The unintended (and largely unregulated) consequences of use of silver nanoparticles in a wide range of products, from sunscreens and cosmetics to antibacterial socks and underwear, is receiving some more attention. Researchers from Duke University have looked at what might be the environmental impact of these nanoparticles in a more realistic setting than the laboratory. New Scientist describes the experiment:

[The scientists] added a high dose of silver nanoparticles - 1.25... Read the full story on Planet Green

Not long ago, I wrote about how cities that open up their transit data were bringing public transportation into the 21st century and making the system better at a very low cost (they just release the data -- other people build the apps at not cost to the city). A good example of this is the new Transit Score, an online app by the people who brought us the Walk Score. They use open data to calculate a particular's spot's Transit Score. They currently cover more than 40 cities where the public transit agencies provide their data in an open format (over 100 transit agencie... Read the full story on Planet Green

Last Friday, Xcel released its much-anticipated plan for how it will comply with the Colorado clean air act signed in April: the Daily Camera reports Xcel will (if the plan is approved) stop burning coal at the Valmont power plant in Boulder by 2017, at the Cherokee plant in Denver by 2022, and at one of the units of another Denver plant by 2013. People in Boulder, where the coal plant has been the site of regular protests, say while there's room for improvement, it's at least a step forward. The shift in Colo... Read the full story on Planet Green

This post, by TreeHugger contributor Warren McLaren, is part of series about trading in your car for a bike for trips that are two miles or less in distance. It originally appeared on our sibling site, TreeHugger. The series is sponsored by the Clif 2-Mile Challenge. I was late, I was late, for a most important date. A first date, and we were catching up to see a movie by Sydney Harbour. But when I made it to the bus stop, my bus had already left. I could see it blocks away, citybound, without me. I raced up the hill back home and quickly grabbed my bike, hoping to r... Read the full story on Planet Green

Bringing technology to assist in education in developing countries has become the passion of several organizations. The most well-known project may be One Laptop Per Child, an inexpensive, energy efficient, highly durable laptop for children that can be used in impoverished areas to teach kids not only things like math and language, but also computer skills. But technology is seeping into other areas of education, and that includes using e-readers as text book libraries. Not only is the idea of bringing Kindles into classrooms growing in the states, but also in developing nations. Worldreader, a non-profit co-founded by ex-Amazon.com VP David Risher, is hoping to boost literacy rates by handin... Read the full story on Planet Green

Fifteen hours at Community Cycles and I came away not only with a thousand times more knowledge about how a bike works—and how to keep it working and fix it when it's not—but also an awesome new (to me) bike that I fixed up (mostly) myself. I enjoyed my hours as a volunteer so much that I did a few extra before going to pick out the bike I would call my own. It was a tough choice, they happened to have a few tempting bikes on hand, but this one just called out to me. It also happened to fit. I applied my newly learned skills: replaced and realigned the brakes, replaced the tires and inner tubes, adjusted some loose spokes on the wheels, did a few other minor adjustments and I rode my new bike home—complete with a patch kit, loc... Read the full story on Planet Green

Powering medical devices with energy sources other than batteries has been an area of interest for some years now. Researchers have looked at everything from harvesting kinetic energy from a person's breath to their heartbeat. But what about body heat...and what about medical devices beyond pacemakers and other implants? Scientists are experimenting with using body heat to power medical tools for hospitals with unsteady power supplies. Providing adequate health care means having access to tools like x-ray machines, yet for hospitals in rural areas or disaster zones, access to power also limits access to these important devices. One of the most reliable sources of energy then becomes sunlig... Read the full story on Planet Green

This post, by TreeHugger contributor April Streeter, is part of series about trading in your car for a bike for trips that are two miles or less in distance. It originally appeared on our sibling site, TreeHugger. The series is sponsored by the Clif 2-Mile Challenge. Sometimes cyclists in their eagerness to spread the gospel of biking forget a few of the basics of human nature. We tell people, even brag about, how fantastic cycling is, forgetting that nobody radically changes their lifestyle or ... Read the full story on Planet Green

