Frazer-Nash Rises From The Ashes With A Tiger

The joint efforts of Italdesign Giugiaro and Frazer-Nash have produced a tiger… a hybrid vehicle called the Namir. The vehicle is on display this week in Geneva and could change a few minds when it comes to hybrid styling.
The vehicle has a top speed of more than 187 mph, a fuel economy of better [...]

Hydraulic Biodiesel Hybrid To Debut At Denver Auto Show

Lightning Hybrids will display the LH4, a hydraulic biodiesel hybrid vehicle at the Denver Auto Show that the company says it plans to market next year. The company was formed in 2008 and has entered two vehicles based on the prototype’s design into the 2010 Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize competition. According to the [...]

CMU Says Volt Won’t Be A Consumer Hit

GM can’t catch a break. Carnegie Mellon University’s latest report, which deems the Volt “Not Cost Effective In Any Scenario” may just replace Ralph Nader’s 1965 indictment of the company’s Corvair (and the rest of the auto industry), “Unsafe At Any Speed.” An analysis of GM’s Volt says that the plug-in electric vehicle’s 400-lb battery [...]

FEV Opens Hybrid, EV Development Center

FEV says it is ready to open its Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Development Center at the company’s North American Technical Center in Auburn Hills, MI. The HEVDC has been in the construction stage for more than two years, and will open in March, following the installation of a chassis dynamometer built for hybrid and EV [...]

Three-Day Work Weeks, A Li-Ion Plant In Portugal, and Wow At Geneva

In an effort to stanch the bleeding, Toyota says it may cut European production in a move that will leave the automaker with a three-day workweek in most locations. Toyota says that it is forecasting a 30 percent decline in European sales in 2009 and doesn’t expect to recover fully for three to four [...]

Midwest Still Holds Promise For Hybrid Auto Industry

Executives from the Ford Motor Company, on hand in Milwaukee for the opening of the 2009 Milwaukee Auto Show, say that the company is in a good position to begin and sustain hybrid vehicle and electric vehicle production in the Midwest. Robert Iorio, a Ford executive in propulsion implementation, says that some midwestern suppliers are [...]

New Hybrid Technology Halves Fuel Consumption

Researchers at Artemis Intelligent Power, a Scotland-based engineering firm, say that they have perfected hybrid technology that can cut fuel consumption by 50 percent or more. The system uses a hydraulic drive system to capture energy that would otherwise be lost when the car brakes. The recaptured energy is stored as compressed gas, which is [...]

It’s Not Easy Being Green

If you’re considering a PHEV or an EV on the grounds that it will reduce CO2 emissions, hold that thought. A new report published in the International Business Times shows that while tailpipe emissions are indeed reduced, the overall carbon cost of a PHEV or EV may be higher than you think, and is likely [...]

Pneumatic Hybrid Eliminates Need For Batteries, Motors

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have developed a hybrid drive system for vehicles that eliminates the need for batteries and motors. The design, created by Lino Guzzella, uses compressed air to power the vehicle. The developer says that the engine costs about 20 percent more to manufacture than a conventional gasoline engine [...]

Hybrid Repair Costs May Be Coming Down

A new study released by Audatex shows that in 2008, a Toyota Prius cost 8.4% more to repair than a highly fuel-efficient gasoline-powered vehicle with similar damage. The report also concluded that hybrid versions with gasoline counterparts were less than 4 percent more expensive to repair.
According to the report, on average, the Toyota Prius’ [...]

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