Chris Paine, maker of the famous (at least in these parts) documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car," is planning a revival of the topic for his next film. Tentatively scheduled for a 2009 release and titled "Revenge of the Electric Car" (does the sequel look to get some inspiration from the Star Wars franchise?), it certainly wouldn't be a shocker if the electric car in question were none other than the Chevy Volt. While the first documentary focused on the destruction of the EV1 from General Motors - despite the fact that many past EV owners wanted to purchase them outright - the second film appears ready to welcome the electric car back from the dead.

We're not at all certain what the movie will focus on, but it is definitely true that electric cars are seeing a reincarnation of sorts. Tesla Motors, Fisker Automotive and General Motors all have plans to create new electric or hybrid vehicles in the coming years, along with many other major automakers. Even if it isn't the beloved little coupe, we join Mr. Paine and the throngs of ex-EV1 drivers in welcoming the electric car's return.

[Source: The Detroit Free Press]

At the big unveiling of the Chevy Volt, GM said the vehicle would be able to hold 12 gallons of liquid fuel and be able to go 640 miles on that energy and what was stored in the batteries. Well, that announcement was 18 months ago and things have changed since then. The latest that we've heard about is that the liquid fuel tank will be something smaller than the original estimate.

Kicking Tires quotes "a source" that says that the exact size of the smaller tank is not yet set but that, "We're working on that." The new goal is to give the Volt a range of 360 miles without any help from the initial charge, so that would imply a tank of maybe eight or so gallons - still plenty for most drivers most days in a PHEV like this. While the aerodynamics of the Volt have proven to be much more important than weight when it comes to increasing the miles per gallon number, every bit counts. We're waiting on a reply from GM to see if the smaller fuel tank move is official.

UPDATE: GM's response was that they will share "the detailed technical information on the production vehicle at the appropriate time."

[Source: Kicking Tires]

The first installment of Transformers pushed some serious gas guzzling on movie audiences by way of the upcoming Chevy Camaro (with V8 power, naturally) and a Hummer. Our esteemed Mr. Blanco was less than impressed by the movie's lack of green credentials. After all, being nothing more than a movie, a perfect opportunity presented itself to introduce the movie-going world to clean transportation. It now sounds as if Mr. Bay and General Motors have seen the green-tinted light, as rumors now suggest that GM's upcoming green poster-child will indeed make an appearance in the highly-anticipated Transformers sequel. We anxiously look forward to seeing the Chevy Volt in production form in the next Transformers movie, and it would be some serious icing on the cake if we witnessed it transform into some kind of awesome gas-guzzling-robot butt-kicker along the way.

Remember too that GM will be showcasing another gas-saving vehicle in the upcoming flick in the form of the Chevy Beat. For our two-wheeled fans in the reading audience, Mr. Bay will also be featuring a female robot in the form of a Pepto-pink Buell.

[Source: Reuters]

The new 2010 Toyota Prius will be unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show next January along with a Lexus badged derivative. When the third (or fourth depending on whether you count the original U.S. model as a second gen) Prius debuts it will retain the current hybrid setup with a nickel metal hydride battery pack. The gas engine is expected to be updated and grow from the current 1.5L to 1.6L. The five door hatchback body style is also expected to grow a bit although the fuel economy is not expected to suffer. If the rendering produced by Car and Driver is anything to go by, not much of the new Prius design will come from the Hybrid-X concept that Toyota showed at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show. In 2010, Toyota will start building a few hundred Priuses with lithium ion batteries and plug-in capability for commercial and government fleet testing. A high volume retail version won't appear until 2011-12.

[Source: Car and Driver]

Right now hardly seems like the time for General Motors to be planning a celebration. Its market share has dropped below twenty percent and it's burning through cash at a rate that has financial analysts everywhere warning of bankruptcy. Nonetheless companies don't turn 100 years old every day. With that in mind, GM is apparently planning something special for the big birthday party this September. In a bid to get people looking forward to the future rather than focusing on the apparent financial meltdown of the present, the guest of honor at the birthday party may be the production version of the Chevy Volt.

