by Christopher DeMorro

Let’s just say I’m not exactly a fan of the California Air Resource Board, or CARB. For all their good intentions, they cause a lot of headaches with unintended consequences of sometimes poorly conceived ideas–especially for those of us who enjoy performance cars.

But every now and then they get something right. And while Roush is a name most often associated with supercharged Mustangs, the company is also well known for its propane conversions. CARB recently approved both the F-250 and F-350 Roush propane conversions for street use. Yay!

CARB approved the F-150 propane conversion last year, but it had a smaller 4.6 liter engine. The F-250 and F-350 are heavier duty trucks with bigger 5.4 liter engines. CARB has stricter emissions requirements than the Federal mandates, and numerous states (including my own Connecticut) have adopted the stricter guidelines. It can get confusing.

But with the F-250 and F-350 from Roush approved by CARB, they are basically all set to go. While I don’t care for CARB, I do like propane conversions. The domestically produced fuel offers a 20% reduction in nitrogen oxide, a 60% reduction in carbon monoxide, and fewer particulate emissions. Some power loss can occur, but it is a conversion that can be performed on many cars right now, rather than years from now. Plus, Roush even has a pair of propane-powered Mustangs out on a campaign tour. They also have plans to tackle the E-series of vans soon, including the E-450 with the 6.8 liter V10 engine.

Reprinted with permission from Gas 2.0

The Coda all-electric sedan, due late this year, is the underdog in the race for an affordable mass-market pure electric car. As a start-up, it doesn’t have the financial and marketing resources that Nissan and General Motors are putting behind the Leaf and Volt. Unlike Tesla and Fisker, Coda hasn’t received big government loans. So, Coda is playing the role of a small, smart and scrappy start-up electric car company, using every means possible to bring a practical petroleum-free car to the United States.

Fans of electric vehicles, and supporters of good old-fashioned American entrepreneurism might celebrate Coda’s rugged and independent approach—but that’s being undermined by questions about the manufacturing origins of the Coda sedan. Critics say the car is manufactured in China, so it’s a Chinese car. Full stop. Forget for a moment that nearly every manufactured good we use today comes from China. An analysis of the nationality of the Coda is complex—considering the global nature of the automotive industry. Connect the dots:

- The car is adapted from a gas-powered car from Chinese state-owned Hafei Motor Co. The chassis of that car was licensed from Japan’s Mitsubishi.

- The Coda visual design comes from Pininfarina, the legendary Italian sports car designer. Coda's US engineers put in more changes in order to meet US performance and safety specs. Other design aspects came from global automakers, such as Porsche.

- About 40 percent of the components in the car, when measured by monetary value, come from US manufacturers, such as Borg Warner.

- The battery inside Coda's sedan comes from a joint venture owned by Coda and China’s Tianjin Lishen Battery Co. The electronics for thermal and battery management of the pack were designed and will be produced in the US and shipped to Asia.

- The car will be built on assembly lines in China, with Coda engineers remaining full-time on the manufacturing floor to oversee production.

"Maybe ten percent of the original [Chinese] design is left. Otherwise, the car has been completely redesigned,” said Kevin Czinger, Coda CEO, in an interview with CBS News. "The auto industry is a global industry. Many components are from China already. It is less a matter of geography and more a matter of what firm has control over process and quality."

Czinger said that Coda didn't go to China just for low labor rates, but to use existing production lines rather than spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build manufacturing capacity from scratch. It was a make or break decision for Czinger. In an email to HybridCars.com, he wrote, "The decision Coda had to make was whether to build a safe, affordable , all-electric car or not. The reality is that there is no volume battery manufacturing in the US today." Czinger believes that Coda's joint battery venture allows the company "to get to market quickly while building a balanced industry in both the US and China." Coda's goal is to accelerate the adoption of electric cars everywhere, not just the United States.

Balancing Act: US Jobs and US Oil Independence

In the end, Coda’s global manufacturing process will become less important than the quality and capabilities of the product resulting from that process.

Coda is promising to deliver a moderately priced, well-designed, safe, highway-capable, all-electric four-door sedan—a feat not yet achieved by any US-based start-up company.

If Coda succeeds, and earns a loyal group of American drivers, the mixed heritage of the Coda sedan may become irrelevant—especially when you consider that Coda’s car runs without using a drop of gasoline. That represents a small but important step toward reversing America’s severe economic and geo-political dependence on oil.

Reprinted with permission from Hybrid Cars

After years of arguing that clean diesel is a better efficiency strategy compared to hybrids, Volkswagen is switching gears. In a statement issued on the eve of the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, Martin Winterkorn, VW chairman of the board, said, "We will take the hybrid out of its niche status with our high-volume models. In the future, the heart of the brand will also beat with electricity."

