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One of the great perpetrators of the United States’ wastefulness is urban sprawl, which leads to SOV (single occupancy vehicle) disorder. Many Americans drive to work, and we usually don’t carpool. Beyond driving to work, we use our cars for other things – soccer practice, forgotten items at the grocery store, and trips across our giant country. It doesn’t need to be that way. If we could break ourselves of this habit of hyper-convenience, we could have better bike lanes, rail, and bus systems. Or we could share our cars. Zipcar is an innovative car sharing service that prides itself upon its convenience and accessibility. We recently caught up with Zipcar spokesperson Lesley Neadel to ask a few questions about the company’s green cred.

source: Inhabitant

Who says water and electricity don’t mix? The world’s first solar-electric-diesel hybrid yacht will have you impressing the greenies at the Yacht Club and sailing the seas in style.

The Island Pilot DSe Hybrid catches rays with a 6.8 kW solar array that’ll get you to Margaritaville and back at 6 knots with zero emissions. But if the sun ain’t shining in Cocomo, you can crank up the Steyer Motors parallel hybrid system that mates a 75-horsepower diesel engine and a pair of 36-horsepower electric motors powered by a 20-kilowatt-hour battery pack.

The 40-footer was a hit at the recent Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, where it was one of several green vessels and gadgets that ranged from the Epower Marine Calypso Classic electric fishing boat to the 100 percent recyclable propellers made by Piranha Propeller.

But it was the $600,000 DSe that really wowed the crowd.

The DSe can run for as long as two hours on battery power. Kick on the diesels and she’ll cruise at 13 knots while charging the battery pack through a pair of 25-kW generators. Run the diesel engine and electric motor in tandem and she’ll hit 15 knots. (more…)

Italian scooter-maker Piaggio has unveiled a plug-in hybrid three-wheeler it says will get up to 141 mpg and could be on the road as early as next year.

The gas-electric version of Piaggio’s funky but fun MP3 scooter uses a parallel hybrid system much like that in the Toyota Prius but advances the technology by adding an electrical cord. Although Toyota, General Motors and several other automakers are developing cars that can be charged from a wall socket, Piaggio’s timeline, if met, would make it the first in the world to mass-produce a plug-in hybrid. (more…)

Recently Mercedes Benz revealed images of its stunning Formula Zero Racer, a futuristic foray into the next generation of racing. Incorporating elements from luge, yacht, and Formula One vehicles, the zero-emissions racer is propelled by a wind-catching sail in addition to electric motors that are powered by renewable resources. The concept is a tribute to a future where cars will win races based not just upon their speed, but on how energy efficient they are. Read the rest of the story: link

The transport ministry aims to introduce a system in fiscal 2010 to provide 30% of the cooling energy at New Chitose Airport terminal building in summer from snow collected in winter, ministry officials said Tuesday.

A regional office of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism collected snow last winter at the airport and confirmed that it could retain up to 45% of it by September by covering it with heat-insulating materials. It has concluded that the snow could be used to chill the liquid used in the airport’s cooling system in summer and that doing so would lead to a cut of some 2,100 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to the officials.

Links: Japan Today, Ecogeek, SnowPower

Going green doesn’t mean giving up wheel-spin-inducing, tire-shredding performance, as this 300-horsepower natural gas-burning Mustang GT proves.

German natural gas conversion specialists Green Autogas teamed up with tuning haus Rollin on Chrome to prove “green” isn’t synonymous with boring. Together they tweaked the Mustang’s 4.6-liter V8 to run on propane natural gas, then installed a body kit, carbon-fiber hood and 22-inch wheels. The lime-green paint is waaay over the top and we’re not wild about the wing, but Green Autogas is to be commended for the effort.

So is the car as green as it looks?

The CNG engine produces about 20 percent less CO2 than the gasoline engine it is based on and 95 percent less nitric nitrogen oxide (NOx) than a typical diesel, according to Motor Authority. It’s tough to put that in perspective, though, because no one’s provided fuel economy data or a cost-per-mile comparison with the stock ’stang.

