Latest Updates: Hybrid RSS

• Green Rating for Cars
  Srikant Rajan 03:17:31 pm on October 26, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: EPA, green car, honda civic, Hybrid, prius, toyota camry

  US Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) has come out with a SmartWay program for gauging the efficiency of the plethora of green cars. This program was created in 2004 to rank the fuel efficiency of commercial trucks and was expanded to include passenger vehicles.

  Now customers won’t have to wade through the growing number of ratings and jargons such as “ Tier II, Bin 5, grams of carbon dioxide per mile ” associated with a cars green efficiency. Under this program a “ green leaf “or an “ elite green leaf “ is awarded to the cleanest of all the cars. Some models to earn this elite certification include, natural gas-powered Honda Civic GX, the hybrid Toyota Prius , hybrid versions of the Civic, Nissan Altima and Toyota Camry

   

• Power Grids To Get Smarter
  Srikant Rajan 02:10:54 pm on September 28, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: grid integration, gridPoint, Hybrid, plug in, power grid, renewable energy, v2green

  Grid integration technology is slowly gaining a foothold in the much ignored domain of energy transmission.GridPoint has raised $120 million to bolster its “   smart grid   “ technology development .It has also acquired V2Green , an enterprise engaged in providing technology to utilities for managing electricity demands of plug-in vehicles.GridPoint termed this acquisition as “   first step in an acquisition strategy to be fueled by the $120 million investment from undisclosed previous investors  “

  The company has built what it calls the SmartGrid Platform, which gives utilities more insight into the grid so that they can, for instance, strategically discharge and store power according to demand. Such development can act as a potential push for advancing the commercialization of plug in hybrids.

   

• Hybrid Ferrari ?
  Srikant Rajan 01:54:40 am on July 17, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: ferrari, Hybrid, montezemolo

  Think of a Ferrari and you end up with an image of a jazzy mean machine that consumes oil like water and gives no care about the effect it might have on the environment. Now it seems that this image may be in for a overhaul.Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo has declared that an on road hybrid could be available by the year 2015 . Montezemolo also anticipated a reduction in his company’s carbon imprint by nearly 40 % by the year 2012.

  Montezemolo also dismissed any doubts on the proposed Ferraris performance.He said that the “ spirit” of Ferrari would be maintained and there would be no compromise on the performance.One thing is certain the clean Ferrari would necessarily leave a big dent in your pocket,whenever it comes out.

   

• LPG Powered Hybrid by Hyundai
  Srikant Rajan 11:31:28 am on July 12, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: battery, elantra, electric cars, Hybrid, hyundai, lithium ion

  Hyundai plans to release a different kind of hybrid vehicle. This hybrid variant will be based on the Elantra model and will be the first hybrid to run on a combination of LPG gas and batteries. This variant will be initially available in South Korea . Hyundai is also investigating the feasibility of launch in other regions. Australia looks to be an attractive alternative on account of its developed LPG procurement and distribution infrastructure.

  The technology employed in this variant is a first of all sorts. Despite the existence of LPG and batteries nobody till now thought of putting these two to be used in conjunction. Additionally the batteries in this variant are lithium ion based polymer battery which are superior to lithium ion batteries specifically on account of their high durability.

   

• Hybrid Cars And Solar Power
  Srikant Rajan 04:25:04 pm on July 7, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: electric cars, Hybrid, prius, solar energy, toyota

  Toyota is planning to add a solar edge to its best selling hybrid car – the Prius. These panels supplied by Kyocera Corp would power part of air-conditioning in some of the high end gasoline versions of Prius.

  This latest move by Toyota comes at a time when it is facing an unprecedented demand for Prius and is unable to leverage its management expertise to jack up its production capability. Solar power is expensive and not a likely candidate for powering a hybrid car which already is significantly expensive than conventional fossil fuel powered vehicle. Additionally solar energy becomes feasible in large scale power generation, when spread over a couple of acres. As Kentaro Endo renewable energy specialist and director at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry says “ Even if you laid solar panels out on the entire roof of a house, you only generate enough energy to run two hair dryers. ” This seems more like a PR exercise to placate disgruntled prius aspirants so that Toyota can buy some time to figure a way out to get more hybrids out and fast.

   

   

• Not Enough Hybrid Cars for All !
  Srikant Rajan 02:38:52 pm on July 7, 2008 | 1 | # |
  Tags: electric cars, Hybrid, prius, toyota

  People just can’t seem to get enough of Toyotas Prius model. Toyota had initially anticipated the spike in crude oil prices . It hence worked to establish a greener and cost competitive alternative(hybrid cars) to conventional cars. This perhaps enabled it to emerge as the virtual leader in the hybrid car segment. The trouble it seems now is that it can’t provide enough Prius as its supply and manufacturing capacity is woefully inadequate to cater to the rapid increase in demand. George Ramirez, sales manager at the Toyota dealership in Salinas, California, says customers are waiting between six weeks and four months for the cars. Adds Ramirez “ The demand is very high ”.