Exciting news from the usually-unexciting appliance industry: the Energy Efficient and Smart Appliance Agreement of 2010 was signed this week. In it is a call for new national minimum efficiency standards as well as tax credits for highly efficient appliances, and "smart grid readiness" to be included in the Energy Star qualification. Refrigerators, freezers, clothes washers, clothes dryers, dishwashers and room air conditioners are all covered. Major appliance manufacturers are on board, and so are environmental groups including NRDC and Earthjustice. The agreement is exciting because it will not only increase water and energy ef... Read the full story on Planet Green

With a rate of 96.5 percent, Brazil is the world's leader in aluminum can recycling, and chances are high that it can reach the seemingly-unattainable 100. Compare that with 51.6 percent in the U.S. An IPS story details the success story as told by the Brazilian Aluminium Association's recycling coordinator, Henio de Nicola. He attributes the success to people thinking about the recycling process "ever since the cans first arrived in Brazil in 1989." The country has social programs that aim to educate the public on environmental issues, and a strong contingent of people (more than 180,000) who collect cans all over th... Read the full story on Planet Green

The BBC shed some light today on the ongoing problem of electronic waste. Old electronics are still being exported from Europe to developing countries despite a ban on exactly that trade. The law has mitigated the flow of waste from Europe (primarily to Ghana, Nigeria, India, and Pakistan), but the story explains how the overwhelming number of shipments moving through ports everyday and certain weaknesses in the law lead some to believe that the illicit trade is flourishing. A mere one-third of electronic waste is thought to be managed according to Read the full story on Planet Green

To make the world greener, we need better ways for people to move around. We can't keep relying on the automobile, especially when it comes to commuting and moving around in dense urban areas. Public transportation is the best alternative, but for it to do the job it needs to be more effective than what we have now in most of the U.S. This will require big investments into new infrastructure, but money's not everything. One free way to make the system better is to open up the databases of transportation agencies and allow others to find new ways to do useful things with the data. This might seem like a small thing, but check out the great video below by our friends at Streetfilms to see how big a differenc... Read the full story on Planet Green

We as a society are addicted to our cell phones. And that's pretty scary when we often don't know what's in them. Cara wrote that in 2009, two groups of researchers looked at 25 studies of cell phone users and found a 50 to 90 percent increased risk for glioma and acoustic neuroma brain tumors. And cell phones are also hard on the planet in a big way. What infuriates me the most, is that every few years your cell stops working correctly or goes out-of-date and then everyone buys a new one. What's more, every time you buy a new cell phone it comes with a new charger for your home ... Read the full story on Planet Green

This post, by TreeHugger contributor Warren McLaren, is part of series about trading in your car for a bike for trips that are two miles or less in distance. It originally appeared on our sibling site, TreeHugger. The series is sponsored by the Clif 2-Mile Challenge. For longer than I care to remember I've been a cycle commuter. For short to medium distances I can't think of a better way to travel. I lived on the inner city fringe for roughly 20 years. For half of that time I didn't own a car. I rode everywhere, for everything. To work, to play, to study, to lecture, to sho... Read the full story on Planet Green

The energy bill that was introduced to the U.S. Senate a couple of days ago (there's a PDF of the text here) is flawed for many reasons, and pundits on all sides will gladly explain you why. But there's one omission that doesn't get nearly enough press, and it is the fact that the bill doesn't contain any money for public transportation and the improved urban planning that goes with it. If there's one thing that could improve energy use in the U.S., it's fast and modern public transportation (f.ex. more than 90% of trips are made using transit in Hong Kong). So much energy ... Read the full story on Planet Green

This post, by TreeHugger contributor April Streeter, is part of series about trading in your car for a bike for trips that are two miles or less in distance. It originally appeared on our sibling site, TreeHugger. The series is sponsored by the Clif 2-Mile Challenge. Since a car-crushing accident in 2006, our family went car-free first in Gothenburg, Sweden and now Portland, Ore., and I thought I'd never look back. But a gift horse -- free use of a car all summer long -- has tu... Read the full story on Planet Green