VW's Electric-Drive Roll Out

- A hybrid version of the Jetta will be offered in the US in 2012

- In August 2013, the Passat Hybrid will be introduced, followed by a Golf Hybrid two months later

- Starting in 2013, VW will begin rolling out pure electric cars, starting with the e-up! minicar

, followed by an all-electric Golf, and other electric vehicles yet to be named

- VW's luxury brand Audi will also launch hybrids, beginning with an Audi Q5 Hybrid in early 2011, and a limited introduction of the electric e-tron in 2012

The Volkswagen press release states: “Starting in 2013, the high-volume Golf and Jetta models of the Volkswagen brand are expected to dominate the hybrid and electric vehicle market.”

The Eight-Year Goal

While Winterkorn’s announcements might impress future consumers interested in fuel efficiency, the VW Touareg Hybrid—its first hybrid offering, due in fall 2010—is likely to disappoint. Last month, Volkswagen unveiled a lighter leaner Touareg design, including a hybrid variant, ahead of the Geneva show. The Touareg indicates a move in the right direction, replacing the previous V8 gas-powered SUV with a lighter-weight version using a gas-electric six-cylinder powertrain with direct injection. The performance, size and towing capacity are impressive, but the expected fuel economy in the mid-20-mpg range, will fall in the middle of the Hybrid SUV pack.

"The goal is to become the market leader in E-mobility by the year 2018," said Martin Winterkorn. His goal is to make electric vehicle’s three percent of VW sales by 2018—a target which is surpassed only by Nissan which claims that electric cars will be 10 percent of the global auto market share by 2020.

The year 2018 is also when VW hopes to overtake Toyota to become the largest automaker in the world.

Reprinted with permission from Hybrid Cars

General Motors is ready to shut down Hummer. That was the big news earlier this week after the company’s deal to sell the Hummer brand to Tengzhong, a Chinese machinery company, collapsed. The passing of Hummer gave opinion writers, pundits and bloggers—and the general public—an opportunity to reflect on the vehicle that perhaps best represents the excesses of the SUV era.

From the beginning, Hummer was a lightning rod, eliciting strong emotions from people who loved and hated the quintessential gas-guzzler. We collected final remembrances of the Hummer from across the web, and hope you will add your reflections and condolences.

GM Gives In To Good Taste, Closes Hummer Division

"Auto decal makers and window-tinters of the world are in mourning this afternoon...They're stopping production of the controversial phallic stand-ins…I propose that, at midnight ET tonight, all Hummer owners across the country pause their Girls Gone Wild DVDs and join me in a moment of silence for the fallen giant." - From The Consumerist

Hummer, R.I.P.

"In response to GM's announcement, flags across oil-rich Saudi Arabia were lowered to half-mast while the entire Exxon/Mobil board of directors were seen at a group grief counseling session. On Wall Street, oil speculators were jumping from windows while in Michigan, some people were mourning the possibility of a world without Hummers." - From Detroit Free Press

Hummer's Long Overdue Death

"Driving one of those militaristic behemoths used to be a status symbol, but after gas prices topped $4 a gallon in the summer of 2008, people began to rethink the excess. In 2008, GM sold 27,485 Hummers, down from 35,000 in 2003. In 2009, after announcing it was putting the brand up for sale, GM sold only 9,000." - From Forbes

Hummer's Demise a Sign of the Times

"As a symbol of conspicuous consumption, or of a lack of regard for the environment, the Hummer makes its owners look distinctly out of touch with the current public mood...It seems even the Chinese authorities are steering clear of the beast. "The brand proposition of Hummer itself goes against the strategic outline of the Chinese government, which is mainly that they want to produce energy-efficient vehicles," explains Klaus Paur, North Asia director for market research company TNS." - From BBC

The End of Really Big

"Being big and powerful is essential to our national identity. It’s what we feel makes us better than the countries with older histories...Our bigness also expresses itself in the form of military might, a (now somewhat tarnished) genius for making money, and a gift for innovation (the point of which is to stay bigger and better than the rest). All of this, at least for a long period in our history, found perfect expression in our automobiles—of which the Hummer was the gargantuan, gas-guzzling apotheosis" - From The Daily Beast

What are your thoughts about the demise of Hummer?

Reprinted with permission from Hybrid Cars

by Nick Chambers

In an attempt to “allow even more people to experience what the Tesla Roadster has to offer” and to get ready for the “springtime Roadster rush,” Tesla has just announced a brand new lease option for the already iconic electric car.

