Hybrid News

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Green Culture, Green Daily

The Record Bee caught up with the Mythbusters (Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman) and crew at the Lake County’s fairgrounds and Infineon Raceway in Sonoma Wednesday. What are the Mythbusters busting? According to the show’s producer, they are filming an episode, to air next season, on busting the myth that electric cars are slow. The episode will include races between electric and gas; ATVs, go-carts and cars. Here is MythBusters Associate Producer Eric Haven talking about the episode:

A lot of people have a pre-conception that electric vehicles are slower than gas-powered vehicles. We’re going to bust that myth. … Today we’re testing ATV’s. We have a gas-powered one and an electric one. Tomorrow it’s go-carts, and then cars.

The Record Bee also writes the Mythbusters tried to get a gas- and electric-powered Polaris ATV but did not mention the type of car or go-cart. Full disclosure, Jamie Hyneman help develop an electric ATV and I have not been too positive on the show in several articles.

Editor’s note: we can bust this myth right now by talking to Michael Kadie.

Related:

• Mythbuster Jamie Hyneman helps develop electric Model One ATV
• Mistakes in the Mythbusters′ episode on fuel economy devices
• Mythbusters: drafting 10 feet behind a big rig will improve mileage 39 percent
• Mythbusters’ mistakes in AC vs windows down episode
• Would a superhero drive a Prius? We′re not sure, but the Mythbusters do!
• NY Times writes about the history of electric drag racing

[Source: Record Bee]

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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, Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Green Culture

NBC News got a look at mechanic John Goodwin’s soon-to-be-released add-on kits for diesel cars in this video. The NBC video also takes a look under the hood of John’s turbine, hybrid H3 that will get 60 MPG. That’s not the only TV interview John has done recently. As promised, here is the article and full video of singer Neil Young and John Goodwin′s appearance on CNN. In the CNN interview, John says “it’s not cost-effective for someone to run out and spend $40,000 to double the fuel economy, but I have no shortage of customers.” The CNN article also says John′s $200 green conversion kit will include downloads to your car’s computer.

John also did an interview with NPR’s Weekend Edition last Sunday spreading the world that cars can be green and powerful. “The ironic thing is you can have a 1,000 horse power vehicle and get 25 MPG,” says John. Below the fold is a video John did in June with Media Talk. Is John the first green, celebrity mechanic?

Related:

• Neil Young’s 1959 Lincoln runs on biodiesel and can be plugged-in
• Biodiesel turbine, super capacitor, series hybrid… HUMMER! (60 MPG and 0-60 in 5 seconds)

[Source: CNN, NPR, NBC News, Media Talk]

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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: Green Culture

Invention Nation, a new, weekly TV series all about green transportation, premieres on the Science Channel next Monday (Nov. 19) with new episode every following Monday for four weeks. The show follows three hack mechanics; Chris, Nobu and Micah, as they travel around America searching for green vehicle designs in a bus they constantly add green technology. The show also includes the trio looking at non-automotive green technologies like micro-hydro power generation.

According to the episode guide, the first show includes converting a diesel bus to run on vegetable oil, biodiesel production and a look at cutting edge hybrid technology. The second episode (Nov. 26) includes installation of solar panels on their vegetable oil bus, making a bike from bamboo and the human-powered car. In the third episode (Dec. 3), the bus runs into a little trouble before episode four (Dec. 16) where they add a green roof to the bus.

I will try to live blog each show as they air.

[Source: The Science Channel]

 

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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: Etc., Jeep

I am not sure I can accuse the Jeep “Rock Me Gently” TV commercial in the video above of greenwashing because it’s just so strange. The ad and website implies animals really like Jeep which, you could argue, implies Jeeps are good for the environment. It’s also possible Jeep is saying, “we destroy the environment but we do it ‘gently.’” What do you think? If you can’t take just one minute of that 70’s classic “Rock Me Gently,” enjoy the musical stylings of Andy Kim singing the entire song below the fold.

Related:

• VW Bluemotion’s print and TV ads
• Video: TV ad for Hydrogen 7 BMW
• Video: Toyota apologizes for Prius ad after it appears on Digg
• Video: odd Prius “Guzzle” TV commercial

[Source: YouTube]

 

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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: Hybrid, Toyota, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

You might remember a post I wrote about a Toyota TV commercial that prominently featured the EV (electric vehicle) mode button. You can watch that commercial for yourself in the video above. Turning your hybrid into an electric car at will is really an interesting idea. The range on the battery and top speed on EV mode in current Toyotas is not great and the car does it automatically most of the time. There really isn’t a great improvement in efficiency for most drivers but I find there is just something sweet about controlling your hybrid car, sort of like shifting gears in a stick. Asking the car to put out less noise is useful but again, turning your car into an electric car is Je ne sais pas. There are lots of misconceptions about green cars (e.g., they can’t be fun), but tell the truth: don’t you wish your car had an EV button? This has to be the biggest, coolest gadget you can buy today.