Toronto, Canada has been seeing an explosion of urban cycling lately. The city is trying to adapt, but political gridlock has seen the addition of maybe inches of bikelanes each year, the main streets are full of streetcar tracks and the drivers are not used to sharing the road. Biking Toronto has prepared an interesting list of secrets that we will share, with a bit of commentary: Drivers Don’t Want to Kill You Sounds like an odd secret, but they have a point. "The vast majority of drivers don’t want to kill you… they just don’t understand you. As well, the very LAST thing 99.99% of drivers want to do ... Read the full story on Planet Green

Until we can cure the diseases of aging and reverse the metabolic damage that accumulates throughout our lives (some people are working on this), people will keep getting frail as they age. This will be an especially big problem in many of the richer countries (Europe, Japan, U.S.) where a large fraction of the population is reaching the age at which many types of illnesses are starting to appear. One problem with this is that over the past 100 years, we've designed most of our cities and suburbs around the automobile. This means that when someone gets sick or starts to have vision or coordination problems, they have to make a choice between giving up their car and losing their independence, or keeping driving, which can be unsafe f... Read the full story on Planet Green

This post is part of our Better Biking feature, a discussion of many of the ways that we can engage in two-wheeled transport a little more effectively. Stay tuned for more! Getting around by bike can be a challenge if you're not used to it, especially in cities that are less than bike-friendly. Team !ola has launched the Campaign for Better Biking, which seeks to skip the "demand Read the full story on Planet Green

If our future is to be green and sustainable for our planet's ecosystems (and us), public transit will have to play a bigger role. It's simply a more efficient way to get large amounts of people around, especially for commuting in and out of cities during rush hour. But optimizing large and complex networks of trains and buses isn't as easy as it might seem. There are lots of moving pieces, and one small delay for one vehicle can snowball into a system-wide delay. The longer the average delay is, the less attractive transit becomes to commuters who need to know they can count on getting to work on time. EU Research to the Rescue Thankfully, in the past years a lot of progress has been made on this type of real-world problem, and more effective algorithms have bee... Read the full story on Planet Green

Tom Broadbent is an industrial design student with a rather simple but brilliant idea: capture the energy produced by falling wastewater and turn it into electricity. He designed the HighDro Power to do just that. It's a device that acts essentially like a miniature hydroelectric dam—it harnesses the energy from wastewater running down the pipes of high-rise buildings and converts it to electricity. Creative Boom has the scoop on how Broadbent carried the HighDro Power from idea to reality:

To make a working prototype of the design, Tom used rapid prototyping technique... Read the full story on Planet Green

Imagine wearing a shirt that can act as a microphone for the world around you, or monitor your health by listening to your heart rate and blood flow. Or a piece of mesh that can float on in the ocean for sonar imaging or monitoring marine activities. Researchers from MIT have developed the next generation of fabric that offers practically limitless possibilities for taking in acoustic data from the surrounding environment. Woven fibers that can "hear" and "sing" could change the way we use fabrics to interact with our environment. MIT reports that Yoel Fink, an associate professor of materials science and principal investigator at MIT's Research Lab of Electronics, and his collaborators have hit a new milestone on... Read the full story on Planet Green

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, MPG, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

Given that the traditional four-stroke Otto-cycle engine piston engine only has a thermal efficiency of 25-30 percent, there is clearly still plenty of room for improvement. While most of the green automobile attention in recent years has been focused on electrification, liquid fuels still have about 100 times the energy density of today's best lithium-ion batteries, a difference that probably won't change significantly any time in the near future.

With that in mind, there is still plenty of effort being expended on improving the humble internal combustion engine. These efforts range from completely different architectures like EcoMotors' opposed piston opposed cylinder (OPOC) to new combustion processes such as homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI). One of the more interesting combustion-related developments comes from a California-based startup known as Transonic Combustion. In 2007, the company was claiming it could get an ICE vehicle to 100 miles per gallon. A lot has happened since then, and we finally have a better idea what the company's technology is. We sat down with CEO Brian Ahlborn to learn more about what the company is working on, and you can read all about it after the jump.

Continue reading AutoblogGreen Q&A with Transonic Combustion: Can supercritical fluids give a 30% mpg boost?

