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ZAP’s New Xebra electric car for 2009

There was no hiding the fact that Zap’s Xebra electric car range was a bit on the basic side, but that is about to change with the new 2009 model. The new Zap Xebra electric car was being shown at the Sacramento International Auto Show. Read more

Zero Pollution Motors and ZAP Vehicles: the difference is

With a mix of both the environment and saving money on gas prices, consumers are becoming more interested in other forms of cars that are more environmental friendly and pocket friendly.

Currently two of the most popular are Zero Pollution Motors and ZAP (Zero Air Pollution) vehicles Read more

Ultra Motor A2B Electric Bike: Doesn’t pollute the environment

You have to look at this great motorbike, just looking at the pictures makes me want to buy one. I am always up for helping the environment and transportation that doesn’t pollute the environment is definitely a big thumb’s up for me.

Forget all the walking and the hard work peddling on a bicycle because the A2B Electric Bike from Ultra Motor is what you really need, many people will say the motorbike is weird looking, but I beg to dither on that, I really like it.

The Ultra Motor A2B Electric Bike uses mountain bike suspension and includes an oversized seat for that extra comfort for your bottom; it also has a small tray that protrudes out from behind the bike, under the seat.

If the bike runs out of battery juice all you need to do is pedal away to recharge it, also by peddling you can increase the speed of the bike, other than that the pedals are not needed.

The bike will give you around about 20 miles on a full charge thanks to its lithium-ion batteries; the bike will do 20mph.

Source – Ultra Motor via Gadgetoholic

Mitsubishi i MiEV electric car going to California

There are reports that Mitsubishi could be about to test their i MiEV electric car in California. The car maker wants two utilities to put the small electric vehicles through their paces and hopes to get an idea at just how well they perform in everyday life.

Mitsubishi has now signed a deal with Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison; they will be adding the i MiEV EV to their fleets in October. The demonstration program will last for three years and in that time the two Californian utilities will test to see how well the drive train works, along with reliability and usage on the grid.

Mitsubishi executive for the i MiEV program, Tohru Hashimoto has said that “its work with the two California utilities will yield valuable data and a greater appreciation of the practicality of an all-electric vehicle in California.”

The i MiEV EV is based on the “i” gasoline-powered cars that Mitsubishi sells in Japan. The electric version of the car will do away with the 64-horsepower engine and will replace it with a 47 kW electric motor and 330-volt lithium-ion battery. The battery takes 10 to 16 hours to charge when plugged into a standard 110 volt electrical outlet. When you plug it into a 220 volt outlet it will take just 6 to 8 hours to charge.

Even though the electric motor is only small, it still manages to produce 63hp and around 133 pound-feet of torque. The car should go from 0 to 60 in less than 9 seconds and have a top speed of 82mph.

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Ronn Motors Scorpion runs on hydrogen & gasoline

Ronn Motors looks as if they are about to please two types of people, firstly drivers who love speed and secondly people who care a little for the environment.

Ronn Motors have developed the Scorpion, which has huge amounts of power but does not produce as much emissions as other supercars. The Scorpion is both clean and fast; this is thanks to the car using a mix of hydrogen and gasoline.

According to Bornrich, the engine used in the Scorpion is a 3.5-liter, six-cylinder VTEC engine from Acura. The engine usually pushes out 280hp, but thanks to twin turbos this is bumped up to 450hp. The hydrogen fuelled engine is connected to an on-demand hydrogen system, this then breaks down the molecules and holds them in a non-pressurized tank. This system does without the need for a hydrogen refueling station.

30 to 40 percent of that hydrogen then gets mixed with standard gasoline; this allows the Scorpion to achieve 40mpg.

The Ronn Motors Scorpion weighs 2,100 pound and will go from 0-60 in just 3.5 seconds.

If you love speed and also care for the environment then I hope you have deep pockets, as the Scorpion will set you back $150,000.

For more news on green cars

X-TRAIL fuel cell does Nürburgring in under 12 minutes

Lap runs on the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany’s Eifel region are often cancelled due to rain. But the wet weather didn’t stop Nissan from taking its X-TRAIL fuel cell vehicle for a spin on the course recently, making Nissan the first automaker to record an FCV lap on the famous race track. Read more

Ferrari Enzo successor will be their lightest and quickest supercar

It seems that the guys over at Maranello have their work cut out for them, as they are now working on a successor to the Ferrari Enzo. Everybody knows just how jaw dropping the Enzo was in looks and performance, and Ferrari have said that this successor will be their lightest and fastest two-seater super they have ever developed. It seems that Ferrari are now thinking how other car makers have been doing for years “Less is More.”

