Hybrid News

Filed under: Hybrid, Toyota

We’ll be getting our first in-person look at the 2010 Toyota Prius in a couple of weeks at the Detroit Auto Show, but the Blue Man Group has already checked it out. In a new teaser video, the cliche trio leaves the Vegas stage to spend some time with the new headlight washers, the steering wheel-mounted redundant controls and iPod integration. We get to see some of the new standard features of the Prius but learn nothing new about mechanical specifics. One has to wonder if relying on these blue guys to promote a new car is a sign that the Prius has become passe? Check out the video after the jump. Thanks to Jerry for the tip!

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading VIDEO: Blue guys check out the 2010 Toyota Prius

VIDEO: Blue guys check out the 2010 Toyota Prius originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: Hybrid, Toyota, Detroit Auto Show

The Detroit introduction of the 2010 Toyota Prius is just around the corner, but that hasn’t stopped Toyota from releasing a new set of teaser images ahead of the main event, scheduled to take place just 19 days from now. First up is a door handle that looks like it may have a sensor on it, possibly as part of the keyless entry system. Next up is an illuminated “Toyota” logo that we′re guessing could indeed light up with the headlamps.

Perhaps the two most interesting new shots are of the engine bay, for obvious reasons, and the front headlight. There was some debate on whether the previously-released shots of the third-gen Prius were legit since they clearly showed two different headlight configurations. Our guess is that the design team was still making detail choices on the new hybrid, and it appears now that the slightly more radical of the two lamp configuration was the ultimate winner.

[Source: Carscoop]

Toyota unleashes new set of Prius teasers originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: Hybrid, Manufacturing/Plants, Toyota, Detroit Auto Show, USA

Rumors of a delayed launch of U.S.-built 2010 Prius hybrids have today been confirmed by the Japanese automaker. Blame for the plant’s postponed start date can be placed squarely on the downturn of the global economy and US automobile sales in particular. Fortunately, Toyota had yet to fully staff the plant and has no plans to let any workers go. Unfortunately, workers in Mississippi that were hoping to find employment at the new plant will likely need to wait for a while until Toyota’s ready to do any hiring.

The plant, which is located near Tupelo, MS, is already some 90 percent completed and has cost the automaker an estimated $300 million, so it’s only a matter of time before Toyota begins producing something there, whether it’s a redesigned Prius or not. In the meantime, the 2010 Prius, which will see its first formal debut at the Detroit Auto Show next month, will continue to be built in Japan and imported to the States.

[Source: Reuters]

U.S. Prius assembly in Mississippi officially on hold originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: Hybrid, Manufacturing/Plants, Toyota, Detroit Auto Show, USA

Rumors of a delayed launch of U.S.-built 2010 Prius hybrids have today been confirmed by the Japanese automaker. Blame for the plant’s postponed start date can be placed squarely on the downturn of the global economy and US automobile sales in particular. Fortunately, Toyota had yet to fully staff the plant and has no plans to let any workers go. Unfortunately, workers in Mississippi that were hoping to find employment at the new plant will likely need to wait for a while until Toyota’s ready to do any hiring.

The plant, which is located near Tupelo, MS, is already some 90 percent completed and has cost the automaker an estimated $300 million, so it’s only a matter of time before Toyota begins producing something there, whether it’s a redesigned Prius or not. In the meantime, the 2010 Prius, which will see its first formal debut at the Detroit Auto Show next month, will continue to be built in Japan and imported to the States.

[Source: Reuters]

US Prius assembly in Mississippi officially on hold originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Austin Alt Car Expo

The last in our series of reports from the discussion panels from last week’s Austin Alt Car expo focuses on the panel that had the broadest possible appeal: an overview of plug-in hybrids. Taking place on the Saturday, and therefore more accessible to the working public, the free-form panel featured Ron Johnston-Rodriguez of PluginCenter.com and the Port of Chelan County in Washington State, and Chelsea Sexton of Plug-In America. Austan Librach, who works for Austin Energy and Plug-in Partners (well, he used to work for PiP), moderated.

Johnston-Rodriguez started by giving a brief overview of plug-in hybrids, but all three of the panelists commented on Johnston-Rodriguez’s slides. The starting point was encapsulated by Librach’s statement that, “Assuming normal economics, we’re looking at a real bright future (for PHEVs).” That might be a big assumption, but it’s what a lot of people are counting on. Follow us after the jump to see what this future might look like.

