The Aptera 2e, that all-electric car that has made consumers’ minds roll on what is really the score with the whole design will be delayed. This was learned after Aptera announced that the Aptera 2e will start production in 2010. Originally, this vehicle was to start production this year but apparently some money considerations has stalled the vehicle from breaking ground. The forefathers are contending that they can shell out the cash to kick off things but want to avail of the financing program before making any hasty decisions.

This means that the 4,000 people who have placed pre-orders will have to wait some more before the Aptera 2e really goes into production. Hopefully though the long wait will be worth every penny that they had deposited for the said vehicle.

(Source) Slashgear

Tags: 2e, aptera, breaking ground, consumers, electric car, ev, financing program, forefathers, hasty decisions, long wait, money considerations, score

Jay Leno has had this timed trial race with an electric car since his new show began, and I suppose that he is the perfect spokesperson for the electric Tango. This car is designed to only take up half a lane, and is totally electric.

Jay didn’t crack any obvious jokes about the car’s small size, but remarked that it didn’t feel so small once he was behind the wheel. The Tango is only capable of 40 miles at highway speeds now, but future efforts are hoping to bring it up to 200 miles.

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For 11 out of 12 years, the Camry has been the best selling car in the United States. Toyota’s president Jim Lentz is thinking green when it comes to the next best-seller. Apparently, he sees the Prius sales passing Camry sales in the not-so-near future. As it is, the Prius isn’t even Toyota’s second best-selling vehicle. I suppose time will tell if we really are the hybrid nation that we want to be.

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Now, we all know that there’s a lot of things you can use in your car that you can’t in your house.  And vice versa, actually–I know there’s a lot of things I’d love to be able to plug in while driving.  Charge my laptop, for one…and now, thanks to the Smart AC 120 USB Power Inverter, I can.

The Smart AC 120 USB Power Inverter is a kind of universal power adapter, able to handle most every kind of AC power demand, including USB port demand.  It will apparently work smoothly with laptops, dvd players, cell phones, televisions, game consoles, and even unexpected stuff like small power tools and portable fridges.  You can even hook a power strip to this thing and run your choice of devices from that.

I’m frankly amazed that you could operate all that kind of equipment from one power inverter.  Who needs a gas generator?  Buy a junker car, hook one of these to its cigarette lighter and run your whole house!  And do it on the cheap, too–these things cost just forty dollars apiece.

Tags: AC current, car power, cigarette lighter, DC current, inverter, power, Smart AC 120 USB Power Inverter

Considering the Hummer’s reputation for guzzling gas is nothing short of infamous, it is hard to believe that the Humvee will soon become electric. Yes, it is true, as EnerDel is joining up with the U.S. Army to create a green Humvee. And by green, I mean good for the environment electric, not the color.

EnerDel plans to test two types of battery chemistry that include lithium-manganese spinel and lithium-titanate. They also plan to have a “stealth mode” that will kill the diesel generator completely, and so it will run silently with a low thermal signature. To make it even more amazing, this Humvee is also planned to be used as a mobile power plant.

So is this the age of the e-Humvee? We shall see.

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Peugeot has unveiled a new emission-free electric car in the market coined the BB1. This new concept electric car can seat up to 4 adults and can go as far as 75 miles. It is easy to park and is fitted with two electric motors mounted at the rear wheel. It runs on two lithium-ion batteries and the passenger compartment ventilation keeps operating in daylight thanks to solar panels on the roof of the vehicle.

No word on whether this will become official nor numbers to support it. But maybe when everything is ironed out, we can get more specifics about this latest electric car from Peugeot.

Image Credits: Channel 4

(Source) Press

Tags: adults, bb1, channel 4, electric car, electric vehicle, image credits, lithium, lithium ion batteries, Peugeot, rear wheel, solar panels, specifics, ventilation

You know how this goes–you’re out tailgating and someone brings out one of those awesome beer coolers or electric grills or what have you, and it’d be a great idea except no one knows where to plug it in.  Yeah, sure, you could hook it to your car’s cigarette lighter, but that could wear down the battery.

But now, that’s not even a problem with the 400 Watt Power Dome, a generator that fits in your car trunk.

Granted, four hundred watts is not a lot of juice.  It will, however, run a TV for five hours or a PS2 for eight on a full charge.  And, if you need more continuous power than a charge will carry, you can plug this into your cigarette lighter and, while running your car, run power through the Power Dome and use it like a giant inverter. You’ll have power until you run out of gas.

It’s a pretty nifty idea, and should really put a punch in campouts or tailgating.

Tags: 400 watt Power Dome, car trunk, generator, inverter, power dome, tailgating

That’s right, twenty million dollars in tax credits went from the beleaguered former auto giant state into the hands of a US-French partnership set up to build lithium-ion batteries for Ford.

The twenty million in tax credits will be handed out over the course of three years to Johnson Controls, a subsidiary of Parisian firm Saft Advanced Power Solutions.

But this cash isn’t just going to be lost–Saft et al intend to invest about eleven times that figure in the state and add just under eleven hundred jobs to the sagging state of Michigan by hiring at a plant in Holland.

Electric batteries, folks…seems more and more we’re getting away from the gas car and getting closer to a day without gas.  Hopefully, also, we won’t be surrendering a speed anywhere near fifty five miles per hour, either.

Tags: Ford, johnson controls, Paris, saft, us-french partnership

The world wide auto industry is making the push towards greener and more fuel efficient vehicles. One of the key components currently used in these green vehicles are lithium-ion batteries which are currently manufcatured all over the world.

