Friday, March 12, 2010

Gas 2.0

Gas 2.0

UK To Invest About $45 Billion In High Speed Rail

Posted: 12 Mar 2010 12:14 PM PST

Recently, President Obama announced the first round of funding to get high-speed rail developed here in the United States. The total investment came to about $8 billion, spread out across the country from the Northeast to California. It is really nothing but a drop in the bucket when you tally the total required investment; California’s proposed high-speed rail alone could cost $40 billion or more.

Over in the UK though, the government has proposed to drop a whooping £30 Billion (about $45 billion US) into developing high-speed rail across the country. And if anyplace needs high-speed rail, it is definitely the UK.

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Exxon Doesn’t Think Natural Gas Vehicles Will Work

Posted: 12 Mar 2010 10:31 AM PST

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, said that he doesn’t think using compressed natural gas (CNG) in vehicles makes much sense.

While he sees a dramatically increasing demand for CNG in other applications such as centralized power generation, he said that it takes such a huge investment to convert fueling stations and cars (especially long haul trucks) over to CNG, that it just doesn’t pencil out.

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LG Chem to Build $300 Million Battery Plant in Michigan

Posted: 12 Mar 2010 09:57 AM PST

While it’s long been known that LG Chem — and it’s Michigan-based subsidiary, Compact Power Inc. — were chosen to build the cells for the Chevy Volt’s lithium-ion battery packs, up till now most of the research, refinement and production of those cells has been done in Korea.

LG Chem has been hinting for over a year that all of that battery cell production will eventually shift to the US. Today the company revealed that they’ve chosen to invest $300 million in a Holland, Michigan battery plant capable of suppling cells for more than 50,000 plug-in cars per year. The plant is expected to employ over 400 workers by 2013.

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Nissan Could Bring NV200 Compact Minivan To U.S. – May Include Electric Version

Posted: 12 Mar 2010 02:05 AM PST

Are vans suddenly cool again, or did I just miss the memo?

For a while there it seemed like the van, especially the minivan, was on its way out. Just look at Ford and GM’s lineups… no more mini-vans. But Ford has started importing the Transit Connect, and plans to introduce an electric version at the end of this year. Not to be outdone, Nissan announced the NV200 van at the Tokyo Auto Show last year, and said it could come to U.S. shores not too far in the future — and an all-electric version could follow thereafter.

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Ford’s New Super Duty Diesel Pickup Is Its Cleanest Ever

Posted: 12 Mar 2010 01:00 AM PST

If you don’t like big trucks loaded with torque, you should just stop reading now.

But if you’re like me, you love you some torque and towing capacity. The 2011 Ford Super Duty truck has best in class towing capacity and payload hauling, as well as two new engines; a 6.2 liter gas engine good for 405 horsepower and 385 ft-lbs of torque, and a new Powerstroke diesel that makes 390 horsepower and a mammoth 735 ft-lbs of torque. Even more impressive? It is the cleanest diesel Ford has ever put into a truck. How awesome is that?

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Fisker Says It Could Build 100,000 Electric Cars Annually At Delaware Plant

Posted: 12 Mar 2010 12:00 AM PST

Fisker Automotive is one of the electric car hopefuls that has won many of us over with their sleek, sexy visions of what an electric car should look like. The company has received hundreds of millions in government funding, and recently acquired an old GM plant in Delaware which they are retooling to produce their Karma plug-in sedan and an as-of-yet unnamed, “lower cost” sedan.

During a recent presentation at the New Castle Chamber of Commerce, Fisker spoke about the progress of the plant and their future plans. This includes hopefully producing around 100,000 plug-in electric vehicles per year by 2014.

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