Continue reading Austin Alt Car: panel looks at the future of plug-in hybrids

Austin Alt Car: panel looks at the future of plug-in hybrids originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Austin Alt Car Expo

As I said earlier, the panels at the Austin Alt Car expo were heavily focused on plug-in vehicles. The last discussion on Friday continued the trend and was called “Future Prospects for Plug-in Hybrids” and the participants acknowledged that their presentations were treading over some of the same ground that earlier panelists had covered. Still, Mark Duvall of EPRI and Susan Zielinski of CARSS did add a few new tidbits to the discussion and if you’re a PHEV fanatic, you’ll find something in the write-up and audio included after the break that′ll be of interest.

Continue reading Austin Alt Car: Future Prospects for Plug-in Hybrids

Austin Alt Car: Future Prospects for Plug-in Hybrids originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Green Daily, Austin Alt Car Expo

If you want to get an answer to the question of whether or not consumers will flock to plug-in vehicles, Southern California Edison’s Ed Kjaer and Better Place’s Sven Thesen would be great people to get to put up some answers. That’s exactly what happened at the Austin Alt Car expo last weekend, where they presented an optimistic yet realistic assessment of what PHEVs might bring to the auto industry. The real question, Kjaer said, isn’t “Will Consumers Buy In?” but will the OEMs build PHEVs in volume? And that is not a given, not by a long shot. Kjaer didn’t dodge the original question, just posited that the answer is a pretty obvious “yes.” Whether or not we get the chance is the issue. Follow us after the jump for all the details.

Continue reading Austin Alt Car: Will Consumers Buy In? Duh.

Austin Alt Car: Will Consumers Buy In? Duh. originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Green Daily, Austin Alt Car Expo

When was the last time you talked to your electric power company? I mean, really sat down and had a good chat about when they should send you power and when they shouldn’t? Have you told them when you’d like to have the air conditioner shut off and let the home warm up because no one will be home? If you haven’t had this talk with your utility, you’re not alone. Not by a long shot. In fact, figuring out how to get customers to even start having this kind of communication is a huge challenge for the thousands of utilities across the U.S. and this challenge was the topic of the seminar titled Utility Issues & Opportunities at the recent Austin Alt Car expo.

The panel dealt with vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-home transmission and distribution issues and featured Southern California Edison’s Ed Kjaer, Austin Energy’s Mark Kapner and EPRI’s Arindam Maitra. Find out how these three people and their organizations are getting ready to get you and your car to talk to the grid on a regular basis by following us after the jump.

Continue reading Austin Alt Car: PHEV opportunities and challenges for utilities

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Tesla Motors, USA

The head of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, was in the house at the Always On Going Green conference giving a talk yesterday and had lots to say about possible upcoming products from his company. First off, in contradiction to what we heard earlier from Tesla marketing guy, Daryl Siry, there may very well be an SUV in the pipeline. Although it might seem antithetical to the green agenda Musk espouses, he believes it would be a strong driver of sales. Of course, his idea of an SUV might be closer in size to a Captiva than a full-blown Tahoe but we guess we’ll have to wait for an actual sketch before we make too many assumptions. We suspect he hasn′t gotten the memo that the stationwagon is the new SUV though. If an SUV EV does come to fruition it would be built on the Model S platform most likely at it new factory in San Jose.

While talking about making cars less expensive in the future, he let slip that they are “confident in being able to get to a $30,000 car, or perhaps a $20,000 car, in partnership with a major car company,” sometime in the future. Whether or not that major car company is Daimler is unknown but in a phone conversation with Earth2Tech, Mr. Musk said that “Tesla’s partnership with Daimler won’t focus on its Model S”.

Speaking of the Model S, Musk said that the as-yet-unseen luxury sedan would feature a swappable battery. Not that they plan on jumping into bed with Better Place but having that function would make the vehicle easier to service. Of course, it also leaves the door open to some future battery-swapping-station scheme. We hope it also has the ability to accept a quick charge.

