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Toyota Prius now best-selling model(s) in California

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    Toyota Prius now best-selling model(s) in California
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    Tesla will take Roadster trade-ins for Model S
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    Toyota announces details on 90-car Scion iQ EV car-sharing fleet
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    Delayed Fisker Atlantic could arrive in 2014 or 2015
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UK Nissan dealers offering Leaf loaner cars, even when ICE vehicles are in the shop

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted Oct 19th 2012 7:37PM

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Nissan Leaf

Try it, you just might like it.

That's what UK Nissan dealers are saying in an attempt to sell the all-electric Leaf across the pond. Nissan UK sent a letter to its customers saying that Nissan owners could use the Leaf as a courtesy car when their vehicles are in the shop, according to Green Car Reports. And the automaker stressed that this applied to owners of all Nissan vehicles, not just those who already own Leafs

"We thought the chance to drive the 100% Leaf might come as something of a pleasant surprise," the letter says in an oh-so-polite British tone.

A loaned-out Leaf with a right-hand drive? We'll take that.
Related Gallery2012 Nissan Leaf
2012 Nissan Leaf 2012 Nissan Leaf 2012 Nissan Leaf 2012 Nissan Leaf 2012 Nissan Leaf 2012 Nissan Leaf 2012 Nissan Leaf 2012 Nissan Leaf

News Source: Green Car Reports

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Toyota Prius now best-selling model(s) in California

By  Sebastian Blanco RSS feed

Posted Oct 19th 2012 5:55PM

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2012 toyota prius v

We've heard the Toyota Prius jokingly called the State Bird of California, but recent sales data shows that the world's most popular hybrid is, in fact, the best-selling car in the state. Well, the best-selling vehicle line, at least, since the Prius now comes in four variants.

If you add up sales of the Prius Liftback (aka, the regular Prius), the C, V and Plug-In models, you get 46,380 units for the first three quarters of 2012, according to numbers from the California New Car Dealers Association and reported by Bloomberg. That's enough to move the Prius from fourth place last year to first this year in the sales rankings in America's most populous state. In fact, roughly a quarter of the Priuses that Toyota sold in the US were in California. Reports of $5 gallons of gas are relatively recent, but we have to assume that the state's long-time high gas prices are playing a role in pushing the Prius to the pinnacle there. Nationwide, Bloomberg says, the Prius is in seventh place ("by sales volume among car models").

The Prius is already the best-selling car in Japan, and has been for years, even though the Honda Fit has been nipping at its heals. Worldwide, the Prius family was the third best-selling nameplate in the first quarter of 2012, behind the Toyota Corolla and the Ford Focus.
Related Gallery2012 Toyota Prius V: Review
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News Source: Bloomberg

Image Credit: Copyright 2012 Drew Phillips / AOL

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Lexus reveals more details of LF-LC 2+2 hybrid in Australia

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted Oct 19th 2012 4:04PM

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Lexus LF-LC concept hybrid

Now that Lexus has revealed more details of its LF-LC hybrid down under, we can conclude that the car's power is over the top. Lexus, which first unveiled a concept version of the 2+2 hybrid at the Detroit Auto Show in January, showed a second version of the car – this one decked out in blue, giving it the creative name of LF-LC Blue – at the Australian International Motor Show.

The Toyota luxury badge touted the car's carbon-fiber body as well as its wrap-around windows, sculpted air intakes, and two 12-inch LCD screens allowing for touch-screen interior controls. More impressively, Lexus said the car's hybrid powertrain delivers 500 horsepower.

We've got a fresh press release and, more importantly, Lexus's two-minute video of the car below.

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Related GalleryLexus LF-LC at the Australian International Motor Show
Lexus LF-LC at the Australian International Motor Show Lexus LF-LC at the Australian International Motor Show Lexus LF-LC at the Australian International Motor Show Lexus LF-LC at the Australian International Motor Show

News Source: Lexus

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Courb C-ZEN impresses with looks, test drive

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted Oct 19th 2012 2:10PM

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courb c-zen

Let's just say the Courb C-ZEN had a bit of a home-court advantage when Technologic Vehicles got to test drive the two-seat electric vehicle.

