The Fiat 500 is one of the most popular cars in Fiat’s stable. Though the small car isn’t a huge polluter, it still runs on fossil fuels, and Fiat have as of yet not displayed any interest in putting out an electric version of the 500. It appears though that there is a market for a cleaner 500, and since Fiat won’t go there itself, Atomik Cars have created an electric version for the popular car.

Atomik Cars haven’t just plugged in an electric motor into the car, they claim to have made it more powerful. The modified Fiat Abarth 500 boasts of supercar performance in a city car package, all in an effort to show off Atomik’s motto “Anticipating the future.”

The car is set for a debut at the 2010 Top Marques Monaco in April. It will have lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries powering an AC brushless motor that will supposedly provide the car with power equivalent to a 300hp engine.

Source: Autoblog Green

Korean EV company CT&T unveiled the impressive Multi Amphibious Vehicle at the Detroit Auto Show. The six-wheeled electric amphibious vehicle can seat four and move on land at a top speed of 40mph. In water however, the vehicle loses it and goes all out at 95mph. The top speed on water figure does look over the top, and it most likely is; that probably is a translation mistake somewhere, and apparently this amphibian does a more believable 10mph on water.

The Multi Amphibious Vehicle isn’t some heavyweight though. It is a fairly lightweight vehicle that would compare to a golf buggy. Clearly though, it is much more than a golf buggy, and actually can provide not just an efficient, environment friendly drive, but also a way to break past traffic jams.

The breaking past traffic jams part suits those who have accessible rivers nearby; provided there isn’t a traffic jam waiting for the amphibians in water.

Source: FastCompany

For years there has been a push to control pollution, and the United States has made the most progress of any country in the world. The technology developed here is nearly beyond belief.

Lakes that were once cesspools are now thriving with fish and clean. Our air is the cleanest in the world. I worked at a semiconductor plant down in Santa Cruz years ago, and the air coming out of the exhaust stack was actually cleaner than the air on the outside due to highly advanced air scrubbers.

Noise pollution has improved. Cars are quieter. Home theaters and sound systems have gotten louder, but advances in soundproofing keep the noise inside.

Despite all of this, there has arose groups dedicated to complain about the noise levels from automobiles. These groups are doing everything the can to increase our noise pollution!

I know there are those of you out there that may think I am enjoying too many adult beverages while writing, but that is not the case. They really are asking to increase our daily noise pollution, and the reason is that we have done too good a job in decreasing our noise output!

You don’t believe me? You should. You see, the new hybrid cars are TOO QUIET. (How do you like the SHOUTING about the quiet?)

Cyclists listening to their iPods while peddling along would definitely not hear the approaching hybrid. Even a cyclist without the earbuds in place would have a hard time hearing today’s hybrids approaching, unless they were on a gravel road.

Blind people, who heavily rely on their hearing to navigate their way around the cities and towns cannot hear these hybrids, now turned into silent and deadly machines. In fact, the National Federation for the Blind is lobbying for laws requiring the car companies to make the hybrid cars that pollute more, with sound, of course.

Unfortunately, the technology to solve this technology was not developed in the United States.  It took a company from Great Britain to do it.

A solution is at hand! Lotus, the high-performance car maker, knows how to make noise. They have designed some of the worlds most powerful cars and their engines have that sweet, powerful sound that thumps your chest. You can’t miss that!

Lotus has designed a system called “Safe and Sound” that makes the super-quiet hybrids sound just like a normal car. It has a waterproof speaker mounted in the front of the car so the driver and passengers will not hear much of an increase of sounds, but people on the outside will definitely know.

The the Safe and Sound sound system even sounds like it is accelerating and decelerating – just like a normal internal combustion engine. Lotus installed the system inside a Toyota Prius for demonstration purposes.

There is no estimate on how much this gadget costs, but I have a more inexpensive solution that only comes from life experience. Take a baseball card and clip it to the car so it rubs on the spokes of your expensive wire wheels. You will get that thrup-thrup-thrup-thrup-thrup-thrup sound like we used to have riding our bicycles when we were kids.

Notes: I just had to cross-post this on greenpacs.org and devicemag.com since it covers a gadget and is an accessory for a green thing.

Due to the recent public disclosure laws in the United States, I have to state that I have received nothing from Apple or Lotus for this aricle. I already own an iPod, but would accept the latest and greatest iPod they have after the fact. I would also not turn down a Lotus either. I’ll even take a used, er, a previously-owned one! Even a powder-blue Lotus with mid-board engine and the industrial-strength clutch (hint, hint).

About a month ago, Panasonic’s president, Fumio Ohtsubo, made an announcement that the company has plans to invest $1 billion in developing green technologies. It seems that not only was he serious, he actually already had solid plans in mind.

Panasonic will be working together with Tesla Motors to develop nickel-based lithium ion battery cells for use in electric vehicles, which was revealed in a simultaneous announcement by both companies made today.

It seems like a perfect combination – Tesla are already doing very well testing cells and they have a perfect understanding of the requirements of a standard electric vehicle – while Panasonic can provide battery technology that is always ahead of everyone else. The result should hopefully be custom cells made specifically for use in EVs.

