Click above on the Ego concept for more images of VW's 2028 concepts

Apparently, Volkswagen thinks its time for another weird and wacky look into the future. This time, the German automaker is gazing just twenty years ahead. The results of its future look are three virtual concept cars. Yes, all three are capable of driving themselves, as you would likely imagine. As would be expected of any self-respecting gaze into the future, petroleum is not part of the picture. In its place are biofuels for those who simply must have liquid fuels and, of course, electricity. We feel pretty confident that these projections are possible, but that's right about where any semblance to reality ends.

After taking a leisurely stroll through the über clean park, a father and his son are reminded that it is time to leave by a hologram. What car to have delivered? The VW One wouldn't do, as it only seats a single occupant. The VW Room is overkill, as it is intended for an entire family. So, the son chooses to summon an Ego, a two-seater sportscar concept complete with user-defined green flames.

[Source: Volkswagen 2028]

Because certain subsidies and incentives allow many gas stations to sell ethanol for less money than regular gasoline, the fuel is becoming a popular choice among motorists, even if their vehicles are not certified for flex-fuel use. All vehicles sold in the U.S. today are capable of accepting small doses of the alcohol fuel, as up to ten-percent of normal gasoline may be ethanol. Of course, the fuel is available in higher concentrations for vehicles which have been designed to use it, with E85 - eighty-five-percent ethanol, fifteen-percent gasoline - proving one of the most popular combinations.

Apparently, though, the lower price of the fuel has attracted the attention of those looking to save a few bucks on each fill-up. In fact, this article indicates that many users are mixing their own blends right in their tanks. This trend has prompted some gas stations to allow a choice of ethanol mixtures for drivers who want to use it, right from a single pump. Manufacturers warn that using alcohol fuels in vehicles not certified for them could cause permanent damage, so be sure you know what you're doing before breaking those rules.

[Source: AP via The Detroit News]

Click above for high-res gallery of the 2009 Dodge Ram

Although there could be no possible worse time to be debuting a new pickup truck than this year, Dodge's Ram truck is due for its cyclical major redesign, and it's still coming. A few years ago, news of the Hemi's return from the ashes was the biggest news around, and this year, the crew from Chrysler was able to eke some more power from the legendary design. In fact, the horsepower increases from 345 to 390, while torque goes up from 375 pound-feet to 407 - very impressive numbers and partially due to variable valve timing.

Being AutoblogGreen and all, it's the efficiency numbers we are most concerned with, and we're sorry to report that the big increases are yet to come. Though Dodge reports a fuel mileage improvement of some sort across the range, the most miserly model available at launch will be powered by the lowly 3.7 liter six cylinder engine and will have but two doors and a short bed. Reported fuel economy for this setup is still a dismal 14 mpg in the city and 20 on the highway. We'll be waiting for the hybrid and new smaller Cummins diesel engine for real improvements, though we're happy to report that the truck's Hemi still features cylinder deactivation and the smaller 4.7 liter V8 is still flex-fuel capable.

[Source: PickupTrucks.com via Autoblog]

Brazil's best-selling vehicle just got a complete makeover, but just about all we know of it is the picture you see above. The Volkswagen Gol (not Golf) has sold more than five million units in Brazil and an additional million outside. Built over the PQ24 platform, which is shared with the current Polo and Fox, the new Gol now adopts transversally-mounted engines, the same as the ones fitted to the Fox: the 1.0-litre and the 1.6-litre EA-111 VHT, which are both flex-fuel. Rumors say that the signature 1.4 TDI used in Europe could also be fitted to the car, but there's no confirmation of this yet. VW's main target is to make the Gol a low-cost global car, like the Fiat Palio or the Dacia/Renault/Nissan Logan. Expect to see it in South America, Iran, India and Eastern Europe.

[Source: Worldcarfans]

Oh, the poor ethanol industry figures. Maligned for their reliance on corn, blamed for rising food prices and having to resort to subsidized fuel sales to attract attention, ethanol is an easy target these days.. Ethanol can't even get any love from the chickens. Last week, ethanol promoters gathered in Nashville to lash out at OPEC and Big Oil, and to figure out how ethanol will fare in the coming years. Around 4,000 people attended the 2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop and Expo, according to organizers BBI. There is a lengthy video of the opening session now available online here.

In the video, the president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association,Bob Dinneen, breaks into a bit of a tirade about the oil industry. Dinneen's message is that the oil companies are waging war against renewables through paid-for studies and newspaper editorials. The ethanol industry's solution? Mandate that all new vehicles in the U.S. be E85-capable (we assume they mean all current gasoline-powered vehicles). Author Robert Zubrin said this would drive gas prices down to $50 a barrel. I say if cellulosic ethanol companies can make good on their promises to sell ethanol for something like $2 a gallon, you won't need a mandate to get all cars to be E85-ready.

