Hybrid Living

Filed under: Diesel, Subaru

What Car? has a first driving impression of Subaru’s new diesel-powered Legacy. It’s the first compression ignition engine from the quirky Japanese brand. It’s not a particularly detailed review and doesn’t provide much hard data. However, according to the magazine the new engine which is available in the Legacy wagon and Outback is a gem. They like the smooth running boxer which provides respectable performance to go with it’s 41mpg (U.S.) combined EU rating. It looks like this will definitely be an engine worth waiting for when it arrives on U.S. shores in 2010.

[Source: What Car?]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: On Two Wheels, Lightweight

Tom Cruise is on the top of list to get Ducati’s new $72,500 superbike, the Desmosedici RR, which was released this week. The bike uses lightweight but strong titanium, magnesium and tres green carbon fiber. Specifically, the rear seat support is made from high-temperature resin type carbon fibre, only found in racing bikes. The tail also includes a ceramic carbon fibre composite cover, the same technology used in F1 cars.

Tom has received some criticism in the press recently because of a video circulating the internet. We hope being the first to own one of these limited-production (only 1,500 will be made), 200 MPH bikes will cheer Tom up a little. Enjoy the video below the fold of Tom on a bike and lots of gun play in the movie Mission Impossible 2 directed by John Woo.

Related:

• Paris Hilton: “I’m buying a hybrid car right now”
• Brad Pitt thinks BMW’s Hydrogen 7 is perfect for Ocean’s 13 premiere
• Cameron Diaz in the Tesla Roadster = porn?
• Jessica Alba drives Prius in Good Luck Chuck

[Source: ABC News]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Renault-Nissan said on Monday it signed a deal to begin mass producing electric cars as part of an Israeli-led project to develop alternative energy sources.

Renault-Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said electric vehicles will be available in Israel from 2011.

Juneau, Alaska — After eating an evening meal of fish and chips, tourists in Juneau who retire for the night at the Westmark Baranof Hotel may find themselves warming their toes in a room partially heated by the oil used to cook their food. The Baranof collects the town’s used vegetable oil to help heat the hotel.

Gulf Arab oil exporter Abu Dhabi plans to spend $15 billion in the first phase of an initiative to develop green energy and build the world’s largest hydrogen power plant, it said on Monday.

The investment would be part of the Masdar initiative, set up to develop sustainable and clean energy, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan told the World Future Energy Summit in the emirate. He gave no time frame.

Filed under: Diesel, Hybrid, Hydrogen, BMW, Geneva Motor Show

With European carmakers in particular seeming to favor blue (BlueTec, BluePerformance, AdBlue) over green lately, it appears that BMW will be showing off a new “blue” concept at the Geneva Motor Show in March. No details are available yet, but it will apparently feature Efficient Dynamics, the tag line being used by the Munich company for their efficiency- and emissions-optimizing technology. At a minimum, the vehicle will likely include start-stop and brake energy regeneration, both technologies being widely deployed on Euro-market BMWs. Beyond that, it could be a diesel or run on hydrogen, both fuels of choice for the company and may well include the two-mode hybrid system. Since BMW prefers hydrogen with internal combustion, a hydrogen two-mode is not out of the question. The possibilities are endless. We’ll see soon enough.

[Source: CarScoop]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Manufacturing/Plants, Tesla Motors

It’s a wild world out there on the interwebs, wtih a multitude of sources of information. Unfortunately the quality of those sources tends to vary quite a bit so it’s a good idea to double check stuff. Then of course there are the old fashioned typos. We’ve been known to err on occasion (or sometimes more often) around here, and we do try to correct mistakes when they are found. Given that I’ve been unaware of a particular self proclaimed “car nut” until a few hours ago, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt this time. In a post about Tesla yesterday, said nut mentioned in the title and the body a March 26 date for start of production on the Roadster. However, elsewhere in the same post is says March 17th, the date announced by Tesla last week. No mention is made of an additional delay, or reason for the discrepancy in the dates, so I’m going to guess that the author’s fingers were moving a little too fast. A call to Tesla confirmed that there has been no change in plans, St Patrick’s day is still Job 1 for series production. Of course anything can change in the next six weeks, but it hasn’t yet.

[Source: The Car Nut, via TTAC and Tesla]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Ethanol, Green Daily

Calling it “business as usual,” Casey Miner is not too impressed with the news of $1-a-gallon cellulosic ethanol that might come from the partnership between GM and Coskata. Miner’s point is that ethanol or not, we (in developed countries) still use far too many resources. Swapping gasoline for ethanol doesn’t require a shift of habits, just a way to turn some waste into fuel. Instead, it’s a greener way to do what we do now. Coskata’s CMO and vice president Wes Bolsen was quick to respond to Miner’s argument, but his defense of Coskata’s achievements – while notable – was only a feeble response to the overall discussion.

Longtime ABG readers will remember that I love the “drive less” mentality, which is really what Miner is espousing. Trading a car ride in for a bike ride reduces a lot more CO₂ than using ethanol instead of gasoline. There’s no way that GM or Bolsen or anyone will ever make that untrue.

Related:

• AutoblogGreen Q&A: Coskata CEO Bill Roe on cellulosic ethanol partnership with GM
• Detroit 2008: GM and Coskata announce worldwide cellulosic ethanol partnership

[Source: Mother Jones]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Biodiesel, Pacific Region

If you’re an unlicensed biodiesel blender in Australia, you’ll probably want to pay close attention to the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) upcoming Fuel Schemes Advisory Forum. That’s when the ATO will decide if blenders who have been adding the biofuel to diesel without paying a charge will need to pay retrospective fines. The ATO will tell the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) its decision in March.

The issue is slightly technical – are “operators that blend and store biodiesel in a depot tank [...] manufacturing an excisable product and [do they need to] hold an excise licence” – but the impact could be easily felt by smaller blenders. Right now, “the ATO does not distinguish between those that sell blended fuels and those who blend fuel to use themselves,” writes Blue’s Country Magazine. If small blenders need to pay back taxes, the ATO might set in motion “unintended consequence,” the ATA warns.

[Source: Blue's Country Magazine]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

The most expensive, carefully designed, and complicated solar panels in the world operate at about 40% efficiency. That means that, for every bit of sunlight that hits the panel, only 40% of it is turned into electricity.

Scientists think that this just just about as good as silicon panels can do, and are now looking at ways to make it cheaper, instead of making them more efficient. But suddenly, from no where, comes Steven Novack of the Idaho National Laboratories with an inexpensive, foldable solar panel that may turn out to be up to 80% efficient.

The trick is nanotechnology. The surface of the material is printed with miniscule nano-antennae that capture infra-red radiation, the kind that the sun puts out in abundance, and is even available at night. Television antennas absorbe large wavelength energy, so in order to absorb ultra-small wavelength energy (photons) they had to create ultra-small antennas.

The material is fairly simple to create, and scientists are confidient that it would scale easily out of the laboratory. But, there is a bit of a hitch, there’s currently no way to capture the energy being created.

So while there are electrons pouring out of the nano-antennas when exposed to the sun, there is no way to capture those electrons. But don’t worry, those geniuses in Idaho are working on that already. By putting a tiny capacitor, or AC/DC converter in the center of every tiny tiny antenna, theyt hink they could make this new kind of solar panel export all that energy it’s created without raising the price, or lowering the efficiency too much.

Source: Idaho National Labs via Groovy Green