The lease will run for 3 years/30,000 miles, includes access to Tesla’s Rangers mobile service team, and starts at $1,658 per month for the base model. Of course, you also have to plunk down $12,453 just to get the lease started. Wow! Let me just sell my house and I’ll be right over.

Seriously, I know Tesla’s long term plan is to make EVs that are affordable to the average person, but I wish they wouldn’t do themselves a disservice by saying that $1,658 per month will make the Roadster more accessible. Sure, that deal will probably bring in the bottom-of-the-barrel rich folks—the kind that actually have $1,700 a month to burn—but it certainly brings Tesla nowhere near the aforementioned goal.

Just bring on the Model S and future spinoffs already!

Reprinted with permission from Gas 2.0

by Nick Chambers

Like many guys, when I was about 13 or 14 I was into drawing the cars of the future. To my hormonal and inexperienced cauldron of a prepubescent brain, the cars I drew were clearly superior to the dull people-movers that adults seemed to appreciate. But in reality, the cars I imagined we’d all be driving when I got to be 30 looked more like they plopped right out of an episode of Robotech than something anyone other than a prepubescent teenager could take seriously.

Which is why, when I saw the pics for Honda’s newly unveiled 3R-C EV, I thought, “Wow! That is something my 13 year old self would have thought was totally wicked!”

The 3R-C, set to debut at the Geneva Auto Show, is a three-wheeled electric concept car that represents Honda’s vision of the future for small EVs–fitting somewhere in the nether land between a motorcycle and a car.

Although there are scant few details right now, Honda says the concept’s batteries and electric drivetrain would be mounted low between the 3 wheels to keep the center of gravity low and improve stability. The vehicle has a clear canopy that folds down to cover the cockpit while it’s parked; and when the three-wheeler is moving, the canopy transforms into a windshield.

Honda says the driver is afforded significantly more protection in the 3R-C than in a motorcycle due to the “enveloping” canopy, bodywork and doors, which “reduce the threat from side impacts and improve weather protection.” The 3R-C also has some lockable trunk space on the front, which Honda claims provides “significant” storage for luggage and cargo.

Granted, the 3R-C is only a concept, but it represents what I see as a strange emerging design theme among many major auto manufacturers to present ultra-skinny green-mobiles that look weird. We also saw it last year with Nissan’s Land Glider concept and VW’s L1. Honestly, I don’t have anything against ultra-skinny ecocars… far from it actually… I might even buy one myself. But I just wonder why the manufacturers have to present them in such an abnormal package? If the goal is to spur acceptance, why make them look strange?

Autocar UK speculates that “The trend for this type of vehicle is thought to be related to potential legislation in the US that could split lanes on multi-lane roads in two for use by these narrow single seaters.” What potential legislation that is, I don’t know. Even if that’s true, and three-wheelers are the trend of the future, let’s make some that the average person could drive around without feeling foolish.

In the meantime, let your 13 year old self revel in the Robotech coolness that is the 3R-C.

Reprinted with permission from Gas 2.0

As Europe announced it would reach its goal of 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020, the U.S.’s climate soap opera entered a new chapter. President Obama converted his energy bill into a hybrid in hopes of driving it through Congress. To get the Senate to agree to a cap on emissions, he offered $36 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear-power plants and new leases for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. To further nudge coal states toward a carbon diet, he offered subsidies for the coal industry to capture and sequester carbon and to convert coal-burning plants to natural gas, despite the fact that Congress is investigating whether gas-drilling practices contaminate groundwater.

In another concession, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it would drag its feet in regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant in order to mollify coal-state lawmakers. In a letter to reluctant Democratic senators, Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency would pursue the biggest game 400 large emitters, mostly coal plants, in early 2011, followed by refineries and large factories in late 2011. Medium-sized factories might wait until 2016.

Bill Gates declared in a TED talk that his top priority is bringing the world’s CO2 emissions to zero. This revelation was a surprise, as to date the Gates Foundation has steered its formidable assets toward public health and poverty alleviation, or as Gates puts it, “vaccines and seeds.” But since global warming lurks as a threat that could dim hopes of fulfilling his other priorities, Daddy Warbucks is shuffling the deck.

Bloom Energy emerged from years of secrecy by pulling off not one but two publicity coups, first in the form of a glowing segment on “60 Minutes,” followed by a media opportunity starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Colin Powell and drawing glowing comparisons to Google’s IPO. Only problem is there was no IPO, or even a product launch — just an unveiling of the Bloom Box, a $700,000 to $800,000 fuel cell now in use by companies such as eBay and Fedex. Bloom Founder K.R. Sridhar said the company hoped to create a compact unit that could satisfy a home’s energy needs for $3,00o, and that it would change the world. Didn’t they say that about the Segway?

