EnviroHop - A Greener Commuting News and Information Portal.

It’s kind of crazy to think just ten years ago, the SUV craze was hitting its stride. Personally, I never bought into the whole SUV craze (I like nimble vehicles, thank you). There is, however, something to say about the utility and usefulness of a good-sized SUV though, and even today, I still see plenty of these hulking behemoths on the road. So Americans still like SUV’s.

I guess it’s a good thing then that Toyota and Tesla are working together to build an all-electric version of the RAV4. Not exactly my cup of tea as far as SUV’s go, but it’s a damn popular car. Plus, it’s size means it could carry a larger battery for longer range.

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Reliable. Dependable. Boring. That is what most people have to say about their Toyotas. Ok, maybe not the third one, but anybody who is really into cars can see where I am coming from. There isn’t anything exciting or even turbocharged in the Toyota lineup. But there was a time when Toyota actually made some pretty exciting cars, like the mid-engine MR2 and the turbocharged Supra. Hell, even the Previa minivan had a supercharger and rear-wheel drive (I’m not kidding). There is the Lexus LFA, but… that doesn’t count because it’s too expensive and rare to be meaningful to the average Joe.

So when rumor has it that Toyota is working on a supercar, I get a little excited. The rumor mill has been churning out word of a Supra successor for years now, but lately the rumor mill has changed its tone. Is Toyota working on an all-electric supercar?

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On my recent trip across country, I drove on many highways across 30 different states. Every highway was a bit different, from the two lane roads in Wyoming to the massive six-lane highways outside of LA. But all of them lacked the same thing; electric vehicle chargers. That would make any cross-country trip in an electric car difficult, if not impossible. One of the few exceptions was along Highway 101, in California.

SolarCity and Rabobank, who installed the electric vehicle chargers, have gone one step further and added 200 kW worth of solar panels to these charging stations. Clean, free energy, anyone?

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I’ve got quite a few friends with motorcycles (I prefer four wheels, thank you very much). All of them share the same need for speed, so when I try to talk to them about electric motorcycles they stop listening. The truth is though, electric motorcycles are getting better by the day, and the Killacycle is just one example of how fast these bad boys can go.

One of the early contenders in the mass-market electric motorcycle arena is Brammo. They just announced an all-new motorcycle which has two things many motorcyclists are looking for; more speed and longer range.

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Replacing car batteries are a fact of life. It can be a real pain, depending on the type of car you’ve got, but these days batteries seem to last a good long time. So how long is long enough when your car runs exclusively on batteries?

Apparently GM thinks 8 years or 100,000 miles should be enough to allay the fears of early adopters for the Chevy Volt; they’ll be providing that warranty to all Volt buyers for their batteries—even Canadians will get the same warranty when the Volt goes on sale there in 2012. It’s a bold move that should help set a standard for other would-be EV makers.

The Chevy Volt may or may not be the salvation of General Motors. That said, GM has invested a LOT of resources into ensuring the Volt has a successful launch. They are planning to produce just 30,000 Volts in the first year, with production gradually ramping up if the car meets with commercial success. GM has conducted over 1 million miles of testing on the Volt, including crush tests, water submersion, cold, heat, and rough road testing. And they are confident enough to offer quite the warranty on the battery.

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Already one of Europe’s most popular cars, the diminutive and good-looking Fiat 500 just keeps getting better. It’s such a diverse platform—from the high performance, MINI-fighting Abarth edition to the recently released 50 mpg TwinAir Turbo, and there’s even hint of a fully electric version—that it seems hard to cram more options into it. But according to a report over at Auto Express, the 500 TwinAir is set to receive a hybrid electric drivetrain that will take it to an amazing 100 mpg fuel economy while reducing carbon emissions to a scant 70 g/km.

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Electric car participants line up on the grid. It’s almost sad to see the time trial winner starting a practice session behind a converted Scion. But passing practice is always fun.