Click above for hi-res gallery of the Lotus Exige 270E Tri-Fuel

British sportscar-maker and engineering firm Lotus may be known for its lightweight vehicles, but in the industry it still packs a punch as a heavyweight. It's that weight which Lotus is throwing behind methanol as the most viable alternative fuel.

Towards that end, at this year's Geneva motor show Lotus unveiled the flex-fuel 270E prototype based on the lightweight Exige sportscar. The vehicle is designed to run on gasoline, ethanol or methanol, but it's the latter which the company feels is the most viable for the near future. Like bio-ethanol, methanol can be made from natural materials, or can be made from hydrogen combined with CO₂ pulled out of the thin air, which allows for zero-emissions operation. The most convenient aspect, however, is that most car engines on the road today could be converted to run on methanol.

[Source: Automotive News Europe - subs. req'd]

By the middle of the next decade Mercedes-Benz wants its entire lineup to be able to operate entirely free of petroleum. The German giant is working on a variety of technologies that will help provide crude oil free transport such as battery electrics, fuel cells and highly efficient internal combustion engines that can operate on biofuels. Mercedes has recently been letting European journalists sample some of these new powertrains at a test facility in Spain.

The F700 concept that debuted last fall in Frankfurt is powered by a turbocharged DiesOtto engine. The DiesOtto is Mercedes' branding for a combined HCCI and spark ignition engine that provides nearly the same efficiency as a diesel without the need for the expensive after-treatment systems. This and conventional diesel engines can run on biofuels and Mercedes hopes to launch the DiesOtto in production by 2010. Mercedes is also currently field testing electrically-driven vehicles with both batteries alone and fuel cells each of which they also plan to launch at the beginning of the decade. While it may well be that all Mercedes models in 2015 will be capable of running petroleum free, the reality is that many - if not most - will still be using fossil fuels much of the time. That may come in the form of coal for electricity, natural gas reformed into hydrogen, or petroleum fuels blended with biofuels. But you have to start somewhere.

[Source: The Sun]

Hyundai will release its first hybrid vehicle for sale to the general public in 2009, as long as the general public in question lives in Korea. Though the automaker has been testing hybrids for the last few years, only government officials were able to drive the vehicles. According to Hyundai, though, none of the research and development costs for its hybrid drivetrain were paid for through government grants. This information seems much more important after Mark Fields' recent assertion that the Korean government had provided assistance to its automakers for the development of the fuel-saving technology. There has also been some question as to whether the Japanese government helped pay for hybrid development, though Toyota denies these allegations.

Regardless of who has funded its development, Hyundai's first hybrid will be the Avante, which is known as the Elantra in the U.S. Interestingly, the first versions of the vehicle will use liquified petroleum gas (LPG) for fuel, along with, of course, electricity. The year 2010 will bring a flex-fuel version capable of using gasoline or LPG. So far, there is no announcement regarding a launch date in the states, though Hyundai indicates it would like to be selling hybrids here by 2011. By that time, the market will be much more crowded.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Remember all those back and forths in the fight between Porsche and the city of London over laws regarding dirty vehicles in the city? Turns out Porsche might have been on to something with their poll that found 75 percent of Londoners thought the £25 congestion charge was too high. Maybe.

Research conducted by New Car Net (through its website, with over 1,400 participants) found that motorists in Londoners were among the least likely in the UK to think about buying a vehicle that wasn't powered by something other than diesel or petrol. New Car Net asked potential car buyers this question: "When you buy a new car, would you consider an alternative fuel (ie. other than regular petrol or diesel)?" and found Londoners answered yes 65.5 percent of the time. While that's well over half, only one section of the country (NE England) had a lower response rate. While there are a lot of people who said they'd consider an alternative, only one in 140 actually bought such a vehicle (for example, a hybrid, or a biofuel- or LPG-powered vehicle) in the UK last year, New Car Net discovered. Let's remember that there simply aren't that many vehicles powered by say, batteries or - ha! - hydrogen fuel cells available these days. More details after the jump.

Although Toyota is the undisputed leader in hybrid sales, it has shied away from offering E85-capable vehicles in the United States. In other markets, though, where ethanol is widely available and popular, such as Brazil, Toyota has seen fit to offer vehicles which are able to run on the alcohol fuel. Just-Auto reports that Thailand might be the next market where Toyota could begin offering E85-capable vehicles, citing The Nation newspaper in Thailand. The decision to offer ethanol-capable vehicles is made easier as any gasoline engine can be made to run on E85 with only minor changes, such as new fuel lines and a computer recalibration.

