That Bible for smart shoppers, Consumer Reports tested a Toyota Prius that had been converted to a plug-in hybrid. Did the no-nonsense, grimly methodical magazine give the plug-in a thumbs-up? “At almost $11,000,” the magazine noted, “the plug-in conversion clearly won’t save consumers money overall”—though they deigned to declare the plug-in technology “viable.”
Indian carmaker Tata Motors will offer a micro-hybrid version of the Nano—its ultra-affordable small car—according to a leading Indian business television channel. Micro-hybrid technology allows a vehicle to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by about 5 to 10 percent. With the micro-hybrid Nano, Tata will attempt to use the auto industry’s least expensive hybrid technology in the world’s least expensive car.
Frugal and simple are the keywords for this recession-era gift-giving season. This signals the resurgence of low-tech classic toys made of wood, tin and string, which can delight just as much or more than expensive electronic and plastic toys. One of the retro classic toys—the wind-up rubber band car—points the way to low-cost energy storage strategies for hybrid cars. (Photo via flickr.)
The recently unveiled Mercedes-Benz BlueZero concept vehicles are built with the flexibility to insert electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel-cell technologies into the same vehicle design. It’s easy to dismiss the BlueZero sketches as just another cool green concept car that will never see the light of day, but it could be a glimpse into a future lineup of small Mercedes cars with varying degrees of electric power.
The green car movement has historically been comprised of many camps, each one arguing that he or she has the winning fuel or propulsion system. Yet the notion that no single solution will solve our energy and environmental problems is now gaining widespread acceptance. A smorgasbord of promising technologies was on display last week at a meeting of the Western Automotive Journalist in South San Francisco.
What will your children drive 20 years or more from now? According to one analyst, many of them are likely to take the wheel of a battery electric car.
If you've watched any cable news or read the editorial pages of a major newspaper in the past few months, you're likely to have come across advertisements energy baron T. Boone Pickens' plan to decrease America's dependency on foreign oil. One element of the plan is the promotion of a long existent but relatively unused automotive technology: engines powered by compressed natural gas.
Audi announced a 4,800-mile American driving tour, known as the Audi Mileage Marathon, yesterday in an effort to promote the arrival of the carmaker’s TDI clean-diesel technology in the US. “Think of it as the ultimate efficiency test,” said Marcel Barro, an automotive journalist and Marathon participant.
The story in yesterday’s Detroit Free Press sounded promising: A new electric car maker, with a revolutionary new electric motor, would revive the venerable Detroit Electric brand and start selling electric cars by the end of next year. The article didn’t point out, however, that Detroit Electric had already been revived once, by a California electric car company with a controversial history.
Magnussen’s Toyota of Palo Alto, Calif., took the bold step of starting to take $500 deposits for 2010 plug-in Priuses—even before a grid-capable Prius has been announced as an official product. Eric Doebert, business development manager for Magnussen’s, said, "It makes sense that people should get in line now in order to have a shot of even taking delivery in the first year that the vehicle is available."
