Gas 2.0
Could Mazdaspeed 3 Go Diesel?
I have a rather positive outlook on diesel engines, especially compared to many of my older contemporaries. To me diesels, are powerful, efficient, and sound a good deal cooler than most gasoline engines. Many older car buyers today though think of diesel engines as smoky, smelly, cranky old engines like those from the 1970’s and 80’s.
My how times have changed. Mazda, an automaker that prizes itself on its youthfulness, is considering adding a diesel engine to the Mazdaspeed 3. A diesel-powered performance hatchback for the youth, you say? Sign me up!
Depreciation May Hit Electric Cars Harder Than Regular Cars
In general, once you’ve bought something new, its value tends to sink the moment you take it out of the box. For a new car, the value plummets as soon as you drive it off the dealership lot. It’s called depreciation, and with cars it is especially brutal. That shiny new car you just bought for $30,000 might be worth less than $25,000 after just a week of ownership. With very few exceptions (like vintage muscle cars), most cars suffer a steep drop in value almost immediately.
This may go doubly true for electric cars it seems—at least in Europe. Mitsubishi has put out a chart to the BBC which suggests that the higher up-front costs of an electric car, plus the increased depreciation, mean in the long haul it could cost a lot more than a petrol powered car. Now why would they do that?
“Solarve” – World’s First Solar Cell-Equipped Bus
All the energy we could ever want and ever need comes from the sun. The trouble is that harnessing that energy en masse is extremely difficult given the low efficiency of current solar panels and the huge amount of area needed to harvest the sun’s power. While many people have paid out of pocket to install solar cells on their roofs, when it comes to powering transportation, we are still a long way off from driving on sun-power. Yet it seems like every day brings a new innovation.
Enter the Solarve; it’s basically a public bus with solar cells attached to the roof, it makes enough energy to power the interior lights. It is also the world’s first public transportation bus to be equipped with solar cells.
Cancelled Plug-In Hybrid Ram Pickup Caught Testing In Desert
It is hard to believe that is had been over a year since Chrysler and GM went into bankruptcy filings. Both companies have shed a tremendous about of debt, obligations, and in GM’s case, four car brands. Only in America, right? So with all that taxpayer money, you’d think we’d see some genuine innovations in terms of hybrid and electric vehicles, especially when it comes to pickups. A hybrid pickup sounds great, especially for your average small business owner, where every buck counts.
Here we see proof of taxpayer money being put hard at work, as Chrysler tests out its Ram Plug-In Hybrid pickup truck in Death Valley. Guess what? You can’t buy it. Ever. It is part of a small “demonstration fleet,” with no plans to sell such a vehicle to the general public.
Detroit News Gets it Wrong About the Honda CR-Z
Detroit News writers recently got the chance to test-drive one of Honda’s new, “fun to drive” CR-Z hybrid coupes. They wrote about their experiences, and (after they got done calling Americans overweight and shallow) they told us about Honda’s new CR-Z and its chances in the US market.
They were wrong.
Earthbound Travel Trailer Inspired By Spaceflight
So far as I know, not many people from my generation want to be astronauts. It used to be the other way around; everybody wanted to be an astronaut. While getting strapped to a giant rocket and shot into space sounds appealing, living in cramped quarters with a half-dozen other human beings for months on end doesn’t sound like much fun.
NASA engineers have, however, figured out how to maximize space and efficiency, and those efforts could help us down here on earth. One NASA engineer took his expertise and built himself a funky little travel trailer called the Cricket.
Electric VW Beetle Sets Off On Trans-Canada Trip
O Canada! Land of Maple trees, Maple syrup, and of course, the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, 13 time Stanley Cup champions. It is a vast, sparsely populated country, where the people sing show tunes with their crazy bobbing heads (at least according to South Park). The vastness certainly presents a challenge to anybody trying to cross such a huge country, and that goes doubly so for anyone with the gusto to cross it in an electric vehicle.
Yet that is what a group of students from the University of British Columbia are doing. They left Vancouver last week in their electric 1972 VW Beetle. Now that’s some moxie!
