December 21st, 2010

General Motors said today that oil-soaked plastic boom material used to soak up oil in the Gulf of Mexico is finding new life as auto parts in the Chevrolet Volt. GM has developed a method to convert an estimated 100 miles of the material off the Alabama and Louisiana coasts and keep it out of the nation’s landfills. The ongoing project is expected to create enough plastic under hood parts to supply the first year production of the extended-range electric vehicle.

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November 12th, 2010

Hoping to help spark demand for its own charging equipment, General Electric Co. plans to buy 25,000 electric vehicles from makers including General Motors Co over the next five years. GE hopes the move will speed acceptance of electric cars by getting more of them on road more quickly and prompting investment in the equipment that users will need to charge them.

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October 8th, 2010

Imagine an array of wind turbines in West Texas, whirring away, generating electricity to be transmitted to more populous areas of the state. Imagine that clean, green power surging into your home. Then, imagine your new, state-of-the-art electric car plugged into a 240-volt outlet in your garage, charging that clean-running, environmentally friendly vehicle for the next day’s commute or round of errands. If all that sounds like a nice idea that will never happen, guess again. In Texas it is happening, right now, thanks to a previously unlikely alliance of planners, power infrastructure providers, utility companies and automobile manufacturers, all coming together to help the future get here just a little bit faster.

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July 26th, 2010

General Motors announced it will convert the air conditioning systems in its entire fleet of Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GM models from using high-global warming potential refrigerants to a new refrigerant with a much lower climate impact.

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January 8th, 2010

While electric cars are getting a lot of attention these days, powering your automobile with a different kind of juice is hardly a new concept.

Remember EV1? General Motors pioneered the electric car way back in the mid-‘90s. When its concept car, Impact, drew favorable reviews at the start of that decade, GM decided to move forward with the next generation EV1, the first electric car designed for mass production.

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April 21st, 2009

By Clint Williams
Green Right Now

Bright Automotive, launched just last year, rolled out a plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle on Tuesday that doesn’t just get an estimated 100 miles per gallon — it gets 100 mpg hauling a bunch of stuff.

The “IDEA” isn’t some cramped commuter car. It’s a 21^st Century panel van designed for commercial fleet use with 180 cubic foot cargo capacity and a 2,000 pound payload.

The vehicle was designed specifically for commercial fleet use, said John E. Waters, CEO and President of Bright Automotive, at the unveiling in Washington D.C.

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September 30th, 2008

By Clint Williams

Imagine a day of running errands – grocery shopping, dropping off the dry cleaning, hauling the kids to T-ball practice – that doesn’t include a stop for gas. Now imagine a week. A month. Three months. Six months. A year. Five years.

That’s the promise of the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in electric car expected in dealer showrooms November 2010. Powered by a T-shaped lithium-ion battery pack, the four-passenger Volt will be able to travel 40 miles on a charge.

That’s enough range for the bulk of daily driving, GM officials say, citing a U.S. Department of Transportation survey that found 76 percent of drivers commute 40 miles or less daily.

Drive a Volt and the only reasons for stopping at a QT are Slurpees and microwave breakfast burritos.

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