Toyota Motor said Tuesday that it planned to begin a global voluntary recall of nearly 320,000 of its hot-selling Prius gasoline-electric hybrid sedans to repair a potentially faulty steering system component. Apparently this recall is not specific to the Prius, Toyota is recalling 9 more models. Several faulty parts in the steering wheel system may [...]

Loremo AG says that it will start production of the 157 mpg diesel engine car in 2009. These guys already have a prototype, now on show in Kuala Lumpur. By the looks of it Malaysia may be one of the first places to actually see this car on its roads when it does roll out. [...]

Look what we have here, a hybrid SUV from GM. Saturn’s VUE Greenline Hybrid, costing around 23k, with an EPA estimate of 27/32 city/hwy mpg, I say the only good thing about this SUV is the fact that it only cost 23k. My Mazda3 (which is not a hybrid) gives me the same mileage and [...]

Plug-in hybrids may soon become a reality: Last week in Washington, DC — even as top executives from Ford, Chrysler, and GM asked lawmakers to subsidize the installation of more ethanol pumps at filling stations — makers of new battery systems were letting U.S. senators test-drive prototype cars that get over 100 miles per gallon, [...]

NYC already has 6 Ford Escape Hybrid cabs on the streets. Now Hybrid Technologies plans to build a battery-powered car, in this case, convert a PT Cruiser to run only on a 320V lithium-ion battery, weighing in at over 600 pounds and has a recharge cycle life of around 1500 charges. The downside for cabbies [...]

If Krissy and I were living in London, this is something we would definitely have considered buying. The Maranello 4 is a two-seater electric car which comes from the land of Ferrari, Fiat & Lamborghini. With a top speed of 30 mph, it can go up to 45 miles on a single charge (gelled lead-acid [...]

A UK company set up by Russian scientists called OM Energy claim to be on the brink of inventing a car that would use a combination of hydrogen (extracted from water) and gasoline to create a “Super-Fuel”, thus dispensing with the need to be wholly dependent on gasoline. The breakthrough is the electro hydrogen generator [...]

Last week BMW, DaimlerChrysler & GM unveiled plans of their two-mode hybrid system at a conference in Vienna. This consortium aka Global Hybrid Corp. plans on introducing this hybrid system in its SUV’s and trucks, starting with the 2008 Chevy Tahoe. Hopefully these guys plan on introducing this new two-mode hybrid system in sedans and [...]

The Toyota Camry Hybrid is out on the roads folks. Price approximately at $25,000 (approx.). Now this car for people like me, falls in the hybrid luxury vehicle class. The Camry hybrid has got a EPA fuel rating of 40 MPG, 43/37 city/hwy mpg as per Toyota specs released. In any case with a 17 [...]

Honda’s President & CEO Takeo Fukui has announced that by 2010 Honda will introduce low-cost hybrid and clean diesel vehicles in North America, hence reducing CO2 emissions. Honda confirmed that it is now developing a new dedicated hybrid vehicle “suitable for family use” in major automobile markets in the world. With this new dedicated hybrid [...]

In the Hybrid SUV category the Toyota Highlander comes up on top according to Consumer Reports latest announcement. With the inception of the Highlander, Consumer Reports now has two hybrids in its Top Picks, the other being the Toyota Prius. The Toyota Highlander Hybrid beat the other SUV’s in its category based on the fact [...]

A car that give 8,000 (eight thousand) MPG. A British inventor unveils the world’s most fuel-efficient vehicle, a three-wheel “TeamGreen” car capable of doing 8,000 miles to the gallon. Source: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/

Probably in a couple of years down the road people will be able to buy a Ford PHEV. The California Cars Initiative and University of California at Davis Professor Andy Frank today welcomed Ford Motor Co CEO Bill Ford, Jr.’s acknowledgment that the company is exploring plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) technology. These are the [...]

GM is pushing for more ethanol based gas stations in Michigan. There are currently 5 gas pumps in the entire state that supply E85 (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline blend) based gas for FFV. Now GM is going to “encourage” that all its employees driving FFV’s gas up at these pumps. There are plans to [...]

Now this a new concept coming all the way from India. A little background on cow dung aka cow pies, its the manure gotten from the cow which is shaped as pie, three stripes (finger imprints lengthwise, note: not the same as adidas) on the top of them. These are then layed out to dry [...]