The French EV was put through its paces at the Paris Motor Show recently, and the little car was apparently impressive. Technologic Vehicles said the Courb was "very comfortable," had a "high-quality finish" and an "impressive" trunk that holds 400 liters (14.1 cubic feet).

The C-ZEN, which will also come in a pick-up version called the C-TOP, will start deliveries next year with a lease price of about 300 euros ($392 US at current exchange rates) per month and a purchase price of more than 25,000 euros ($32,690).

The car, which uses battery packs from Valence Technology, was first unveiled at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. Back then, it was said the car would have a single-charge range of 125 miles and a top speed of 68 miles per hour. Technologic Vehicles didn't get a chance to test both those numbers out, but you can watch the 85-second test-drive video below.
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News Source: Technologic Vehicles via YouTube

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R&D funding for better EVs more valuable than purchase incentives

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted Oct 19th 2012 12:09PM

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Lithium-ion battery pack

Thomas Edison famously said that genius was one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. To get to the heart of what's holding back broader adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), though, it's even better to paraphrase one-time Bill Clinton advisor James Carville: "It's the battery, stupid."

That's the gist of a report (PDF) from the Washington-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the way it handicaps various advanced-powertrain vehicle types and what their chances are of making a dent in the light-duty vehicle market. Specifically, the 28-page report notes that neither high gas taxes in Europe nor vehicle subsidies that cut the out-of-pocket EV prices in North America have spurred EV demand in either continent.

Instead, ITIF says, the government's efforts should be put squarely into the research and development required to create an EV battery pack that will cost less than $250 per kilowatt hour and have a 300-mile single-charge range. That means that any money used for tax credits and other consumer incentives should be shifted to R&D funding. In other words, a seismic change from how EVs are promoted today.

Last year, 10,064 EVs were sold in the US, or about one in 125 new domestic vehicles. In 2012, the Nissan Leaf, last year's best selling EV, has seen its year-to-date sales fall 28 percent from a year earlier to 5,212 units.

News Source: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) via Business Insider

Image Credit: A123 Systems

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Team Icon Brammo serves notice ahead of 2012 TTXGP World Championship

By  Domenick Yoney RSS feed

Posted Oct 19th 2012 8:11AM

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Brammo Empulse RR riden by Steve Atlas

This weekend, the top electric motorcycle racing teams from around the world will be in Florida to contest the 2012 TTXGP World Championship at the Daytona International Speedway. This is the first time the race has been held on American shores and so, to mark the occasion – and also perhaps intimidate its competitors – North American champions Team Icon Brammo have released a sweet little video featuring one of its Empulse RR race bikes putting down some fast laps at the Oregon Raceway Park.

Whether it's the fancy camera work or the result of the significant improvements made over the course of the season, the RR's performance looks impressively threatening. And with riders Steve Atlas and Eric Bostrum each on their own example, the other teams should consider this as notice served: Brammo is playing for keepsies.

If the other teams are worried, they aren't showing it. Münch Racing was last seen lounging poolside, enjoying some welcome sunshine while awaiting the arrival of its European Championship-winning machine. Team Barracuda Lightning, as is its wont, has been maintaining radio silence, but no doubt is confident about its chances. It's bringing Miguel Duhamel – who, in his only race on an electric, edged out all the European teams – along with its long-time rider Michael Barnes, who beat Brammo at Laguna Seca earlier this summer and won't likely have to deal with any arm-grabbing interference.

Scroll down to watch the video for yourself, make sure to click HD, and place your bets.