Today, a country that you probably wouldn’t expect to be a key player in the game has announced that they will be producing their own lithium-ion batteries by 2018. That country is none other than Bolivia.

The purpose of producing their own lithium-ion batteries is so they could bypass the costly expenses of imported batteries made elsewhere. Smart, huh?

via laht

Tags: batteries, bolivia, lithium ion

It doesn’t really look good to win your own sponsored race, but at the same time, if you can’t manage to win the race you set up you end up looking pretty incompetent.

Thus, it’s not exactly a huge surprise that the Suzuki Alto is out in front and looking pretty good on its fuel consumption.

The Alto Green Challenge is sort of, from what I can tell anyway, a hybrid car race.  Both a race for hybrid cars and a two-pronged car race.  Cars are not only trying to clear the track first, but they’re also trying to do it with the least amount of fuel consumed.

For instance, that Suzuki Alto?  It’s burning through about a gallon of fuel for every fifty miles it travels, or 3.99 liters per one hundred kilometers.

I don’t care what country you’re in–fifty miles per gallon is pretty sweet.  So here’s to the Alto, the current frontrunner in its own contest.

Tags: Alto, Alto Green Challenge, car race, hybrid, hybrid car race, Suzuki Alto

What you see there is the concept 2009 Honda Skydeck, which we may never see. Something that we might see is some more hybrids from Honda. Supposedly the company is working on “developing its proprietary Integrated Motor Assist hybrid platform so that it can once again be used to power larger vehicles like the Accord”.

There is even a rumor saying that Honda wants to put this hybrid power into a minivan before 2011. We will see.

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It’s a strange dilemma China has on its hands.  And most Chinese will probably never even see this blog due to the massive censorship on its hands.

We all know that China’s so polluted that their air makes Los Angeles smog taste like a crisp mountain stream.  So naturally, they’re really putting the push on to go green and get some more electric cars on the market.

Well, they’re not the only ones there, but China’s got a SERIOUS problem.  Where most of us have been driving cars for a long time, and are starting to seriously think about going green just by ourselves, the Chinese have not had cars all that long.  Well, not INDIVIDUAL Chinese, anyway.  Individual Chinese haven’t had cars all that long and now that they’ve got them, they mean to keep them.

Now along comes the government telling them, oh, yeah, I know you’ve had this car like all of six weeks but we need you to give it back to the state.  Oh, don’t worry–we have electric cars coming out.  When?  Um…soon.  And they’ll only cost as much as what you paid for the last car!  Subsidies?  Um…look…just get back to work, okay?  Or we’ll kill your children.  You know how this works by now.

It’s a tough road China’s got to drive to get its citizens to go green, and there are plenty of ruts and bumps in it.

Tags: china, Chinese, electric cars, Gas, gas cars, going green, green cars

From the Much Ado About Nothing department, the Progressive Automotive Insurance X Prize committee has announced that the next round of competitors for the big ten million dollar prize has moved on to the next rank.

Only forty three out of the original one hundred eleven teams are still in the running for this title, in which teams are competing to develop a mass production capable car that gets a hundred and ten miles per gallon.  Turns out that this isn’t the only X Prize out there, but this is the one we care about.

Check out some of the project’s goals for winning that ten million:

Safety, Emissions: Vehicles must be designed so that a production vehicle would likely be able to meet U.S. safety standards and U.S. emissions standards.

Manufacturability, Cost: Vehicles must be capable of being manufactured in quantities of 10,000 per year, with vehicle production costs within levels consistent with historical examples of comparable vehicles.

Features: Vehicles must be desirable, addressing the most important features and factors consumers consider when purchasing an automobile.

Business Plan: There must be a credible plan to manufacture, sell, and service 10,000 vehicles (or conversions) per year by 2014. The plan must show that the national fuel infrastructure will support the vehicles, especially if any non-standard fuels or fueling-methods are to be used.

We’ve got a ways to go yet, so keep it here for all the latest X Prize news.

Tags: auto insurance, progressive, progressive insurance, ten million, X Prize

How can I tell?  Well, considering that they’re planning a massive new set of tax initiatives targeting anyone who buys or operates a vehicle, it sure SEEMS like they don’t want you driving anywhere.

How massive, you ask?  Well, in terms of US dollars, you can figure that they’re planning to add roughly FIVE GRAND in taxes to the cost of every new car.  Of course, that particular tax is being phased in in installments over the course of the next eleven years, but still, five grand?  That’s no small feat.

And as if that weren’t horrendous enough, they’re also planning an increase in the gas tax, which will make gas cost, roughly, three pounds per liter, or in US money, roughly thirteen bucks a gallon.

This egregious push is being dubbed “essential” in order for Great Britain to meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets, but critics, not surprisingly, are saying that this is all a push to treat drivers like the government’s own personal piggy bank.

This is, of course, nightmarish in its extremity, and hopefully will drive Brits into the streets to protest this sickening abuse of power.

Tags: Engalnd, gas prices, great britain, Law, taxes

The Reva Electric Car Co. is bringing its act to New York, reportedly set to build a new fleet of electric cars to be situated in the Syracuse area. The company will be in cahoots with Bannon Automotive where they will assemble the three-door plug-in hatchback at a site somewhere in the Syracuse area. The plant is expected to be officially announced at a news conference and will open next year with an initial workforce of 100 people.

(Source) WKTV

Tags: cahoots, electric cars, fleet, news conference, nxr, reva electric car, reva electric car co, syracuse area, workforce