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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: Hybrid, Toyota, Detroit Auto Show

If all of the AutoblogGreen coverage isn’t enough for you, you can see all the new cars at the Detroit Auto Show, in a live, one-hour special tonight at 9 PM Est on CNBC.

The video above is a close look at the interior and back of Toyota’s concept hybrid truck, the A-Bat. WARNING: In the video above, after CNBC takes a look at the A-Bat, they laugh at a miscalculation in the Chrysler’s stampede stunt involving gay … you have to watch.

This video is an interview with Jim Lentz, Toyota’s U.S. president, where he confirms Toyota will show two new hybrids cars at next year’s Detroit Auto Show. Jim said this while standing next to Toyota’s new non-hybrid SUV, the Venza.

[Source: MSNBC]

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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: Ethanol, South/Latin America

According to the video above, the Bloomberg TV network will air Deadly Brew - The Human Toll of Ethanol, a documentary about the horrible labor conditions of Brazilian ethanol workers on January 24th (next Thursday). The video above includes lines like “the cars run on human blood” and the video ends with a shocking story of a man that died after cutting “45 tonnes″ of sugar cane in one day (see related post here).

Many environmentalists and now even the EU have really backed off in their support for ethanol and are taking a very hard look at how it’s made. While it can be sustainable, energy positive and include good labor practices, there are horrible cases like the ones Bloomberg will report on that have many questioning if ethanol is worth it. I will post a review of the documentary after it airs.

[Source: YouTube]

 

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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: Green Culture, MPG, Kia

Fuel efficiency is becoming more important to cars buyers. Ads are starting to reflect that and the best one I have seen recently is Kia’s ad for the Spectra. The commercial’s music is just a piano and the folksy voice of Joe Purdy singing “I just can’t seem to get it right today.” The visuals are a variety of melancholy people struggling to remember something from so long ago. What is this thing all these people have forgotten to do? How to fill a car’s gas tank! The commercial explains “with fewer fill ups, you just might forget which side it’s on.” In one of the funnier parts of the commercial, one Kia owner refuses to re-position his car and tries to see if he can drag the gas pump nozzle all the way around the car. You can watch the commercial below the fold.

[Source: YouTube]

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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: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Ford, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, In The AutoblogGreen Garage, USA

A new Indiana Jones movie is coming to theaters this May. New episodes of the short-lived Young Indiana Jones TV series were released on DVD recently. I caught an episode on the History Channel called Spring Break Adventure which includes a story about an electric car. The plot involves a scientist in Thomas Edison’s laboratories working on a battery for a Ford electric Model T. The scientist says “when I perfect the Edison battery, the age of the combustion engine will be over forever” and “we will have noise-less cars without exhaust.”

The story was clever but what I found most interesting was the mention of a fiction book called Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout. Indy says Tom Swift, the young inventor protagonist of the adventure book series, invented a “lithium and potassium hydrate″ battery that took his electric runabout to 100 MPH. I had to know more, so I ordered the book (written in 1910) and another called Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive (written in 1922) for good measure. I’m reading both books right now and I will write about the details of Tom Swift’s electric vehicles very soon.

White you wait, I recorded a short clip from the Young Indiana episode with the mention of Tom Swift’s battery; you can watch it below the fold.

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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: Emerging Technologies, Hybrid, Solar

Turns out I was wrong when I said the new KITT from the Knight Rider movie coming February was not a hybrid. According to the show’s executive producer, David Bartis, the new KITT is very efficient and a hybrid in “some ways.” KITT will also have solar panels and other green technologies. Here is exactly what David said:

CS: Was there any attempt to make this a “green” car? Is the new KITT a hybrid?

Bartis: The new KITT is incredibly efficient. Yes, it is a hybrid in some new ways. You’ll see it incorporate solar energy and technology that we could create because it is a TV show. There are some cool new technologies we have applied it is a highly efficient vehicle.

Stay tuned for full review when Knight Rider airs February 17th.

Related:

• In the future, everyone will live in parking lots
• Video: wind turbines added to Speed Racer movie trailer (hybrid Mach 5 anyone?)
• It’s Friday: Fahrenheit 451’s vision of the future includes very green transport
• Al Gore drives hybrid Taxi in Futurama movie

[Source: Coming Soon]

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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: Emerging Technologies, Hybrid, Solar, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

Recently, I told you the new KITT, in the upcoming Knight Rider TV movie, would have a solar powered hybrid engine. NBC is showing a TV commercial highlighting this green feature. You can watch video of the TV commercial below the fold. The ad also mentions that the new KITT has 550 horsepower and race-tuned suspension standard.

As AutoblogGreen reader CARazed reminds us, the first KITT was actually very green too. According to Wikipedia, the first KITT used liquid hydrogen in a turbine engine and got 100 MPG. The new KITT is based on Ford’s Mustang Shelby Cobra, which is not a hybrid. In reality, Ford’s only hybrid is the Escape SUV. If you want a green, all-electric Mustang, check this out.

Stay tuned for a review of the movie after it airs February 17th.