Ferrari has had to respond to the current environment issues, and have now been working hard to improve fuel economy by 40 percent as well as reducing emissions by 25 percent. These are uncharted waters for the Italian automaker; they have always gone for faster cars while fuel efficiency has always seemed to suffer. Well it seems that the guys over at Maranello have found a way to do this without compromising its reputation for performance, it seems that we are about to see a greener Ferrari.

As yet Ferrari have not given the Mini Enzo a name but what we do know is, it will arrive in 2010 and will have a 600-horsepower engine and will only weigh 2,200 pounds, that is 660 pounds lighter than the Enzo. As yet people have no idea as to what the new Ferrari will look like, but many assume that it could take some of its styling features of the picture above.

The new car will have an aluminum space frame, and it is thought that the Ferrari V10 engine will be used. Figures say that the new Ferrari will go from 0 to 62 mph (100 kph) in 3.65 seconds, and should be able to reach a top speed of 225 mph (362 kph). As the car is so light, it should have one of the best power-to-weight ratios of any car on the road. As you would expect this will not come cheap, there will only be 300 made and is expected to cost at least $500,000.

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Hydrogen fuel stations increasing for the new Honda car

Hydrogen cars are set to become very popular with the news that we reported earlier that Honda are to mass produce the new FCX Clarity, as well as other automakers like BMW working hard on their hydrogen vehicle. This now means that fuel companies will now need to increase the amount of hydrogen fuel stations that they currently have. These fuelling stations are one of the most important factors for the success and future of hydrogen cars.

Having more than enough of these stations will not happen overnight, the hydrogen fuelling stations of the future might just be a part of current gasoline stations, or even new standalone stations. At this time California have 23 hydrogen fuel stations across the state, these currently fuel just a fleet of 158. This will never be enough, but there are already plans for another fourteen new fuel stations to be built.

When thinking about new hydrogen fuelling stations there are a few important issues that have to be addressed, storage, containment, delivery and safety. Once all these issue have been solved then we will see more of these new types of stations popping up around the U.S. and the rest of the world. It might even be possible for you to fill your hydrogen vehicle from home, this is done with a process of electrolysis, an electrical current can split tap water into hydrogen and oxygen.

As things stand at the moment hydrogen fuel is more expensive than fossil fuels, and there are not enough hydrogen service stations, to support the large-scale roll-out of hydrogen-powered vehicles.

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Honda to mass produce and lease FCX Clarity fuel-cell car

Honda have announced that they are to mass produce their FCX Clarity fuel-cell car, they hope to be able to do this within the next ten years. Honda, who are Japans second largest automaker after Toyota, are looking for ways to meet public demand for more fuel efficient car models, and they might just have the answer with the Honda FCX Clarity.

Honda President Takeo Fukui, has said “If we can bring costs down by a certain amount, I think we can start mass-production.” Honda have now started production of these more environmentally friendly cars today, and hope to be able to lease at least 200 of these FCX Clarity’s vehicles in the US and Japan over the next three years. Honda already have five customers for these new vehicles in the US.
According to Bloomberg, the Honda FCX Clarity will be available in California, US, in the beginning of July as they already have plans for a range of hydrogen fueling stations across the state. This new Honda has a top speed of 105 miles per hours, which is more than fast enough, well we are not meant to drive that fast anyway.

Honda along with a number of other major automakers are now adding a number of new low-pollution models to their car range, like fuel-cell and gasoline-electric hybrids. These hybrids had a slow start as the public did not know much about this new kind of technology. However; as the price of oil is increasing almost everyday, hybrid cars is a technology that is growing fast and this technology will only get better.

Toyota Prius Hybrid Car sales hit over 1 million: Surely this eases global warming

The demand for hybrid cars are increasing worldwide and with the Toyota Prius gasoline/hybrid car hitting sales of over I million worldwide this surely has to ease global warming. The Toyota Prius Hybrid is definitely a winner and we can see sales keep on going, Toyota have said the figure of Prius sales so far is 1,028,000 last month when their sales rocked 67 percent amid record gas prices and that also claims that the cars have eased global warming by producing around about 4.5 million tons less C02 when compared with gasoline-powered vehicles in the same class.

Even though Toyota have impressive sales figures it is said that Hybrids are still pretty low at 2.3 percent of the U.S market, we all know that in time people will dump their high guzzling gas motors for hybrids, hybrid sales have in fact at the moment rose 38 percent last year even as overall vehicle sales fell and we know with gas prices rising to very high costs Toyota are indeed having troubles keeping up with demands for the Prius.

Buyers are in fact paying much more for the Toyota Prius because they are hard to get a hold of and are getting much harder to find in showrooms, John Hanson a spokesman for Toyota said “Right now, U.S. customers can get a Prius. Next month or the month after that, it’s tough to say.”