We all know that the design team lead by Bob Boniface has had to rework the Volt in order to get some decent aero numbers. The big question is how much will the design have to change from the original concept? However, even while looking ahead another two years to Job 1 for the Volt, the question of financials still can't be ignored. With battery packs that are expected to cost upwards of $10,000 per car at start of production, GM has already acknowledged that the price of the car will be higher than they hoped at launch and they are still likely to sell it at a loss. Unfortunately, GM doesn't have the luxury of profits elswhere in the company to subsidize the Volt the way Toyota did when they launched the Prius a decade ago. Regardless of the cash situation, this remains probably the most anticipated GM car in decades. Hopefully, it won't bankrupt the company in process of coming to fruition.

[Source: Reuters]

Considering all of the work that Renault is doing with fuel cells and pure electric vehicles, it can be slightly deflating to remember that there are still a lot of gas-using vehicles to be sold before those alternatives are available. The good news, out today from Automotive News Europe (subs req'd), is that the company is now saying they will bring the micro hybrid system called start-stop to every model sold in Europe by 2010. Start-stop technology shuts down the motor down when the vehicle is not moving, and then instantly turns it back on when needed. The company is currently working on prototypes and believes CO₂ emissions could be recuded by 15 percent to 20 percent in city driving and wants to provide the technology at a much cheaper price point than is currently availalbe.

[Source: Automotive News Europe (subs req'd)]

It's the "(Coming!) that gets us. In a funny and disrespectful Sunday comic about the high price of gasoline, Opus creator Berkeley Breathed illustrates the feelings of a lot of people in fine color. Sometimes you just want to gloat - it's too bad that we can't all do so quite yet. I've snipped a corner of the one-panel comic for our mostly family-safe viewing here on AutoblogGreen (you never know when someone will take issue with bare comic character butts in profile), but you should really check out the whole thing over at Salon. Breathed's fantasy PHEV doesn't quite look like any vehicle we know will hit the road in the next few years, but the fact that a plug-in hybrid is indeed Coming! is true (see: Saturn VUE)

If you've got a few more minutes, check out these other related green car cartoons:

• Dilbert
• CARtoons
• Diesel Sweeties

h/t to Paul S.

[Source: Salon]

Although some aftermarket operations have tried installing rooftop solar panels on the Toyota Prius, none of the pioneering hybrids have ever come so equipped from the factory. This will reportedly change next year when the third-generation model hits the streets. Top trim levels of the new Prius and likely the Lexus-badged version will be equipped with photovoltaic cells on the roof. The solar cells won't generate enough power to do any significant charging of the battery pack but will be able to power accessory drives like the air conditioning. That should reduce the parasitic loads on the power-train, helping to improve the mileage slightly. The solar panels could also be used to keep the ventilation system running on hot days while the car is parked. That would reduce interior temperatures, cutting the load on the air conditioning when the driver gets in. The new Prius and the Lexus hybrid will debut in January 2009 at the Detroit Auto Show. Thanks to Mike, Max and Kevin for the tips!

[Sources: CNet, the Gaurdian]

In the past year, Italian high performance icon Ferrari has increasingly showed signs of succumbing to the pressures of the modern world of transportation. At the Detroit Auto Show in January, the Ferrari displayed what was labeled as an E85-fueled F430 Spyder and last year showed a mock up of a lightweight concept dubbed MilleChile. Speaking to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo once again proclaimed the company's commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption.

Montezemolo declared that a road-going hybrid Ferrari would be on the market by 2015 and the company intended to reduce CO₂ emissions by 40 percent by 2012. Bringing technology from race programs to the road is nothing new for Ferrari. This is a company that truly lives the motto "Racing improves the breed." From advanced variable intake systems to automated manual transmissions, Ferrari road cars feed the Formula One program with cash and feed off the advancements. The latest is the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) being developed for the F1 cars. KERS is a regenerative braking system and it's not known is if Ferrari is planning to use a flywheel-based system or electrical energy storage. Either, way Montezemolo has committed to maintaining the character of Ferrari while making the cars cleaner at the same time.


[Source: AFP via Sydney Morning Herald]

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.]