AutoblogGreen Q&A with Transonic Combustion: Can supercritical fluids give a 30% mpg boost? originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Green Daily, Better Place

Over the weekend, we heard a story that the Obama Administration "may be adopting" the Better Place model of powering electric cars. We wanted to know more about what this means, exactly, and got the following from Better Place PR:

Better Place has shared their model with a number of government and industry leaders around the world in the past two years and believe that their model is applicable to the entire US under the right economic conditions. They're hopeful that California and Hawaii will serve as an important blueprint for how the model could work across the entire country.

So, not a lot of confirmation of anything there. But we also had a bit of a backlog of questions we wanted to ask Better place, so we took the opportunity to try and get answers to those as well. Click past the jump to learn about how universal the Better Place chargers are, if you can charge your Better Place car at home and more.


[Source: Better Place]

Continue reading Better Place answers questions about home charging, Obama's interest

Better Place answers questions about home charging, Obama's interest originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Miles EV, Green Daily

A little while back, we got our first official peek of the Miles EV highway speed sedan. That picture can now be fleshed out a bit with details on how Miles EV is planning to bring this Chinese-built all-electric car to the US market. Miles EV CEO Kevin Czinger sat down with AutoblogGreen and talked about the branding of this vehicle, who Miles EV thinks the first customers will be, and the estimated 10-year showroom lifespan of this particular model (with variants). More importantly, he gave dates on when the important next steps will be accomplished.

The 49-year-old Czinger comes to the electric vehicle world from the finance industry and legal field (he was a senior exec at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Bertelsmann AG and was a practicing lawyer in his previous business lives). He first started looking at Miles EV in December 2007 and started working as CEO in March. So, what's the plan for 2009? "Over the next year, we're very focused on bringing the highway-speed car, which will be named and branded over the next months, to the market," Czinger said. To find out how and when and where, follow us past the jump.

Continue reading Miles EV CEO talks about highway speed electric sedan, company's future

Miles EV CEO talks about highway speed electric sedan, company's future originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Diesel, EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, SMART, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

One of the newest cars to drop into the US market is the Smart ForTwo. A decade after its European debut, the two-seat city car finally arrived stateside after several abortive attempts by both its parent company Daimler and independent distributors. This time around Daimler worked with a US distributor set up by serial entrepreneur and race team owner Roger Penske to create SmartUSA. At the LA Auto Show last week we sat down with SmartUSA president David Schembri to discuss the company's first year in the American market and where they are going.

When it launched, SmartUSA set a target of 20,000 annual sales in this country. Given that this car is definitely a niche product, that relatively modest goal was probably wise. As it turned out, it was actually fairly conservative. Smart delivered the first US-spec ForTwo to a customer in Manhattan on January 16 of this year and the 20,000th example earlier in November "to a couple in their mid-fifties, empty-nesters," as Schembri described them, in Dallas TX. Not bad for a car that has received decidedly mixed reviews from both media and prospective buyers in this country. Read on past the jump for more of what Schembri talked about.

Continue reading ABG chats with SmartUSA president David Schembri about EVs, diesel, micro-hybrids and more

ABG chats with SmartUSA president David Schembri about EVs, diesel, micro-hybrids and more originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Legislation and Policy, USA

Following the big change that swept through American politics on Nov. 4, there has been a lot of celebration in a lot of places. Over at the Auto Allliance, the association made up of BMW Group, Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz USA, Mitsubishi Motors, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen, president and CEO Dave McCurdy was spending at least some time thinking about what sorts of opportunities and challenges the Obama Administration and a more Democratic Congress will bring to the automakers. AutoblogGreen spoke with him briefly about these issues while he was running around Washington.

ABG: Which parts of Obama's energy policy are most in line with what the Auto Alliance's goals? Where do you see the Alliance disagreeing with the Administration?

McCurdy: President Elect Obama recognizes the importance of the auto industry to the national economy. We look forward to working with his administration to ensure that the auto auto industry is on the leading edge of the new green energy economy.

ABG: Which parts of McCain's energy/auto plans do you think President Obama should consider adopting?

McCurdy: To help enhance our energy security and reduce our dependence on foreign oil we need to take steps to diversify and expand our alternative fuels infrastructure.

Interview continues after the break.

