Don't want to wait for the Chevrolet Volt? Don't feel like spending tens of thousands of dollars on a new green car? Combine your thrift, environmental consciousness and affinity for wrench turning by building your own electric car. Canadians Darin Cosgrove and Ivan Limburg have electrified a Geo Metro for less than $1,000 and you can too! Starting with a Metro helps set expectations, as the converted car is not fast and suitable only for low speed in-town tripping, but the original was no paragon of performance anyway. AutoblogGreen covered some of the ForkenSwift's construction, but we thought it'd be a good thing to revisit. The winter months are upon us, and building an EV in the garage is a nice way to stay out of the snow.
After stripping out the gas engine and its associated plumbing, the duo sold the engine and fuel tank; we're amazed that there's a market for Metro engines. A $500 used forklift provided the DC motors and control systems, and the carcass provided good scrap value once the vital organs were harvested, helping offset costs. A used bank of batteries were donated by another EV owner, though new batteries would boost performance and range. But hey, nothing's as cheap as free. Finding a Metro for cheap might be a neat trick now that prices have been inflated, but any old light thing will work. For a total tally of $672, who can complain with the results? Thanks for the tip, Maxim.
Back in May, AutoblogGreen brought us news that Hawaii was in talks with Better Place to set up a network of electric car recharging and batter swapping stations across the islands. Fortune now says that the state has inked a deal with Better Place to put their system in place by 2012.
The agreement is for Better Place to sell electric Nissan Rogues to consumers and, basically, rent the vehicles' batteries by the mile. The company hopes that by taking out the up-front cost of the battery, consumers will be more likely to buy an electric vehicle.
You may remember Better Place from a recent announcement that it will set up a similar network in the Bay Area. That system is also planned for a 2012 launch, which is also the date Better Place plans to flip the switch in Australia, Denmark and Israel. Sounds like somebody's gonna be busy.
Hawaii has some of the highest gasoline prices in the nation. This is one of the steps that the state is taking to reduce its dependence on oil. There's also the chance that beach-seeking tourists will take an island spin in one of the electrified Nissans, go back home and spread the green word.
We already fuel and lubricate our cars with animal byproducts, it just takes millions of years for the process to happen. Connecticut-based Green Earth Technologies has been marketing its G-Oil product for small engines at retailers like Home Depot, and the company is waiting on approval from the American Petroleum Institute new automotive applications. G-Oil is biodegradable (no word about the nasties that used oil holds in suspension, though) and made from animal fat that would typically be discarded by slaughterhouses. It's ironic that animal-derived oil is an alternative to petroleum, which shifted the world away from whale oil over a century ago.
Mobil 1 and other synthetic oils have been around for decades, and do offer an alternative to straight dino juice, but Green Earth's technology guru Mat Zuckerman touts G-Oil as "better than anything out there." As the whaling industry discovered back in the day, there's not enough animal byproduct out there to satisfy the demand for oil or supplant petroleum's primacy, but every little bit helps. GET's Oklahoma facility is capable of producing 5 million bottles per month, and we wonder if it makes your engine's innards smell like meatloaf.
It's debatable whether or not now is the right time to make changes in the way our cars are made, with some believing that Detroit should follow the path it's already on and others claiming there couldn't be a better time to make major sweeping changes. Count DuPont head Chad Holliday among the latter. Holliday's so-called "Detroit Project" would challenge American automakers to introduce a new "Car of the Future" that would achieve 75 miles per gallon and run on butanol – an alcohol fuel that DuPont just so happens to market itself.
Regardless of whether DuPont stands to benefit from this project, there are a few major hurdles to overcome, not the least of which is an initial $5 billion investment at a time when the Detroit 3 are asking for many times that from the government just to stay in business. We also see problems getting proposed collaborators such as Intel, Microsoft, Dell, Boeing and Google all working on the same page. Schools such as MIT, the Georgia Tech, and the University of Michigan could also be involved, according to Holliday. No problem, right?
Getting an automobile to run on butanol isn't a problem, it's been done over and over again. Yes, it is a cleaner fuel that may be a better choice overall than ethanol, but coming from the head of a company with a vested interest comes off as a bit disingenuous. It also reminds us of something we heard the other day...
Lots of self-reflection in Detroit these days, what with GM ditching private jets and all the CEO drives to DC in an Escape hybrid and/or Malibu Hybrid. Speaking of Detroit, that's where we'll see the production version of the Fisker Karma come January.
In just a few short days, Ford and its two cross-town rivals will be required to lay down a plan before Congress that points a clear path towards profitability and global competitiveness. These days, any automaker's future will involve plenty of greenery, and as the first of the three automakers to submit its comprehensive business plan to the lawmakers in DC, Ford's plan includes electric vehicles slated for launch starting in 2010. First up will be a new electric van for commercial use, followed in 2011 by a new electric sedan. Other highlights include U.S. versions of the European-designed automobiles that are currently making their way across the pond, the sale of all its private jets, further plant closings and continued negotiations with the UAW.
