Transportation

If you think buying a "green" car is as easy as picking the paint color, we've got news for you--there are different types of green and many different car choices. Are you trying to reduce smog and its attendant health risks, or are greenhouse gases and global climate change your biggest concern? And those aren't exclusive concerns, either. Amongst the types of cars you can choose, there are hybrids, PZEVs, SULEVs, flex fuel vehicles, natural gas vehicles, and even diesels. We also take a look at future technologies that are in heavy development and could the … Read more

Who's bringing the electric car back to life? Mayor Gavin Newsom hopes he can help in San Francisco by partnering with Project Better Place, according to Earth2Tech.

The venture, founded by the mayor's friend Shai Agassi, aims for all passenger vehicles in Israel to run on batteries rather than gasoline. Drivers would subscribe to cars much like they subscribe to cellular phone plans. The biggest challenge is to create the electric car infrastructure, a network of stations for charging vehicles and replacing batteries.

In Israel last week, Newsom met with CEO Moshe Kaplinsky and volunteered to make the … Read more

For all of the buzz surrounding General Motors' Chevy Volt, it now looks like Nissan may well be the first major automaker to market with an electric car in the United States. A line item buried in Nissan's mid-term business plan reaffirms the company's commitment to "zero-emission vehicle leadership," with a plan to introduce an all-electric vehicle in the U.S. and Japan in 2010 and then mass-market vehicles to consumers globally in 2012. In an interview in today's New York Times, Nissan's boss, Carols Ghosn, said that the company was looking at a … Read more

NEW YORK--Fisker Automotive is raising a large round of funding to build its $80,000 electric sedan, but it intends to make a version at half the price in a few years.

The company expects to close a series C round of $65 million in June, company CEO Henrik Fisker told CNET News.com on Tuesday.

Fisker, who spoke at a clean tech investor conference here, declined to name investors. But he said the company is in advanced talks with investors in Europe and Dubai and the round is "oversubscribed." To date, Fisker Automotive has raised $25 million. … Read more

NEW YORK--Fisker Automotive intends to file for arbitration on Tuesday in a legal counterattack to a suit filed against it by Tesla Motors over allegedly stolen trade secrets.

Henrik Fisker told CNET News.com that the filing will seek to have the Tesla suit derailed because it was filed in San Mateo, Calif., which would be a breach of contract.

Fisker Automotive will seek to move the case to Orange County, Calif., and detail the flaws in Tesla's legal case. He spoke here at the CleanTech Conference put on by Merriman, Curhan, and Ford.

Last month, Tesla sued Fisker Automotive, … Read more

It's not uncommon on California roadways to spot diesel cars with bumper stickers that boast of biofuels in the engine, using slogans such as "Fuel for the revolution."

"This is the largest underground movement in the United States since the Civil War and the underground railroad," said Michael Wittman, an environmental activist and biodiesel user in Los Angeles.

But many drivers who began using biofuels to reduce their carbon emissions and save money fear that little-known government regulations are nipping the adoption of homegrown, "green" fuels in the bud.

In California, it's … Read more

Fisker Automotive took a prototype of its planned $80,000 electric sedan for a spin on a track in California, giving gawkers the first first look of the luxury sedan in action.

The photos, which were thought to be "spy photos," were actually taken by the company's PR firm and distributed to the media, according to published reports.

In any case, the photos show the Karma, a plug-in hybrid sedan that Fisker says it will deliver in the fourth quarter this year, manufacturing 15,000 a year.

Fisker is now embroiled in a legal suit with its … Read more

The United States can slash its use of petroleum dramatically by 2035 by adding a heavy dose of hybrids to the market, according to a study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To return U.S. fuel use to pre-2000 levels, however, carmakers would have to improve efficiency and consumers would have to learn to love hybrids, trading features like increased speed and size for higher fuel efficiency.

"There's all this fascination with vehicle technology--more hybrids, more diesels, and so on," said study author Anup Bandivadekar, an analyst at the International Council on Clean Transportation, in a … Read more

In a step toward maturing the cellulosic ethanol business, Mascoma officially announced on Tuesday $61 million in third-round funding, which includes participation from Marathon Oil and General Motors.

Marathon Oil, a gas and oil refiner, will put $10 million into Mascoma to help construct a plant and to further develop the company's proprietary microbe that streamlines the process of turning wood chips or agricultural waste into ethanol.

GM's decision to invest in Mascoma--the second cellulosic ethanol company with which it has partnered--was disclosed last week. GM's amount, however, is under wraps.

As previously reported, Mascoma's … Read more