Renewable Gossip

A Tale Of Two Cars: Battle Of The MSRP’s

Watch any car commercial, and you will almost always see the abbreviation “MSRP” come up next to the price of the car. Many people don’t know that this stands for the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. In other words, this is what the big corporations “suggest” their dealerships sell their cars for. But dealerships are independently owned and [...]

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Report: Only Cost-Effective Hybrid is Mercedes Benz

Forget emotion for a moment. If you were to base your next new car purchase purely on logic, what would it be? If you live in America, you most likely would buy either A) a V8-powered pickup or B) a fuel efficient hybrid. Why? Because either you need to move stuff around (pickup) or just [...]

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U.S. a Likely Leader in Electric Car Market

I still find it hard to believe that mass market electric vehicles are right around the proverbial corner. In fact, until I’ve actually seen a Nissan LEAF or a Chevy Volt on the road, I refuse to be suckered in. There are people out there far more optimistic than I, however, and they see the [...]

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San Juan, Puerto Rico To Become Walkable City

It is hard to believe that just 100 years ago, most people still got around either by foot or (if they were lucky) on horseback. These days, many Americans don’t just drive cars; they couldn’t live without them. As cities continue to siphon off people from the suburbs though, many municipalities are looking for ways [...]

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GM Calls E85 ‘Our Best Near-Term Solution’

General Motors has apparently chosen E85 ethanol as the best “near-term” alternative fuel solution. In a post on GM’s FastLane blog, technical fellow Candace Wheeler, says that [...]

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Will Volkswagen Offer A Hybrid Beetle? Kansas Students Aren’t Waiting

By Larry E. Hall

Will the next New Beetle that debuts at January’s Detroit auto show take design cues from this 2005 Ragster Concept? And, will Volkswagen announce the arrival of a Hybrid Beetle?

Three weeks ago we attended a press conference at Volkswagen’s Electronics Research Lab in Palo Alto, Calif., where VW chairman Dr. Martin Winterkorn [...]

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Nein, Says Volkswagen To Diesel-Electric Hybrids

By Larry E. Hall

Forget about the possibility of the Volkswagen diesel-electric hybrid L1 Concept and its 157.8 mpg ever seeing production. In fact, don’t expect any diesel hybrids from VW.
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California Senate Gives HOV Access to Plug-in Hybrids, Extends Hybrids for 6 Months

The California Senate yesterday voted 28-3 to pass a bill to would extend the use of carpool lanes for solo hybrid drivers through June 30, 2011. The legislation, SB 535, would also provide HOV access to solo drivers of plug-in hybrids under the state’s Enhanced Advanced Technology Zero Emissions Vehicle (EAT-PZEV) designation. SB 535 [...]

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Pocono Raceway Now Powered By The Sun

Racing is not very green, and yet it continues to amaze me how many in the racing world are taking clean energy seriously. A great example is the American Le Mans Series, which continues to promote hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles at its races. Even the greenest cars can’t green a whole race track though, [...]

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Chinese “Bus” Concept Straddles Highways

I complain about traffic congestion a lot, until I am reminded that compared to some parts of the world, America has it easy. I could not imagine living in Moscow or Beijing, where four-hour traffic jams are the norm. China faces an especially daunting task as their population continues to expand and urbanize; you can [...]

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Commercial Hybrid Market Set For Big Gains In Next Six Years

I am of the opinion that to get people to “Go Green” you have to convince them it is for their benefit. Yes, saving the Earth is important, I am down with that. The fact of the matter though is that most people won’t go out of their way to save the planet unless there [...]

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Lincoln Lineup Getting Bigger By Going Smaller

It still pains me that Ford has murdered the Mercury brand. I am a die-hard Mercury enthusiast, and even though it was before my time, I’ve heard many stories about the great cars Mercury used to make. The Cougar, the Comet, the Marauder… these are cars that quickly became legends. No more Mercury though, and [...]