Continue reading Auto Alliance president talks about the other president and changes in Washington

Auto Alliance president talks about the other president and changes in Washington originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Porsche, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Santa Monica Alt Car Expo

As I wrote on Thursday, one of the more interesting vehicles here at the Alt Car Expo is a one-off home conversion of a 1999 Porsche Boxster called the MIIN-AER car. We wanted to get some more information about this thing, so we talked to Glenn Bell, CEO of Air Fuel Auto. Bell talked about why he's in favor of compressed air - wait, actually
the Minimally Intrusive Intensely Pneumatic - Air Energy Recovery (the N in pneumatic contributes its sound to MIIN, not the P) system - and how the powerplant in the air Porsche is quite different than what is used in MDI's AirCar. For the public details on the MIIN-AER system, click here or follow us past the jump, but the basic idea is that compressed air (or nitrogen) is sent through the system based on temperature differences. I'll admit I don't fully get the technology, but Bell said he takes the air Porsche for a lot of test drives, so it apparently works.

What's in the Porsche at the show is phase 1 of the MIIN-AER technology. Bell said that the current specs are 40-45 miles per hour with a range of 50 miles (this differs from the press release's claim of 50 miles at 65 mph).
in phase 2, which is designed but not yet installed, the system will recompress the air and will capture the thermal energy from braking to give better performance. Will have a top speed of 80, phase three will have a speed of 100-120 mph. In each of the phases, the range will increase by "a little bit" until the car can go 100 miles at 50 mph in phase three.

As for why compressed air instead of li-ion, Bell said that the rarity and geographic location of the precious metals required for next-generation batteries have the potential to trade one set of issues (the problems with oil) with another set (the recent increase in lithium and cobalt prices, for example). He didn't give a numerical answer when I asked how much a MIIN-AER conversion would cost. Bell didn't express a lot of confidence in the path that Tesla or GM is on, but I suppose that are plenty of people who don't have a lot of confidence in Bell's strategy, either. Bell said he'd be willing to license his technology, so the proof will be in the pudding. Any thoughts?

Have a listen:

Continue reading AltCar 2008: Details on the MIIN-AER compressed air Porsche Boxster

AltCar 2008: Details on the MIIN-AER compressed air Porsche Boxster originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Green Culture, Hybrid, Transportation Alternatives, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Legislation and Policy

Listen in to a fascinating conversation that took place yesterday on green car politics, featured on the radio show, "Your Call." (KALW, 91.7 FM, San Francisco, CA). The show gave me a chance to discuss some of my research on "The Clean Car Movement," and also featured Meghan Sinott (Organizer for the Car Free Cities Conference in Portland, OR), Michou Olivera (Co-Owner of Luscious Garage, San Francisco), and Russ Heimerich (Spokesman for California Bureau of Automotive Affairs Drive Healthy Campaign).

Some of the topics we discussed include whether green cars obscure public transportation alternatives, who defines what a "green" car is, and what alternatives exist today for consumers looking for the greenest possible options. Near the end of the show, Michou Olivera, who also repairs muscle cars on the weekends, gives a strong defense for the continued use of the internal combustion engine. I guess she never drove a Tesla....

AutoblogGreen on the Radio originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Manufacturing/Plants, AutoblogGreen Q & A, Tesla Motors, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

In the first two parts of our discussion, Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk described how he came to be a part of Tesla Motors and how he influenced the development of the Roadster. It's important to note that he never described himself as the designer or creator of the Roadster. Rather he considers himself the co-architect of the sports car.

With production of the Roadster now sort of underway and the updated drivetrain hopefully coming soon, it's time to look forward. As the self-declared Product Architect, Musk is playing perhaps an even bigger role with the next product, a sedan that we've known for some time by the code name WhiteStar. We had hoped to see WhiteStar this spring but that obviously hasn't happened yet. In the conclusion of our discussion, Musk gives out some hints about what to expect and what Tesla has learned over the past five years. Read on to learn more about what's coming next.

Make sure you read Part 1 and Part 2.