When I heard about the Refuel event, a free track day and time trial at Laguna Seca, it was literally a dream come true. I have long been a devoted aficionado of the legendary corkscrew. Really, ever since I first circled the track on the back of a friend’s Yamaha R1, I have loved this track, and for years before that I admired it as a spectator. When I first started hearing about electric motorcycles, I thought, “Wow, all those golfers that decided it would be cool to live and play golf near a racetrack and then whine about the noise should pay EV owners to do track days there.” And voilá! Speed Ventures is paying (unless an appropriate sponsor steps in), but still, the entire day was FREE for all electric vehicles. And even a natural gas turbine car. And the Stanford solar trike… Basically, as long as it’s clean and silent, it’s free. Although the electric Barca-lounger remained a pit vehicle… (more…)

Around the world Mitsubishi has announced initial prices for fleet purchasers of their subcompact i-MiEV electric car that range from about $53,000 in Japan to as high as $59,000 in Germany. Given the fact that Nissan will start selling the LEAF EV this fall for $32,780 in the US, it’s clear that Mitsubishi will have to find a way to bring their prices down before the smaller i-MiEV goes on sale to the mass market at the end of 2011.

Apparently Mitsubishi has been thinking about these issues as well: their director of electric-vehicle operations, Joe Delello, now says that Mitsubishi is aiming for a final price tag that could bring the i-MiEV below $30,000 when it hits showrooms.

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Having just finished up a round of validation and testing of the Chevy Volt’s battery pack—including dunking the thing in water—GM is set to start full battery production at their Brownstown, MI, battery manufacturing facility.

In honor of the event, tomorrow, July 14, GM will be discussing a “major consumer initiative” and discussing the details of Volt battery testing to date. After the announcement, Gas 2.0 will be hosting a GM webchat with global electric vehicle executive Doug Parks and Volt marketing director Tony DiSalle to answer your questions live.

So stop back here at 4 PM Eastern/1 PM Pacific tomorrow and check it out. (more…)

As promised earlier this year, Fiat has officially adorned their beloved 500 with a brand new engine option: the 2-cylinder TwinAir.

The 85 HP, turbocharged 0.9 liter engine reportedly has the performance characteristics of a much larger 1.4 liter, 16-valve engine, but it consumes about 30% less fuel—resulting in a fuel economy of 57 mpg as rated on the combined Euro cycle. If it were sold in the U.S. and rated on the EPA cycle, that number would likely drop to around 50 mpg.

Unfortunately for now, there are no plans to sell the 85 HP TwinAir engine as an option on any of the Fiat 500’s that are rumored to be reaching U.S. shores by the end of this year.

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In the United States, Smith Electric Vehicles—headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri—is a relatively obscure commercial electric truck builder that’s only been around for a few years. But in Europe, Smith Electric Vehicles UK has been building electric vehicles for more than 80 years. In fact, they are currently the largest manufacturer of commercial electric vehicles in the world.

So it’s no surprise that a company with such a track record was chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy earlier this year to receive a $32 million dollar grant (as in never has to be paid back) to speed the deployment of demonstration commercial electric vehicles around the United States. And on Thursday (tomorrow), President Obama will be visiting the Smith Electric Vehicles plant to tout the benefits of plug-ins in our effort to wean ourselves off oil.

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Here’s one for the thinking-out-of-the-box crowd. A research team at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands have invented a type of paving material that can be mixed in with normal asphalt or concrete that actually removes some pollutants from the air as cars travel over the surface. The effect works well enough to remove some 25% to 45% of nitrogen oxides from vehicle emissions.

The best part: the material reportedly doesn’t even cost that much more than a normal roadway to construct.

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When the VW BlueSport was introduced as a concept car at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show over a year ago, the internet was abuzz with expectation that the car would see the light of day. It was clearly more than just another concept car and, unlike most concept cars, actually looked ready for production.

At the time, the car was being touted for having a 0-60 time of about 6 seconds (not bad!) and a combined fuel economy of around 40 mpg (on the Euro cycle, subtract about 15% for likely EPA ratings; ~35 mpg). And now, according to unnamed inside sources, VW has apparently had a change of heart about shelving the project due to the incredible success of VW TDIs in the U.S.

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I am well over a month into my cross country journey, and one thing I have noticed is that there is traffic congestion everywhere. It doesn’t matter what state I’ve been in, I’ve run into traffic in all of them. Traffic sucks, and it is only getting worse.