[Source: NBC]

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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: Hybrid, HUMMER, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

Boston Legal is an ABC TV series about a law firm. In the episode Green Christmas (first aired Dec. 18, 2007), the law firm, Crane Poole and Schmidt, is sued by a group called “Green People” for fraud because they said they were green but actually were not. In the court case, a board member of Green People is asked which car he drives? He says a hybrid, to which the Boston Legal firm’s lawyer Katie responds saying a Hummer is greener because of the way batteries are made. On top of that, she says hybrids reduce the cost of driving which encourages more driving and in the end more pollution. You can watch the video above. Here’s exactly what Katie says:

Hybrid batteries contain nickel that is mined and smelted in a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. A plant that has caused so much environmental damage and acid rain that NASA uses the so-called dead zone around the plant to test its moon rovers. … That nickel then has to be shipped via massive containers to a refinery in Europe. Then off to China to be made into nickel foam, then to Japan to be manufactured, then finally all the way back to America. All that, just to put a single hybrid battery into a car. When you combine all the energy it takes to built and drive a hybrid it adds up to almost fifty percent more that it does to build and drive a Hummer.

A few comments to my posts on the hybrid in the Knight Rider TV movie, said things like like “spare me.” Yes, the Knight Rider TV movie is a remake of a cheesy ’80s TV show, but it might inspire Ford to make a hybrid Mustang. Boston Legal′s 10 million viewers probably believed the statements about hybrid batteries. My point is: Culture matters. It’s probably the more important than things like politics, technology, brand or anything. It really does not matter that the the hybrid Hummer/Prius study has been discredited (many, many times) or that this argument is just stupid for the simple reason that batteries are recycled by law. If it’s repeated on shows like Boston Legal, it’s “fact.”

Related:

• Study commissioned by Land Rover finds small cars are bad for the environment
• Should we ban the catalytic converter?
• Paris Hilton: “I′m buying a hybrid car right now”
• Chevy describes its car as “vegetarian” in TV ad

[Source: ABC]

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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: Emerging Technologies, Hybrid, MPG, Nissan, Japan, USA

Shiro Nakamura, Nissan’s global design director says “the Cube is coming to the U.S. market.” The Cube gets 37 MPG and has something called e-4WD, which includes an electric motor that kicks in when you need it. The Cube is already out in Japan (see wacky Japanese commercial below the fold) and there were rumors it might come to the U.S. Now that it’s confirmed, I wonder who needs the Scion xB? Well, Nissan has said they don′t intend to compete with the Scion xB. To that I say, “Yeah right, whatever dude.” Look out for the Cube’s U.S. release in late 2008 or, more likely, early 2009.

[Source: Auto Spies, LA Times]

 

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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: Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen, Honda

Honda recently launched a new green ad campagn called Problem Playground. It just kicked off the second phase with a TV ad that features Honda’s hydrogen fuel cell FCX Clarity (which you can watch below the fold). The ad’s voiceover is done by Garrison Keillor and goes like this:

A hydrogen car with zero emissions. More efficient solar panels. Hybrid engines. When you love solving things, isn’t every a problem a playground?

The ad’s general theme is that Honda enjoys problem solving the same way that children enjoy a playground. Pretending to be Honda workers, 140 actors work together to create puzzle piece structures of green things like the FCX Clarity. No special effects either: those are really thousands of Rubix cubes spelling out hybrid. The ads were created by Wieden & Kennedy London with planning by Publicis Groupe’s Starcom.

Related:

• Video: Škoda’s life sized car made out of … cake!
• Kia TV ad: Spectra is so fuel efficient, you will forget which side the car the gas tank is on
• Honda gives its own green credentials a shout out
• VIDEO: Water fight for water emitting car, first ad for the Honda FCX Clarity
• First Drive: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity, world’s first series production fuel cell car

[Source: YouTube]

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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: Hybrid, Chevrolet, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

Recently, we told you GM shelved a hybrid Malibu TV ad to air in the Superbowl. MediaPost is reporting that GM will “advertise during the show (Grammys), with commercials - including one starring Mary J. Bilge - that tout the Chevy Malibu and GM’s “Gas Friendly to Gas Free” campaign.” Is that Malibu ad for the hybrid version of the car? We will tell you after the Grammys (now with writers!) air February 10th.

This won′t be Mary’s first advertising gig with GM. Mary was also a part of GM’s celebrity-packed show at last year’s Detroit Auto Show. Whatever GM has in store for us on Grammy night, it can′t be as unflattering as using the Greek character of Sisyphus in their Superbowl Yukon Hybrid ad. Someone please tell GM that Sisyphus’ pushing that stone symbolizes unending, pointless punishment.

Related:

• Video: GMC’s Superbowl ad for Yukon hybrid
• Yukon Hybrid Super Bowl ad includes imagery from 1976 animated short
• 2008 Detroit: videos of the Dodge Ram Hemi hybrid, Chevy Volt, E85 Coupe

[Source: MediaPost]

 

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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