Gas 2.0

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• GM Prices Volt At $41,000 Before Incentives, Pre-Ordering Begins Today
• Solar-Powered Van To Drive Itself 8,000 Miles
• ePower Electric Motorcycle Race at Laguna Seca
• The Next Step In Future Transportation: Marine Highways?
• Where Did All The Chrysler EVs Go?
• All Electric Race Car Beats Speed Record

GM Prices Volt At $41,000 Before Incentives, Pre-Ordering Begins Today Posted: 27 Jul 2010 01:21 PM PDT 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 take the price down to about $33,500). This is pretty much what everybody was guessing the Volt would cost, so is it really any surprise? The Volt will come with lots of standard features as well as add-ons, to a top-price of around $44,000. Even with tax incentives, the four-passenger Volt will be about $8,000-10,000 more than its nearest competitor, the Nissan LEAF. Yet GM says there is”no competitor”. O RLY? (more…)

Solar-Powered Van To Drive Itself 8,000 Miles Posted: 27 Jul 2010 01:19 PM PDT 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 teased us with. The idea may still be rather far off, but a team of Italian engineers is taking a big step towards the future with a long-term, self-powered test of driverless capabilities. Two pairs of vans, powered by the sun, will trek from Italy to China during a 3-month excursion to test the capabilities of self-driving technology. Will they make it? (more…)

ePower Electric Motorcycle Race at Laguna Seca Posted: 27 Jul 2010 01:18 PM PDT 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 the next level, as demonstrated with their record-breaking win at the 2010 IOM TT Zero. But what’s so interesting about the Lightning is the progress the team has made since the TTXGP season opener back in May. In just two months, they have taken a bike with a CAR motor that could not make it through a corner without bottoming out, and made it into a lean, mean, Corkscrew racing machine. This bike has undergone the sort of suspension and weight distribution development only possible in race conditions. The bike handled so much better in this race, even claiming pole position with a 1:45, over Czysz’s 1:47. (more…)

The Next Step In Future Transportation: Marine Highways? Posted: 27 Jul 2010 01:13 PM PDT 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 four or five cars, get terrible gas mileage, and when they have an accident, it usually shuts down the highway. There has to be a better way. And there just might. The Department of Transportation is working on an idea to promote marine highways. The idea is that smaller cargo ships could transport large loads longer distances, taking long haul trucks off the road. Could it work? (more…)

Where Did All The Chrysler EVs Go? Posted: 27 Jul 2010 01:11 PM PDT What a difference a year makes. Just before Chrysler went bankrupt, I remember them rolling all of these could-be electric vehicles out. After all, green was in, and Chrysler needed to make itself look viable in the eyes of their savior, the Federal Government. So they gave us an electric Wrangler, a hybrid aspen, and the Dodge Circuit, a Lotus-based EV sports car. Dodge was so serious, they even made an EV division called ENVI to exclusively work on electric vehicles. Enter 2010. ENVI is dead, all of Chrysler’s hybrids have been swept under the rug, and their plans for electric vehicles canceled. Bailout money well spent? (more…)

All Electric Race Car Beats Speed Record Posted: 27 Jul 2010 01:06 PM PDT Unlike many of my fellow gearheads, I’ve come to realize just how much potential for performance is locked away within electric vehicles. Major manufacturers have made the mistake of assuming only the eco-conscious care about electric cars. But if the Tesla Roadster proves anything, it is that there is a market for electric performance cars. Looking for proof? Well last week Kleenspeed, an electric car startup based in Moffet Field, California, took to the famous Laguna Seca raceway where he set a new track record of 94 mph, beating its own previous record of 93 mph. (more…)

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