Continue reading AutoblogGreen Q&A: Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk Pt. 3 - Lessons and WhiteStar hints

AutoblogGreen Q&A: Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk Pt. 3 - Lessons and WhiteStar hints originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Q & A, Tesla Motors, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Green Daily

Among the readers of this site, one of the cars that elicits a lot of passion is the Tesla Roadster. The battery-powered Roadster and its provenance have elicited a great deal of discussion over the past nine months, in particular since the demotion and ultimately the departure of co-founder Martin Eberhard. This is a complex tale involving passionate entrepreneurs with that all-too-common but in many ways necessary human frailty known as ego. When humans interact, they often see the same results through their own mental filters.

People can see exactly the same thing and interpret it in many different ways. Unfortunately in today's media landscape, particularly on television, but also in blogs we often see a very cut-down sound-bite version of things. Sound-bites by definition are taken out of context. In and of themselves they often lead to incorrect or at least inaccurate conclusions.

With all of that in mind I was recently contacted by Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk. Musk wanted to discuss his role at Tesla, and hopefully fill in some of the gaps in the story. What follows after the jump is the phone conversion that I had with Musk recently as well as some comments from Martin Eberhard via e-mail exchanges. Eberhard's version of events is italicized.

Update: Just to be clear Elon Musk contacted me immediately after a previous article where I called into question his role in the development of the Roadster. He wanted to clear up what he felt were misconceptions of his role rather than to pitch a story idea about him.

Continue reading AutoblogGreen Q&A: Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk Pt. 1 - In the beginning

AutoblogGreen Q&A: Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk Pt. 1 - In the beginning originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Ethanol, AutoblogGreen Q & A, Legislation and Policy, Natural Gas, Europe/EU

Madrid, Spain, is currently a very polluted city where 1.8 million vehicles are responsible for 75 percent of the pollutants in the air. Madrid's City Hall has decided that it will switch all its vehicles over to "clean" fuels, that is, they will be all running on electricity, natural gas, biodiesel or ethanol. The city also announced that it will join the BEST (BioEthanol for Sustainable Transport) European project to promote the use of ethanol in cars. Madrid has also worked out agreements with groups like taxi organizations that get up to a 75 percent discount on the road tax, depending on fuel.

[Source: Ayuntamiento de Madrid via Agroinformación]

All of Madrid's official vehicles will use clean fuels by 2011 originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 13 May 2008 17:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Flex-Fuel, Hybrid, Hydrogen, GM, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, AFVI Expo

When Larry Burns, GM's vice president of R&D and planning, spoke at the opening session of the AFVI expo yesterday morning, he stayed on target to bring GM's message to the conference. Before he stepped onto the stage, we had a chance to sit down with him and ask a few question

One thing I wanted to follow up with him about was his recent speech to the Hydrogen Fuel Association where he called for more government support for a hydrogen refueling infrastructure. Burns told me that in the six or so weeks since that speech, he's heard a bit of discussion and seen some movement on this issue. There's nothing to announce, but it seems there are still lots of people in government who listen to what GM wants. As for the customer side of the equation, Burns said that buyers will get excited about hydrogen cars once they have the chance to take a ride or a drive in a fuel cell car. Just take a look at Project Driveway, he said. We also talked about the 1970s Oil Shocks and the problem of reduced oil supply (you can't think of it in cyclical fashion; you need to think long-term, he said). Listen for yourself (12 min)

AVFI 2008: Sitting down for a moment with GM's Larry Burns originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 13 May 2008 13:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

As we cover the automotive industry, we run across numerous events which lean, in one way or another, towards our green preferences. Some of these could be very influential on the industry while others are really more for fun. With that in mind, we've compiled a list of our top five favorite upcoming green events for Earth Day. Take a look-see starting with number five (or skip ahead using the list below) and let us know how you feel.

• Number five
• Number four
• Number three
• Number two
• Number one

Earth Day: Top five upcoming green events originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, MPG, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Lightweight

When we were brainstorming ideas for Earth Day posts, we thought about featuring the ten most exciting green cars we wish we could buy today. It turns out that there are at least twice as many green rides on the horizon that we'd really like to have today, so the list has expanded. We'd like to note that this list is far from complete; the green sector of the automotive industry is growing in leaps and bounds. Start here and join us for a guided preview of our future garages or jump ahead by clicking on a number below. Either way, enjoy!

