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Emerging Technologies


Rendered racing fantasy: 1-Liter Racing surfs to the future

We recently saw a rendering for the purely-speculative Audi Avatar, which was based on the outlandish vehicles seen in some futuristic racing video games. A new set of renderings takes the unreal racing game concept a bit further and imagines an entire league that uses hyper-efficient racing vehicles sprinting around a course while using just one liter of fuel. As we know from VW's 1-liter concept vehicle, in the right vehicle, a liter of fuel can take you quite a distance. Designed by Moritz Martin, the 1 Liter Racing League would be ... Read more →

Turn those blister packs into fuel with the Envion oil generator Sam Abuelsamid

It's no secret that we generate a phenomenal amount of garbage, especially here in the United States, and a lot of that trash consists of plastics. Plastics hit us in a number of ways. Most ...

STUDY: Lots of local, green electricity possible for most of the U.S. Sebastian Blanco

One of the reasons that a vehicle powered by something other than gasoline is such a popular idea in the U.S. is that it helps us become less reliant on other countries for our transportation ...

GM awarded DOE money to research Shape Memory Alloy heat engines Chris Shunk

General Motors has been awarded $2.7 million by the Department of Energy to create a working prototype engine using Shape Memory Alloys (SMA). The idea is for the prototype to use SMA tech to ...

Coming Soon to an Automobile Near You: Plastic engines? Jeremy Korzeniewski

Automakers and consumers alike all want lighter cars. "Adding lightness" has a lot of desirable effects, most notably in overall fuel efficiency and performance. While numerous efforts have been made ...

REPORT: Bolivia will make its own lithium-ion batteries by 2018 5 days ago on Autoblog Green

Asia and Michigan, watch out. It's a long-term goal, but Bolivia is looking to capitalize on its large in-ground lithium supply by producing li-ion batteries by 2018. While lithium might not ever be in short supply, Bolivia certainly has the advantage of not needing to import the valuable material. ...

Fanciful rendering of Audi Avatar shows what ultralights could be like in 2032 7 days ago on Autoblog Green

There are a lot of fanciful renderings out there that try to imagine what kind of vehicles we'll be driving in the coming decades. The renderings from Yanko Design are some of the strangest, including the latest, the Audi Avatar Concept. The ultralight, three-seat Avatar is supposed to be ...

REPORT: Generation Y will "redefine" automotive market, trends green and big 8 days ago on Autoblog Green

Were you born somewhere between 1976 and the early 1990s? Are you the child of a so-called Baby Boomer? If so, you, like me, are a member of Generation Y. So, what does that mean? Well, nothing really, but it's a convenient way to classify a large chunk of the American population... and we ...

What's old is new again: VW developed auto start/stop, DI in 1980 10 days ago on Autoblog Green

The great risk in predicting the future is that the odds are great that you will be wrong. Every once in while, though, you nail the ideas almost dead on. For some amusement, it's always fun to go back and peruse old issues of magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics to see what they ...

Volkswagen and Stanford to expand technology collaboration at "CARS" 11 days ago on Autoblog Green

Volkswagen is no stranger to working with Stanford University, having collaborated with the Palo Alto school on the DARPA Grand Challenge competitions for autonomous vehicles. Volkswagen also already has a technology research facility in Palo Alto. The university and automaker are now opening a ...

HFO-1234yf: Get used to hearing it 12 days ago on Autoblog Green

What the heck is HFO-1234yf? That's the name of a new refrigerant that's reportedly 350-times less damaging to the atmosphere than the current HFC-134a (or 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane, if you prefer). You may recall that today's refrigerant was actually put into widespread use back in the early ...

How can EEStor be valued at $1.5 billion? 14 days ago on Autoblog Green

We've long given up on waiting for announcements from EEStor (and, to a lesser degree, their partner ZENN) to come true. But, with the latest move by ZENN to drop their plans to launch the cityZENN high-speed electric car and will instead focus on becoming a supplier of ZENNergy Drive electric ...

