Home/Posts Tagged ‘electric’
Posts Tagged ‘electric’
Uncategorized, Aug 7th, 2012,
The hackney carriage, better known as a black cab, has been synonymous with London for around 100 years. Though they’ve changed design over the years, becoming less spacious in the process, black cabs are still recognizable. Now they’ve gone electric. A Nissan electric black cab, which looks a bit like a mix between a soccer mom’s minivan and a traditional black cab (4 door saloon car), is set to hit London streets as early as next year. From the Guardian: Nissan has promised that its new London taxi, a van-like vehicle, can eliminate 20% of the capital’s exhaust pollution caused by…
Tags: black cab, electric, london
Green Cars, Science & Technology, Feb 2nd, 2012,
Folding bikes are great. I’ve owned two inexpensive models and even used one of them in the snow. You can park them everywhere, keep them indoors in your apartment or house so they aren’t at risk of being stolen and take them on trains and buses. Germans are often spotted on them on holiday. I guess they bring them on boats or in their cars. A folding car, however, makes me think of the Jetsons or some other comical view of the future as envisioned in the 1950s during the Space Race. But now the folding car has become a…
Tags: Barroso, Basque, electric, Europe, folding car, Hiriko, Spain
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, May 20th, 2011,
As the Philippines moves forward in cleaner energy production and away from power sourced from oil and coal, the streets of its capital city, Manila, are choked with emissions from diesel and petrol-burning vehicles. According to the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI) recent years have seen the Philippines experience a sharp rise in the production of energy from hydro and natural gas, and especially from geothermal and other renewable sources. At the same time, power generated from coal and oil peaked and began a somewhat steady decline during the last decade (though figures are only shown up to 2005). What’s…
Tags: coal, electric, energy, jeepney, Manilla, oil, Philippines, Pollution, power
Green living, Oct 5th, 2010,
A new wave of electric cars is coming to Europe in the form of futuristic bubble cars including, improbably, a two-wheeled model, which has a chassis designed along the lines of the Segway. You know, that annoying upright electric thingamajig that President Bush fell off. The new, cute, teensy vehicles are designed for the urban environment – easy to park and charge, and come with a host of high tech features such as radar, body heat scanners and automated driving based on GPS. That’s right – cars that drive themselves, talk to each other and scan your body. Run to…
Tags: bubble, car, electric, Kia, Pop, Renault, Twizy
Green living, Science & Technology, Sep 16th, 2010,
In Stuttgart, Germany, electric motorbike company ELMOTO manufactures zippy E-Bikes that are designed for getting around in cities, much like their combustible-engined cousins. E-Bikes are high-tech scooters, but some models physically resemble smallish dirt bikes. They are lightweight and run almost silently. I can only hope they catch on for this reason alone, as I live next to a busy road often used by teenagers on noisy mopeds. Alas, their high price tag at the moment – around €4,000 ($5,000) – will prohibit most teenage mopedists from going electric. ELMOTO’s E-Bikes can reach speeds of 45 km per hour (30…
Tags: e-bike, electric, ELMOTO, German, Germany, moped, scooter
Green living, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 19th, 2010,
In a UN-sponsored event designed to popularize electric vehicles, the Zero Race solar car rally began on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland. Participating in the race are teams from South Korea, Australia, Switzerland and Germany. They will attempt to travel around the world in 80 days, through 16 countries. Zero Race organizer Louis Palmer has already driven around the world in his ‘Solar Taxi’, through 38 countries during 18 months. From a CNET News article: With this race we want to show that seven billion people on this planet need renewable energy and clean mobility. –Louis Palmer For more on the…
Tags: around, carbon, cars, electric, Louis, Palmer, race, Solar, Switzerland, World, zero
Politics, Aug 11th, 2010,
The government of Spain’s electric vehicle scheme has so far failed to take off. Spain’s plans to fill its roads with electric cars, which can top up at service stations and converted phone booths across the country, have hit a bump in the road. So far only 16 electric cars have been sold in Spain this year. This is a 16-fold improvement over last year, but far short of the goal of 2,000 for this year and seems destined to fail to meet next year’s 20,000 or 2014’s 100,000 targets. Yet the Spanish government-backed Wind Power and Electric Vehicles group…
Tags: cars, electric, energy, finance, fossil fuel, power, renewables, Spain, Spanish, subsidies, vehicles, wind, Zapatero
Videos & Documentaries, Aug 9th, 2010,
Lithium-ion batteries are being touted by US President Barack Obama as the most efficient way to electrify motor vehicles. A mass shift from fossil fuel and conventional combustion engines towards battery-powered electric cars may also receive a boost due to the unfortunate recent events in the Gulf of Mexico. From an article on stockhouse.com: In 2009, alone, the U.S. federal government granted over US$25 billion in loans to automobile and battery makers. Such initiatives promise to help President Obama accomplish his well-publicized mandate to usher-in one million electric vehicles in the U.S. by 2015. A move away from fossil fuels…
Tags: batteries, Bolivia, cars, Chile, electric, lithium, Obama, President, US, vehicles
Politics, Jul 30th, 2010,
The UK’s new Conservative lead coalition government is doing more or less what Tory governments are expected to do: make public spending cuts. But this is the ‘new’ Tory leadership, softened by cuddly Liberal Democrat partners and promises to be Britain’s greenest government yet, albeit a belt-tightening one in a time of economic crisis and ‘necessary’ fiscal austerity. Well, here is an example of this compromise vis-à-vis Britain’s electric car scheme, first announced in March by the previous Labour government. Two articles from the UK press put a different shine on the proceedings. From a short, but positive article in…
