Gas 2.0

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• California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project Launches Today; Save $5,000 On an Electric Car
• Butanol To Join American Le Mans List Of Approved Fuels
• Biodegradable Motor Oil To Be Run In Formula Race Car
• Silicon-Based Lithium-Ion Batteries with 10X Capacity Edge Closer to Reality
• Ferrari Video: Under the Hood With the 599 HY-KERS Hybrid System
• California Will Change “Cool Cars” Law in Response to Police Concerns

California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project Launches Today; Save $5,000 On an Electric Car Posted: 15 Mar 2010 02:41 PM PDT Is the Golden State getting ahead of itself? Starting today, the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project will offer financial incentives of up to $20,000 towards the purchase of a new, zero-emissions and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Cars like the all-electric Tesla Roadster qualify for a $5,000 rebate, and the money can be applied towards passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and neighborhood-electric cars. But are there really enough such vehicles to justify the $4.1 million program at a time when many state governments are tightening the fiscal belt? (more…)

Butanol To Join American Le Mans List Of Approved Fuels Posted: 15 Mar 2010 02:30 PM PDT As we get close to the American Le Mans series opener at Sebring, the racing news is getting piled on. So, just one more Le Mans post today, I swear! The American Le Mans Series bills itself as “The Global Leader of Green Racing,” and they’ve got a good bit of street cred to back that up. Some of their teams now use biodegradable motor oil, and the series already has four alternatives to pure petrol power: E-85, E-10, low-sulfur diesel, and hybrid-electric. Well now you can add isobutanol to that last, as it will be running in the Dyson-Mazda Lola prototype cars this weekend. (more…)

Biodegradable Motor Oil To Be Run In Formula Race Car Posted: 15 Mar 2010 01:48 PM PDT Like it or not, we are still stuck with the internal combustion engine for some years to come. That means in addition to gas, we need lots and lots of engine oil to keep our metal bits well lubed. As someone who changes his own oil, I’ve had my fair share of grimy, oily messes to clean up, and I know it is no good for myself or the environment. But a new meat fat-based bio-oil could soon replace that black stuff we pump up from the ground so vigorously. Called G-Oil, it will make its racing debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring race this coming weekend as the official motor oil of the American Le Mans Series. (more…)

Silicon-Based Lithium-Ion Batteries with 10X Capacity Edge Closer to Reality Posted: 15 Mar 2010 12:12 PM PDT Over the past three years, the idea of using silicon in lithium-ion batteries to greatly increase energy storage capacity has been an on-again, off-again proposition. But some new announcements by different groups of researchers working on silicon-based lithium-ion batteries indicate that silicon may well be a viable charge-holding battery material. If so, electric cars with a thousand miles of range are in striking distance. (more…)

Ferrari Video: Under the Hood With the 599 HY-KERS Hybrid System Posted: 15 Mar 2010 11:01 AM PDT Earlier this month, Chris brought you the official Geneva Auto Show unveiling of the Ferrari 599 HY-KERS hybrid show car. Although not as breathtaking or groundbreaking as the Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid unveiled at the same show (Ferrari must have been cursing under their breath at having the limelight stolen), the 599 HY-KERS is also an impressive work of engineering. (more…)

California Will Change “Cool Cars” Law in Response to Police Concerns Posted: 15 Mar 2010 10:37 AM PDT Just a few weeks ago I brought you word that more than a half dozen of California’s largest and most influential police, safety and transportation associations had serious issues with California’s “Cool Cars” law because of concerns about everything from tracking of GPS braceleted criminals, to the ability of those EZ Pass tollbooths to operate, to the functioning of cell phones in emergencies. Those associations wrote letters to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) explaining their positions and imploring CARB to reconsider. The “Cool Cars” rules are set to be finalized on May 7, making the last ditch effort by these associations even more interesting. It now appears that CARB has taken the warning seriously, and will be amending the rules in some major way to address the concerns prior to the May 7 deadline. (more…)

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