Crave

Neil Young rides in his LincVolt in the video for "Johnny Magic," dedicated to LincVolt designer Johnathan Goodwin.

(Credit: NeilYoung.com/copyright Shakey Pictures)

Legendary rocker Neil Young is releasing a new album inspired by his electric-car project LincVolt.

The "grunge father," along with biodiesel pioneer Johnathan Goodwin, are developing a commercially viable electric power system in a 1959 Mark IV Lincoln Continental, which they hope will get the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon and take the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize.

Neil Young with his dog, Carl, in the video for "Johnny Magic."

(Credit: NeilYoung.com/copyright Shakey Pictures)

Young's classic "Long May You Run" could have been a proper theme song for the project. Instead, he's written new material about the LincVolt, featuring the crisis in the car industry and the economic downturn in general.

In "Fuel Line," he sings about the car's technology: "Awesome power of electricity, stored for you in this big battery." In "Johnny Magic," about the prize he's aiming for, "she goes long range on domestic green fuel, 100 miles a gallon is the Continental rule."

So far the concept album has received mixed reviews both in the music and green communities.

SOMS Technologies says that its engine filter will extend the life of engine oil by 30,000 miles, enabling drivers to use 75 percent less oil and save hundreds of dollars in maintenance per car.

"You could say this would be terrible news for Jiffy Lube, but we don't look at it that way," said company CEO Miles Flamenbaum, who presented at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco on Wednesday. "It would allow them to charge a little bit more, take more of a margin from oil change costs, and do it less often."

The company, based in Bedford, N.Y., has raised $900,000 in angel funding and seeks another $4 million.

Flamenbaum aims for the company to snag a share of the $7 billion U.S. market for oil filter and engine treatment products while also helping to reduce the demand for petroleum and cutting pollution from waste engine oil, which contaminates groundwater when improperly disposed.

Engine oil passes through conventional filters in one swoop, but SOMS Technologies' system diverts some of the oil flow from the main filter into a finer filter.

"It's more passive," Flamenbaum said. "We're just taking a little bit of the oil and treating it separately, without affecting pressure in the engine."

The filtered oil comes out as clean as or even cleaner than new engine oil, he added.

The filter would cost about $15 and work with any combustion engine, including those in gasoline, biofuel, biodiesel, and hydrogen cars.

It uses off-the-shelf components as well as an "advanced material" the company won't disclose. Unlike many filtration systems being developed in labs, such as for purifying water, however, it does not involve nanotechnology.

There are 470 million filter changes each year in the United States, and 1.6 billion around the world, according to the company.

Flamenbaum sees the filter fitting into a growing green trend in automotive services. For instance, in November AAMCO launched its "Eco-Green" certification program to promote alternative fuels and reduce emissions at service centers.

Within a month, Green Earth Technologies' motor oil made from animal fats instead of petroleum will hit the shelves of big box stores, according to its CEO Jeff Marshall.

In April, SOMS Technologies' filters will be tested in some 30 New York City taxicabs, followed by 20 school buses in upstate New York. SOMS Technologies plans to target such fleets first, with long-term sights on selling its filters in automotive service stores and big-box retailers.

Flamenbaum sees a huge opportunity in developing countries where there's little infrastructure for waste oil recycling.

"I was in China last week and literally saw somebody draining oil and dumping it on the ground," Flamenbaum said. "If that guy was doing it there are probably another million like him out there."

The company is working on agreements to distribute the product in China, as well as with the United States Postal Service.

"We have excellent timing," Flamenbaum said. "There has been very little advancement in filter technology. Since the spin-on oil filter was invented in 1953, the biggest innovation is the pleated filter from the round filter to increase the surface area."

SOMS stands for spin-on microfilter system.

G-oil biodegradable motor oil

(Credit: Green Earth Technologies)

Certain biofuels, though eco-friendly, have a reputation for gumming up engine parts, which affect vehicle performance and ultimately reduce engine life. So the idea of a bio-based motor oil makes some of us a little nervous. But one Bay Area-based company is hawking a green, biodegradable motor oil that it says will protect engines as well as name-brand, petroleum-based oil.

G-Oil, made by Green Earth Technologies, is made by converting tallow -- that's saturated cow fat to you and me -- into a high-value unsaturated oil, which is less likely to clog up engine parts. (Tallow was used historically to make products such as candles and soap, and was sometimes used in cooking.) The resulting motor oil, according to the label, can be used in naturally-aspirated engines, as well as turbocharged and super-charged diesel and gasoline engines. In addition, the packaging is 100 percent recyclable, and the labels are printed on biodegradable paper with soy ink.