A cadre of fast hybrids are headed to the Geneva Auto show, including the 400-horsepower plug-in hybrid Mercedes F800, a Porche 911 GT3 R hybrid that will hit the racetrack in May, and the Ferrari 599 GTB Hybrid, which boasts a pair of electric motors, a lithium-ion battery, and increased fuel efficiency that bumps from nine miles per gallon to — get ready — 12 miles per gallon.

The EPA announced the priorities for a $475 million plan to save the Great Lakes, including cleaning up pollution, fighting invasive species, cutting runoff and restoring wetlands. Meanwhile, Quiznos announced that if any of its paper cups blow into Lake Michigan, at least they’ll be compostable.

In general it was a good week for fish and their ilk. Oceanfront nations agreed on a compact to save sharks, scientists found that marine reserves can speedily restore fish populations, and the Klamath River got a long-sought plan to resuscitate salmon. On the other hand, the International Whaling Commission considered lifting a ban on whale hunting.

In other news, Boulder hit a rocky patch with its smart grid, and a utility discovers the key to making people turn down the thermostat is to employ rivalry and shame.

Reprinted with permission from The Ferris Files

European carmakers are preparing their latest cool hybrid concepts for the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, which runs March 4 to 14. The dominant theme is green speed. Here’s a sneak peak at a few vehicle unveilings, which show some restraint on fuel economy, but hold nothing back on horsepower.

Mercedes F800 Style

Mercedes will unveil its F800 Style plug-in hybrid concept at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. With its 10 kWh battery pack, the car can travel up to 18 miles solely on electricity—although perhaps not when pushed to the limits of its 4.7-second 0-60 mph acceleration and top speed of 155 mph. The combined output of the F800’s V6 gas engine with direct injection and its 109-horsepower hybrid system is about 400 total horsepower. Mercedes didn’t share its arithmetic, but estimates the average fuel economy of the F800 at 80 miles per gallon.

Other innovations include compact modular packaging of the batteries, motors and fuel cells to preserve interior space for five passengers; an instrumental panel that uses a camera to record your hand, thus allowing iPhone-like wiping, turning and zooming functions; and—believe it not—“traffic jam assist” for hands-free driving at low speeds. The F800 Style could be a sign that Mercedes-Benz is serious about delivering a plug-in hybrid version of the S-Class in the next few years, as promised. The Mercedes F800 Style can also be equipped as a fuel cell vehicle.

Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid

Porsche is scheduled to debut its 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 R hybrid all-wheel-drive racing car in Geneva. The company will use the vehicle to gather knowledge about how hybrids perform in racing conditions. This is not a gas-battery hybrid, but a gas-flywheel hybrid used to provide brief bursts of acceleration. These bursts—120 kilowatts or 161 horsepower sent to the front wheels—are added to the 911 GT3 R Hybrid's 480-hp 4.0-liter flat-6 powering the rear wheels.

The flywheel spins as fast as 40,000 rpm, and the driver calls that energy into service by simply pressing a button mounted on the steering wheel. The benefit, according to Porsche, is quicker acceleration out of corners and during overtaking. The Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid will race at the upcoming Nurburgring 24 Hours this May, and by 2012, will head to the 2012 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Protoscar Lampo2

Switzerland-based Protoscar is back at the Geneva Motors Show this year with an upgraded version of the Lampo, which it unveiled last year in Geneva. The Lampo2 uses a 30 kWh battery pack and two electric motors—allowing four-wheel drive with variable torque between front and rear axle—to yield about 260 kW (or 350 horsepower). Another limited run ultra-expensive all-electric sports car might not be news—but the company is using the Protoscar to demonstrate an off-board DC fast-charging system that promises 60 miles of added range after a 10-minute charge. Rapid charging will make a big difference for consumer adoption of electric vehicles.

Ferrari 599 GTB Hybrid

As we previously reported, Ferrari will show its first hybrid production car in Geneva. We expect the car to unite a lithium ion battery pack with a pair of electric motors fixed at the rear axle, along with Ferrari’s outlandishly powerful 600-plus horsepower V12 engine. Other fuel-saving features will include start-stop capabilities and Formula One-based regenerative braking technology known as KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). Fuel economy is expected to increase by about 30 percent over the non-hybrid 599 GTB. In other words, it will go from about 9 miles per gallon to about 12 miles per gallon. The more important metric is speed, but we won’t have specs until the Geneva show in March.