So, what kind of money are we talking? The Blue Oval's plan calls for a bridge loan of $9 billion to be made available, though it hopes it doesn't need it. You may remember that Ford bet Henry's farm already when Mulally first took office at the automaker, so it's already got a load of financed cash on hand to weather the current stormy climate through 2010. What's more, Ford hopes to get $5B of loans under the already-promised $25B for fuel efficient cars. On the negative side, the plan suggests that a bankruptcy of either General Motors or Chrysler would be enough to cripple Ford's operations. Barring that, even with a forecast of flat sales of 12.5 million units per year for the next three years for the U.S. auto industry, Ford believes it's on its way back to profitability as early as 2011. Check out the Blue Oval's official press release detailing its proposed plan to Congress after the jump.
The executive churn at Tesla Motors continues today as SVP of Marketing and Sales, Darryl Siry has resigned. In a posting on his personal blog, Siry cited "disagreements in strategy" as his reason for leaving. When AutoblogGreen contacted Siry, he declined to elaborate on the reasons, but a successor has already been recruited and Siry stayed on these last several weeks to facilitate the transition. In mid-October, Tesla Chairman Elon Musk stepped in to replace former CEO Ze'ev Drori in that position, a move that coincided with the lay-offs of 20 percent of the company's staff and delays to the Model S sedan.
Among his duties at Tesla, Siry has been the primary spokesman for the EV start-up. He has not announced any new plans but does intend to comment more on the alternative fuel vehicle industry on his blog.
It's pretty obvious at this point that Cerberus doesn't want to keep Chrysler, and turbulent economic realities have scuttled what few available prospects there would have been for new ownership. Some have openly wondered whether team Pentastar is even working on new products at all. Product development VP Frank Klegon insists that new Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep models are on their way, and he points to the next 300/Charger as proof.
Klegon told Automotive News at the LA Auto Show that the 2011 redesign of these two large, rear-wheel-drive sedans will beat projected 2011 CAFE standards. That feat will be accomplished with improvements to aerodynamics, axle ratios and upgraded engines. Klegon mentioned that the upcoming Phoenix engines, the development of which has not been cancelled, would motivate the Charger and 300. The new Phoenix family of V6 engines will have variable valve timing, cylinder deactivation and direct injection among its many efficiency increasing technologies. Automotive News also mentioned that Chrysler may employ an eight-speed automatic transmission to further improve performance and fuel economy. We don't know of any Chrysler transmission projects that are this ambitious, and Daimler currently utilizes only seven cogs in its Mercedes lineup, but suppliers like Aisin and ZF already have 8 speeds on the market.
Click above for high-res image gallery of the Fisker Karma
Just one short year after Fisker debuted its plug-in hybrid Karma show car at the Detroit Auto Show, the house that Henrik built will be returning to the Motor City to debut the production version of its ambitious project. Fisker says the production model, which is shown above in this just-released official pic, will only vary slightly in design from the show car, including a different upper grille that's a bit larger towards the outer edges and a larger lower air intake. The exhaust pipe from the internal combustion engine will also exit from an odd place: behind the front wheels. We'll also get our first view of the Karma's production interior in Detroit next month.
Fisker announced last month that it had chosen General Motors' turbocharged, direct-inject 2.0L four-cylinder as its ICE of choice, and after sampling that engine in the Chevy Cobalt SS Turbo, we're very eager to see what it will do in a hybrid set-up designed to make one very large luxury saloon move like the wind. Combined with the hybrid system's 22.6 kWh electric motor, the drivetrain as a whole is said to produce 408 horsepower and propel the car to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds and onto to a top speed of 125 mph. What sounded like vaporware 365 days ago is starting to take form, and we'll be on hand in Detroit next month to bring you more.
Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2009 Escape Hybrid
Ford CEO Alan Mulally has made the politically correct decision for his return trip to Washington DC this week and is skipping the company jet. In fact, he's skipping the airport altogether and hitting the road in an Escape Hybrid. It seems like it would have been better to grab one of the brand new Fusion Hybrids, but no one in Washington should be too upset at the choice of the Escape. The last one we tested for AutoblogGreen averaged 33 mpg. Perhaps he'll even take one of the prototype plug-in hybrid versions, although that wouldn't make much sense for the nine-hour drive. In our reader poll you actually opted for the Fusion by a wide margin, followed by the Fiesta and Mustang. The Escape came in at a respectable fourth.
In just a few short days, Ford and its two cross-town rivals will be required to lay down a plan before Congress that points a clear path towards profitability and global competitiveness. These days, any automaker's future will involve plenty of greenery, and as the first of the three automakers to submit its comprehensive business plan to the lawmakers in DC, Ford's plan includes electric vehicles slated for launch starting in 2010. First up will be a new electric van for commercial use, followed in 2011 by a new electric sedan. Other highlights include U.S. versions of the European-designed automobiles that are currently making their way across the pond, the sale of all its private jets, further plant closings and continued negotiations with the UAW.
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