The company says the used oil is non-toxic and can be disposed of at home, but it must first be mixed with another of the company's products, called G-disposoil. The second compound breaks the oil into smaller molecules, which can be eaten by microorganisms found in the soil. However, there is no mention of whether other hazardous chemicals might be picked up by the oil during its lifespan inside the engine.

There isn't much information yet on how to buy G-oil, although the company recently showed off its products at the Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo (AAPEX) in Las Vegas.

Related link: Green Earth Technology

(Credit: Aptera)

Usually a spaceship-looking vehicle like this comes only in concept form, but the Aptera three-wheeled elecric or diesel-hybrid car--if it can accurately be called a car, anyway--has not only made it to the prototype stage but is available for pre-order. And why might you want to pay $500 just to wait in line to buy one?

Consider these stats: 230 miles per gallon on the highway for the hybrid version, according to Gizmodo, and an estimated 10 seconds from zero to 60. All this for the relatively paltry sum of $20,000 too, as long as you can contain yourself until it's delivered next year.

A group of MIT students have retrofitted a Porsche 914 with batteries in an effort to show that electric cars could be viable in the near future.

The students, led by senior Emmanuel Sin, removed the gas engine from the car and replaced it with an electric motor. The motor runs on 12 lithium-ion batteries from Valence Technologies, one of a group of companies trying to bring lithium-ion batteries to cars. Lithium-ion batteries can hold more energy than lead acid batteries, but they can be dangerous. Remember those exploding notebooks?

Sin (second from left) and students installing batteries.

(Credit: MIT)

The students hope to conduct a number of tests and test drives in the next few weeks. According to their estimates, the car should have a top speed of 70 to 100 mph and it will run 100 miles before needing a recharge. It will take about four to five hours to recharge the batteries in full. The car, being electric, won't emit fumes from the tailpipe.

Those figures above underscore the promise and peril of electric cars. Electric cars will generally emit far fewer greenhouse gases than regular cars, even when fumes from the power plant that provides electricity to recharge them is factored in. And they can be quite zippy.

But a range of 100 miles is problematic--not many Americans buy cars that can't get them too far out of town. If you had to leave San Francisco to do a quick meeting in San Jose, Calif., you might not make it back.

Then there is the charge time. If an owner wants to go away on a weekend, who wants to double the travel time with a four-hour charge? (However, the 100 mph maximum is probably acceptable to most drivers.)

Batteries are also expensive. Even advocates of plug-in hybrids say that you can't currently justify putting more batteries in your Prius by claiming you'll save money on gas. You'd have to drive several thousand miles before hitting breakeven. The batteries to convert a car like a Honda Accord might run $30,000, Ian Wright, designer of the X-1 electric sports car, has estimated. Still, battery advocates say prices will decline.

The Porsche, by the way, was donated by Yang Shao-Horn, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and a specialist on advanced batteries. She and her husband bought it on eBay.

Tesla Roadster: second engineering prototype

(Credit: CNET Networks)

If you want an all-electric sedan, start saving now.

Tesla Motors has more fully discussed its price goals for WhiteStar, an all-electric passenger sedan coming in late 2009 or 2010. The premium model will cost between $65,000 and $70,000, a company representative said, while the standard model will cost closer to $50,000.

The cars will differ by more than fancy seats. The company has said that the premium version will go from zero to 60 miles per hour in less than 6 seconds and go about 200 miles before needing a charge. The standard version will accelerate from 0 mph to 60 mph in just 6.7 seconds. Of course, these performance figures and prices could change before then.

Auto manufacturers and electric car manufacturers, though, will likely closely eye the sales of the more premier model. The 200 mile mark is sort of a magic figure for electric car makers, UC Berkeley Researcher Tim Lipman told us in a separate interview (about hydrogen cars) recently. Consumer surveys indicate that consumers are more willing to buy an electric or hydrogen car when it can go 200 miles. (A year ago, Tesla was mostly talking about a $50,000 sedan; it's unclear when the more expensive model was added.)

Is there a big market for $65,000 cars? Apparently so. Cars that cost $65,000 or more account for about ten percent of cars sold in the U.S. according to Todd Turner of Car Concepts, which conducts market research. 20 percent of U.S. cars cost more than $50,000.

Buyers, though, get a lot of car for that amount of money, Turner added. Companies like BMW, Mercedes and Land Rover dominate the category. Turner says he is a bit skeptical about consumers flocking to electric sedans in this price range just yet.

2007 is shaping up to be a big year for electric cars. Think Nordic, a Norwegian company, is coming out with an electric town car in Europe this summer. The car will cost $17,000 but consumers will have to lease the battery for an additional fee. Pheonix Motorcars will begin to deliver all-electric SUVs to municipalities. Tesla will also start shipping its sports car, the Tesla Roadster, to consumers toward the end of the year. It costs $92,000 and a few hundred people have put down deposits already.