Mercedes, Working With Tesla, Will Launch A-Class Electric Car This Year
According to reports, Mercedes will introduce an all-electric version of its A-Class compact car at the 2010 Paris Auto Show in October. The A-Class E-Cell, as it’s called, will be made in a limited run of 500 units, mostly aimed at testing, and will start production early next year. Initially the car won’t be sold in showrooms, but will find its way into the hands of fleet customers and other customers that have shown an interest in plug-in vehicles.
As previously rumored, after significant investment by Daimler in Tesla, the two companies have developed the A-Class E-Cell in conjunction. In fact, it seems that most of the impetus behind the A-Class EV came from incessant and persistent pushing by Tesla to make it happen.
New Holland Rolls Out Fuel-Cell Tractor
New Holland’s revolutionary ZEV NH2 tractor will be making its North American debut at next week’s Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa… but it’s much more than a static concept: it’s a fully-functional prototype of (what New Holland hopes will be) the farm tractor of tomorrow.
More – including pictures and videos – after the jump.
Florida Researchers Moving Closer to Using Termite Guts For Better Ethanol
Last time I reported on the topic of using termite guts to make next generation cellulosic ethanol cheaper and easier, it was 2008. Back then a team of researchers from the University of Florida had just started on the path to analyzing the more than 7,000 genes associated with the production of special enzymes within the termite guts that can break down woody fibers so that the termites can digest them and use them for energy.
This process that goes on in the bellies of hundreds of millions, perhaps trillions, of termites all around the world, day-in and day-out—a process that many homeowners fear in the depths of their hearts—is exactly what the next generation ethanol crowd needs to make fuel from woody waste such as thinned forest debris and agricultural residues.
In a paper published in the journal Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the researchers are now providing an update of sorts. The researchers have reportedly found that a group of enzymes found in termite salivary glands may just do the trick.
Americans Slowly Warm to the Electric Car, Show Willingness to Try New Things
A new study published by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has found that more and more Americans are warming to the idea of driving electric vehicles, citing environmental concerns as the main reason for making the change.
Over a quarter of the people surveyed described themselves as familiar with electric cars while 42% of respondents said they were likely to follow news reports about electric vehicles. Nearly a third of respondent described themselves as familiar or very familiar with hybrid vehicles.
Of those who said they would consider buying an electric car, nearly 80% said their greatest advantage was the fact they run without gasoline, while 67% cited the reduction in pollution.
However, when it came to reasons not to buy an electric car the survey showed that a definite gap remains between the public’s perception of the accessibility and applicability or electric vehicles and the technical reality.
Buckeye Bullet Shoots to 307.7 MPH Electric Car Speed Record at Bonneville
After a groundbreaking run resulting in speeds near 300 mph on Monday, Ohio State’s “Buckeye Bullet 2.5″ EV has now claimed a new, even higher, battery-powered land speed record at the famed Bonneville Salt Flats, averaging 307.7 miles per hour for two runs on lithium-ion power.
The team was prepared to take the vehicle to even greater speeds, but a completely blown out and broken clutch kept them away from that attempt.
Morgan Planning Diesel-Electric Hybrid Car
Morgan Motor Company celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. Though the world is much different from when the company was first founded in 1909, Morgan still hand assembles every car it builds. It makes just a few hundred vehicles a year, but they are of the highest quality and are some of the most sought after cars ever built.
Despite the exclusive nature of the Morgan automobile though, the company must be admired for its ability to look forward. Hybrids, hydrogen-power, and electric cars are the future, and Morgan doesn’t plan on being left behind. They have announced that they will be building a diesel-electric hybrid car with a 1,000 mile range.
Honda Debuts Fit Hybrid; Nowhere Near 60-70 MPG as Speculated?
In preparation for its official debut at the 2010 Paris Motor Show next month, Honda released some pics and a few details for the much anticipated Honda Fit Hybrid today (called the Jazz in Europe and Japan). The car will be the first modern subcompact parallel hybrid to reach consumers since the release of the original Honda Insight back in 1999—and it is rumored to cost between $16,500 and $18,600 when it goes on sale in Japan next year. At that price it would be the cheapest hybrid available on the market.