• Number 20
• Number 19
• Number 18
• Number 17
• Number 16
• Number 15
• Number 14
• Number 13
• Number 12
• Number 11
• Number 10
• Number 9
• Number 8
• Number 7
• Number 6
• Number 5
• Number 4
• Number 3
• Number 2
• Number 1

There you have it. Take a look at our list and, as always, feel free to share your own favorites in the comments.

Top 20 most exciting green cars we wish we could buy today originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: MPG, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, New York Auto Show, Automotive X-Prize

click to enter gallery

We met Jory Squibb way back in late 2006 over at the Santa Monica Alt Car Expo. How can you miss a guy driving a tiny, 100+mpg bubble car called the Moonbeam? Jory, from Maine, is now back on the ABG radar with his presence at the New York Auto Show. He didn't have a car with him this time, but he did have the idea for a competition vehicle for the Automotive X Prize with him. His new tadpole-style vehicle (that is, two wheels in front, one in back) is called Dirigo, which is the Maine state motto and means "I lead" of "I direct." The Dirigo's powertrain is based on a 950cc Daihatsu turbodiesel engine that sits in the back and drives the front two wheels. Jory told us the Moonbeam taught him that you really need at least half of your wheels providing power (the Moonbeam was also tadpole style, but only driven by the single rear wheel). Jory's team for the Dirigo, which is now a year old, is made up of about four regular members, some of whom are boat builders and are taking the Dirigo in a wooden direction. Learn more by listening to Jory yourself:



UPDATE: Jory sent in a few thoughts on the Auto X Prize at the New York Auto Show. We've pasted his essay after the jump.

Continue reading New York 2008: Jory Squibb returns with an X-Prize entry

New York 2008: Jory Squibb returns with an X-Prize entry originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, New York Auto Show, Green Daily, Automotive X-Prize

Of the 60+ teams that have signed a letter of intent to participate in the Progressive Automotive X Prize, about 15 were on hand at the New York Auto Show. With only four cars on stage, it's easy to calculate that some teams arrived sans vehicle. The group from Motive Industries had just a little folded flyer to show what they've been working on for their entry vehicle. The basic idea for the as-yet-unnamed Motive vehicle is an electric car with an on-board ICE for range extension. The real challenge for Motive will be convincing everyone that "filling up" via quick, robot-aided battery exchanges are the way to go. Four-passenger and full size with biomaterials in the body panels and elsewhere, the vehicle is just now moving off of the design pages. Motive's Darren McKeage and Nathan Armstrong were in New York to give the public a first glimpse of this new car. You can view the flyer in the gallery below and listen to the duo by clicking play.

New York 2008: Motive Industries' muscular X Prize entry vehicle needs a name originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Emerging Technologies, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, New York Auto Show, Green Daily, Automotive X-Prize

The Automotive X Prize announcer used it. We've been using if forever. And, until recently, MDI and Zero Pollution Motors were still calling their vehicles the Air Car. Now, though, to avoid confusion as much as possible, the preferred term is "Compressed Air Vehicle" (don't look now, but the ZPM website still says Air Car). At the New York Auto Show this week, we finally had a chance to sit down with Guy Negre, the creator of the CAV, and his partner Shiva Vencat (Vencat also provided translation for most of Negre's answers, as I don't speak French) for a talk on what happens next in the compressed air vehicle world.

The CAV team was in New York as part of the Automotive X Prize announcement, and I'm going to have to say that MDI/ZPM seems to be one of the stronger potential entrants into the race. While the design of the vehicle in New York won't appeal to everyone, I think the renderings for the MiniCat (is that what it's called?) could result in a solid X Prize entry. Plus, considering that deals with Tata have already been signed and the air car (whoops) technology has been tested for quite some time, the vehicle won't be bowing out of the race early, I don't think. To hear what Vencat and Negre have to say, listen to the interview yourself.

