Hybrid News

T. Boone Pickens, the former oil magnate and more recently the man with The Plan, appeared on CNN this morning to discuss the looming “financial meltdown,” as Sheryl Gay Stolberg put it Thursday.

Funds managed by Mr. Pickens reportedly lost $1 billion over the last year — $270 million of which leached from his own personal fortune. “It’s my toughest run in 10 years,” Mr. Pickens was quoted as saying in The Wall Street Journal. “We missed the turn in the market, there’s nothing fun about it.”

ON a strip of Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, a futuristic experiment posing as an ordinary fuel station may be bringing the world one step closer to the hydrogen age.

From the moment engineers started dreaming about hydrogen as an alternative to oil, they faced a nagging question: What should come first — the fuel-cell car or the hydrogen pump?

Carmakers have argued that without a network of hydrogen filling stations they couldn’t roll out fuel-cell vehicles from the research lab to the dealership. Energy companies, on the other hand, said that without large numbers of fuel-cell cars available at reasonable prices, they saw little point in building a costly new fueling infrastructure.

Toyota will announce today that it is taking a new look at an alternative fuel that it had left behind: compressed natural gas.
And Honda, the only maker now of a CNG-powered car, plans to make twice as many of those environmentally friendly Civics for the U.S. in 2009 as it did last year.

Toyota says it will display a concept version of a CNG-electric hybrid Camry at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. Though it has made no commitment to production, the unveiling is tied to a burst of renewed interest.

A newspaper advert in which Toyota’s Lexus luxury car line claimed one of its hybrid vehicles was "perfect for today’s climate" breached advertising rules, a watchdog ruled Wednesday.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld complaints made by readers of a press ad for the Lexus RX 400H that stated it was "Perfect for today’s climate (and tomorrow’s)", and added: "Driving the world’s first luxury hybrid SUV makes environmental, and economic, sense."
The watchdog said the advert had broken rules regarding truthfulness and environmental claims, and added that readers would likely conclude that the car had little or no impact on the environment.

Two Wausau-area companies hope the state’s $415,000 investment in their work will prove to be a turning point in giving Wisconsin more than just a reputation for its dairy products.

The state awarded American Science and Technology Corp. in Wausau and Grand Meadow Energies near Stratford with $150,000 and $265,000, respectively, in grants for renewable energy research. The grants came from the Wisconsin Energy Independence Fund, which officials have used to provide businesses with $7.3 million in grants so far this year.

Chrysler LLC said Tuesday it will sell a plug-in electric car in the United States by 2010, joining the race to develop a battery-powered vehicle to boost its environmental credentials.

"[We’re] looking at a full line of electric vehicles," Chrysler chief executive Bob Nardelli said on the CNBC TV network. "We’ve made huge commitments, both from a resource standpoint and from a financial standpoint."

Chrysler, the third-largest automaker in the United States and number two in Canada, pledged to have at least one electric vehicle in showrooms by the end of 2010. It said some of its electric models might be tested in fleets as early as next year.

According to Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research’s all-new Eco Watch study, new-vehicle shoppers are not only increasingly concerned about the environment, but are making purchase decisions based on how their choices will affect the environment. Sixty-one percent of American new-vehicle shoppers say it is important to purchase a vehicle from a brand that is environmentally friendly. Consumers cite Toyota, Honda and Chevrolet as first, second and third (respectively) for having the most fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles.

According to Kelley Blue Book Marketing ResearchÂ’s all-new Eco Watch study, new-vehicle shoppers are not only increasingly concerned about the environment, but are making purchase decisions based on how their choices will affect the environment. Sixty-one percent of American new-vehicle shoppers say it is important to purchase a vehicle from a brand that is environmentally friendly. Consumers cite Toyota, Honda and Chevrolet as first, second and third (respectively) for having the most fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles.