Tags: Britain, car, coalition, cut, electric, government, Grant, Labour, scheme, Tory, transport, UK, vehicles
Green living, Science & Technology, Jul 2nd, 2010,
The air travel industry wants more efficient – and thereby greener – airplanes in order to boost profits and improve its image in an increasingly environmentally conscious world. According to a piece in the Economist on new, more efficient designs for jet engines, jets are now roughly twice as fuel efficient as they were in the 1960s and 80% quieter. The new designs discussed in the piece – made by small Israeli firm R-Jet – have not yet been picked up by any major player in the airline industry, though R-Jet claims their engines could cut fuel use by a…
Tags: air travel, airplanes, battery, Economist, efficient, electric, fuel, Green, jet, planes, R-Jet
Green living, Videos & Documentaries, Apr 22nd, 2010,
California automaker Elon Musk and Tesla burst on the market with an all-electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in early 2010. But with base prices of $101,500 in the US, £86,950 in the UK and €84,000 in continental Europe, few budget-minded aspiring green drivers can afford the EV hotrod. Now plans to sell a more moderately priced family car, or sedan (aka saloon car in the UK) called the Tesla Model S are pricking up ears. The base price of $49,900 in the US – after a federal tax credit of $7,500 – is still pretty steep, but it’s under…
Tags: car, CNN, electric, EV, mass market, Model S, Tesla
Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Apr 18th, 2010,
REVA Electric Car Company is an Indian carmaker which makes small electric vehicles sold in 24 countries across Europe and Asia. Reva plans on increasing their meager 3,000 total cars sold to a target of 30,000 per year. Less expensive and more compact than the Nissan Leaf plug-in vehicle, Reva’s fully electric NXR has a similar range to the Leaf (150-160 km or 90-100 miles on a single charge) yet a lower top speed of 65 mph or 104 km/h compared to the Leaf’s 90 mph or 145 km/h. Check out this CNN report on the REVA and other electric…
Tags: car, electric, India, Indian, LEAF, REVA, small
Green living, Science & Technology, Apr 6th, 2010,
On April 26th the city of Tokyo, Japan will experiment with a new public system for charging electric vehicles. The ‘battery swap’ method robotically changes empty batteries for fully charged ones at specially equipped charging stations. This innovative system, developed by the American company Better Place, provides a much quicker way of charging electric cars than the traditional ‘plug in and wait’ option. The battery swap system will be tested for a three-month trial period by a major taxi firm located in Tokyo’s central Roppongi district. From an article in the Guardian: All of our components will be tested together…
Tags: battery, better place, cars, charging, electric, EV, Fluence, japan, Renault, stations, swap, system, Tokyo, trial, vehicle
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Feb 16th, 2010,
2010 means electric cars will soon be humming around America’s city streets, emitting nothing into the air but a sense of self-satisfaction and superiority. Even Prius drivers will hang their heads in shame, outdone and one upped in the latest ‘whose got the newest green toy’ competition. Of course, most parts of the U.S. will have a bit of respite before the coming vehicular revolution kicks into top gear, and can continue belching noxious fumes with impunity for a little while longer. But not California. Several thousand Leafs made in Japan will be delivered to metropolitan areas in California, Arizona,…
Tags: 2010, California, cars, electric, Green, LEAF, Nissan, U.S., West Coast
Climate Change, Feb 11th, 2010,
While everyone’s no doubt heard that 2010 is the year electric cars are to debut in the United States, it hasn’t happened yet. So for now, at least, the greenest cars on the market are still Honda’s natural-gas powered Civic GX and hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic. –Balitmore Sun As we wait for the ‘year of the electric car’ to get in gear and plug in hybrids like the Chevy Volt and the fully electric Nissan Leaf to whirr onto the market, we still look to that old standard hybrid, the Toyota Prius to lead the way…
Tags: 10, 2010, car, Civic, electric, emissions, environment, Green, greenest, GX, honda, hybrid, list, natural gas, NGV, polluting, Prius, top, Toyota, vehicle
Climate Change, Green living, Feb 3rd, 2010,
Will 2010 be the year when we all shed our fossil fuel addiction, become vegans and take to the streets in silent, shiny new plug-in electric cars while Enya lilts – at a reasonable volume, of course – through the vehicles’ stereo systems? I doubt it, but there is certainly an electric buzz about this new decade and it’s not just coming from all those new wind farms which seem to be popping up all over place, destroying rich people’s views. According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor, more and more Americans want plug-in hybrids, like the Chevy…
Tags: car, Christian Science Monitor, Economist, electric, electric cars, hybrid, Nissan Leaf, plug-in, plug-in hybrid, Volt
Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Jan 31st, 2010,
![]( "<!--:en-->Chevy Volt: America")
' src='http://gf0.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/6471.jpg' alt='chevy-volt-americas-first-mass-produced-electric-vehicle' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' /> In 2009 the American auto giant GM filed for bankruptcy, downsized and got bailed out by the U.S. government. President Obama announced that GM would be restructured; a new GM would emerge and ‘produce the high-quality, safe, and fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow’. Cue the Chevy Volt. The Volt isn’t exactly a hybrid – it’s completely battery powered for the first 40 miles (64 km) of use, after which it can shift over to running like any other petrol/gasoline-powered vehicle. So it’s neither a hybrid nor a fully electric car. I imagine that the gasoline option is what makes the Chevy…
Tags: car, Chevy, electric, electric car, electric vehicle, GM, M.P.G., vehicle, Volt
