an idea to promote marine highways. The idea is that smaller cargo ships could transport large loads longer distances, taking long haul trucks off the road. Could it work?

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What a difference a year makes. Just before Chrysler went bankrupt, I remember them rolling all of these could-be electric vehicles out. After all, green was in, and Chrysler needed to make itself look viable in the eyes of their savior, the Federal Government. So they gave us an electric Wrangler, a hybrid aspen, and the Dodge Circuit, a Lotus-based EV sports car. Dodge was so serious, they even made an EV division called ENVI to exclusively work on electric vehicles.

Enter 2010. ENVI is dead, all of Chrysler’s hybrids have been swept under the rug, and their plans for electric vehicles canceled. Bailout money well spent?

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Unlike many of my fellow gearheads, I’ve come to realize just how much potential for performance is locked away within electric vehicles. Major manufacturers have made the mistake of assuming only the eco-conscious care about electric cars. But if the Tesla Roadster proves anything, it is that there is a market for electric performance cars.

Looking for proof? Well last week Kleenspeed, an electric car startup based in Moffet Field, California, took to the famous Laguna Seca raceway where he set a new track record of 94 mph, beating its own previous record of 93 mph.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Although news of this amazing new production sportbike has been making its way around the internet, Brammo chose to officially unveil the Empulse this past weekend at Laguna Seca, in conjunction with the MotoGP race and the FIM’s American ePower round. The first thing I noticed, apart from its tough, sexy styling, is the oil cooler. Oil? OK, not oil as such, but this e-bike is indeed liquid-cooled, thus preparing it very well for a life lived in high speed.

The biggest issue with racing electric bikes, when using “off-the-shelf” electric motors, is that they tend to overheat, as they were never intended to be used in such an extreme way. We saw this in the Infineon round of the TTXGP, as it was the beginning of the season and the learning curve. However, Brammo has developed this motor themselves, specifically for the Empulse. Thus, it should do fine in racing conditions. Unfortunately, we didn’t find out this weekend, as they pulled out of the race. (more…)

In case you’ve been wondering why I’ve been so silent about the TTXGP recently, it’s only because I haven’t been able to make it to any more of the races. I prefer writing about events and rides I actually participate in. But since I’m at Laguna Seca, looking forward to watching Brammo unveil their new Empulse later today, and the FIM’s ePower race on Sunday, I thought this would be a good time to recap what’s been going on in the world of TTXGP, the original electric motorcycle racing series.

After Infineon, the teams made their way to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for Round 2. This round was won by Michael Barnes on the EV1-powered bike that had taken 2nd place at Round 1. Full race report here. Round 3 took them north of the border to Mosport, in Canada. Barnes again took the lead, and Jennifer Bromme on the Mavizen took her first podium, finishing 3rd after two consecutive 4th place finishes. Full race report for Round 3 here. The final US round will be at Virginia International Raceway on August 15th in conjunction with the AMA races. The winner of the US series will be crowned and the teams will then relax until the international championship in October.

In the UK TTXGP, Rounds 1 and 2 have shown tight racing between the Agni-powered leaders, sure to continue through the season.  Round 3 will be held at Donington Park Raceway on August 22nd, with the final round at Brands Hatch. In Italy, we reported when writing about the eCRP, the championship will begin August 29th at Mugello. Full Italian schedule here, so you can plan your vacation wisely.

The TTXGP’s eGrandPrix TV website does include some full race videos, but races will also be aired in the US on Speed2 (an online channel under development) and in the UK on ESPN. Check TTXGP’s news site for all the latest news.

Photos Courtesy eGrandPrix with Permission

As part of a new campaign launched by Toyota of Sweden, the company is asking all drivers, regardless of their allegiance to the Toyota brand, to imagine that they have a cup of water on their dashboard when driving. In so doing, Toyota says you can lower your fuel consumption by 10%.