Toyota also hopes that the price of E85 remains low in relation to the price of gasoline, which could help offset the lower mileage that E85 fuel causes. The source article also points to molasses and tapioca as locally-grown feedstocks for the production of the fuel itself.

[Source: Just-Auto - sub. req'd]

When GM launched Chevy Volt concept last year, officials explained why they badged the car as a Chevrolet. The Volt was intended to be a mass market car that would be affordably priced and widely available. Chevrolet is a global brand for GM and the company wanted to make it clear that the E-Flex technology would be available everywhere. Unfortunately, while the long-term plan is for E-Flex to be widely available and affordable, at launch it will be anything but. With Chevrolet being a budget priced brand in the rest of the world, selling the initial Volts as Chevys could make marketing problematic in the places like Europe.

GM wants to make the Opel brand a technology leader in Europe, but E-Flex is among the most technologically advanced systems GM has. Offering it in a Chevrolet first runs counter to the plan. GM faces a similar dilemma with the Corvette, which doesn't really fit in with the rest of the Chevy lineup. The Corvette is essentially sold as a stand-alone brand in the rest of the world without referencing Chevrolet. Mike Arcamone, vice president of GM Powertrain Europe, told Automotive News that Opel and Chevrolet would both offer E-Flex vehicles within months of launch, the Opel would likely launch first over there.

Although the Opel Flextreme concept that was shown at Frankfurt last September used a diesel engine for the range-extender, the early production Opels will only use the gas/E85 flex-fuel engine from the Volt. While the Euro-Volt will use the same styling as the American car, the Opel will apparently have a different body style, perhaps more like the Flextreme.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]

2009 hybrid Escalade.

You can put canola oil in a Cadilac. You can almost get an Escalade with a hybrid powertrain. And, now, you will be able to get the behemoth (either the Escalade, the Escalade EXT or the Escalade ESV) with an ethanol-ready flexfuel engine. GM announced today that all 2009 Escalades will be flexfuel capable. This announcement isn't a surprise - is there anyone more gung-ho about living green and going yellow than the General? - but now at least it's official. The flexfuel Escalades are the latest step to GM's stated goal of getting half of GM's U.S. production vehicles flexfuel capable by 2012. GM made the announcement in Atlanta, where 12 new E85 stations opened this week.

I had my issues with last summer's Transformers movie, as did some others, about the missed opportunities for green vehicle placement. Remember the HUMMER HX concept from Detroit earlier this year? Looks like it might be the biofuel beast to beat in the sequel. Even as GM considers ditching the HUMMER brand, some spy shots (apparently taken by someone called Marceli over at Releaselog) of the start of filming revealed the vehicle above on the set. Authentic? I have even less of an idea than you do, but speculation is running rampant all over the chat rooms about what the HX is doing there. Does it say NEST or NERT? Would it be for humans to drive or is this a new robot thing? We're sure to hear more as time moves on, but one things for sure: that's a HUMMER HX all dressed up for something.




[Source: Releaselog]

I guess they've got to pretty much give it away: E85 fuel will be on sale for just 85 cents a gallon for two hours in Colorado next week. Domestic Fuel says that the special sale on the biofuel for flexfuel cars will take place in the town of Fowler from noon until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, June 12. The sale is sponsored / subsidized by the Colorado Corn Growers Association, the Governor's Biofuels Coalition (GBC) and Western Convenience. Domestic Fuel calculates that there are about 85,000 flexfuel vehicles running (out of around 300,000 total vehicles) and fifty places to get E85 in Colorado. The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council notes the location of those pumps in the Alternative Fueling Station Locator. The GBC is a statewide organization that promotes ethanol and biodiesel to Colorado drivers.

[Source: Domestic Fuel]

Northside Choppers has announced new product called the "Hot Box," a computer system that plugs into the existing wiring harness and allows the use of gasoline, ethanol or any mixture of the two on nearly any fuel injected V-Twin motorcycle. According to the company, ECU connectors and fuel injectors are included in the kit, besides the box itself. No wire splicing or soldering is necessary. We are not certain what other components will be required to complete the conversion, but it's likely that the actual requirements will vary depending on the motorcycle. Fuel lines may need to be changed to alcohol-compatible pieces for proper operation.

Besides the ability to use renewable fuels, the Hot Box will allow a horsepower increase of up to twenty percent when running on ethanol. Fuel mileage, though, will likely suffer somewhat, though in some areas that could be offset by the lower cost of E85 fuel.

[Source: Northside Choppers]