VIDEO: Argonne National Lab developing Omnivorous Engine 15 days ago on Autoblog Green

Gasoline, ethanol, methanol, butanol, natural gas... there are a ton of choices when deciding on what fuel is best suited for automotive use, and each of them offer at least some reason to recommend them over another. Which to choose? Here's a better question: What if you didn't have to choose ...

GM's OnStar EV Lab opens its doors, loves the Chevy Volt 15 days ago on Autoblog Green

One of the features that GM is promoting with the Chevy Volt, due late next year, is a completely new level of connectivity for the plug-in hybrid. Well, completely new isn't quite right. The Volt will certainly communicate with the grid and with GM in new ways, but the underlying OnStar ...

Auto X Prize announces 43 qualified teams still fighting for $10 million 15 days ago on Autoblog Green

The white stars on the map above could be used as the guidelines for a really fun road trip, if you're interested in learning as much as you can about the future of clean vehicles. From established companies (Tesla, Tata) to start-ups (Aptera) to high-school teams (West Philly EVX), these are the ...

Lists? Yeah, electric vehicles get on lists. Hopeful, hopeful lists 16 days ago on Autoblog Green

Here are five technologies that "could change everything": Advanced car batteries Carbon capture and storage Space-based solar power Utility storage Next-generation biofuels This is the list culled by the Wall Street Journal, and we note that plug-in vehicles benefit/are tied to ...

ThinkWrap, Auto X Prize partner for "near-real time" race vehicle monitoring 17 days ago on Autoblog Green

Got a favorite team in the Automotive X Prize? Once the road race portion of the AXP starts up (which is when, again?), we'll be able to follow the contest and specific vehicles online thanks to AXP's just-announced partnership with ThinkWrap. Vehicles will be monitored in "near-real time" thanks ...

Coskata's new Lighthouse cellulosic ethanol plant, in depth 19 days ago on Autoblog Green

Coskata's newly-opened semi-commercial flex ethanol facility in Madison, Pennsylvania is as small as it can possibly be. Co-located at a Westinghouse facility that also in some fashion uses nuclear energy, the Lighthouse project, as it's called, is running 24/7 to turn wood chips into ethanol. ...

Redox flow batteries promise near-instant recharging times 20 days ago on Autoblog Green

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Pfinztal, Germany, are currently working on improving a new type of battery system that promises recharge times on par with the refilling of a conventional fuel tank using something called redox flow batteries. How do they ...

CleanFlex Power System finds a way to burn ethanol in diesel engines 20 days ago on Autoblog Green

Diesel engines like to burn diesel fuel. Most, especially older ones, will also run just fine on biodiesel. But ethanol? You can't put ethanol in a diesel engine, right? According to National Corn Growers Association chairman and Nebraska corn farmer Bob Dickey, there actually is a way to mix ...

Mexico developing 'smart' speed bumps to increase safety, decrease fuel consumption 20 days ago on Autoblog Green

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/autos/Smart_speed_bumps_increase_safety_decrease_fuel_consumption'; Speed bumps are the bane of many an urban driver all around the world. We understand that the little protrusions were first installed to promote safety by getting drivers to slow down in congested ...

Coskata opens doors to first semi-commercial flex ethanol facility 21 days ago on Autoblog Green

Coskata caught our attention back in January 2008 with the announcement that GM would take an equity stake in the cellulosic ethanol producer in an effort to bring the biofuel to market at a cost of just $1 a gallon. Since then, things haven't gone quite as smoothly as Coskata executives might ...

Israeli researchers at Innowattech capture energy from traffic 24 days ago on Autoblog Green

Capturing lost energy with regenerative braking systems is one thing. This, however, is another ball-game entirely. Researchers in Israel have been experimenting with power generators placed underneath the road's surface to capture the mechanical energy of cars passing above and turn it into ...

Coal plants could emit 90% less CO2 thanks to chilled ammonia 26 days ago on Autoblog Green

"But what about the long tailpipe?" Critics of plug-in vehicles often use the "long tailpipe" argument – the fact that CO2 emissions are generated at a power plant somewhere instead of coming from the vehicle – to show that all the "zero emission" cars aren't as clean as they ...