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Official

Amp stops conversion SUV plans, shifts focus to electric delivery trucks

By  Sebastian Blanco RSS feed

Posted Oct 18th 2012 7:47PM

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amp ml ev

It's a turn in the road for Amp Electric Vehicles. The conversion electric vehicle (EV) company announced this week that it was no longer planning on making or selling EVs based on passenger vehicles like the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Mercedes-Benz ML. Instead of the SUVs, Amp will now put all of its focus into delivery trucks, like the recent conversions for Navistar and FedEx. On a conference call yesterday, CEO Steve Burns said Amp will convert medium-sized step vans from 10 miles per gallon diesel beasts into quiet electric-drive trucks. It's a good deal for fleets, Burns said, on the call, because "the surprising truth is that although an all-electric step van costs more at the beginning, on a 10-year cost basis, they are at least $100,000 cheaper than the air-polluting, climate-changing diesels that fill the roads these days."

Speaking of money, Amp got a $7.5 million commitment from Kodiak Capital Group last month. That's much better than the $107,000 worth of sales it had in the quarter ending June 30 while racking up expenses of $2.5 million. Today, Burns told AutoblogGreen:

We essentially have just put passenger vehicles on hold until we see a bit more demand. However, as one caller asked during the Q&A, we are still hoping to send EVs to Iceland and Caribbean, but probably as conversions. The bar to be a new vehicle OEM is pretty high and we are having a hard time justifying the capital required until demand picks up.

Conversely, the Navistar deal produced such a great E-Truck that we have seen tremendous interest and are therefore pursuing that avenue for now. Our heart is still very much tied to EV passenger vehicles, but for now, the business side of the brain will have to win over the heart.

The Icelandic and Caribbean deals were to put thousands of electric SUVs into those islands. We'll see how the projects move forward from here.
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News Source: Cincinatti Business Courier, Amp Holding via Green Car Reports

Image Credit: Copyright 2012 Sebastian Blanco / AOL

Video

The Onion skewers TED Talks with compost-fueled cars

By  Seyth Miersma RSS feed

Posted Oct 18th 2012 6:40PM

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As innovative and inspiring as the TED Conference has been over it's now 20-year history, and in spite of the success of the spin-off TED Talks video series, we admit to finding all of the above mildly pretentious sometimes. This sentiment, magnified about 100X, is felt by the hooligans at The Onion as well, if this latest video series is any indication.

Follow the action as our Idea Guy/Host tells the world about a composting car that will create jobs, save the environment, provide a windfall for engineers talented in the implementation of the impossible, and make one dreamer very, very rich. Watch it all unfold below.
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Kepler Motion supercar rears its hybrid head [w/videos]

By  Jeffrey N. Ross RSS feed

Posted Oct 18th 2012 6:00PM

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It's been a few years since we last heard about the Kepler Motors Motion hybrid supercar, but this car looks like it's still alive and kicking. For those who don't remember, we first heard about the Motion ahead of the 2009 Dubai Motor Show, but the company has released some new pictures and videos of the car carving up some exciting California back roads.

It doesn't appear that there is any new information to relay about the Kepler Motors Motion, so we're still to believe that the car uses a Ford 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 driving the rear wheels and a pair of electric motors powering the fronts. This hybrid all-wheel-drive system is said to give the car a combined output of 800 horsepower with the EcoBoost alone tuned to 550 horses. With that kind of figure to go with an incredible exhaust note that this car has, we could only image what a modern Taurus SHO could really be.

Check it out for yourself in the videos posted below.
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Related GalleryKepler Motors MOTION Supercar
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LeafLink a more functional remote-charging smartphone app for Nissan Leaf

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted Oct 18th 2012 5:56PM

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Nissan Leaf

If Nissan wasn't going to figure out how to create a remote-charging app for owners of Leaf electric vehicles, someone else was sure to do it.

In this case, the result is a free, third-party app called LeafLink. While Nissan's official Carwings app lets folks set charging times from inside the car, LeafLink lets people do it remotely, in addition to pre-setting climate controls and other goodies, according to Green Car Reports. For a $9.99 upgrade, LeafLink lets Leaf owners program a future charging time, with the information being stored on a secure server.