Autogas isn’t the first outfit to build a green Mustang. The BioConcept Mustang built by German tuners FourMotor used a biofuel-burning 2.0-liter turbodiesel that produced 280 horsepower and 368 foot-pounds of torque. The car was good for 152.2 mph and raced in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.

As for the Autogas CNG Mustang, we’ll park it next to the sweet natural gas-burning Porsche 356 clone French boutique automaker PGO produces.

Photo: courtesy Autoblog.nl, Source: wired

Charley and Chuck Greenwood, a father-son combo, think they know the secret to the future of cars: rowing.

And they founded their company HumanCar to prove that human energy, not biofuels, is the gasoline of the future. Their Imagine_PS car seats up to four in a low-slung chassis; the passengers get to help row the lightweight car.

Think of it as an ergonomic, efficient and sneaker-saving Flintstone’s car for an oil-free future. The front two ‘drivers’ get to steer, which is done with a talented and coordinated lean.

“Body steering comes from the hips,” CEO Chuck said. “It’s just like a properly performed ski turn.”

But revolutionizing steering is not the point of these Oregon entrepreneurs. “It’s about thinking about days per life versus miles per gallon,” CEO Chuck Greenwood said.

When powered by four people rowing, the car will go about as fast as the ‘drivers’ would on bicycles, on average.

But, that’s only if they were driving in a flat city like Chicago, where the car is currently on display for two weeks during the Wired NextFest future-tech expo in Millennium Park.

For hillier locales or higher speeds, there’s electric assist motors and regenerative brakes that funnel the vehicle’s momentum back into the batteries.

The Greenwoods plan to sell Imagine_PS as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, a state-by-state designation that frees it from requirements such as air bags and in some states, even the need for a licensed driver or insurance.

But to qualify, the top speed will have to capped at around 20 mph — though the Greenwoods say the chassis can easily handle sports car speeds in excess of 100 mph.

Hear that, hot rodders?

Though not yet for sale, advanced models of the Imagine_PS for corporate campuses will be available soon for $35,000 to $50,000, while the consumer model is slated to be be priced at $15,500.

Source: Wired

Tesla Motors has released the much-awaited upgrade to the gearbox in the all-electric Roadster, and in typical Silicon Valley fashion calls it Powertrain 1.5 — even though it’s a different transmission and so ought to be called v2.0.

Nomenclature aside, the slick one-speed Borg-Warner transmission joins a stouter power inverter and revised engine in a package said to deliver 30 percent more torque and 10 percent more range. That lets the Roadster make good on its promised zero to 60 time of 4.0 seconds while squeezing 244 miles from the battery. “The new setup is superior in almost every way,” says J.B. Straubel, Tesla’s chief technology officer.

Tesla says it’s already putting Powertrain 2.0, er, 1.5, in Roadsters that have made the trip from the factory in Hethel, England to San Carlos, California, for final assembly. So what’s different about Powertrain 1.5, and what happens to the 27 people driving Roadsters with Powertrain 1.0?

The new one-speed transmission weighs 17 pounds less and creates less drag on the motor, increasing efficiency and bumping the car’s range. A revised power inverter puts out 850 amps, up from 650, and the motor had redesigned terminals to reduce resistance. It’s beefier, too, and torque rises from 211 foot-pounds to 280.

Tesla started developing Powertrain 1.5 after realizing the two-speed transmission it planned to use “had many durability, efficiency and cost challenges,” Straubel wrote on the Tesla blog. Eager to start building cars, Tesla slapped an interim one-speed transmission in the Roadster when it fired up the assembly line at the Lotus plant in Hethel, and although early reviews of those cars were positive, the stop-gap tranny significantly cut into its performance. Early adopters got a car that did zero to 60 in 5.7 seconds — about as fast as the Toyota Tundra pickup. Powertrain 1.5 cuts that to the promised 4.0 seconds, putting the Roadster on par with the Porsche 911 GT3.

