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A plug 'n' play electrified trailer that reduces fuel consumption on trucks to about the level they can do without a trailer onRange Energy VIEW 2 IMAGES Range Energy makes truck trailers, with a clever connection to any standard tractor cab, loaded with electric powertrains to turn any semi into an efficient hybrid. They also let you push entire trailers around by hand at the depot in "shopping cart mode." Range's 53-foot (16-m) RA-01 trailer packs its own 200-kWh battery, as well as an 800-volt e-axle powertrain that can put up to 14,000 Nm (10,326 lb-ft) of torque, at up...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina is joining a growing number of states exploring new fees for hybrid and electric car owners to help make up for revenue those drivers aren’t paying in gas taxes on their fuel-efficient vehicles.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - California policies aimed at reducing electricity use and curbing greenhouse gas emissions have the unintended consequence of making new plug-in hybrid vehicles uneconomical, according to a Purdue University economist. Wally Tyner, the James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics, said California's tiered electricity pricing system means Californians will pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country to recharge plug-in hybrid vehicles. States with flat electricity rates or those that vary price based on the time of use are more economical, according to Tyner's study. In tiered systems, consumers pay a higher rate for...

    Promises of Electric Vehicles?  Vlado BevcSynergy Research Institute, P.O.Box 561, San Ramon, California 94583  The promotion of General Motors Chevy Volt by three mayors (Contra Costa Times, November 6, 1010) merits some mundane evaluation from the energy standpoint. Electric vehicles –with an internal combustion engine assist – are compared to a “typical car” using 13 cents of $3.00/gallon gasoline per mile, that is one that makes 23 miles per gallon. (13/300 = 0.0433 gallon/mile) In a conventional car 25 percent of 37 kWh from a gallon of gasoline gets into traction (because of losses in the engine and drive train)....

Detroit — What if the vehicles of the future don’t make money? General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz continued his habit of talking truth to power last week — despite the fact that his company is now a subsidiary of the U.S. government. GM owners Barack Oama and Nancy Pelosi routinely claim that America is transitioning to a green transportation future, but Lutz stepped all over their lines at an industry event Friday when he said that hybrids will never comprise more than 10 percent of the U.S. market. Lutz was only expressing an industry consensus that hybrid-electrics are niche...

Many members of Congress believe they know what the car company of the future should look like. “A business model based on gas — a gas-guzzling past — is unacceptable,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said recently. “We need a business model based on cars of the future, and we already know what that future is: the plug-in hybrid electric car.” But the car company Schumer and other lawmakers envision for the future could turn out to be a money-losing operation, not part of a “sustainable U. S. auto industry” that President-elect Barack Obama and most members of Congress say...

The buzzword out of Detroit these days seems to be "hybrid." As the Big Three automaker CEOs return to Washington today -- arriving by hybrid vehicles instead of private jets -- they will try to sell Congress on turnaround plans focusing on an aggressive new line of fuel-efficient cars. Lawmakers might buy the plans from Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, but it is going to be a lot harder to sell American drivers on the hybrid cars. The key may be gas prices. Maryann Keller, who runs an automotive consulting company, said that people lined up to buy more-efficient cars...

Now that automakers are all busy gearing up to make electric vehicles, consumers should be getting a choice of roomy, speedy, gasoline-free models that charge up at a standard 110-volt socket. So when will those cars roll out of factories so plentifully that prices drop to what ordinary people can afford? That was the question at the Electric Drive Transportation Association conference and exhibition in Washington this week, and on Capitol Hill as well, as the Big Three automakers made a pitch for aid. The recession, the credit crunch and the dominance of oil-driven transportation will make it difficult. However,...

Nearly half the state Assembly is switching to hybrids as their choice for state-leased vehicles, a marked change from the gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and luxury sedans that have long been favored by lawmakers. Thirty-nine of the 80 Assemblymembers now are driving hybrids, up from 27 last year. Of the 40 senators, 13 opted for hybrids, three more than last year. State lawmakers choose their official vehicles, which are subsidized by taxpayers. Legislators had been criticized for voting for clean air and greenhouse gas laws while driving higher polluting vehicles. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, for instance, was driving...

Have You Hugged a Hummer Today? Hybrid vehicles' overall energy costs exceed those of comparable non-hybrids By Shikha Dalmia Ford Motor Company did itself a huge favor recently by backing away from its pledge to bump-up its hybrid production ten-fold in four years. But, as it turns out, the company might have done the planet a whale of a favor too.

Firefly Energy has received a U.S. patent for a new lead acid battery technology that it believes has the potential to revolutionize the existing $16 billion worldwide lead acid battery market as well as serve applications like hybrid electric vehicles which historically aren't suitable for lead acid batteries. ~snip~ The invention is a battery comprised of an electrical current collector constructed of carbon or lightweight graphite foam. This foam exhibits a sizeable increase in surface area for chemical reactions to take place and eliminates the need for heavy lead plates found in traditional batteries. The graphite material resists corrosion and...

NEW YORK (AP) - Hybrid taxis that get double the gas mileage of traditional cabs while generating far less pollution have begun rolling in small numbers on New York's streets. Delighted environmentalists, city officials and the chairman of Ford Motor Co. (F) posed with the owner of the first hybrid cabs atop a Manhattan auto showroom Thursday to belatedly celebrate last week's quiet debut of the vehicles. For now, there are only six of the bright yellow Ford Escapes in the city's fleet of more than 12,000 taxis, but owner Gene Freidman said he planned to have 18 on the...

Responding to the need to protect rescue workers from electical dangers when extricating victims from hybrid electric vehicles, Hurst has introduced a new specialized rescue tool. Similar in power and construction to other popular Jaws of Life hydraulic spreaders and cutters the new Cen SC14 Fi Combination tool and the Cen C9 Fi Cutter boast unique electrical current insulation providing extra safety for rescuers when cutting charged parts of all kinds. The tools are being sold under the Hurst Centaur brand. As sales of hybrid vehicles rise rapidly, rescue crews are increasingly exposed to accidents involving the fuel-efficient vehicles. And...

Sierra Club: Waiting List for Hybrid Vehicles Longer than Wait for Organ Transplants SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., Oct. 8 -- In the Fall 2004 issue of the Green Car Journal consumer magazine, Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope points out in an interview that, “right now, in many American cities, the waiting list to get a hybrid vehicle is longer than the waiting list to get an organ transplant.” That’s not a good thing. But with Toyota increasing production capacity of its immensely popular Prius, the long-awaited Ford Escape Hybrid SUV poised to enter the market, and the Honda Accord...