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Greener cars for 2010: Here are 11 to watch
By Bill Sullivan
Green Right Now
The electric car is almost here. Hybrids abound. Diesel has cleaned up its act. Even conventional internal combustion engines can be tweaked to do a bit less harm to the environment.
A brighter, cleaner future is a mantra at the auto shows this year. Scratch beneath the surface, however, and a different sort of impression emerges: Change may be coming to the automobile industry, but progress is slow — even grudging — and the message can be murky.
[caption id="attachment_9709" align="alignright" width="201" caption="Chevy Volt. Photo: Green Right Now"]  [/caption]
Chevy has been hyping the much-discussed Volt, for example. The manufacturer’s new electric car – due later this year – can go up to 40 miles on a single charge before a gasoline engine kicks in to keep passengers from becoming stranded.
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Tags: · 2010 model cars, Chevy Cruze, Chevy Volt, Electric Cars, Ford Fiesta, Ford Fusion, Fuel-efficient cars, high mileage cars, Honda CR-Z, Honda Insight, hybrid cars, Mazda2, Mitsubishi iMiEV, Toyota Prius, Volkswagen Golf TDI, Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen TDI
Nissan LEAF hits the road, but not (ouch! Toyota) the accelerator
From Green Right Now Reports
Could Nissan’s marketers have planned this any better?
Just as the carmaker is in the midst of a national tour of the Leaf, its much ballyhooed new electric plug-in, competitor Toyota finds itself in a tailspin over mysterious sudden acceleration events that now affect even its energy-efficient darling, the Prius.
The Prius, the nation’s best-selling and highest mileage hybrid car, looked to have a fruitful future, until this week, when it was implicated along with other Toyota brands in a safety scandal that grows larger with every news cycle.
The Leaf is not a hybrid, but part of the new generation of all-electric, plug-in vehicles (EVs) that will go head to head with hybrids already on the road. Due in showrooms this coming fall/winter, the Leaf is riding the leading edge of this new technology. It will offer excellent mileage as well as zero carbon tailpipe emissions (the car will still have an energy footprint related to its electricity use, which could be clean or fossil fuel energy, depending on where it is charged).
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Tags: · Electric Cars, Hybrid, LEAF, Nissan, Prius, Toyota
Tesla Motors produces its 1,000th roadster
[caption id="attachment_8160" align="alignnone" width="385" caption="Tesla Motors has built 1000 cars. (Photo: Tesla Motors)"]  [/caption]
From Green Right Now Reports
Tesla Motors said this week that it has built its 1,000th production vehicle. The car, which bears the unique Vehicle Identification No. 1,000, is a special-edition Roadster Sport in “Millennial White,” with a unique interior and carbon fiber accents.
The car will be on display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit through Jan. 24. Tesla said it will donate the $175,000 Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price of this collector’s car to several charities in metro Detroit.
“A year ago right here in Detroit we had delivered about 150 Roadsters, so VIN 1,000 is a humble but important milestone for us,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a statement. “It’s fitting to do something special with this unique car.”
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Tags: · Detroit, Electric Cars, EV, FOCUS: Hope, Forgotten Harvest, National Wildlife Federation, North American International Auto Show, Sierra Club, Silicon Valley, Tesla Motors, The Children's Center
The Next Decade: An increasingly electric auto market
By Bill Sullivan
Green Right Now
The German government hopes to get one million electric cars on the road by 2020, offering incentives for BMW and Volkswagen to get behind the push. France aims to have twice that many in operation by that same year. Carlos Ghosn, who heads up Nissan and Renault, expects 10 percent of the world’s automobiles to run on electricity before the end of the next decade.
[caption id="attachment_7966" align="alignright" width="201" caption="Wait, wait, waiting for the Volt, shown here on a pre-production test drive"]  [/caption]
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Tags: · cars in 2020, Chevy Volt, Electric Cars, Electric vehicles, Honda Insight, hybrid cars, Hybrids, lithium batteries for cars, lithium battery drawbacks, lower emissions cars, Model S, Nissan LEAF, Tesla, Tesla Motors
The EV Project brings charging stations and electric cars together
By Clint Williams
Green Right Now
One reason people keep driving old-fashioned, CO2-spewing automobiles is that it’s awfully easy to find a gas station.
[caption id="attachment_7889" align="alignleft" width="226" caption="The LEAF on display in Phoenix (Photo: Clint Williams)"]  [/caption]
Widespread adoption of emission-free plug-in electric cars – the kind that run solely on battery power – has been hampered by a classic chicken-or-the-egg conundrum: no wants to drive an electric car until charging stations are widespread and no one wants to build a network of convenient charging stations until there are enough electric cars on the road to make it pay off.