[Source: Earth2Tech / greentechmedia]

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Original post by Domenick Yoney

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

We′ve known for a while that Tesla Motors is planning on building a manufacturing plant somewhere in California where it can gnaw on the financial carrots held out to it by the Golden State. Now comes word that San Jose has been chosen to be the home of not only a factory, but an entire corporate campus. The 89-acre site will contain their relocated corporate headquarters and R&D lab as well as the facility where the upcoming all-electric luxury Model S will be lovingly assembled. It is expected to achieve gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) though it is unknown what amount of power generation might be integrated into the site. The price tag for the whole shootin′ match is upwards of $250 million dollars and once it’s up and running it should employ 1,000 workers.

Tesla says the site was chosen, in part, because of the high concentration of highly-skilled engineers and infrastructure in the area. We also suspect that the waiving of rent for the first 10 years of the 40-year lease on the property probably helped a bit too. With $155 million already on hand, Tesla hopes to raise another $100 million for the project. Work on the site should begin sometime next summer. Press release after the break.

[Source: Tesla Motors / New York Times]

Continue reading Tesla Motors building new headquarters and factory in San Jose

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Original post by Domenick Yoney

Filed under: Hybrid, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

Last night during the Oscar telecast, host Jon Stewart joked to the audience, “Whoever owns the Boeing 707 parked on La Brea Avenue, your landing lights are on.” As actor/aviator John Travolta ran onstage and bolted through and exit, Stewart comforted the glitterati, telling them, “Don’t worry, it’s a hybrid.”

Now, while John Travolta is a pilot and really does own a Boeing 707 (finished in classic Quantas livery, as seen here, parked at his home in a private “fly-in” community), the company does not make hybrid jets. Boeing is, however, exploring electric engine starts and, more recently, biofuel-powered jets with Virgin Atlantic. You can watch a video with Branson talking about the Virgin biofuel jet below the fold. For the second year in a row, NRDC also worked with Oscar to reduce the show’s ecological footprint with energy coming from wind farms and biodiesel. The Independent Spirit Awards, however, drank Oscar’s milk shake by using an even greener power source: Ed Begley Jr.

[Source: NRDC]

 

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

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Biodiesel, Vegetable Oil, European Union

The Association of Municipalities and Counties of Catalonia, Spain (ACM), has announced an agreement with Recicloil, a company that recycles used vegetable oil into biodiesel. The agreement states that the company will provide one liter of free biodiesel to citizens for each 20 liters of used oil people bring in. Recicloil will also provide a free 2,000-liter biodiesel pump (as well stickers) which will be installed for city fleets using this biodiesel.

While this is not the first of such networks, as we explained in another post, it’s an important partnership. Spaniards tend to throw used oil down the drain, which is not only a waste of an useful resource, but causes lots of problems in water treatment plants. Powering cars seems much smarter.

[Source: Europa Press via Econoticias]

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Original post by Xavier Navarro

Filed under: Transportation Alternatives, On Two Wheels, European Union

Bicing, Barcelona’s public rental service, is celebrating its first anniversary. Despite a number of shortcomings and critics, the Catalan capital has almost fully implemented the system with 286 stations and 4,000 bicycles for 130,000 registered users. The plans aren’t stopping here. The city will have 400 stations and 6,000 bicycles by the end of August once the expansion plan for the non-center districts is completed. Due to Barcelona’s relatively small size (99 km²), neighbor municipalities are considering expanding the service to make it metropolitan.

Nevertheless, and despite the global satisfaction of the service, the system has problems. First of all, the chosen bike model wasn’t sturdy enough. Newer bikes have better brakes and light system, as well as improved seats and wheels. Stations have also been plagued with problems, since the locking system has been found to be troublesome. There are also complaints about the system that redistributes the bikes among the stations, which is far from being perfect, despite having more than 10 vehicles and 120 workers. Finally, such an increase in the use of bicycles has proved that the bike lane network to be insufficient, and the City Hall is rushing to get more lanes built.

What is still good is the price: For 24 EUR/year you can use the bikes for 30 minutes any time you need to (paying 0.50 EUR additional for each half an hour in a particular stretch). Plans to create weekly passes for tourists have been postponed so far, so if you plan to visit around, borrow a friend’s pass. Per molts anys! (Happy birthday).

[Source: El Periodico]

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Original post by Xavier Navarro