August 2008

I already let you know that G-Wiz EVs in the UK are undergoing serious customization. Now, I find out Smart ForTwos right here in the US are getting tatoo-inspired makeovers by Ed Hardy. That should butch up those Smarts.

The Project Tattoo upgrade is more than skin-deep, though. It includes a new chrome exhaust system that ups horsepower by 6 and torque by 14 lb.-ft. There’s also a Kenwood AM/FM/CD/DVD player and Garmin touch-screen nav system, in addition to the tatoo-embroidered car seats.

The cars will be numbered 1-100 as part of a limited-edition series and signed by French fashion designer Christian Audigier, who markets the Ed Hardy brand.

The Alternative Energy and Transportation Expo will roll into Santa Monica for the third straight year September 26-27, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. For the first time ever, the show will also set up camp in Texas, at the Austin Energy Alt Car Expo inside the Palmer Events Center October 17-18. Both events are free, free, free.

If you’re new to alternative-energy-powered vehicles, these events would be a good place to start. More than 150 exhibits will detail different fuels, such as hydrogen, hybrids, ethanol, electricity — both AC and DC — and even natural gas and propane. Experts will be on hand to answer any questions you may have, whether you’re an SUV driver thinking about driving greener or an engineer who converted his Porsche 914 to an AC motor.

Perhaps the most useful part of the expo is the Ride and Drive lot, where visitors can experience alternative fuels first-hand and evaluate their pluses and minuses from the driver’s (or passenger’s) seat. Seminars and panel discussions will be held during both weekends, featuring authors who’ve analyzed the future of the auto industry and movers and shakers from within the industry itself.

I published a post last week about Fosh Automotive, saying that they hadn’t produced their promised electric miracle car. While skeptical of the car, I emailed them for details, and was told to wait. It turns out the whole project was a scam to lure in supporters of fuel-efficient cars (and the people who report on them), then use their email addresses to donate to John McCain. I’ve changed the link on the original post from the Fosh site to the AutoblogGreen site, where they detail the extent of the scam.

Reva’s teensy electric car, the G-Wiz, is the best-selling EV in the U.K. The car has an owner’s club, with nearly 600 members so far, and you can park it in London for free, which saves Brit commuters nearly $2000 a year. Retailer GoinGreen can get you into a brand-new G-Wiz of your very own for about $18,000.

Granted, the cars are weird-looking. Weirder than a Smart ForTwo, anyway, but maybe not as weird as a Zap Xebra. If they’re going to drive such strange-looking vehicles, Londoners seem to think they might as well go all the way. The cars are often subjected to custom paint jobs and marketing wraps, as if they weren’t getting enough attention from passers-by.

Here, for example, is a car covered in what looks like parking garage locations:

This example is covered in lightning bolts, though it tops out at 50 mph:

GoinGreen has even partnered with a designer to produce a special-edition G-Wiz featuring one of her designs, Sunlight Through Leaves, which was on display at the London auto show this year:

So, my fellow Americans, let the Brits inspire you to fancy up your weird-looking green car, whether it’s an old Honda Insight with the covered rear wheels or a brand-new GEM with its space-age ovoid doors. Why stop at fuzzy dice and seat covers? These cheap neighborhood electric vehicles are crying out for you to put your personal stamp all over them.

Photos by Rain Rabbit, canonsnapper,  and jonanamary.

Staffers at The Boston Globe recently put five Toyota Prius hybrids to the test in the Great Prius Mileage-athon. They had to drive from friendly territory — a Whole Foods — to enemy territory — a Hummer dealership — from an old-school, F1-style standing start in the parking lot. Best gas mileage wins.

As narrator and Globe columnist Alex Beam puts it in the video, “You don’t get there very fast, but you feel better about getting there.” I hope he felt great at the finish line — he was the race’s biggest loser, at just over 50 mpg. To see the winner, take a 3-minute coffee break and watch the video. It’s no Michael Phelps, but it’s inspiring nonetheless.

At a press event in Portland, Oregon, Dan Kapp, Ford’s director of powertrain research, said that the company has plans to become the number-one hybrid  producer in the country next year. By adding hybrid versions of the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan to the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids already on the market, Ford will double the number of its hybrids on the road.

Kapp laid out Ford’s long-term strategy, from today to 2050. The company plans to migrate its advanced fuel-saving technologies, like hybrid systems and the new EcoBoost engine, across the product line by 2012, so at least a few Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles will get a little better gas mileage. By 2020, Kapp said Ford will fully implement current technology and begin to delve into more gasoline-electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and more. After that, the plan is to roll out hydrogen fuel-cell cars, biofuel-powered vehicles, and whatever other new technologies have developed by then.

