Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition parties pledged this week to spend more than $700 million by 2011 on developing electric vehicles, as it tries to put 1 million electric vehicles on German roads by 2020. The preliminary plan, still short on details, is already meeting resistance for not going far enough.
With the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill headed for a vote in the Senate sometime after Labor Day, oil and energy companies have embarked on a coordinated series of rallies aimed at derailing the environmental legislation.
General Motors announced today that it has canceled plans for a Buick plug-in hybrid crossover.
The growth of hybrid and electric cars will greatly depend on the availability of next-generation auto batteries. In a move to secure its supply of lithium ion batteries for future hybrids, Toyota will start buying batteries from Sanyo, according to Nikkei.
Ford Motor Company has developed an intelligent charging system that previews how its production vehicles will interact with the grid. The unnamed system enables all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle owners to restrict charging to when electricity prices fall below a certain threshold, or even "when the grid is using only renewable energy such as wind or solar power," according to Ford.
New nationwide laws to discourage driving while texting are in the works, but no law will stop the rapidly expanding number of electronic devices and screens from encroaching upon the driving experience. New Lexus hybrids might provide part of the solution.
When Suzuki unveiled the all-new 2010 Suzuki Kizashi sedan last month, the company promised a hybrid version in the future. Yesterday, Japan’s Nikkei reported that Suzuki will introduce the Kizashi hybrid to North American markets in 2011.
A Seattle neighborhood website reported a "rash of attacks" against Toyota Priuses. But Seattle Police were only able confirm one incident. "It doesn’t appear at this point to be any sort of pattern,” Detective Mark Jamieson told HybridCars.com.
Taking its place right next to other great existential riddles—such as “What is the sound of one hand clapping?"—GM’s claim that the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid will get 230 mpg left journalists bewildered about its meaning. Check out our favorite candidates for the best explanation of a number that defies explanation.
Economists studying government tax incentives and rebates for green cars generally agree that such programs get limited bang for the carbon buck. However, the latest wave of papers is particularly negative about the Cash for Clunkers program.
