hybrid cars

Chevy is coming out with some new hybrids and cars with better gas mileage.

They really need to push the fact that the hybrids cut fuel usage and CO2 emissions!

Kermit the Frog’s infamous line about it not being easy to be green, well, that is outdated. However, is the appearance of being green the best thing that hybrid cars have going for them or are they really better for the environment.

A preliminary description of the new Honda Hybrid is given. The car is a 2010 model destined to reach dealers in late 2009. Details of the gasoline engine side of the car have not yet been disclosed, but the electric motor is reportedly driven by a nickel/metal-hydride battery rather than a lithium-ion battery. Gas mileage is thought by Road & Track to be "class leading". This new Honda may offer stiff competition for the Toyota Prius, if not as much for the plug-in hybrid Prius that is expected soon. Base price of the new Honda is an est. $19,000.

The history of mankind drastically changed with the discovery of fossil fuels and their capacity to power up automobiles.

Technology enabled the mass production of cars and allowed a big percentage of households to experience a revolution in transportation.

New York authorities hurry to increase the city fleet taxis with a rate of 300 new hybrid cars per month, announced mayor Michael Bloomberg. Currently, there are already over 1,300 hybrid taxis in the city, each making a saving of $ 6,500 per year.

Hybrid Car News

Sam Pulcrano, Vice President, Sustainability, United States Postal Service (USPS) is interviewed about sustainability initiatives at the US Postal Service, including recycling, energy efficiency, and the new business opportunities sustainability brings.

An article about the release of Toyota’s plug in Hybrid scheduled for release in 2010: “It’s no secret Toyota’s been working on a plug-in hybrid to compete against the forthcoming Chevrolet Volt, but Wednesday’s announcement sets a firm deadline and makes it clear Toyota has no plans of ceding the green mantle to General Motors. It also underscores how quickly the race to build a viable mass-market electric car is heating up.”

Honda Motor Company announced it will launch a new hybrid car low-cost market in Japan, North America and Europe at the beginning of 2009, aiming to overcome the Toyota race car production environment.

View 10 up and coming electric car companies from around the world that are offering a variety of vehicles including high performance sports cars! Watch videos of their feautered vehicles including the Tesla Roadster and Lightening GT.

A Squidoo lens dedicated to hybrid cars including how a hybrid works, reasons to buy a hybrid, green car resources and videos.

I'm sure you've all heard of the sub-prime loan crisis and the falling U.S. dollar, but I bet you didn't know that it was trickling down to affect efficient vehicle choices for U.S. and European consumers.

Independent tests conducted by engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory on the mono-fueled version of the BMW Hydrogen 7 prototype have found that the car’s hydrogen-powered engine surpasses the super-ultra low-emission vehicle (SULEV) level, the most stringent emissions performance standard to date.

There's a new sustainable product review/research site that's having a contest as part of its launch complete with clever name:

HUDDLER.COM's "WIN A BAG WITH COOL GREEN STUFF" CONTEST

They're giving away 10 bags of stuff worth $145 each - register, write some reviews and/or wiki articles and you're in.

More than a decade ago, Joshua Tickell embarked on a nationwide tour with his ‘Veggie Van,’ fueling it with biodiesel for a total of about 25,000 miles of crisscrossing the country over a couple of years. How Tickell sourced his biodiesel was a story in itself and yielded much media attention; through a memorably DIY arrangement, he gathered free used fryer grease from fast-food franchises along the way and prepared biodiesel, a small batch at a time, with equipment he’d devised.

Toyota swallowed about half the cost of the Prius during its first few years on the market, but today it actually turns a profit. Will GM do the same for the Chevrolet Volt?

Hot new electric car set to hit market, with hopes of taking over Toyota's leadership position.

A small start up company in Kansas it doing it's part to help car enthusiasts keep their muscle car from the 70's or their modern day SUV.  They are doing this by pulling out the traditional engines and replacing them with a Bio-Diesel Hybrid Engine.  Neil Young has been one of their latest customers!!

Unfortunately, prices remain high across the board for any environmentally friendly car. The least expensive green car currently on the American market is the 2007 Hyundai Accent GLS 4-Door with a price tag that carries a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $12,925. But, according to Yahoo’s “Top 100 Cars by Green Rating,” the Hyundai comes in at number 22 with a green rating of 75. Until you’re ready for that financial trauma, you can assuage your environmental guilt with the following ten gasoline-powered yet “green” vehicles that are all priced under $19,000.

In an increasingly competitive auto market, automobile manufacturers are always on their toes to look for that opening which would take them to the top of the mountain. Asian automakers like Toyota, Honda and Nissan read the future clearly and have come up with products which they see will be popular in the future.

In the past few years, development, production, and demand for hybrid cars has increased at an enormous rate. While the cars currently on the market may already seem like technological masterpieces, the car companies are continuing to develop and improve new vehicles with features that improve fuel efficiency, performance and appearance

Hybrid vehicles work by combining a gas powered engine with an electric motor generator that gets power from a battery pack. You do not need to plug in or charge your hybrid, as most vehicles have the ability to charge themselves while you are driving. This onboard system is called RESS (rechargeable energy storage system).

Remember how futuristic movies of the past portrayed tomorrows car as fast air gliders. Cars that moved from one point to another in the air. Well the future is here but the car of the future is not the dream of yesterday. The cars of our future do not glide through the air.

Hybrid vehicles are on track to achieve record U. Hybrids combine the best of electricity and gasoline. Hybrid technology also works on a larger scale. Hybrids sound good -- they are, for example, exempt from the range limitations of battery-powered cars.

In Britain there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860.

When a vehicle uses multiple propulsion systems to provide motive power, it’s called a hybrid vehicle. Combination of propulsion systems may be many types but most commonly used system is gasoline-electric which known as gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.

Whenever we see an expensive “brand new” car, we feel envious of the person driving it; we fantasize about being able to reach the level of success of that person, or at least to someday be able to afford a similarly expensive car . In today’s society, and it’s especially true in Panama, people tend to think “you are what you drive.” We speculate that cars and their cost reflects the true personality of a person, although it may not be true...

On climate, on energy security, time is not on our side.
Researchers at NOAA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, say that the record heat of 2006 was, in large part, caused by us.

A source at FoMoCo tells us they plan to rock down to electric-gas avenue in the near-term future. Although we knew there’d be a 2009 model of a certain razor-bladed sedan with some kind of charge to it, we didn’t know any more details other than that. Until today.

In keeping with this week’s transportation theme, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing automobile dependence and ways to break the habit. Many people own a car or truck because of convenience, but none of us like the side effects - traffic, increased travel time, increased emissions, and smog. In today’s post we analyzed a few of the ways to reduce automobile dependence. Note that not every idea works in every situation, but certainly a combination of ideas can help us all in someway.