Peugeot SR1

Peugeot will use Geneva to show of a vehicle that’s a little closer to reality and a lot more on target for green-oriented drivers. Caveat: Don’t expect the Peugeot SR1, or the diesel-hybrids that use the same system to show up in the United States.

The sleek and edgy three-seat (2+1) SR1 uses a drive system, borrowed from Peugeot's HYbrid4 technology, that pairs a small 1.6-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel engine powering the front wheels and a 95-horsepower electric motor at the rear. The diesel-hybrid drive system, using nickel-based rather than lithium batteries, is expected to go into production in 2011 with the Peugeot 3008 sports utility vehicle and the luxury Citroen DS5. The diesel-hybrid combo could deliver almost 50 miles to the gallon, despite offering about 313 horsepower.

The concept has a reported top speed of 155 mph and a 0-60-mph time of less than 4.7 seconds. The SR1 has a one-piece lightweight carbon-fiber body and tubular chassis—and a removable hardtop made of preformed plastic using technology "derived from the world of sailing," according to Peugeot.

Reprinted with permission from Hybrid Cars

by Mackinnon Lawrence

The last several months have seen a flurry of activity in the aviation sector, as fuel price volatility and impending greenhouse gas regulations have goaded major airlines to ink deals for renewable jet fuel.

The latest involves British Airways, which struck a deal with Solena Group for 16 million gallons of jet fuel from waste.

The moves highlight the tremendous pressure airlines are under to keep costs low in an increasingly oil constrained world and regulated marketplace. During the last oil spike, fuel expenses, which historically ranged from 10 to 15 percent of US passenger airline operating costs, averaged more than 35 percent in the third quarter of 2008. According to news coming out of the International Air Transport Association, the marketplace for cheap fuel is about to get much more crowded.

Speaking in Singapore earlier this month, IATA director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani reports that Asia-Pacific region has overtaken the US to become the world’s largest aviation market. According to AirCargo World, during the last decade, China replaced Japan as Asia-Pacific’s largest player. Today the country has an airline fleet of 1,400 aircraft compared to Japan’s 540.

Giovanni Bisignani notes, “The global air transport industry will triple in size when Asians travel as much as those in the U.S.”

As more of the world’s oil production is snapped up to meet growing Chinese and Indian oil demand as well as the needs of a growing Asia-Pacific aviation industry, the race is on for U.S.-based airlines to find alternative sources of jet fuel to offset petroleum price increases.

While feedstocks like algae, camelina, and jatropha derived renewable jet fuel show promise as a drop-in replacement, the industry finds itself having to compete with an EPA-mandated 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022 (see RFS2) for producers’ attention. With aviation accounting for only 12 percent of transportation fuel demand in the U.S., the auto transportation sector will maintain a distinct market advantage over aviation.

Mackinnon Lawrence is an attorney, principal consultant with Biomass Advisors, and editor & publisher of Biomass Intel.

Reprinted with permission from Cleantechies

British Airways and the Solena Group plan to develop Europe's first bio-based jet-fuel production facility. British Airways plans to use the fuel to power part of its fleet starting in 2014. The fuel will be derived from waste biomass and manufactured in a facility that can convert a variety of waste materials, destined for landfill, into aviation fuel.

The plan will lead to the creation of up to 1,200 jobs in the area and could reduce significantly local authority landfill tax bills.

The self-contained plant, likely to be sited in east London, will convert 500,000 tonnes of waste per year into 16 million gallons of jet fuel. This volume of fuel would be more than twice the amount required to make all of British Airways’ flights at nearby London City Airport carbon-neutral.

The fuel will be produced by feeding waste into a patented high temperature gasifier, producing BioSynGas. An established process known as Fischer Tropsch then converts the gas into biofuels to produce biojet fuel and bionaphtha. Bionaphtha is used as a blending component in petrol and also as a feedstock for the petrochemicals industry.

British Airways has signed a letter of intent to purchase all the fuel produced by the plant, which will be built by the Solena Group Inc., an advanced bio energy and biofuels company based in the U.S.

Four sites in the east of London are among those under consideration for the construction of the bio-jet fuel plant. The plan will lead to the creation of up to 1,200 jobs in the area and could reduce significantly local authority landfill tax bills.

“This unique partnership with Solena will pave the way for realising our ambitious goal of reducing net carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050. We believe it will lead to the production of a real sustainable alternative to jet kerosene. We are absolutely determined to reduce our impact on climate change and are proud to lead the way on aviation’s environmental initiatives," said Willie Walsh, British Airways’ CEO.

Reprinted with permission from Renewable Energy World