Green Car News & Blogs

SEMA Scene Green: Toyota Shows A More Eco-Friendly Prius

Adding both visual presence and environmental edge to its highest-mileage U.S. offering, Toyota publicly unveiled a pair of new Prius one-offs at SEMA aimed at furthering the cause of long-term sustainability. The prime example is the Prius Aerius (Latin for "belonging to the air"). It wears a four piece body kit from Five Axis Design that's made from polyurethane and partially recycled materials and was evaluated using racing-derived computational fluid dynamics (CFD) programs to ensure it maintained the standard car's exemplary 0.25 drag coefficient. The wheel/tire fitment builds on that base, wrapping Yokohama Super E-Spec low rolling resistance tires made from 80 percent non-petroleum materials and featuring a distinctive "leaf-graphic" tread...
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BMW and SGL Group Team to Make Carbon Fiber Car Parts

Seeking a more cost-efficient way to create lightweight components for its upcoming Megacity Vehicle line and other future "Project i" offerings, BMW and the SGL Group have formed a new joint venture that will specialize in producing carbon fibers and other carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) materials. The initial €90 million ($160 million) investment will cover the establishment of two companies. SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers LLC will be located in North America and produce raw carbon elements while SGL Automotive Fibers GmbH & Co KG will be established in Germany and weave them into cloth that can then be made into actual components by BMW. While the BMW/SGL ownership of the joint venture will be split 49/51 percent, each will have an...
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Feds Greenlight Funding Aid For Mileage-Maxing Three-Wheelers

This week, President Obama signed a bill that makes fuel-efficient three-wheeled vehicles eligible for supplemental development assistance through loans from the Department of Energy (DOE). Prior to its passage, only manufacturers of four-wheeled vehicles qualified for consideration to get a chunk of the $25 billion available under provisions of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program (ATVMIP). Terms of this new legislation -- which specifically came in the form of an amendment authored by Representative Brian Bilbray (R-California) and Representative Adam Schiff (D-California) attached to a previously passed energy appropriations bill -- extend consideration to include all "fully enclosed vehicles that are capable of...
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Tesla Runs Record 313 Miles in Global Green Challenge

A Tesla Roadster competing in this week's annual running of the Australian Global Green Challenge event has established what appears to be the official new record distance record for an electric production vehicle. Driven by owner Simon Hackett and Emilis Prelgauskas, it traveled 510 kilometers -- 313 miles -- on a single charge during the leg from Alice Springs in the Australian Northern Territory to the end of the stage at a point 183 kilometers north of Coober Pedy, in South Australia. Hackett says the car reportedly had three about three more miles of charge on board when it arrived at that point. The existing claimed record for a production EV was a 241-mile mark set by another Tesla Roadster that took part in the Rallye Monte Carlo d'Energies...
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Volkswagen Teams With Stanford on a $5.75-Million Auto Think Tank

Not to be outdone by Lamborghini's recent investment in an advanced composites lab at the University of Washington, Volkswagen has announced its own $5.75 million outlay to underwrite a new joint effort at Stanford University aimed at accelerating all types of automotive-related technologies. Officially the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory (VAIL), it will complement VW's Electronics Research Laboratory, which also is located in Palo Alto, California. Volkswagen has been working with Stanford since 2005 when the two created an autonomous Touareg called "Stanley" that went on to win the DARPA Grand Challenge and followed it up in 2007 with a hands-free Passat entry dubbed "Junior" that took second spot in the annual Defense Advanced...
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