It seems there’s always a hunger among electric-vehicle enthusiasts for new information about the Aptera 2e, that composite-skinned energy sipper that looks like the future, where everyone’s wearing jumpsuits and has numbers as last names and crystals embedded in their palms that turn black on Lastday.
Unfortunately, the company tends not to be very talkative, so [...]

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that BMW is giving the city a fleet of MINI Es as part of a feasibility test. In fact, BMW will be testing 500 electric MINIs worldwide. Other cities included in the program are Los Angeles, London and Berlin.
MINI E is the first product from BMW’s Project [...]

With the onslaught of electric
concepts and announcements coming out of the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, you’d think that the entire world is about to junk their old jalopies and rush out and buy electric cars tomorrow.
But, alas, as much as millions of Americans would love to pay 3 cents a mile on their daily [...]

Faced with dwindling cash reserves, several states are considering raising
their Gas Tax. Those with efficient vehicles will come out ahead. Low income families, the trucking industry and the alternative fuel industry will finish last.
Now I am all for taxes - there are many essential services that the government performs and they need money to [...]

Well, actually I wasn’t there, at the Detroit Auto Show, but it stands to reason that someone from Ford uttered those words, near a rotating platform, without breaking into a laugh.  I’m willing to go on record, though, with the prediction that Ford’s new engine, the EcoBoost, will bear a new nameplate within two years. [...]

I live in a very remote region of far Northern California. I have always dreamed of owning an electric car or plug-in hybrid, as we live off-the-grid with energy to spare to charge a car’s batteries.  The problem is I do most of my driving on dirt roads, and four wheel drive is required at [...]

This has been a Lotus/Chrysler-heavy blog in the past few days, but let’s face it: if you’re talking advanced automotive technology and lightweight engineering, you’re talking about Lotus Cars - and if you’re talking highly-anticipated new electric vehicles at Detroit’s 2009 NAIAS auto show, you’re talking about Chrysler’s ENVI electric-vehicle program.
The car shown above is [...]

The Nikkei Newspaper has reported that Hino Motors, Ltd., a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation will introduce a significantly improved fuel efficient hybrid truck in Japan, the U.S. and Australia around 2010.

The new hybrid truck, using a high-capacity battery and improved motor, will be 2.5 times more fuel efficient than conventional models. In fact, the [...]

In a wide-ranging statement on its future, Toyota has announced
that it will bring a plug-in extended range Prius to market by the end of this year, will introduce as many as ten completely new hybrids by the early 2010s, and will bring a fully electric car to market in 2012.
Irv Miller, Toyota’s Vice President [...]

After a $90 million shot in the arm from oil giant BP back in August, second generation cellulosic ethanol pioneer Verenium has started production of ethanol from non-food sources such as wood chips, grass straw, and trash at their Jennings Louisiana demonstration plant (PDF). This is the first such plant to begin operation in the [...]