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Tata Nano: World’s Cheapest Car to Go Hybrid

The Tata Nano, a four-passenger city car developed and sold in India, has become famous for being the world’s cheapest car. At just $2,200 a pop, the Nano has also gained a reputation for its fuel efficiency (51.7 mpg). And while a compressed air version of the Nano has long been rumored to be in the works, Tata chairman Ratan Tata has just announced that a hybrid version could eventually hit the streets. If all goes according to plan, the ultra-cheap hybrid stands to shatter the economic barrier to getting greener vehicles on the roads.

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ChargeCar Aims to Create Crowdsourced Electric Vehicles

by Ariel Schwartz, 11/17/09

A person who drives 60 miles to work every day has different needs than someone who drives across town. So instead of designing electric cars to match the performance of petroleum-powered vehicles, researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s ChargeCar initiative think that EVs should be designed for individual commuting needs. To that end, ChargeCar hopes to create a so-called “commute ecology” based on crowdsourced data to develop EVs for different types of commutes.

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275 MPG eVARO Electric Vehicle Goes From 0 to 60 in 5 Seconds

by Ariel Schwartz, 11/09/09

The Progressive Automotive X-Prize is heating up as the May 2010 start date approaches, and one of our favorite entrants is the eVARO, a three-wheeled plug-in hybrid from Future Vehicles Technology. The sleek electric vehicle can go from 0 to 60 MPH in 5 seconds and purportedly reaches 275 mpg under certain conditions. And for those times when there isn’t a gas station in site, the eVARO can cruise for up to 90 miles on pure battery power.

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3Prong Power Upgrades Any Prius to Plug-in Status

by Ariel Schwartz, 10/27/09

Toyota is leasing 500 prototype plug-in hybrid Prius’s to lucky recipients in the U.S, Europe, and Japan next year, but what about all the other Prius owners who want to provide some plug-in juice to their cars? Enter 3Prong Power, a Berkeley, California startup that offers plug-in hybrid conversions for first, second and third generation Prius’s as well as the Ford Escape Hybrid.

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Yamaha Unveils Slick EC-f Electric Motorcycle

We’ve see plenty of great green concept cars at this week’s Tokyo Motor Show, but Yamaha might take the prize for the best-looking two-wheeler with its new EC-f electric motorcycle. Designed to make motorcycling attractive to riders of all ages and experience levels, the vehicle features a lightweight aluminum frame, a long-lasting lithium ion battery, and a 0.6 kWh electric motor.

eRinGo EV is a Spinning Ring Car for Two

Iranian CG artist Mohammed Ghezel has conceived of a vehicle sure to give you the spins with this eRinGo concept, a drum/ring-shaped electric vehicle that features two steering wheels for double the fun. The tilting vehicle may look topsy-turvy at best, but it’s not the first ring spinning craft we’ve seen!

SunPods Modular Solar EV Charging Station Debuts in California

The problem with most electric vehicle charging stations is that you never know where your electricity is coming from–and unfortunately it’s often arriving courtesy of a dirty coal plant. Luckily, the prefab SunPods SP-300 EV Plug-N-Go solar charging station, installed this week in San Jose, CA, changes that by reassuring EV drivers that their power is coming straight from the sun.

Top Five Air Powered Vehicles

If the Cash for Clunkers incentive wasn’t enough to curb your unsettled feeling about owning a new gas guzzler, you might want to start saving for one of these truly awesome air-powered eco-rides. Sometimes called PHEV (pneumatic-hybrid electric vehicle), these cars are most typically powered by a compressed air engine combined with an electric motor. The engines are similar to steam engines as they use the expansion of externally supplied pressurized gas to perform work against a piston. Don’t settle on a fuel/electric hybrid or a biofuel burning vehicle before you take a look at our list of top 5 air powered vehicles that will soon be available in the United States.

Solar Filling Stations: On-Demand Fuel for Electric Cars and Bikes

The problem with grid-powered electric cars, bikes, and scooters is that you never know what’s supplying their energy. Is it coal, solar, nuclear, or some combination of the three? Enter the E-Move Charging Station, a solar-powered filling station in Bozen, Denmark that can charge up to eight vehicles at the same time. With the E-Move station, you’ll always know where your vehicles power is coming from – the sun!

KAIST Hybrid Vehicles Run on Electric Roads

Hybrid-electric vehicles are expected to explode in popularity over the next decade thanks to their gasoline-saving abilities. But Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) thinks that battery-powered cars aren’t the answer to our energy crisis. Instead, KAIST has developed a new kind of electric vehicle that forgoes batteries entirely and instead relies on power from cables buried beneath the road.

INTERVIEW: John Viera of Ford Motor Company

Just yesterday we had the chance to sit down with John Viera, Ford Motor Company’s Director of Sustainable Business Strategies, to talk about how the Big Three manufacturer is going green. Viera touched on a number of topics, but we were most interested in what he had to say about Ford’s future in plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and electric vehicles (EV). Read on for our exclusive interview!

Bright Automotive Unveils 100 MPG Commercial Truck

Plenty of companies are working on plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sports cars and sedans, but Bright Automotive’s new IDEA vehicle, unveiled this morning, is the first 100 MPG PHEV truck aimed at commercial and government fleets. According to Bright Automotive, the IDEA is five to 10 times more efficient than current fleets thanks to the vehicle’s lightweight materials, advanced aerodynamics, and efficient tires. Bright estimates that a typical customer could save 1,500 gallons of gasoline annually by switching to the IDEA. A commercial customer with 1,000 vehicles in its fleet could save $3 million each year. That’s not exactly pocket change.