New York 2008: Actually, it's not called the Air Car - Q&A with MDI's Guy Negre originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, New York Auto Show, Green Daily, Automotive X-Prize

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When we saw the distinctive shape of the VentureOne under wraps before the start of the Progressive Automotive X Prize announcement, we were pretty psyched. While the appearance of this vehicle on stage does revive our hope that we'll be able to drive one of these high-mpg hybrids one day, the bad news is that this is just a full-scale model. While it looks good, it's not going to get anyone anywhere. Yet.

Venture Vehicles' founder and CEO, Howard Levine, was happy to be back on the AutoblogGreen radar and gave us the rundown on where his company goes from here and how the VentureOne - which is a codename for the vehicle, not the final moniker - will move into production. He explained that the lack of media attention hasn't meant they haven't been working, just that they have been focusing on the vehicle, not on building hype. One of the big decisions the company has made is to offer only a hybrid version at launch, the pure electric option will have to wait until battery prices come down. Want more info? Listen to Levine yourself by clicking play.

New York 2008: Venture Vehicle's Howard Levine on the future of the VentureOne originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc., Subaru, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, New York Auto Show

Sallie Hirsch, left, and Lois Miller.

One of the quieter announcements from the New York Auto Show was that a Subaru ad called Soul of Subaru - Values won the Green Award from Intermedia Advertising Group (IAG). The ad won not because a panel of judges thought it was the best but because IAG discovered, based on customer research panels, that this particular ad was the most effective. This meant that the ads left more viewers with the idea that Subaru was a green car company than anything else on TV last year. This week, I spoke with Sallie Hirsch, senior vice president of automotive research, and Lois Miller, president of IAG Automotive, to figure out not only why and how this commercial won (Subaru's overall clean message played a big role) but about TV green car advertising in general. While average, non-green ads still dominate the airwaves, there were more green car ads in 2007 than ever before. Not the most surprising bit of informatin, but well worth keeping an eye on. IAG does just that, and you can get a peek into the industry by clicking play on the widget below.

Continue reading New York 2008: So, 'bout those green car ads - IAG sits down with AutoblogGreen

New York 2008: So, 'bout those green car ads - IAG sits down with AutoblogGreen originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, New York Auto Show, Automotive X-Prize

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If the person being interviewed in the picture above looks a little bit young, well, that's because he is. He's a student at the West Philadelphia High School Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, which is fielding the youngest team of entrants in the Progressive Automotive X Prize.

I had a chance to speak with the teacher in charge of the program, Simon Hauger, who talked about the three (or four, depending on how you count) green vehicles the team has worked on over the past nine years. From an early converted Jeep(s) to the Hybrid Attack you see in the photo gallery, the team knows a few things about greening up a ride. The team took a K1 Attack and modified it to biofueled hybrid that won the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's Tour de Sol twice. Can high school students win the Auto X Prize? They certainly have the passion, as Hauger describes. For the X Prize, the team is working on another vehicle, this one a plug-in diesel hybrid. The team says the car will exceed the 100 mpge requirement "without sacrificing style, safety or affordability." That's the dream, right?

New York 2008: West Philly's Hybrid Attack makes other high schools look lame originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, New York Auto Show, Automotive X-Prize

In the general hub-bub before the Automotive X-Prize kick-off event yesterday, we cornered Progressive Insurance's President and CEO Glenn Renwick for a few brief moments to get his thoughts on the prize. I mean, it's his company that is putting up the ten million dollars in prize money, so you can bet he's thought long and hard about paying someone that much for a freakin' car. While insurers are not usually known for being happy about seeing money go out the door, Renwick said he hopes the company does indeed fork over the money at the end of the race. Renwick said (rightly, IMHO) that he considers the sponsorship to be simply another way of advertising, and as such is coming out of the company's general advertising budget. You might now see fewer Progressive ads on TV, but you'll be seeing the name much more here on ABG. Fair trade? That's not for me to decide.

Look at it from another angle: if we don't figure out a way to move to highly-efficient personal vehicles (and higher gas prices continue climbing as a reflection of dwindling supplies), what would Progressive have to insure? This might be the best $10m they ever spend. Give Renwick a listen using the flash widget below.

New York 2008: Progressive Insurance CEO on why he's spending $10m on the Auto X Prize originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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