Senator John McCain, Republican presidential nominee, is under scrutiny this week over his family’s fleet of 13 vehicles, not all of which are U.S. brand names. Newsweek magazine reports in its September 29 issue that McCain himself drives a 2004 Cadillac CTS — but there are such vehicles as a Toyota Prius, a Volkswagen convertible, and a Honda sedan in the McCain garages as well.

The article contrasts McCain’s multiple cars — all but the Cadillac registered in wife Cindy’s name, by the way — with the single car registered to Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama and his wife. Obama’s car: a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. The publication says Obama traded in his previous Hemi-powered Chrysler 300C for the hybrid vehicle last year.

Nik Bristow and Brian Pierce, copywriters with Fitzgerald+CO in Atlanta, are two guys on a mission to change the way Americans view alternative fuels. At 10 p.m. EST tonight, they will depart from SoHo in New York City on “Willie Run ‘08”, the first-ever non-stop, cross-country trek powered entirely by Willie Nelson’s own BioWillie® biodiesel.

“I know the trip sounds crazy, but it’s more important now than ever,” said Bristow. “We’re on the cusp of a very important election where oil and energy are universal top concerns, and biodiesel is one of the cleaner, more viable fuel alternatives out there. We need to get the word out.”

From the USA to the UK, from Israel to India, the world appears to be embracing the green car concept. However, there is one country that is yet to catch green fever - Russia.
The car market in Russia is booming but hybrid cars are certainly not all the rage with few on sale. Now however, car manufacturers are taking a new approach - by appealing to those who like to drive cutting edge technology and who like to set the trends.
The range of hybrid vehicles offered by Lexus is one of the few to enjoy sales success in the country and now Toyota and Honda are considering bringing their most popular models to dealerships next year.

Chrysler LLC unveiled a comprehensive portfolio of electric cars and said they will begin arriving in North America showrooms by 2010, intensifying the competition over which U.S. auto maker will be the first to mass produce the zero-emission vehicles.

The auto maker introduced an all-electric-powered Dodge sports car and an electric/gas-powered Town & Country minivan and Jeep Wrangler, which boast driving ranges between 200 and 400 miles, Chrysler Chief Executive Bob Nardelli said Tuesday at a test track at the auto maker’s headquarters. Chrysler officials said the prototype vehicles, tagged EV, are lithium-ion battery powered, and the sports car can be charged by plugging it into a household outlet for eight hours.

Yeah, we’re still digging through House Resolution 6899 — the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act — and guess what we found? While the second section of the bill deals with new offshore drilling, 70 or so sections later, under “Miscellaneous Provisions,” is a requirement that every gas station owned by a major gas company — Shell, BP, etc — add at least one alternative fuel pump by 2018.

“Alternative fuel pump” means any pump that holds natural gas; E85 or a higher concentration of ethanol; biodiesel or renewable diesel; or hydrogen.

If these companies don’t retrofit by 2018, they’ll be fined $100,000 per station. In another section of the bill, there’s a $50,000 tax credit for every station that adds an E85 pump. That credit is good until 2017. So if the companies add E85 it will cost them roughly $50,000 less than any other alternative fuel.

LG Chem Ltd unit Compact Power said it expects lithium-ion battery technology to dominate the hybrid electric car market for the next 15 to 20 years, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

The company, which is in the running to supply battery packs for General Motors Corp’s highly anticipated Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car, is also in discussions with other automakers on potential battery supply deals, CEO Prabhakar Patil told the Reuters Autos Summit.

The EU’s decision to lower expections for biofuel use could be of some concern to leading producers such as Brazil. But the new technologies the EU is considering may actually be more profitable than current biofuels.
It is a topic which perfectly emphasizes the delicate balance between fighting climate change, protecting global economies and feeding the world.

The biofuels debate in the European Union has long been seen as a battle of wits between the politicians intent on finding a viable alternative to fossil fuels, and environmentalists and rights groups which claim the creation of biofuels reaps havoc on the environment and cuts into food production, as well as the countries and companies which have much riding on the potential of this new industry.