BMW is certainly no fan of the new corporate average fuel economy regulations and for the most part the new fifth generation 7-series debuting this fall is a big middle finger salute to the whole premise. Nonetheless, BMW is incorporating some technology to help the fuel efficiency of its flagship. The Munich carmaker is using aluminum for much of the suspension to help reign in the mass. The 7 is also expected to eventually get either the Two-Mode or mild hybrid systems that it has in development. So far the only vehicle that BMW has committed to equipping with the Two-Mode is the X6. The 7's main competitor, the Mercedes S-class, is getting the mild hybrid system that the two companies have co-developed.

At launch however, American customers are likely to only have one engine choice, the 4.4L twin-turbo V-8 that recently debuted in the X6. Elsewhere, drivers will also have the option of six cylinder gas and diesel engines. BMW has yet to announce any diesel plans beyond the 335d and X5 that are coming this fall. Both sixes are already used in other U.S. BMW models so they could easily be added to the 7. Given the new CAFE rules, it seems likely that the hybrid and six cylinder models will come to the U.S. sooner rather than later.

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

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has just completed a two-year study of the hybrid buses being operated by Long Beach Transit in southern California. Unlike most transit systems using hybrid buses, Long Beach has been using a system that combines a gasoline engine with a series hybrid system. The ISE ThunderVolt hybrid uses a Ford 6.8L V10 running at constant speed to turn a generator that provides juice to a pair of electric motors. Only the motors drive the wheels. Instead of batteries, Long Beach also chose to equip their hybrid buses with ultracapacitors. The Long Beach bus routes are comprised of mostly low speed operation with many stops per mile making the rapid energy absorption of ultra-caps desirable. NREL looked at the performance of the buses and found that the gas hybrids got 4.3 percent lower fuel efficiency than the conventional diesel buses in the fleet. When the lower energy content of gasoline is factored in, though, the gas hybrid came out 8.5 percent better. Overall efficiency was about a wash for the hybrids. In the study the hybrid buses got 3.35 mpg. The increased use of regenerative braking from the ultra-cap hybrids has cut brake system maintenance by 90 percent although other service intervals were somewhat higher. The city has 62 hybrid buses out of a fleet of 228 currently and has ordered 25 more.

[Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, via GreenCarCongress]

As difficult as it may be to believe, interest in alternative fuel vehicles actually pre-dates the launch of AutoblogGreen a little more than two years ago. Another fact that may be tough to swallow is that the BBC's Top Gear was not always the hour of silliness we see today with Clarkson, Hammond and May. In fact Top Gear's current format only began in 2002. Going back in time it had a more staid magazine style format with hosts such as William Woollard. Way back in 1990, Woollard did a pair of segments on alternative fuels and the threat of Global Warming from increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Watching these 18 year old segments, it seems not a lot has changed. Woollard looked at hydrogen with an early prototype of the BMW Hydrogen 7, methanol, CNG, solar powered EVs and even hybrids. The GM Impact, the precursor to the EV1, even makes a brief appearance while discussing battery electric vehicles. In that pre-lithium ion era, sodium sulfur batteries seemed to be one possible solution to range and weight problem of storing electrons. Although such batteries were tested by automakers, the high operating temperatures (up to 350 °C) limited their usefulness. Nonetheless, the similar Zebra batteries are still being evaluated today and used in some applications. Check out the videos after the jump. Thanks to Joseph for the tip!

[Source: YouTube]

click to enlarge

Take one baby boomer favorite - The Fonz - stick him in a boomer dream car - a Lexus RX 400h - and send him off on a cross-country trip through the UK, teaching kids the value of reading. This is the idea behind an effort between Lexus and First News to support the Government's 2008 National Year of Reading.

Yes, Henry Winkler and Nicky Cox, editor of First News, are touring schools across the country in a Lexus RX 400h for the next week or so, visiting almost a dozen schools to promote reading - especially Winkler's series of children's novels about Hank Zipzer, the World's Greatest Underachiever.

While he's cruising through the British countryside, Winkler should feel pretty much at home as he drives an RX 400h in the U.S. Read more about the tour at this site.


[Source: Lexus]