Pick up trucks seem to be vehicles that are ripe for fuel economy improvements. GM didn't do so bad with 40 percent city-driving gains made with their Silverado dual-mode hybrid but it's a far cry from what Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies (HEVT) has achieved with an ordinary Ford F-150. The Progressive X-Prize entrant has taken the plug-in path and produced a prototype that can go 15 miles on only electricity, get 41 mpg over a 30 mile distance and 21 mpg after that. Considering the vehicle they started with only got 16 mpg, we're impressed. Their alterations also give the truck more low-speed torque, V2G capability and 120V power availability. Pretty sweet!

They say the system can also be scaled for F-250s and F-350s. Heck, they're even working on slapping it into a school bus! This isn't just some shade-tree contraption either but rather the product of an early-stage technology venture developed under the watchful eye of Professor Ali Emadi at the Illinois Institute of Technology. HEVT has just unveiled their creation at the Plug-In 2008 Conference and Exposition in San Jose but if you couldn't make it to that event, we have not only a super video, but also a detailed press release after the jump.

[Source: Youtube / HEVT]

The moment many green-loving speed enthusiasts have been impatiently waiting for has finally arrived with the unveiling of the all-new Lightning GT at the British International Motor Show. The sheet was pulled back around 1 o'clock London time to reveal metal that stays quite true to the earlier rendered version. The long hood has sexy curves that deliver more than a twinge of lust but with a fascia that evokes the eloquence of an Aston Martin, it retains a classy British feel. A walk around the back reveals a brief rounded rear deck with no exhaust pipes to spoil the view. While we couldn't cross the pond for the event, the Lightning Car Company folks were kind enough to supply pictures for the gallery below.

Though quite similar performance-wise, the Lightning GT's builders believe they have some solid advantages over the Tesla Roadster in the technology department. The British sports car features Altairnano batteries which are capable of receiving a full charge in as little as 10 minutes and can last for over 10 years. No transmission troubles here either since the 4 PML Flightlink Hi-Pa Drive™ motors are in the wheels. A high mechanical efficiency is maintained with this all-wheel drive design that also aids greatly in brake regeneration and traction control. With all that function comes a bit of comfort as well. Full leather, air conditioning, sat nav and electronic door entry are all part of the £120,000 package. The Lightning GT team are also able to customize vehicles with made-to-measure interiors and even bodywork modifications, according to the customers wishes. Orders have already been received. If you wish to join this exclusive line-up you'll need to throw down £15,000 and be prepared to wait at least a year.


[Source: The Register]

There's more than one way to paint a car. We've featured models with cans and brushes, the option of going sans paint entirely and we've even seen electricity generated from leftover paint fumes. Of course, automakers strive for the highest paint quality possible. The processes they come up with are often very time-consuming and cover many different steps, so it's not all that surprising that Toyota would find a way to both streamline and green up the process a bit. At its Tsutsumi plant in Japan, which is already equipped with solar panels and a rooftop garden, the automaker is currently testing its new "3-Wet" system, which cuts down one entire drying oven. According to Toyota, a 15-percent reduction in energy can be realized using this new process, which is substantial, considering that it estimates as much as 24 percent of the total energy necessary to create one of its cars comes from the painting process.

[Source: The Detroit News]

"Plug-In 2008: A Short Drive to Tomorrow" is the world's first convention dedicated exclusively to plug-in hybrid technology. The event tales place next week, July 21-24, in San Jose, CA.

See the full agenda of speakers and further details here.

The convention is a testament to how quickly plug-In hybrid technology is coming of age. It was only in 2004 that a group of curious mechanics decided to see what would happen if they installed a larger battery in their Toyota Prius. They succeeded in boosting the gas mileage to an average of 100 mpg. In the short years that followed, the technology has gathered support from major decision-makers and media pundits around the country. These mechanics helped spawn the budding industry of plug-in hybrid conversion companies and, quite possibly, nudged major industry players in this direction. Of course, we now know these legendary tinkerers as the founders of the plug-in hybrid advocacy group, CalCars.

Next week should be exciting. I will most likely be there as well, since I am currently writing my Ph.D. dissertation on the "Clean Car Movement." As a new member of the AutoblogGreen team, I look forward to bringing our readers the latest news on the most innovative technology and the people behind it.

Click above for more images of the iPhone 3G's GPS capabilities

Alright, so perhaps that iPhone 3G's GPS system leaves a little to be desired for the hardcore automotive crowd, but that doesn't mean that your brand new purchase can't prove useful to you for more than its normal mobile phone abilities. Since you're reading this article here on AutoblogGreen, we are going to go ahead and assume that you are interested in saving gas, either for the planet's sake or at least for the sake of your wallet. Take a look at these five programs which were designed to help owners of a brand spankin' new iPhone save a few bucks on gas. From fuel mileage tracking to finding the best gas prices in your area, developers have jumped on the ability to develop new applications for die-hard Apple users like nobody's business. Best of all... they range in price from free to just shy of $2 bucks.

