Monday, March 22, 2010

Gas 2.0

Gas 2.0

Carbon Motors’ Purpose-Built Cop Car To Use BMW Twin-Turbo Diesel Engine

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 01:03 PM PDT

Ford recently threw the veil off its Taurus Police Interceptor vehicle, joining the new Chevy Caprice and Dodge Charger in a bid to serve police officers across the US. All three cars have their own advantages and disadvantages, though one thing they all share in common is that they’re derived from production-based cars, rather than being designed from the ground-up as a cop car.

The Carbon Motors E7, on the other hand, is purpose-built to serve the needs of police. This morning, Carbon Motors and BMW announced a large order for 240,000 of BMW’s twin-turbo inline six-cylinder diesel engines. Sounds like somebody is confident their car will succeed.

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ZENN Motors and Mystery of EEStor Ultracapacitor Gets Deeper

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 12:52 PM PDT

The whole EEStor/ZENN saga is getting so ridiculous that I often find myself debating whether or not I should even cover it anymore. The (so far) mythical EESU energy storage unit that’s supposed to revolutionize personal mobility by providing instantaneous charge times in a lightweight “battery” that can take a car 700 miles on a charge has yet to see the light of day.

EEStor missed its deadline of introducing a working EESU to the world by the end of last year. When that happened I couldn’t even bring myself to write about it. It just seemed, well, pathetic.

Now ZENN Motors, the company with a huge stake in EEStor, has said they have “successfully” ceased actually building cars and laid off 15 people so that they can stop bleeding cash. All of their eggs are now in the EEStor basket.

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Electric Superbus Designed By Dutch Students Has Lofty Goals

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 12:22 PM PDT

Today’s public transit buses aren’t all that encouraging to ride. At least in my (very limited) experience, they tend to be crowded, uncomfortable, and generally unpleasant places to be. Plus, the bus goes where it wants to go, without any input from you. You are chained to the will of the public transportation system.

A group of students from the Netherlands aims to remedy the situation, as well as emissions, with an electric, high-speed Superbus. The students, from the Delff University of Technology, concieved of the project six years ago, and now they are building an actual, working demonstration vehicle. But can the Superbus live up to its lofty expectations?

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Gavin Newsom | Halfway to a Green Taxi Fleet in San Francisco

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 11:32 AM PDT

[Editor's Note: This is a guest post from San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom, who has also just announced his candidacy for California Lieutenant Governor]

Almost two years ago to the day, I sponsored a Green Taxi Law requiring San Francisco cab companies to lower their greenhouse gas emissions 20% below 1990 levels by 2012 . When I announced this goal many said it was unattainable.

We thought it was not only possible, but necessary to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, clean our air, and accelerate a new green economy.

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U.S. Gives Chrysler $48M to Develop Ram Plug-In Hybrid Pickups; Conventional Ram Hybrid Dead

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 11:14 AM PDT

On the heels of an announcement that Chrysler will be releasing an all-electric version of the Fiat 500 in the US in 2012, the company has also just let drop that the US Department of Energy (DOE) will be giving them up to $48 million to build a test fleet of 140 Ram plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs).

Chrysler claims that these Ram PHEVs will get up to 65% better fuel economy than a standard Ram pickup and have 20 miles of electric-only driving range.

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How Many Laps Can a Mustang Pace Car Go? Guess Right and You Win a Mustang

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 10:52 AM PDT

The 2011 Mustang hits showrooms soon, and there have already been thousands of orders placed for the pony car and its new power train. The V6 Mustang is proving especially popular despite the new 5.0 liter V8 engine. Part the of the reason is the V6 engine has over 300 horsepower, and still manages to get 31 MPG on the highway — the first production car ever to do so.

The V6 car paced the Food City 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway yesterday, and today Ford is launching a contest to guess how many laps the V6 Mustang can do around the same track on a single tank of gas. Guess correctly, and you could win a V6 Mustang of your own.

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It’s Official: Electric Fiat 500 Coming to the US as a Chrysler in 2012

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 10:48 AM PDT

After bringing an electric concept version of the Fiat 500 to the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year, rumors have swirled that Chrysler would eventually make the 500EV a reality. Sure enough, today Chrysler took off the wraps on their plans to bring an all-electric version of the 500 to US shores by 2012.

Will these new EV plans stick, or is it just another round of vaporware?

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