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Tags: · Electric Cars, EV Project, Nissan LEAF, Toyota Prius
Coulomb sets up EV stations in Elk Horn, Iowa
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Watch out San Francisco, you’re not the only city striving to put electric cars on the road. Today, you’ll be joined by Elk Horn, Iowa, where Coulomb Technologies is installing EV charging stations.
[caption id="attachment_6512" align="alignright" width="249" caption="The Danish Windmill in Elk Horn (Photo: DanishWindmill.com)"]  [/caption]
After a ribbon-cutting today, four ChargePoint stations will be available for public use in the small city between Des Moines and Omaha, thanks to support from Iron Eagle Technologies, the Danish Windmill, AmericInn Motels and the Elk Horn Service Station. Coulomb’s distributor Carbon Day Automotive also joined this group effort to bring clean renewable energy to Elk Horn.
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Tags: · clean transportation, Coulomb Technologies, Electric Cars, electric vehicle charging stations, Elk Horn, I-80 corridor, Iowa, Iron Eagle Technologies, Midwest, Nebraska
Wind, solar and batteries may power your portfolio, just don’t expect a rocket to riches
By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
Before the recession put a stranglehold on most every investment, clean technology was hot. Nearly 80 percent of all the venture capital spent in 2008 went to clean, green investments. The industries slumped for much of 2009, but now investors are returning to clean industries.
Regular Americans are curious about these clean tech companies, too, and they’re asking their financial advisers about them, according to one survey.
What is clean tech? It refers to technologies made without generating significant pollution, which produce products that can replace non-renewable energy sources, like oil, and make us more energy-efficient. Think solar cells and wind-generated power, hybrid or electric cars, green buildings, desalinated water and a “smart grid” that will help businesses and home owners to connect with new sources of power, like wind farms and giant desert photovoltaic installation
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Tags: · Biofuels, Clean Edge, Cleantech Group, Electric Cars, green investment, green lighting, Green Tech Media, Greentech Media, hybrid cars, Morningstar, Solar Power, Wind Power, Winslow Management
Time to get an electric car?
By Deborah Wrigley
KTRK – Houston
There have been several attempts to build electric cars that can run at higher speeds and for several hours. Some have been more successful than others.
Last year’s record high oil prices boosted demand for the vehicles. And now, there are electric cars available, with limitations.
> Watch Now
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Tags: · Chevy Volt, Chrysler Eco-Voyager, Electric Cars, Houston, Houston Car Show, KTRK, Maria Borrego, Zen
California’s new auto emissions labels help sort out cleanest vehicles
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Just like you hunt for that Energy Star tag when examining a fridge or washer, people in California can now duck under the hood of any new 2009 model car to get an at-a-glance emissions rating.
 The Environmental Performance sticker, mandated to begin on Jan. 1 for all new model cars, will include two scores, one rating the car’s smog emissions and the other its greenhouse gas output. The air pollutants for the latter include carbon dioxide emissions, which make up the greatest volume of greenhouse gases. Gas engine cars emit nitrous oxides, methane gases, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and other emissions.
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Tags: · Air Resources Board, California, Electric Cars, Environmental Performance, Greenhouse Gases, Hybrids, smog
Heading to the luau in an electric car with Shai Agassi
By John DeFore
When last we mentioned electric-car entrepreneur Shai Agassi, the former software wunderkind’s grand plans had attracted commitments from the government of Israel but had no traction in the States.
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Tags: · Better Place, Electric Cars, Hawaii, Shai Agassi
California Clean Tech award goes to electric-car conversion kit maker
By John DeFore
While this past weekend’s Los Angeles Auto Show had autophiles lusting after tomorrow’s hot wheels, a very different California event just celebrated a company working to make yesterday’s cars a lot greener.
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Tags: · California Clean Tech Open, ELectraDrive, Electric Cars, electric drivetrain
Alternative fuels may strain water supply
By John DeFore
In the quest to ween cars and trucks off oil, alternative-fuel schemes may be heading for a roadblock they haven’t fully considered: water.
Public discussions of alternative fuels have rarely if ever touched on how much water might be needed to produce such fuel on a large scale. But researchers in Texas warn that it may be much more than you’d expect.
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Tags: · Alternative fuels, Biofuels, biomass, Electric Cars, Hydrogen, Methane
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