2010 Kawasaki Concours 14 includes Fuel Economy Assistance Mode 28 days ago on Autoblog Green

In case you hadn't noticed, motorcycles are joining in on the bigger-is-better mentality right along with our cars and trucks. Each successive generation of a new model tends to have a slightly larger and more powerful engine, which in turn makes the bike faster and gives buyers a reason to ...

AltCar 2009: EF9's "unlimited clean energy" turbine could go into cars, if it works 29 days ago on Autoblog Green

Mark Tanner, who does R&D for EF9 Energy Systems, was pretty wiped out by the time we got to speak with him at the end of AltCar 2009 in Santa Monica last weekend. It's understandable. He'd been explaining how his system for "unlimited clean energy" was supposed to work to hundreds of ...

REPORT: IBM working to develop 500-mile lithium-air battery pack 29 days ago on Autoblog Green

Last week, a consortium of some of the nation's leading scientists and engineers reportedly met in California to develop a new battery pack for electric cars. Sponsored by IBM and its Big Green Innovations program, the so-called Battery 500 team hopes to create a power pack capable of propelling a ...

Honda says nanotubes "open new possibilities" for hybrids and EVs - and muscles 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Nanotechnology isn't new to the green car discussion. After all, we've heard about the potential for nano lubricants and Ford's work researching nanotechnology for developing "paints, plastics, light metals and catalysts that will allow reduced vehicle weight and improved fuel economy." There's ...

BYU research hints at a possibility of a fuel cell powered by sugar 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

When it comes to sugar and cars, there's a type of cellulosic ethanol made from sugarcane, much of which is produced in Brazil. However, researchers at Brigham Young University (BYU) have developed a catalyst that breaks glucose molecules in such a way that electrons, and therefore electricity, ...

AltCar 2009: NuTech battery swap trailer is fresh, kind of crazy 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

The most interesting electric vehicle concept product we saw at the AltCar expo in Santa Monica this weekend was the automatic battery charger and changer from NuTech Energy Solutions. Since the idea is a new one from Peter Capizzo and his business partner Glenda Dubak, all they had to show was ...

MotoCzysz + Bajaj = dream? 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

When last we had word of MotoCzysz, the company had just finished a marathon struggle to design, build and race an electric motorcycle at the TTXGP. The epic E1pc was built and shipped to the Isle of Man where it participated in the practice runs but tragically suffered a motor failure at the ...

AltCar 2009: Touring the show with the Governator 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

During the opening day of the 2009 AltCar Expo & Conference here in Santa Monica, Governor Schwarzenegger stopped by for a tour of the green vehicles on display. He learned about the Volt from Dave Barthmuss (above), sat down in a Tango and the Wheego Whip, learned about the MINI E and ...

Nissan robot car concept avoids accidents by mimicking fishes 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Nissan sleeps with the fishes? Well, no... not exactly. But we'd guess someone in Nissan's Japanese think tank must watch a little too much Discovery Channel. We've all seen those amazing videos where unspeakably large schools of fish travel huge distances without anyone or anything to guide ...

Will we ever replace the standard rear- and side-view mirror? 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Recently, we received the following question from a reader: Rear view mirrors inevitably create blind spots. They add untold fuel costs by resisting airflow past the automobile at speed. Since the first back-up camera and display technology came on the scene they have been obsolete. What is ...

Magnetic Air Car "does not violate the laws of energy conservation or the basic principles of thermodynamics" 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

When a news article about a new car starts with this line – "Vehicle currently in development requires no fuel, no external charging" – it makes us worry. We're not exactly big fans of vaporware made of unobtanium. So, it is with skepticism that we read about a new compressed air car ...

Google algorithms tweaking electric car-smart grid communication 1 month ago on Autoblog Green

Google's interest in everything everywhere things green has apparently been deeper than we knew. The solar car ports, the $2.75 million investment in companies (like Aptera) and the whole RechargeIT program are old news. What's thus far been under the radar is that Google is working on software ...

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