Hybrids and electric vehicles

The Yokohama Marine Tower was lit up Wednesday night courtesy of electricity from the batteries in a Nissan Leaf.

Nissan is lending some battery power to the local 106-meter-tall Japanese landmark in Yokohama, the capital city of the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan, which is located about 27 miles south of Tokyo.

In fact, the tower's night twinkle will be powered by a Nissan Leaf channeling electricity to the tower from its batteries via a connected power control system until November 6.

The publicity stunt is part of the Yokohama Marine Tower's 50th Anniversary celebration and Yokohama Port's … Read more

Car-sharing service Car2Go is open for business in San Diego. Starting today, prospective members can sign up to join the service and receive 30 minutes of free drive time in one of the electric Smart ForTwos in the fleet.

The Daimler-owned transportation startup is seeding San Diego with a fleet of all-electric two seaters that members can rent by the minute. Rates start at $0.35 per minute and are $12.99 per hour with a $65.99 maximum per day. Members can travel up to 150-miles per day in a rental. After that, it's 45 cents per mile. … Read more

Ford today started taking orders for the 2012 Focus Electric, a battery-electric sedan with a retail price just under $40,000 before a $7,500 federal tax credit and state incentives.

With the launch of Ford's first full-production, all-electric passenger car, the Focus Electric will join plug-in electric cars Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt, which debuted earlier this year. People can preorder online the Focus Electric, which has a base price of $39,995 including destination fees or will be available through a lease of $713 a month for five years.

For comparison, Nissan's Leaf has a price … Read more

The bankruptcies of Solyndra and now Beacon Power show that green-technology startups are still struggling to find ways to cross the dreaded "Valley of Death" into mass commercialization.

Flywheel storage company Beacon Power filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday after running out of options to raise money and fund operations. "The current economic and political climate, the financing terms mandated by DOE, and Beacon's recent delisting notice from Nasdaq have together severely restricted Beacon's access to additional investments through the equity markets," CEO William Capp said in bankruptcy papers, according to reports.

There are significant … Read more

Land Rover's Range_e concept, unveiled at the International Motor Show in Geneva, was not just a publicity stunt. A working model has been seen charging up in a parking lot in Bristol, England.

Green Car Reports caught the Range_e concept out in the wild. It was plugged into a charging station at a Bristol mall. The blog site published a round of photos and some details observed about the car.

Notably, Land Rover touts the Range_e concept's CO2 emissions of 89 grams per kilometer, as opposed to the nonhybrid diesel's 243 grams per kilometer.

The concept uses … Read more

The 2012 Ford Focus Electric, 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas, 2012 Mitsubishi i, 2012 Toyota Prius v, and 2012 Volkswagen Passat TDI are all finalists for 2012 Green Car of the Year, Green Car Journal announced today in a press release.

The winner will be announced during a press conference at a Los Angeles Auto Show press day on November 17. This marks the seventh consecutive year the award has been given out.

Green Car Journal editors considered dozens of models that were designed to reduce their environmental impact and be more energy-efficient. According to the press release, the cars … Read more

Nissan said today it will make a new plug-in hybrid vehicle as part of a plan to improve product fuel efficiency and lower its environmental footprint.

At a press event in Yokohama, Japan, CEO Carlos Ghosn said Nissan will invest 70 percent of its annual research and development budget on environmental technologies in the next five years.

Its product road map calls for the introduction of a plug-in hybrid based on in-house technology and a new front-wheel hybrid model by 2015. Nissan's goal is to be the leading provider of all-electric vehicles, such as the Leaf, by selling 1.… Read more

After getting the Karma's EPA certification, Fisker began sales of the new plug-in hybrid car this week, with a starting price of $95,900.

When Fisker Automotive said it would bring a new, innovative car to market using plug-in hybrid technology, it looked like an exciting yet risky proposition. But the years between that announcement and this week's availability of the Fisker Karma to the public have seen the launch of the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt and the pure-electric Nissan Leaf, taking away some of the Karma's thunder.

And compared with those cars, the Karma isn't looking too hot on the fuel economy front.… Read more

DeLorean Motor Company showed off a prototype of an electrically driven DMC-12, which it promises to put into production in 2013.

You won't need a bolt of lightning to charge it up, and you won't be able to run it on eggshells and coffee grounds. Unlike the "Back to the Future" time machine, this DMC-12 electric conversion gets its electricity from the grid.

The DeLorean Motor Company (yes, it still exists), showed off the prototype at an owners' event last week. … Read more