Hybrids and green

The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) in Oakland, Calif., announced it has reached a legal agreement with Chrysler and the three largest producers of automobile wheel-balancing weights (Plombco, Hennessey, and Perfect Equipment), requiring the companies to end the use of leaded wheel weights in California by the end of 2009.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), about 65,000 tons of lead wheel weights are in use on cars and trucks in the U.S., and it is estimated that at least 3 percent of wheel weights fall off of cars and trucks. USGS states that the discarded … Read more

Among the many new devices promising to boost fuel economy during these times of high gas prices, the PLX Kiwi tries to improve the driver rather than the car. The PLX Kiwi is a training device that monitors driving habits and assigns the driver a rating based on how "green" it finds the driving style, with 100 being the best. For the most part, the Kiwi does just that, but issues with the way the device interfaces with the vehicle may leave some drivers scratching their heads.

Read the full PLX Kiwi review.

General Motors on Thursday showed off some of the aerodynamic styling of the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, which is scheduled to ship in late 2010.

In a company blog post, Bob Boniface, who is the director of design for the Volt, released photos of the exterior. The release of images was timed with a GM management conference in Traverse City, Mich.

Boniface said that the Volt design team is spending a significant amount of effort in wind tunnels to minimize the wind drag, which can account for 20 percent of a car's energy.

"We believe the Chevrolet Volt'… Read more

Countless small start-ups and Detroit automakers are trying to revive electric cars from an early grave, although there's a long road ahead before electricity might serve as a "fuel" for the masses.

In the meantime, however, a handful of companies aims to put the power cord in the hands of drivers who want to transform their gas-electric hybrids into plug-in hybrids, or to replace the internal combustion innards of other cars with all-electric systems.

The businesses are touting plug-in hybrid systems that can be driven up to 40 miles on batteries alone, with average fuel economy of 100 miles per gallon. The cars use gasoline once the batteries drain.

It can cost more than $10,000 to install a plug-in hybrid system on a Toyota Prius. Is the limited electric driving range worth the expense?

Absolutely, according to Felix Kramer, founder of CalCars, which counts nearly 200 plug-in hybrid conversions around the country. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based nonprofit in 2004 converted the first Prius with batteries that power up from an electrical outlet. … Read more

Lotus Engineering, the automotive consultancy division of Lotus, is back in the news again, this time with a new engine concept called the Omnivore. Lotus announced that it would be collaborating with Queen's University Belfast and Jaguar Cars to develop the engine, which is said to maximize fuel efficiency when running on renewable fuels. Essentially, the Omnivore is an engine that can run on almost anything, from gasoline to alcohol.

This engine design is expected to significantly increase fuel efficiency for sustainable bio alcohol fuels (such as ethanol or methanol) by using a combination of direct injection and variable … Read more

Betting on his new energy plan, oil mogul T. Boone Pickens has helped invest $160 million in a company that makes taxi cab fleets that run on natural gas, a cleaner burning fuel.

Pickens, along with lead investor Perseus, a private equity bank, invested this week in Troy, Michigan-based Vehicle Production Group (VPG). VPG makes natural gas-fueled taxi cabs and consumer cars that are wheelchair accessible. Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which was founded by Pickens, is also an investor in VPG. The company said it plans to use the funds to further production of vehicles for release by early 2010.… Read more

Researchers are trying to find a useful outlet for cars' waste heat--namely their electrical load.

General Motors and BMW plan to test devices that will convert excess heat from a car's motor into electricity next year, according to an Associated Press report Sunday.

GM has built a prototype, a metal-plated device that will fit around an exhaust pipe. Researchers told AP that they expect that it could improve fuel efficiency in a Chevrolet Suburban by about 5 percent, or 1 mile per gallon. The improvements would be greater in smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Auto companies are working with thermoelectrics researchers at Ohio State University … Read more

The 2008 GMC Yukon Hybrid is either the first guilt-free full-size SUV or an example of unrestrained excess. The Yukon is big, with three rows of seating and a cliff-like front-end. And it uses one of the bigger engines available in the Yukon line, a 6-liter V-8. But it adds GM's new two-mode hybrid system to give it surprisingly good fuel economy. In city traffic, we're talking close to 20 mpg. Good thing it has hybrid labels around the body to fend off public rancor.

The cabin electronics are the same as GM has been offering on its … Read more

I saw Twitter buzz building this morning over Fuelly, a site that records your gasoline purchases and gives you potentially useful info in return: your car's mileage and cost data like dollars you're spending per mile and your fuel economy over time. You can record your info on an iPhone, even. The site's special sauce is the social angle; you can follow people and compare your mileage to theirs. Coming soon to the service: A way to update your gas purchases over Twitter.

Believe it or not, there are already other Twitter-enabled gas purchase trackers out there. … Read more