Collaborations like this one are exactly what the market needs today to produce high-quality and efficient products, so we can surely say we’re happy to hear of it.

[ Via CNET ]

General Motors are ready to offer a great helping hand to the American electric vehicle industry by opening a new battery pack plant in Michigan – the nation’s first such plant operated by an American automobile company. The plant is located in Brownstown Township, and will assemble batteries for the Chevrolet Volt.

The opening date, January 7, has a symbolic meaning to it – three years ago on this date, Chevrolet announced the Volt. Steven Chu, Energy Secretary, and the Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, as well as General Motors’s Chairman, Ed Whitacre, will be at the opening.

In the plant, cells from LG Chem’s Compact Power will be used, but the assembly itself will be done in Michigan. Each battery pack will have around 220 cells and will cost around $8000.

This will most certainly not be the last such announcement, and in fact, many people believe that a lot of EV battery plants will be opened in the country soon – which can only mean a great, green future for the country.

[ Via Yahoo! Green ]

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has made a promise to his citizens – that in five years, the town will be equipped with thousands of strategically positioned recharging stations, so that every single citizen will have access to one within a mile at most.

The initiative is outlined in a plan entitled “Electric Vehicle Delivery Plan for London”, and its main goal is to encourage people to use electric vehicles – the mayor plans to bring 100 000 electric cars to the city as soon as the recharging network is completed. The city’s government will encourage that by adding 1000 electric vehicles to the Greater London Authority fleet, which will gradually happen over the period of five years.

London has been having some transportation problems lately, and this is one of the plans aimed at fixing that. Congestion pricing was successfully instituted in 2003, followed by the addition of hybrid buses in the public transport, and gave Scotland Yard hybrid and air-powered vehicles as well.

The city has proven to live up to its promises, so we are assured that the plan will be completed in time.

[ Via Yahoo! Green ]

General Motors apparently has plans to put the Cadillac Converj into production. The Converj was displayed as a concept at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, and the upcoming extended range electric vehicle will be built on the same technology as the General’s much anticipated Chevrolet Volt.

Putting the electric Converj on the market will give GM the additional advantage of having an electric vehicle in the premium range, where the impact of the cost of lithium ion batteries may be minimized. The production Converj will most likely remain faithful to the concept version unveiled earlier, there will of course be changes, but a radical departure from the stunning concept seems unlikely.

Interested consumers will have to wait for quite some time though. The Chevrolet Volt itself will reach production by the end of next year, and will be followed by the very similar European model, the Opel Ampera in 2011. Any possibility for the Converj to appear in dealerships will likely be after these models have launched, and after the automaker has gauged the customer response.

Source: Ecofriend

Merrill Lynch has just said what has been the writing on the wall for some time now. A research carried out by Bank of America and Merrill Lynch says merely having a “green” tag isn’t going to sell many EVs/ PHEVs unless they get better looks. So while electric cars like the Tesla Roadster, Tesla Model S and Fisker Karma will likely sell well, other EVs that look as if they came from a different planet will have a tough time convincing buyers.

The analysts also reached the opinion that while having the eco-friendly tag will help sell EVs/ PHEVs, they are not likely to get extremely popular, at least until their associated costs come to the same level as conventional, or ICE vehicles.

All this does make good sense, cost and looks are factors that sway buyers. To make electric vehicles more attractive for buyers, companies may soon offer other features. As analyst Steven Milunovich says, cars may soon come with loads of customization like Wi-Fi, LED lights and the like.

Source: Autoblog Green

The effect of millions of electric vehicles connecting to the grid during peak hours has been feared and discussed since long. While charging vehicles during off-peak hours may be good for utilities, in an interesting turn it may even earn some money for the owners. More specifically, EV/PHEV owners in West Texas and Illinois are being paid to charge their vehicles during off-peak hours, and that’s clean wind energy we’re speaking of.

With the growth of wind energy in these states, there is an oversupply of energy during off-peak hours, and this has in turn pushed prices into the negative range. Since wind turbine owners get a tax credit to the tune of 2.1 cents per kilowatt hour of energy generated, they prefer not to shut down the turbines during off hours and pass on a share of the subsidy to the end user.

Since there is no efficient energy storage system in place for off hours, the turbine owners are short of options. Smart Meters could prove to be useful for customers and utilities during such times, at least for the near future, until the demand increases or energy storage systems like Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) come into play.

Source: Reuters

While Aptera Motos is keeping its upcoming electric car under wraps, images of the production version Aptera 2e have found their way to the internet. The latest leaked image is purported to be a rendering of the production spec Aptera 2e and this one show’s the three-wheeled, futuristic-looking car’s front three-quarter.

It is well understood that the production version of the car will differ slightly from its concept version, and as the image shows, a hood and front bumper have found their way to the car. The rendering, which first appeared on ApteraForum also shows asymmetric front wheel pods, a new headlight cluster that integrates the turn signals, side mirrors, and windows with a lower sill.

The Aptera electric vehicle has been much talked about, mainly due to its unconventional shape and design, and also because of the fact that it happens to be a three wheeled car.

Source: Autoblog Green