[Source: Earth2Tech]

A recent paper by Wally Tyner published by Purdue University shows that, at least for Corn Belt states (like Indiana), corn stover could be a better cellulosic ethanol source than switchgrass. The paper considers the cost and prospective profits of whether a farmer could decide to plant and sell corn and corn stover, or plant switchgrass. The answer is clear to the author: corn is more productive, the soil quality is low, in which case switchgrass becomes the winner. There is also a consideration about the location of ethanol plants: they need to be near the feedstock, because corn is easily transported but corn stover and switchgrass are not.

Although you can check the complete report for the all the figures, take this statement by Tyner as an example of his summary: "With $6 and higher per bushel corn it [cellulosic ethanol] is already very close economically. And since the federal Renewable Fuels Standard calls for the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, of which 16 billion gallons have to be cellulose, cellulosic ethanol will advance."

[Source: Purdue]

A couple of Cincinnati-area men believe they may have solved mankind's transportation problems by combining the strengths of an ultralight electric car with those of a monorail. The plan, developed by Jay Andress and Andy Webster, is to use the small electric cars for short distances about town. When you need to go out to the exurbs or to another city, using the wheels attached to your roof, you connect yourself to the monorail. While you're autonomously whisked away to your predetermined destination at speeds of up to 200 mph, your car uses the rail to charge its battery.

While the pair has spent only $2500 preparing a CityEl, now dubbed the "Liberator Car.", to demonstrate the scheme, they are now trying to attract an additional $10 million for a 1 mile test section of monorail. They expect it would cost upwards of $500 billion to add a MonoMobile infrastructure to the existing interstate highway system but say the increase in transportation efficiency and productivity would save almost an equal amount of money each year. For all the details on this innovative "dual mode" system, check out the MonoMobile website.

[Source: Cincinnati.com]

After going through a somewhat tumultuous time with a change of leadership at HQ, Altairnano now has a solid success it can point to. A two-megawatt, 500 kWh battery system of its making has been put through some serious testing by its strategic partner, power company AES, along with independent contractor, KEMA, and has emerged successful. The battery came with HVAC, a DC to AC converter and control systems, and was hooked up to an Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) sub-station where the series of tests were conducted.

Technicians were able to charge and discharge each 1-megawatt component of the energy storage system on their own as well as in parallel many times over a 15-minute period. They also did "frequency regulation", which involves switching the batteries from charge to discharge modes every four seconds for four hours. These capabilities are very handy when it comes to performing grid "load leveling". The use of the battery to help store intermittent energy sources, such as solar and wind, were noted by Chris Shelton, Director of Energy Storage Development at AES. "Fast-responding, high-efficiency energy storage systems such as these will create a more resilient grid and allow for increased use of variable generating sources such as wind and solar." To get a more detailed look at the testing and results, check the validation report summary (PDF) by KEMA as well as the Altairnano press release after the break.

[Source: Altairnano via Green Car Congress]

Click above for more shots of the Lotus Eco Elise concept

Toyota's Prius has always been a love-it or hate-it design, and as it was restyled in 2002, the machine took its now iconic shape to even further extremes. To many a car designer's surprise, its polarizing styling has found plenty of buyers. In fact, many now contribute a large portion of the Prius' success to its unique and easily identifiable 'green' look. With that in mind, auto stylists have become more interested than ever in eco design, with green aesthetics and building materials now seen as being just as important as the green powerplant underhood.

Alec Moran, a student at the Créapôle design school in Paris, has gone so far as to design an electric car with a chassis made of bamboo that's reinforced with spiders' silk and plant resin. A bit closer to reality are composite bioplastics and eco-friendly fabrics, as seen on the recent Lotus Eco Elise concept which will be shown later this month in London. Another example of innovative green thinking is Ford's soy-based seat foam.


[Source: NY Times]

The Autoblog Green Podcast has finally reached our second dozen! Sebastian and Sam kicked it just before the July 4th holiday, and touched on the Tesla sedan, fuel prices making a possible case for economical vehicles to consumers, ethanol from invasive species, and the possibility of GM dusting off the EV1. Most importantly, the new design of AutoblogGreen is discussed a little bit, too. Thanks for listening, see you again soon!