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Greening The Massive Government Vehicle Fleet

As part of the federal government’s policy of cutting its vehicle fleet use of petroleum by 30 % by 2020, the Department of Energy will lease 334 Ford Fusion Hybrids this year from the General Services Administration.

The General [...]

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Garbage Trucks Go Hybrid

By Larry E. Hall
Hydraulic Hybrid Developed By EPA Increases Garbage Truck Fuel Economy Up To 30 Percent
In the early morning hours across America, five days a week, an army of big-dog garbage trucks sets out to pick up our trash. They pull up, stop, idle, load and take off for the next stop, often only [...]

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Company Announces Breakthrough in Converting Plants to Gasoline in One Step

Using a recently identified gene from e. coli, researchers think they may have jumped the last hurdle in the race to create a commercially viable biofuel.

Back when biofuels were in vogue and everybody in the industry, as [...]

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Study Warns ‘Peak Coal’ Could Be Just Years Away

With electricity poised to potentially replace gasoline as the fuel that powers tomorrow’s automobiles, the question of where that power comes from is an important one. If the majority of the world’s electricity continues to come from coal, replacing internal combustion engines with lithium ion batteries will, in essence, just mean replacing one carbon-spewing combustible [...]

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GM Prices Volt At $41,000 Before Incentives, Pre-Ordering Begins Today

There has been so much speculation surrounding the Chevy Volt’s eventual price, that I’m just going to cut to the chase. GM has placed an official price on the Chevy Volt, its plug-in hybrid with a 40 mile all-electric range: $41,000. That is before any tax incentives, like the $7,500 Federal tax credit, (which would [...]

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Solar-Powered Van To Drive Itself 8,000 Miles

As much as I love driving, I know a lot of people aren’t all that fond of it. Need proof? Look at all the people who talk, text, read, or are otherwise distracted from driving behind the wheel. The Next Great Thing just might be cars that drive themselves, as so many sci-fi films have [...]

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ePower Electric Motorcycle Race at Laguna Seca

MotoCzysz’s 100-yard Dash to Victory Over Lightning
The most exciting story of the ePower electric motorcycle race, in my opinion, is not the state-of-the-art ultra-mega high-tech MotoCzysz E1PC win. To me, it’s actually Lighting Motor’s second place bike that I find more interesting. I deeply admire Czysz’s commitment and his ability to bring this industry to [...]

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The Next Step In Future Transportation: Marine Highways?

America’s roads, especially around metropolitan areas, have long exceeded their capacity to move people and cargo efficiently. Having spent 3 hours on a six-lane super highway in SoCal to go just 60 miles, I now understand that better than ever. Part of the problem is all those long-haul trucks. They take up the space of [...]

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Chevy Volt Offered at $350 Per Month, Matching Nissan LEAF Lease

General Motors announced today that the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid will be offered for sale at $41,000, or for a surprisingly low monthly lease cost of $350 per month (with a $2,500 initial payment.) The sticker price for the [...]

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With Cap and Trade Dead, What’s Left of the Energy Bill?

Before an impassioned plea from former Vice President Al Gore, the Obama Administration was reportedly ready to throw in the towel on climate legislation as early as last summer.
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AFS Trinity Awarded Patent for Ultracap Hybrids

AFS Trinity claims that its ultracapacitor technologies could push the mileage of a small plug-in hybrid SUV to [...]

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Ford Flexes Hybrid Muscles: Lincoln MKZ Hybrid to Cost the Same as Gas Version

Given the major shift in consumer attitude towards fuel economy over the last few years, and the fact that auto makers’ fleets will now have to average 35.5 mpg by 2016 due to new regulations, it isn’t surprising that a car company would want to introduce more and more competitive, high mileage vehicles. But there’s [...]

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Toyota Planning 20% Production Reduction As Hybrid Subsidies Subside

Hybrid cars are selling like hot cakes in America, Europe, and Japan, thanks in large part to generous government subsidies and tax cuts. That is why there are so many Toyota Prius’ on the road today (though the tax breaks for those cars have long since expired in America). While demand seems to have kept [...]

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