Tesla’s put 27 Roadsters in driveways since production started March 17, and will retrofit every one with the new drivetrain at no charge beginning next month. Darryl Siry, vice president of sales and marketing, tells us the modular design of the Roadster’s drivetrain makes it a plug-and-play operation. “It’s a four-hour swap,” he says. “It’s not a complicated thing.”

With the drivetrain finally sorted out and the assembly line running smoothly, Tesla’s increased production from four cars a week to 10. That’s expected to double before the end of the year, then double again to 40 a week early in 2009.

“Now that we have a final powertrain design, in a matter of months there will be hundreds of Tesla Roadsters across the country,” says CEO Ze’ev Drori. “We’re heralding nothing less than a new era of the automobile.”

But what about that nomenclature? Siry says Powertrain 1.0 was the internal designation for the air-cooled motor in the Roadster, while Powertrain 2.0 refers to the liquid-cooled motor being developed for the all-electric sedan that was codenamed Whitestar (the Roadster was Blackstar) but is now called Model S.

Glad that’s cleared up.

Photo by Tesla Motors.
source: wired

So you’re a trucker stinging from high fuel prices. You don’t want to back off the hammer and double-nickel in the granny lane to save gas, nor do you want to turn off the AC in the sleeper cab on those hot Texas nights. Well, we’ve got good news for you, Rubber Duck: Peterbilt has demonstrated a big-rig fuel cell that provides the juice to provide your creature comforts when you’re parked, cutting out overnight idling and saving the motion lotion for the Big Slab.

The Pete uses a solid oxide fuel-cell auxiliary power unit (or SOFC APU, an acronym only the Army could love) from Delphi that provides 800 watts of electricity through oxidation rather than combustion. During a test in July, the truckmaker and Delphi found the fuel-cell unit could easily power the “hotel loads” — AC, radio, TV, lights and, of course, the CB) in a Peterbilt 386 (pictured) for ten hours without firing up the engine. In other words, it’s enough to keep you and your dog Fred cool and entertained while you rest up.

The fuel-cell power unit requires a starting temperature of around 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, but that’s no problem thanks to the truck’s engine. After a typical day’s haul the diesel will effortlessly bring the SOFC APU up to temp and keep all your gadgets — check out the Pete’s sleeper cab below — running on through the night. The idea was discovered by the late Delphi scientist Dr. Jerry Reed and outlined in his Department of Energy brief, “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot.”

For truckers who find themselves beyond the range of “shore power” (somewhere to plug in their traditional APU), the fuel-cell variant is an attractive alternative to idling. Peterbilt’s ComfortClass system uses charged batteries to run climate control systems and promises to reduce annual fuel consumption by eight percent, but it won’t let you listen to The Truckin’ Bozo on XM (though we’re not sure that’s such a bad thing).

Peterbilt promises the fuel cell will run off of nearly anything from natural gas to military logistics fuel, which will come as welcome relief to long-haul truckers sweltering under the growing number of idling restrictions imposed on the brave truckers of Baghdad who don’t need any more reasons to sweat. According to Delphi, the SOFC APU was installed in the Peterbilt 386 because of its already fuel-efficient performance. “It merges conventional Peterbilt styling with leading aerodynamic design and has been recognized as fuel efficient and environmentally friendly by the EPA’s SmartWay program,” according to Delphi. We tried to get a quote from C.W. McCall, but were informed that he’s not a real person.

Photos by Peterbilt.

source: Wired

Hydrogen cars get no respect. A lot of people consider them the stuff of science fiction, a technology as vaporous as the stuff that drives them. But despite some hurdles even Liu Xiang couldn’t clear — creating a fueling infrastructure comes to mind — Uncle Sam and the big automakers love hydrogen cars and are driving across the country in a fleet of them to prove they work.

Even if they’re occasionally hauled on trucks. (more…)