Tag: HYBRID

We once asked a friend why they bought a Hummer and their response was, "If you're gonna go big, go big." Well, it seems that Raser Technologies, a company specializing in electric motoring, has taken those words to heart -- only it's going in the opposite direction. Set to be unveiled next week, the Raser H3 is a converted electrical-hybrid version of the gargantuan SUV retrofitted to get up ...

The very shoe-like 2010 Toyota Prius has made its official debut at this week's Detroit Auto Show. The company estimates it'll have a 50 MPG rating -- up from 46 MPG in the previous model -- and there's a bigger, 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine for improved highway mileage. In addition to Power and Eco driving modes, EV Drive will let you run on battery alone for about a mile, which if nothing ...

Covert photographs of an impressive new presidential vehicle have surfaced in recent days, CNN.com reports, and opinions have been spilling forth. According to CNN, online critics of the Cadillac-manufactured limousine's apparently indestructible design have named it "ugly as sin" and compared it to "an Abrams tank." Indeed, the car is stout, to say the least; its doors -- encasing windows of ...

When everyone was going hybrid, taking baby-steps toward an alternative-fueled future, Mercedes jumped into its prototype Hydrogen-powered machines and buzzed off toward the horizon. Now, perhaps realizing that it moved a bit too quickly for the distribution infrastructure to keep up, the company seems to be pulling back a bit, introducing the BlueZERO line of autos that all share the same shell ...

If the Tesla Roadster has proven anything other than the disruptive effects of a hyper-inflated ego, it's that well designed eco-vehicles will sell... at any price. Yet the general design theme amongst hybrid builders appears to be your grandfather's loafer. Honda too, just look at the FCX Clarity. So we're pretty stoked to see Honda roll out its FC Sport concept three-seater (driver ...

Yachts are usually pretty environmentally unsound, so the DSe Hybrid just debuted by Island Pilot at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show should be a real breath of fresh air (literally) if green is your thing. And apparently it's really about as eco-friendly as it gets -- using a combination of diesel, solar and electric power (when it goes into commercial production it will also boast ...

From the "We'll believe it when we see it" category comes the Autovolantor -- a car supposedly now in development that is based on the roughly $350,000 Ferrari 599 GTB. It's being developed by a company called Moller International, and here's the thing: it freaking flies. Apparently, the car will have the ability to take off vertically and hover, with eight powerful thrusters that direct air ...

We thought we had a handle on what the next-gen Prius was going to look like when we spotted those renders back in July, and Toyota's just confirmed that some press shots that leaked out last week are the real deal, not just photos of a super-high-tech sneaker. The company isn't providing any more information until the official debut at January's North American International Auto Show in ...

We've been hearing about vehicle-to-grid (V2G) for quite a while, and now a team at the University of Michigan is conducting an extensive study on the technology as part of a national sustainable energy solution. While current electric plants are good at generating power, they often fall short when it comes to storage -- which can be a problem when there's a power surge or when demand ...

Seeing that General Motors left a gaping hole of opportunity for other automakers to produce a new EV by 2010 that isn't uglier than sin itself, it's no real shock to see Chrysler champing at the bit. Just this week, the company has introduced a trio of advanced electric-drive vehicle prototypes (simply coined Chrysler EV, Jeep EV and Dodge EV for now), one of which will mysteriously surface in ...

The 2011 Chevy Volt has been officially unveiled this morning and we are pleased to note that the new pictures are much more flattering than the "glamour shots" released a week or so ago. The interior of the Volt features a driver-configurable LCD instrument display, 7-inch touch screen information display (for climate and "infotainment" control), Bluetooth, USB and optional GPS. Of course, what ...

Now that biofuels are pretty much out of the running to save our planet, the not-so-subtly-named, New York-based company called Zero Pollution Motors plans to produce a new kind of hybrid car: one that runs on compressed air and gets up to 106 miles per gallon. The car's engine would apparently work like a locomotive -- rather than steam, however, compressed air would move the pistons to propel ...

It's official public debut may still only be coming next week, but it looks like GM has finally decided to give up on the carefully-chosen teaser shots and let the hotly-anticipated Volt out in the open for all the Internet to see. No doubt to the dismay of some, the would-be next Prius sure looks a good deal different than the far more angular prototype we've all come to know over the past ...

Just imagine... You pull up to a stop light and right next to you is a delightfully smug driver in a pretty little Toyota Prius. He/she looks over with the obligatory look of self-satisfaction...and...what's this?...The driver is perplexed. That's because you are driving a hybrid that you built yourself. He/she must realize their eco-footprint, in comparison to yours, is the size of Texas ...

Toyota hasn't made a huge secret of its plans to develop and sell a plug-in version of the Prius, and it sounds like the wheels are turning a little faster than we've heard -- fleet testing of plug-in models has been pushed up to early 2009, with the goal of having "several hundred" on the road by the end of the year. Still no timetable for actual retail sales, so you'll have to be a wheelman ...