  The devil behind the limited supply capacity of hybrids is the batteries used in hybrid cars, in addition to components such as regulators and transaxles. This despite Toyota’s plans to jack up batteries production by engaging in an association with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Toyota often cited as a management expert itself admits to “ bottlenecks ” in production of batteries.

   

• Zero Emission Range Rover
  Srikant Rajan 01:11:58 pm on June 29, 2008 | 2 | # |
  Tags: electric cars, global warming, Hybrid, range rover, zero emission

  If you are environment conscious ,but do not wish to  give up your favorite Range Rover ,then take a look at UK based startup Liberty Electric Cars.This enterprise plans to invest £30 million in a business that will initially re-engineer conventional vehicles to convert them into all electric cars. Currently Liberty buys new rovers and minis and replace them with an electric engine to get a zero emission vehicle costing a royal £95,000 to £125,000 per vehicle.However plans are afoot to source empty "Rovers" to be fitted with electric engines to bring down the cost.

  This is an interesting approach to produce low emission vehicles.CEO Barry Shrier further says that even if the battery used in these cars is recharged using fossil fuel powered plants, the emissions from such cars would be a third of conventional vehicles.This however is not clear whether we are just trading tail pipe car emissions to more coal/fossil fuels.

   

• California Wants Green House Labels on Cars
  Srikant Rajan 04:44:02 pm on June 21, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: california air resources board, civic hybrid, eco-friendly cars, ghg, green house gas, honda, Hybrid, low carbon, smog

  California Air Resource Board announced a new legislation aimed to increase consumer awareness regarding global warming and environmental pollution.All new cars that will be sold in California will now feature a certificate that ranks them on 2 parameters,their smog production and GHG emission characteristics.Rankings will be on a scale of 10 ,a higher rank means a low impact on the environment.For instance  a Toyota Corolla would score 7 points ,a  Dodge Caravan will score 3.and no prizes for guessing the ranking of Honda Civic Hybrid ,a royal 9 points(yes that’s 1 point less because it does have an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) ! )

  The global focus for reducing global warming and GHG emissions has been on eco-friendly cars.Again this is on account of the ever increasing number of cars and hence their significant contribution to GHG.Air Resources Board ,California estimates that Californians purchase some two million new vehicles each year. "The 25 million vehicles on our roads travel about 900 million miles each day," it states, "Daily, this produces 2,288 tons of smog precursor emissions and 350,000 tons of global warming gas emissions." I believe that this regulation would definitely lead to increased consumer awareness which in turn may stimulate  manufactures  to churn out eco friendly cars.

   

• UK Technology Board to Focus on Hybrids
  Srikant Rajan 06:38:49 am on June 21, 2008 | 1 | # |
  Tags: Hybrid, hybrid taxis, jaguar, lotus engineering, luxury hybrid, zero emission

  The Government Technology Strategy Board of UK selected Lotus Engineering for its  low carbon vehicle development program. The total investments in the 2 projects allotted to Lotus, would be in the region £52 million. The Zero Emission London Taxi Commercialization project will have Lotus working alongside Intelligent Energy, LTI Ltd and TRW Conekt,in developing hybrid demonstrator vehicles.After further testing of these hybrids ,they will be inducted as commercial taxis by 2012 in London.Under the second project Limo-Green ,Lotus will work with Jaguar Cars Ltd, MIRA Ltd and Caparo Vehicle ,reengineer a basic Jaguar model and convert it into a low carbon,high end luxury hybrid .

  These 2 project will allow for investigation of a whole array of technologies ,specific to hybrid cars,right from the economy segment to the luxury .Thus these may allow UK to effectively position hybrid cars as a viable alternative to conventional vehicles.As Chief Executive, Iain Gray,Lotus Engineering puts it,"Such innovative technology will  help position British companies to benefit from the growing domestic and international demand for lower carbon vehicles."

   

• Ford Wants US Assistance on Hybrids
  Srikant Rajan 11:22:54 am on June 16, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Department Of Energy, ford, gm, Hybrid, nissan, toyota

  Ford Motors  is still struggling to get its hybrid car out in the market.It has recently called for direct intervention of of the US government to help boost market for plug in electric vehicles.Mark Fields, head of Ford’s Americas business, says that government should be a “key partner in promoting American manufacturing” of plug-in cars and the lithium-ion batteries that power them through tax incentives, research subsidies and other measures".

  Ford does seem to be making some headway in its hybrid technology,it has recently begin road testing of its Escape model and also entered in an agreement for testing of other hybrid models with the US DOE and Southern California Edison.However unlike car makers like GM,Toyota and Nissan  who plan to have hybrids on road by 2010 ,Ford Motors is yet to finalize a date for commercial launch of its hybrid variants.

   
Next Page »