Daimler Chrysler isn't giving up on hydrogen.

Next year, the company will roll out its second test hydrogen car, called the "B Class," to test drivers, according to Nick Cappa, manager of Advanced Technology Communication at the company. The car will be bigger than the current A Class (see picture) and go about 250 miles before running out of fuel.

Daimler's A Class hydrogen Mercedes

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)

The fuel cell stack, the part that converts hydrogen and oxygen into electrons and water, will also ideally last about 5,000 hours, about the same amount as a conventional gas engine. Currently, the fuel cell stack destined for the B Class lasts about 2,500 hours. It will also convert about 50 to 60 percent of the fuel into actual work. The fuel cell in the A Class is about 38 to 45 percent efficient while gasoline cars rank only 14 percent. (All that engine heat--that's gasoline being converted to a non-productive use.)

The company will build hundreds of the vehicles too, in "near production" facilities that are more similar to the assembly line than those used for the earlier A Class. Only 60 or so of the A Class machines were built.

"By 2012 to 2015, we believe we will start seeing as many fuel cell vehicles as there are hybrids today," Cappa said in an interview this week. "We have been working on fuel cell technology for 12 years."

That's a more optimistic outlook than you will hear from other car companies, which say hydrogen vehicles will start rolling out in 2015. Still, if you count things like hydrogen-powered fork lifts already being used by Wal-Mart, delivery vans and municipal fleet cars, the prediction starts to look a little less outlandish.

Hydrogen cars are also pretty fun to drive. I zipped around in one at U.C. Berkeley. It cranks up to freeway speeds rapidly; inadvertently I dusted a video van that was following us (see guilt-free driving video on this page.) It also holds four people and has room for suitcases.

Naturally, significant hurdles will have to be cleared before consumers start snapping up hydrogen cars. Chemical manufacturers will have to come up with ways to make hydrogen in a cost-effective manner that doesn't produce large amounts of carbon dioxide.

Filling stations will also have to be created. Cappa, in fact, said the company will determine where in Europe and North America to test the car by looking at where BP will erect hydrogen filling stations. (BP and Daimler are working together on hydrogen issues.) The test drivers, by the way, will be ordinary people, not professional drivers.

The cost of cars will also have to decline. Daimler Chrysler has already invested $1 billion into hydrogen technology, but the cars do work. Around 2 million miles have been logged on fuel cell vehicles to date, and that arguably has saved 100,000 gallons of gasoline.

And consumers shouldn't be too worried about exploding. After all, they now drive around in a vehicle containing several gallons of a flammable liquid.

It's the dilemma of the modern car owner. You go on vacation and your GPS-equipped, fully automated car goes dead in the meantime because all the gadgets have drained the battery.

Hail, Sunsei

(Credit: Michael Kanellos)

To this end, Canada's ICP Solar is hawking the Sunsei, a dashboard solar panel that plugs into the car lighter or can clamp onto the battery. Plug it in and it will deliver 135 milliamps to the battery, enough to keep it going. The company sells thousands of these to Volkswagen, which puts them in Beetles shipped from Mexico. (Sometimes the dealer gives them to buyers; sometimes, they keep them and sell them later on eBay.)

Unlike some portable chargers, the Sunsei can collect energy from the sun through a windshield. That's because it is made of amorphous silicon and can absorb energy from the blue end of the light spectrum. Blue penetrates windshields, which block red light.

Solar chargers fit fairly well with cars because owners generally don't need a rapid blast of electricity. That's why cell phone chargers don't work well. ICP Solar CEO Sass Peress once did try out a solar phone charger on a plane trip, holding it up to the window. "What other fool is going to do this?" he recalled thinking. ICP canceled the product line.

ICP also sells industrial strength chargers for Winnebagos.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

If you ignore the estimates that all the farmland in the U.S. couldn't produce enough biodiesel to make a big dent in our petro-appetite, biodiesel is pretty exciting--when you can find it. All the tired jokes about pulling up to your favorite Chinese restaurant aren't very funnny when the needle is on "E" and you want to stay green.

Nearbio.com is a free site that tells you where the nearest biodiesel vendor is located and how to get there. It's really optimized for use on a web-enabled cell phone (nearbio.mobi) where its clean text interface is a blessing. You can enter the usual zip code, address, etc. to tell it where to search. The site claims its staff manually scour web sites, industry publications and press releases every day to sniff out new bio fuel pumps and post them within 24 hours of verifying that each is real.