One of the cities I recently visited, Portland, Oregon, has been making moves to become more sustainable. But like many river cities, bridges are an integral part of the traffic equation. A proposal by the city council has been approved to widen six-lane I-5 bridge to Vancouver, Washington to 12 lanes. The project is called the Columbia River Crossing. It is projected to cost $3.6 billion, and in reality, will probably cost much, much more, both in actual costs and increased traffic/lost time. But I may have a better idea.

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In yet another sign of the rapidly developing electric vehicle market, Korea-based CT&T has reached a milestone in its plans to manufacture its all-electric eZONE passenger car in the U.S.  Last fall the company announced that it would build a series of factories in the U.S. based on its proprietary regional assembly and sales model, and it looks like Spartanburg County, South Carolina will host the first one.  Teamed with project management specialists 2AM Group LLC, the new factory represents an investment of $21 million that will bring 370 new jobs to the area within the next five years.

The word from CT&T’s was just one in a flurry of electric vehicle announcements last week, which included GM’s launch of a cross country tour for the Chevy Volt, the release of a sketch of BMW’s new electric car, and an announcement from Volkswagen that it will bring its E-UP! electric car to the U.S. within the next couple of years.
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General Motors is on an all-out push to ensure that its new Chevy Volt becomes the electric car of the mainstream U.S. market.  On July 1 the company launched a cross country tour introducing American communities to the car from Austin, Texas to New York, New York.  It’s pretty clear that the symbolism-freighted trip is designed to spur U.S. car buyers to hop aboard a revolutionary change in passenger car technology: the route covers 1,776 miles on a journey timed to end today,  Independence Day.

The reference to the American Revolution also shows that GM is right up in the grill of any skeptics who still doubt the viability of  an electric car in the U.S. market.  After all, the world pretty much figured that the American experiment in self-government was doomed to fail and hey, 234 years later we are still proving them wrong.  The choice of Austin and New York City as bookends is no accident, either.  It’s a pretty clear indication that GM’s mainstream market includes everybody no matter where they live, without dividing the country into “real Americans” and whoever else.
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Back in April we brought you news that BMW’s first full production (sadly the Mini E was just an experiment) electric car—the Megacity—will be hitting the market in 2013. The car will make extensive use of carbon fiber to decrease weight and increase structural rigidity. BMW also said it would be of a striking design, although at the time there were no pictures to back up this claim.

Well, now there are. BMW has released a teaser concept sketch of what the Megacity might look like… and man is it different than any BMW I’ve ever seen.

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After an introducion at last year’s Frankfurt Auto Show, Volkswagen gave strong hints that their cute and modern E-Up! minicar would see production by 2013. There was no word on how much it would cost or where, exactly, it would be sold, but the reactions to the car were solid enough that it seemed like a sure thing. Later reports even seemed to indicate that the E-Up! was specifically tagged for the US market.

But recently it seemed that VW had killed off the idea of creating a niche market city EV in favor of producing and electric Golf in its stead. Well, fire up the rumormill again, it seems that Automobile Magazine has some sort of inside line into the workings of the VW EV program, and, although the combustion engined Up! won’t be sold in the United States, the E-Up! will make it here by 2013.

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GM CEO Ed Whitacre is speaking live at an event in Austin, TX, right now, following a week of Chevy Volt testing in the, uh, rather different Texas community… well, different from the rest of Texas anyway.

After that, Volt Marketing Director Tony DiSalle will be taking your typed questions about the Volt’s roll out strategy in a live video webchat starting at 4 PM Eastern. Although we can’t host Ed Whitacre’s live video stream—which you can watch over at ChevroletVoltage—we will be co-hosting the webchat here at Gas 2.0.

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The first day of trading for the first American auto manufacturer to go public since Ford did in 1956 ended with a bang. After selling 13.3 million shares at 17 bucks a pop for a $226 million haul, Tesla’s stock surged steadily over the day to close up more than 40% at $23.89 per share. This is made even more impressive by the fact that the rest of the market sunk drastically. In fact, Tesla was the largest gainer on the NASDAQ today.

Not bad for a company that has yet to turn a profit and doesn’t even have any hope to do so until 2012, when its Model S “family sedan” goes on sale for $50,000.

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