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If you listened to or read our post on T. Boone Pickens speaking at the AFVI Expo in May, then you know that he's a big proponent of wind power and natural gas (some say he needs to learn more about hydrogen cars). Mr. Swift Boat is all over the media today because of an announcement regarding something called "The Plan," Pickens' big new idea to shift some of the $700b the U.S. spends each year on foreign oil into increasing domestic energy production. Unsurprisingly, Pickens says that wind and natural gas are the ways to go. Maybe this is what he meant when he said he wanted to be a player in the fall election.

Pickens spoke to NPR this morning about The Plan, which includes installing 2,500 wind turbines in Texas to deal with Peak oil (The Plan website says that happened in 2005). As for natural gas, Pickens says it should win as a power source for vehicles because it is cheaper than gas, abundant and domestic.

If you need a jolt of irony with your lunch today, check this out. Pickens told NPR that, "The mistake was made because we didn't have the leadership that stepped up and said, 'We cannot continue to import foreign oil.'" One reason no one stepped might be that people like Pickens invested a lot in oil companies looking for oil in foreign lands. Sheesh. h/t to Dave B.

[Source: Pickens Plan, NPR]

We spoke with Ener1 Chairman Charles Gassenheimer back in December at the EVS23 expo and at the time he was quite bullish on his company's prospects for 2008. So far this year, there has been quite a bit of good news for the company. Ener1's li-ion battery subsidiary, EnerDel, put a lithium-ion pack in a Th!nk City EV and is a staunch proponent of making future hybrids much more affordable. GM-Volt's Lyle Dennis recently had a chance to get an update on EnerDel's current battery status from Gassenheimer and you can read all about it here. The condensed version is:

• The EnerDel Prius was tested at Argonne national lab and got 77.4 mpg.
• Some EnerDel battery packs are being tested in Canada.
• The available operating range of EnerDel's packs is 95.5 percent, much more than the range that other companies' batteries can offer.
• Ener1 is in talks with more companies to use their batteries.
• Gassenheimer doesn't see a lithium shortage any time soon. Perhaps we'll get it from seawater some day.
• Li-ion Th!nk City still on track to be "on the road by the end of this year."

Read the rest.
[Source: GM-Volt]

When the Technology Strategy Board received funding in May for various eco-projects, one of the items on the TSB's list was a flywheel-based hybrid drive system. Connected automakers Jaguar, Land Rover and Ford are part of this project (along with Flybrid Systems, Ford Motor Company, Prodrive, Ricardo UK Ltd, Torotrak plc, and Xtrac Ltd.) and the Technology Strategy Board announced this week that the flywheel technology is proceeding as planned. We have a lot of hope for flywheel tech, and it made our list of most promising green technologies.

Expected to take two years, the program will install the purely mechanical kinetic energy storage system (developed for Formula One race cars) into a demonstration vehicle and will, the TSB hopes, prove to be cheaper and more efficient than standard battery-powered hybrid systems. More information after the jump and at some of our older posts.

[Source: Technology Strategy Board]

About a year ago, Maxwell Technologies told the world about the Chinese government using its ultracapacitors in various official vehicles. Another July brings another announcement, and so we learn that the city of Milan, Italy will soon be using Maxwell's ultracap modules in its hybrid and electric buses. The 125-volt BOOSTCAP ultracapacitor modules will store energy from the bus' brakes and then spit it back out for torque assist when the driver steps on the accelerator. Overhead electric lines or a diesel generator will supply the rest of the energy needed to move the public transit vehicles. Milan has ordered 70 buses from Vossloh Kiepe and Van Hool and will soon take deliver of the first 15. More details after the break.

[Source: Maxwell Technologies Inc.]

Topia Corp. has been showing off their lightweight electric car at the booth of Marubeni Information Systems Co Ltd at the 19th Design Engineering & Manufacturing Solutions Expo (DMS). Ok, maybe "car" is a little strong. This little one seater looks to have much more in common with that enclosed mobility scooter from Australia, the Rainrider. In any case, don't look for the "HUVO" to be having its way with streets or sidewalks near you any time soon. Its purpose seems to be to showcase the ability of its creators to design and build prototypes quickly using the lightest of materials and the geekiest of technologies and, at that, we think it succeeds where others fail.

Consider that this ovoid wonder weighs only 150kg (330 lbs) despite its high-tensile steel plate frame. According to Topia president and CEO, Hideki Sasaki, "If a vehicle of the same size as HUVO is made with existing technologies, it would weigh about 300kg (660 lbs)". They accomplish this feat by using aluminum alloys, carbon fiber reinforced plastic, and ABS resin. The windshield is polycarbonate instead of glass. The actual building techniques are also impressive. The company designed and built its own press molds and utilized equipment ranging from lasers to a rapid prototyping system. The only thing lacking in this concept is the concept of "sexy".

[Source: Tech-On via Engadget]