Yet, as the news fans out on the internet today, one bit of info buried rather vaguely in the press release that hasn’t been picked up elsewhere piqued my curiosity. Up till now, speculation about the expected fuel economy of the Fit Hybrid ranged anywhere from 60-70 mpg, but according to Honda, the Fit Hybrid will have about the same fuel economy as the current Insight.
As Sales of Hybrids Slow, Toyota Cuts Back Production Target
When anybody says “hybrid”, the first car that comes to mind is the Toyota Prius. For Toyota, this is a good thing, as they have become synonymous with “green” vehicles. The Prius has dominated the hybrid car market for over a decade, and you cannot go anywhere without seeing at least a few of them in a parking lot.
Still, overall sales of hybrids have slowed as gas prices remain low. Consumers are instead, once again, turning towards pickups and SUV’s and shunning hybrids. In light of lower sales, Toyota has lowered its targeted hybrid production for 2011 from 1 million units to around 740,000.
HKS + Honda CRZ = Seriously Fun Hybrid
When Honda first announced the CRZ Hybrid, they promised a spiritual successor to the “totally 80’s” CRX Si—a car that set the standard for small, fun-to-drive commuters.
When the final production version debuted, many felt that the CRZ program had failed. The new car was slower, heavier, and fuel economy was lagging behind the 80’s CRX… not exactly a recipe for automotive fun.
ENTER: HKS (let the fun begin!).
Chevy Volt Achieves Less Than 30 MPG After Battery Depleted?
There are many things that General Motors has been incredibly forthcoming about as they’ve developed the Volt for all the world to see. Certainly no other vehicle has been the subject of so many videos and webchats detailing its trips through 2 feet of water or its visits to the arctic or some other form of vehicle torture.
But when it comes to the Volt’s real-world fuel efficiency, GM has methodically avoided comment. Now, thanks to the keen eyes of some web denizens, it appears that one video shot by a Volt test driver shows that the Volt achieves less than 30 mpg after the battery has been depleted—in what’s called charge-sustaining mode. Given that the Prius is capable of obtaining 50 mpg on average, the revelation is rather shocking.
Peugeot Unveils 3008 HYbrid4, World’s First Production Diesel Hybrid
Although Peugeot’s frequent collaborator, Mini, has chosen to forgo the hybrid-diesel system in favor of improving engine fuel economy in more mundane manners, Peugeot is full steam ahead with their rather interesting take on hybrid technology.
The 3008 HYbrid4 won’t be making its official market debut until next spring, but as the world’s first mass-market diesel hybrid—and Peugeot’s first delve into the world of hybrids—the details that Peugeot unveiled yesterday reveal a company bent on staking a claim in the rapidly expanding hybrid market.
10 Day, 60 Mile Long Traffic Jam In China
I’ve been in some pretty terrible traffic jams. It took me four hours to go just 60 miles during L.A.’s infamous rush hour, and back home in Connecticut, I-84 seems to be perpetually backed up, even on weekends. For all my bellyaching though, I usually just stick it out and try to relax while the traffic unwinds itself.
That isn’t an option for travelers southeast of China’s capital city, Beijing. For the past ten days, traffic has been piling up along the National Expressway 100 as road construction has slowed speeds to a crawl.
Efficient Three-Wheeled Motor Home Crams Civilization Into Tiny Footprint
As some of you may already know, I spent about half the summer driving around the country in an old Ford Mustang. It was an amazing experience fraught with mistakes and poorly laid plans. Next time, I will do things differently. For one, I’ll probably try to find a van or station wagon big enough to sleep in, should circumstances call for it.
Then again, maybe I’ll just buy a Buffalino. This clever little three wheeler packs an entire RV in a very small area. Designed for one person, it looks like the perfect mobile office. Just don’t expect to get anywhere in a rush.