At last month's Chicago Auto Show, GM added another dimension to the Chevy Volt story: the push for suppliers to develop energy-saving components in every nook and cranny of the vehicle.
A new study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University says that plug-in hybrids with 40 miles of all-electric range are less cost-effective than hybrids with smaller battery packs. This follows other recent reports of disappointing mileage from plug-in hybrid testing fleets.
Toyota’s Tetsuya Kaida has a dream job—literally. As the creator and manager of the company’s “Business Revolution Corporate Value Project” at company headquarters in Japan, he dreams up vehicle concepts such as seaweed cars, meditation chambers on wheels, and plug-in hybrid trucks inspired by gorillas.
While all eyes are on high-profile plug-in announcements from General Motors, Nissan, Toyota and others, Ford appears to be quietly inching into a leading position in the race to get electric vehicles on the market.
The economic stimulus package provides tax credits for 25-mph-max neighborhood electric vehicles, and plug-in hybrid cars that won’t be on the market for at least two years—but today’s hybrids get nothing. See our comprehensive analysis of new incentives for green cars.
Unless General Motors makes fundamental changes in its basic decision-making process, the company will be “back at the public trough again and again," according to Rob Kleinbaum, who has consulted and worked for GM for the last 24 years. According to Kleinbaum, GM has false hopes that the Chevrolet Volt will save the company. GM returns to Washington next week for more bailout money.
Plug-in America is asking for help to make sure that plug-in vehicle provisions remain in the economic stimulus package. Please join in.
The next generation of hybrid and electric cars depends on lithium ion batteries—but the world’s biggest supply of lithium is controlled by a socialist country with no great love for America.
The trash bin of car history is filled with attempts to produce an emissions-free petroleum-liberated automobile. None of worked out so far, and many people are ready to give up. That’s a shame, because the silver bullet could be standing right before us: the plug-in biofuel hybrid.
Proving that the global economic crisis can’t thwart the American entrepreneurial spirit, the South Carolina-based maker of amphibious vehicles is building a three-wheeled plug-in diesel hybrid. According to inventor John Giljam, the vehicle will have an all-electric range of 50 miles before using any liquid fuel. Based on testing of a pure diesel version that achieves more than 65 mpg, Giljam said, “We would be getting 130 to 150 miles to the gallon with the plug-in hybrid model."