For the third year in succession, the 1.5-liter gasoline engine of the Prius Hybrid Synergy Drive powertrain has won both the International Engine of the Year Award in the 1.4– 1.8-liter category and the “Best Fuel Economy” category. The awards were made at the Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany. Apart from this, BMW snapped up [...]

The question all possible hybrid car buyers who are looking for a hybrid cheaper than the current ones on the market (Prius, Honda, Ford, etc) which cost 24k and above, is when will Toyota produce a hybrid Yaris. Honda already plans on producing the Fit as a hybrid. The Yaris is a subcompact car and [...]

BMW unveiled the X3 EfficientDynamics, a hybrid concept of BMW’s popular compact SUV. The hybrid model goes 0-60 mph in approximately 6.7 seconds and a top speed of 146 mph – both better than the stock X3 with a concurrent 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption. More soon… Source: www.greencar.com

A team of students at the Thayer School of Engineering hosted Formula Hybrid, the first collegiate car race to use only hybrid and electric vehicles, at the New Hampshire International Speedway on Thursday. Even though Dartmouth and McGill University (Krissy and my alma mater) were the only two teams to compete, events like these promote [...]

The X1 looks every bit the Formula 1 car you would find at any Grand Prix venue. The main differences, its has seats for two passengers, runs solely on lithium-ions battery cells, range 100 miles and takes 4.5 hours to recharge and it only cost $100,000. Ian Wright, a 50-year-old entrepreneur from New Zealand, thinks [...]

Driving on the road one can easily spot a Toyota Prius, but since other automakers including Toyota have come out with different hybrid models, its pretty difficult differentiating between a similar hybrid from its conventional counterpart. I keep looking for that little energy sign on the back of the cars. So in an effort to [...]

Extreme hybrid cars are set to change the whole auto industry, I mean an extreme PHV that could get between 150-250 mpg. Now before anyone goes and says where can we get one of these cars, hold your horses, AFS Trinity Power Corp. has just file a patent application for the extreme hybrid drive-train, check [...]

Currently there is speculation that Honda is planning on producing a hybrid Fit subcompact model which will come with a 1.0 litre engine, with 60 mpg. Honda plans on launching the hybrid Fit in mid 2007. The conventional engine model is priced at about 13K, so the the hybrid model will probably cost about 20K [...]

GM is offering $1,000 fuel card when a customer buys any new 2006 or 07 Chevy or GMC FFV in the Chicago-Rockford (there are only two Ethanol gas stations here) and Minneapolis-St. Paul markets between 2 May and 31 July 2006. But here comes the best part, based on fuel price of $ 2.91 per [...]

We all know about the fuel efficiency and low CO2 emissions of hybrid vehicles. But something every car owner has at the top of the list is vehicle safety ratings. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is a non-profit, scientific organization that is dedicated to highway safety. They have given the 2004-06 Toyota Prius models [...]

From the beginning of the year till April 2006 Ford has sold 2,800 hybrid vehicles. Ford plans on selling 250,000 hybrids by 2010. Even though these hybrid SUV’s get about 35 mpg in the city,unfortunately Ford still has about 3,900 hybrid Escapes and Mariners in stock. So if you absolutely need an SUV, then at [...]

Apparently ethanol backers are facing an uphill task when it comes to touting its benefits. Ecology Prof. David Pimentel at Cornell University states that ethanol requires 30% more energy input in the production process and not to mention pollution caused to the environment due to the usage of pesticides and fertilisers. Now that companies such [...]

Green Car Journal Online is carrying out longitudinal test on the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. Preliminary results show that this hybrid SUV nets 31/27 city/hwy mpg. According to Toyota estimates its is supposed to net 33/28 city/hwy mpg. The Highlander hybrid according to EPA guidelines has a air pollution score between 8 or 9 and a [...]

The 2007 Honda Fit with its 109 hp, 1.5 litre, 16-valve SOHC VTEC engine and with drive-by-wire technology is now available. The Honda Fit comes equipped with both 5-speed manual/automatic transmissions. Fit MT models are said to achieve 33/38 city/hwy mpg, while the models with AT gets 31/38 city/hwy mpg (1 hwy/mpg less in the [...]