Those captivated by such possibilities can check out the LeafLink app page here.
Related Gallery2012 Nissan Leaf
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News Source: Green Car Reports

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City CarShare rents electric vehicles for exposure, not profit

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted Oct 18th 2012 3:56PM

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City CarShare

It's always refreshing when a non-profit's really not for profit.

City CarShare, the non-profit car sharing service, has about 20 electric vehicles (EVs) in its fleet of 400 cars but it doesn't expect to make money on them, Fast Company says, citing an interview with City CarShare CEO Rick Hutchinson. His exact words: "Our model isn't built on ever making money on these vehicles." There you have it.

The higher purchase cost and insurance rates for EVs make it harder for a car-sharing service to generate a profit from them, Hutchinson said. So, the EVs are there for another reason: generating awareness.

City CarShare added its first EVs in 2003 as part of a six-vehicle pilot program. The carsharing organization incurs recharging costs of about $30 a month for each EV and has tripled its EV fleet from seven in April. Getting users to know more about the plug-in vehicles is important, since a customer got stranded earlier this year while trying to get from San Francisco to Sacramento in an EV because, well, he didn't realize the car was electric.

News Source: Fast Company

Image Credit: City CarShare

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Tesla will take Roadster trade-ins for Model S

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted Oct 18th 2012 2:14PM

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Tesla Roadster

One would never mistake a shiny new tech-filled Tesla Motors dealership for a used-car lot, but with several years worth of Teslas already on the road, that notion is about to get very real. Those retreads will be pretty rarified, though.

The California-based electric-vehicle maker is starting a buyback program in which owners of the company's first car, the Roadster, can trade it in for credit against the purchase of a Model S sedan, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Tesla made about 2,500 Roadsters, with chassis bits provided by Lotus, between 2008 and 2011. The company estimates that it could sell Roadsters for anywhere from about $73,000 for a four-year-old model to about $93,000 for a 2010 model with low miles. Owners paid upwards of $109,000 when they were new.

Either way, owners would get a credit against the purchase of a Model S, which started production earlier this year. The newer cars sell for anywhere between about $50,000 and $100,0000, after federal tax credits.
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News Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Study

Oil supply will be 'less tight' than expected

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted Oct 18th 2012 12:02PM

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Ah, just what a bunch of V8-starved Americans need to hear.

An International Energy Agency (IEA) report released last week says that the combination of weak global economies, increased oil supply from the Americas and better extraction technology will make oil "somewhat less tight over the medium term than it has been through most of the last decade."

The IEA, in its annual "medium term" report that forecasts supply and demand conditions for the next five years of so, also said oil demand from non-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (i.e., non-Western world nations) will overtake the demand from OECD nations as early as 2014 because of growing economies in Asia Pacific and the former Soviet countries. Even with this increase, OPEC may have "spare capacity," the report says.

Check out a synopsis of the report below. Then, you know, go burn a set of tires in celebration.
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News Source: International Energy Agency via Green Car Congress

Image Credit: David Stanley - C.C. License 2.0

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EIB loans Bollore 75 million euros to expand Autolib electric carsharing program

By  Danny King RSS feed

Posted Oct 18th 2012 7:47AM

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Autolib EV-sharing service

It looks like Parisian electric-vehicle car-sharing service Autolib just got some more juice.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) loaned France-based conglomerate Bollore 75 million euros ($98 million) to expand its Autolib service throughout the French capital. Last year, Bollore received a 130 million euro loan from the EIB for electricity-storage investments.

Autolib launched in Paris last October with Bollore's electric "Bluecars" and predicted that it would have as many as 5,000 EVs stationed at more than 1,000 Paris locations by 2013. Autolib charges the equivalent of between $6 and $11 per half hour as well as an annual membership fee of about $200.

As many as 40 of the 250 EVs had been pulled out of service as of January because of a combination of vandalism and breakdowns. At that point, Autolib had garnered about 6,000 memberships, around twice as many as the projected rate before launch. If you'd like to brush up on your French, check out the EIB's press release below.
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News Source: European Investment Bank via Reuters

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