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For whatever reason, eco-designers seem to have this obsession with environmentally-sound air ships. Are the 1930’s back in vogue? Are there still people out there banking on a comeback for the zeppelin? Apparently so, because I have come across yet another eco-conscious air ship that looks good on paper, and likely won’t ever be more than a twinkle in the designer’s eye.

Called the Eunoia, this helium-lifted airship would be powered by thousands of solar panels and made from reclaimed materials. Looks pretty sleek though, no?

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Ever get on a bus or train, only to wonder exactly when the last time this vehicle was serviced for regular maintenance? If so, you’re not alone. It is no secret that America’s bridges, roads, and public transportation systems are falling into a state of disrepair. Indeed, over 150,000 bridges alone are “structurally deficient” which basically means they aren’t up to snuff. Neither are the nation’s trains or railroads.

The Federal Transit Administration estimates that it would take over $77 billion to bring all the nation’s buses and trains into a state of “good repair”, and it would cost another $14 billion every year to maintain them. This is why we need more electric vehicles.

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Given the major shift in consumer attitude towards fuel economy over the last few years, and the fact that auto makers’ fleets will now have to average 35.5 mpg by 2016 due to new regulations, it isn’t surprising that a car company would want to introduce more and more competitive, high mileage vehicles. But there’s a difference between simply adding more of those vehicles to your fleet, and adding them in a way that makes it almost lunacy to not buy them—which is exactly what Ford has gone and done with their 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid.

Built to compete with the likes of other high end luxury brands such as Lexus, not only does the base model MKZ Hybrid come in at about $350 less than the Lexus HS 250h—which is a smaller,  less well-appointed, and, arguably, uglier car—as Ford announced today, the base MKZ Hybrid will also compete directly with its non-hybrid cousin because, at $35,180, it will cost exactly the same as the base V6 MKZ.

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Hybrid cars are selling like hot cakes in America, Europe, and Japan, thanks in large part to generous government subsidies and tax cuts. That is why there are so many Toyota Prius’ on the road today (though the tax breaks for those cars have long since expired in America). While demand seems to have kept up here in America, in Japan Toyota is expecting a different story.

Reports indicate that Toyota may be getting ready to stunt production by as much as 20%, or  to less than 12,000 cars per day, as generous Japanese eco-car subsidies come to an end.

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It is no secret that Toyota dominates the hybrid industry, all on the back of a single model: the Prius. Toyota has come to dominate this field so much that many other companies, including Ford, have decided to license Toyota’s technology for their own hybrids. But was it Toyota’s technology to license in the first place? That was the gist of a lawsuit field by an ex-Soviet engineer six years ago, which finally came to a conclusion recently

The result is kinda murky. Alex Severinsky will net $98 from the sale of every new Toyota hybrid vehicle, while Toyota gets to claim that its hybrid technology was developed parallel to Severinsky’s but was not stolen from him. Law is weird.

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I’m not much of a fan of scooters. I prefer vehicles to have four wheels rather than too, and scooters always struck me as kinda geeky. Anybody who knows me knows I am geeky enough without having to broadcast it to the world. Scooters aren’t all that popular in America, but all over the world they serve as the primary form of transportation for literally hundreds of millions of people. Getting a cheap electric scooter to the masses would take a big chunk out of carbon emissions.

While such a scooter is still far away, there are a lot of good ideas out there that may one day be viable. Take this sleek, black electric scooter with a solar shell that doubles as a cover. It might be the most badass-looking scooter ever conceived.

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It is no secret that I get excited about auto racing. One of my favorite racing series is the American Le Mans (ALMS), which pits many factory-based cars against each other on some of the best tracks in the country. This weekend the race is coming to my home state of Connecticut (yes, I will be there), and it gets double points for being a race series with some exceptional green credibility. From using synthetic oil made from animal fat to encouraging racers to explore and use alternative fuels, the ALMS is influencing the way a lot of other race series look at alternatives to petrol power.

Porsche, who earlier this year unveiled a flywheel-hybrid 911 GT3 R, announced today that that car will run in the last race of the ALMS series. Are they planning on tackling the whole series next season?

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