Mercedes-Benz is Going Green By 2015!

In less than 7 years, Mercedes-Benz plans to ditch petroleum-powered vehicles from its lineup. Focusing on electric, fuel cell, and biofuels, the company is revving up research in alternative fuel sources and efficiency. Mercedes is looking into electric vehicles, both battery powered and fuel cell powered. Not only are models in development, but we’ve also seen the company making steps towards their zero petroleum goal right now, from better cabs in London to Li-Ion battery improvements. Commercialy available zero petroleum vehicles will be available starting in 2010.

While this is an impressive announcement, I'll wait until I hear more details before I get downright giddy. I do think we're starting to see a fundemental change in the attitudes of the automakers as a whole. We are starting to see degrees of seperation between the auto industry and big oil. It would appear that a huge lobbying war in Washington is underway as the two industries jockey to get favorable legislation. In one sense, we live in exciting times where the business landscape is changing, but the other side of that is the slow and agonizing process of change, inhibited by the unwillingness of old businesses to sucumb to the new ones. In the end, nothing much will really change. It's just a re-shuffling of wealth and power at the top of the food chain that has no financial benefit for the average person.

EcoGeek - Technology for the Environment

Hungarian Moped Car Gets 150mpg!

Hungary is not the first place that comes to mind when thinking about cutting edge green vehicles, yet. If the creators of the Antro Solo have their way, the country will be synonymous with green machines by 2012. The Antro Solo is a solar, human and gas-electric hybrid vehicle. It looks like nothing else out there, and has a fuel efficiency of more than 150 miles per gallon

Inhabitat : Antro Solo gets 150mpg

I'm pretty sure that I don't want to spill out of a bar at 2:30am, in the middle of February, when it's 2o below zero to find out I need to peddle my car home.

All jokes aside, this is a novel approach to maximizing efficiency. The choice of materials and blending of technologies could prove to be a blueprint for others looking to squeeze every ounce of energy from their products in a green friendly manner.

Is 100mpg an Attainable Goal?

It would seem the race is on to be the first comany to come up with an affordable vehicle that can achieve 100mpg fuel economy and emit less than 200 grams of greenhouse gases per mile. The bar has been set by the X Prize Foundation and they have ponied up a prize of $10 million dollars for the winner. One of the main stipulations is that the vehicle must be affordable to the general public. It's good to see that they realized that a $400,000 green vehicle doesn't do anybody any good if the average joe can't afford to buy one.

It would appear that the competition is heating up and there are a wide range of entries that will make this an interesting competition to watch.

While many of the competitors are focusing on hybrid-electric designs, there are many that are exploring improvements to existing diesel technologies that burn far cleaner than todays inefficient diesel engines. EcoMotors and Transonic are two companies who may soon be teaming up if they are not already. Both companies are working on 100mpg diesel tecnology, while being funded by the same venture capitalists.

With any luck, the automotive industry will be watching this competition closely to bring some of the technology that emerges to the consumer. Even the people that don't win could provide significant innovation that would lead to cleaner, greener vehicles.

I will certainly be watchinhg this competition to see what develops from it...


Company promises 100 mpg engine CNET News.com

A car engine that gets 100 miles per gallon!

Transonic is coming clean with its ambitions: it is working on a fuel injection system that will let liquid fuel cars get 100 miles a gallon.
And an engine equipped with Transonic's technology will be able to run on gas, ethanol or other types of fuel without help from batteries. In other words, a car with a Transonic-assisted engine would get as good or better mileage than a plug-in hybrid.

Transonic's goal: a car engine that gets 100 miles per gallon Tech news blog - CNET News.com

GM walks the walk on hydrogen fuel cells

General Motors looks like it is serious about this whole hydrogen fuel cell business. The company announced today that it had moved over 500 engineers from development duties over to groups focused on the production of fuel-cell-powered vehicles.

This post from Crave has some links to great information about this exciting technology.

GM walks the walk on hydrogen fuel cells

The Electric Car is Coming...

Actualy a scrapped Ford design, the Think City will reportedly be available in the US starting in 2008. For those of you who fancy an electric vehicle with refreshing Norwegian simplicity, it will be significantly cheaper than the Tesla Roadster sports car that goes for $98,000. The Think car will cost around $17,000, but consumers will have to lease the battery for an additional fee.

The Think batteries are actually made by Tesla Motors, but are used in a much more humble, practical manner.

This reminds me of the plight of the GM EV1, but with a better ending!

Tesla's Motorized Pink Bunny Slippers

The 7.5-foot slippers are each powered with a 36-volt system that uses six YellowTop 12-volt optimas. The two front wheels are driven by a 7-inch brushed DC motor from Advanced DC motors.

Not only do these puppies have a low carbon footprint they're damn fashionable. Is there a Hello Kitty model? Now that's some real alternative transportation!

The Fast and the Furry-ouss!

Hydrogen Car Hits the Market

A company called Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies introduced a retail version of their hydrogen fuel cell vehicle today.....sort of. The company builds hydrogen fuel cells for RC cars. While small in scale, the system lengthens the users drie time from 15 minutes to 60-70 minutes. A substantial increase in efficiency. Now scale that (no pun intended) to a full size vehicle and imagine the savings and environmental friendliness...

Go small or go home

Ford Announces Hydrogen-Electric Plug-in Hybrid

Ford and Airstream have partnered to build this hybrid prototype. There's no doubt which part of this project Airstream contributed, but the interesting part is this partnering of technologies. If it had its own solar charging station for the home it would have a negligible carbon footprint. Wouldn't that put a smile on the faces of Al Gore and all the Birkenstocks in Montpelier!

If you haven't noticed, I find the fact that we are openly discussing and building these new alternatives to petro-transportation, a mezmerizing one. From someone who grew up in the Hoffa-esque era of Detroit mentality, I am amazed that the auto industry is attempting to embrace new technology instead of calling Cousin Guido to "snuff it out" before it gets off the ground. Perhaps the whole drive for fuel efficiency and environmental concerns, coupled with the need to reduce foreign dependencce has finally reached critical mass. What I see now is the auto industry is trying to shape the future of energy and cash in on it. They aren't really relinqueshing control, they are just trying to reinvent the game and increase the bottom line. All the time looking like the hero.....Of course these are the same folks that berought us the K-car.

Ford Announces Hydrogen-Electric Plug-in Hybrid

Wrightspeed's X1 Electric Supercar Sparks Hybrid Dreams

SAN FRANCISCO -- A year after introducing the X1 pure-electric car prototype that blows away Ferraris in drag races, startup company Wrightspeed is seeking investment for plans to morph its demo model into a superfast production hybrid.

Wrightspeed's X1 Electric Supercar Sparks Hybrid Dreams -