With supplies falling and high demands from customers Toyota has cut incentives and raised prices (Now we knew that was coming) and the Toyota Prius on an average costs $25,274 which has risen $869 from a year ago. It seems that the Prius is in high demand and that is without a doubt because it is an eco-friendly vehicle and we all know that customers are going down the Hybrid road, Toyota has expanded their line to include the Highlander and Camry. Toyota are going to unveil the next generation model of the Prius at the Detroit auto show in January and it will apparently be cleaner, bigger and much more fuel efficient, they are also developing a plug-in version that could be in showrooms by 2010. Oh just so you know they are going down the convertible line as well, but no word on this yet.

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Review of the 2008 BMW X3 Hybrid: Environmentally friendly SUV

Ok so we know that when it comes to making traditional gas and diesel cars BMW are one of the best in the world, however it seems that when it comes to Hybrids the German automaker is a little behind their rivals Honda and Toyota. Well that is until now as BMW have been working on the 2008 BMW X3 Hybrid, and unlike their rivals does not use the traditional gasoline-electric hybrid power source.

The 2008 BMW X3 Hybrid uses high-performance capacitors or Super Caps as they are now calling it. This system stores the supply of electric and then sends it to the transmission. The Active Transmission uses BMW’s electric motor as well as a straight-six gasoline engine which is mounted to a conventional six-speed automatic gearbox.

The power that is produced from the BMW electric motor is 80HP, and when that is added to the gasoline engine things then get livelier. I do worry that BMW are still playing catch up to their rival and that they could end up going in the wrong direction. When it comes to Hybrid vehicles nothing comes close to the Toyota Pirus, and with the launch of a new one the 2008 BMW X3 Hybrid could be left behind. However, BMW have a huge following and it is that market that the German automaker will tap into that market.

Source – Auto Mobile Mag

Go green with the 2009 Hummer H2 and SUT: both are E85 compatible

A gas station in Dallas is installing nine pumps at a cost of half a million dollars, these pumps will dispense E85, E10, and biodiesel. The business man involved is a HUMMER dealer, and has had the pumps fitted next to his HUMMER dealership.

This does tell us that the 2009 HUMMER HT and HT SUT are both to be E85 compatible, and you do not have to be Hummer owner to be able to fill your vehicle at the station with Flex-fuel. By 2010 GM has said that all HUMMER’s will be running on E85 bio-fuel, the automaker has said that they will have 15 models running on this green fuel next year.

Source – Automotive News Via Engagdet

Asus computers and notebooks go green: made from Bamboo

Asus like so many other companies are starting to go environmentally friendly materials friendly, so they are looking to make their line of products greener. Asus are thinking of launching a new range of products that have been made from environmentally friendly materials, such as Bamboo.

Bamboo is very tough and is friendly to the environment; let us hope that they take the Bamboo from a sustainable source. The list of product that will be made from this greener alternative is computers and notebooks, and also monitors.

Asus could be on to a good thing here, as all their plastic made products are stating to look much the same as every other notebook and monitor on the market.

Source - PCLaunches

2008 Chevrolet Tahoe: world’s first two-mode hybrid SUV

Before you go out and make your purchase on a new SUV, maybe you should stop a think a little about the planet that we are living on. If you were to purchase the new 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, which is actually the Read more

England Earthquake Will Cost Insurers Millions!

After Kerry reported this morning on the earthquake that struck in England and Wales, people are now left to face the damage that has been caused, which has caused millions of pounds of damage. Read more

Air Power Motors To Be Produced In The US

Tata Motors began producing the Air-Car in India last year and recently news broke that the 1000 miler per filer hauler will be making an appearance in the States.

Aero Pollution Motors (ZPM) have been Read more

The Envirocycle Composter/ComposTeamaker

If you’re looking to do your bit for the environment by buying a compost bin, you should check out the Envirocycle Composter/ComposTeamaker. Unlike ordinary compost bins, this one rolls to keep your compost well mixed and aerated leaving you with clean, fully decomposed compost. Read more

The Evolve Eco-Friendly Showerhead: Saves 2,700 Gallons Of Water A Year

We all know it’s important to do our bit for the environment, so why not do your bit everyday when you take a shower? This eco-friendly showerhead uses ShowerSmart technology to save the water you usually waste when you wait for the shower heat up. Read more

Design Lab 2008 Competition

It has been announced by Electrolux that they will be holding another Design lab competition, the competition will be aimed at the 25 to 35 age group. It is aimed at industrial design students who will be looking ahead to two or three years in the future. Read more

Enviro Friendly Remote Control Car from Corgi

There has been a next generation remote controlled car unveiled and it’s the H2GO by Corgi.

This is a remote controlled car with a difference, it boasts zero emissions and is made from environmentally friendly materials Read more

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