Kapp was eager to point out the advantages of Ford’s new EcoBoost engine, which uses gasoline direct injection and turbocharging to raise fuel efficiency by as much as 20% and lower tailpipe emissions by as much as 15%. The physically smaller engine will be able to deliver the same or greater power as traditional Ford engines, and will be available first in the 2009 Lincoln MKS sedan.

Kapp pointed out that while Ford was not pursuing hydrogen-powered cars as quickly as Honda, nor was it chasing Chevy’s PHEV Volt with any conviction, it does have the first driveable hydrogen fuel-cell PHEV in the Edge HySeries. The fleet of 30 cars is still very much in the test stage, and Kapp noted that hydrogen fuel has “monumental infrastructure problems.”

When fielding questions about bringing clean diesel cars from Europe (answer: not any time soon), a fellow journalist mentioned that he ran his diesel-powered Ford truck on B99 every summer. Kapp nearly choked on his coffee when he heard that one of his trucks was being powered by 99% biodiesel a few months out of the year. I was surprised that he was surprised — he was in eco-conscious Portland, after all.

Inspired by Willie Nelson’s commitment to biodiesel and the cross-country races of the ’60s and ’70s, Nik Bristow and a partner will bomb non-stop from New York to L.A. in a biodiesel-powered Jetta starting September 22. The trick? They’re going to do the Willie Run, as they call it, on one tank of Bio Willie fuel.

While biodiesel does get good mpgs, it doesn’t get 3,000 miles per tank. That’s why, according to Autobloggreen.com’s interview with Bristow, the Jetta has been outfitted with a huge spare fuel tank, just like the Cannonball Run guys used to do.

The Willie One, as the Jetta has been dubbed, has plenty of room for sponsors’ names. So if you’ve always wanted to see a car with your name on it but don’t have the $300,000 to slap a sticker on Dale Jr.’s car, this is your chance. Sponsorship of the Willie One starts at five bucks.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has teamed up with Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado to unveil the ecoDriving campaign. [WARNING: When you click on that link, the Governator immediately starts talking to you, with nary a stop or mute button in sight.] Auto manufacturers and dealers, along with industry leaders and politicians, have aimed the campaign at drivers who want to increase the fuel efficiency and reduce the emissions of the car they already drive.

The site offers tips like keeping tires properly inflated and “riding the green wave” — maintaining a steady speed to hit all the green lights on a long street. I have an uncle who is the king of this maneuver; I thought he was anal, but it turns out he’s a natural-born ecoDriver. The site also recommends keeping the gas cap tight to reduce evaporation.

There’s a clever ecoCalculator to tell you, based on your yearly mileage, mpg, and driving habits, how many pounds of CO2 you could be saving by adopting a couple new habits. If I kept the tires on my little red truck inflated, for instance, I’d save $68 a year on gas and keep 76 more pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

The site has games, resources, and will help you send a message to your governor asking him or her to sign on to the ecoDriving campaign. In a related measure, the National Automobile Dealers Association is recommending that its members give free green checkups in the month of September, along with child safety seat inspections.

The NY Times reported last weekend on a dozen autos you might not expect to get such great gas mileage. Among their picks was a Corvette, which I can tell you first-hand gets better gas mileage than you’d expect, at 26 mpg on the highway — if you drive it reasonably and responsibly. But who does that in a Corvette?

Here’s the Times’s list with combined miles per gallon, but you’ll want to read the whole list on the newspaper’s Web site. Reporter Lawrence Ulrich includes everything from tiny econoboxes to full-size SUVs and pickups. He purposefully left out the obvious, like the Prius and Honda Civic, to focus on overlooked models in broad categories.

• Toyota Camry Hybrid, 34 mpg
• Volkswagen Jetta TDI, 33 mpg
• Mini Cooper, 29 mpg
• Nissan Versa, 27 mpg
• Honda Accord coupe, 24 mpg
• Toyota RAV-4, 24 mpg
• Mazda 5, 23 mpg
• BMW 328i, 22 mpg
• Toyota Tacoma, 21 mpg
• Chevy Corvette, 19 mpg
• Ford Flex, 19 mpg
• Mercedes-Benz GL320 Bluetec, 19 mpg

Last week, the Internets were abuzz with the marketing hype of Fosh Automotive, which promised to unveil an EV with self-regenerating batteries and an unlimited range. I emailed the company and was told to cool my jets — all would be revealed on Monday, August 18, but it had something to do with “solar like” panels and regenerative braking.

Monday came, and the curtains on the Web site stayed closed. It seems that Fosh has had some television interest, so they delayed the unveiling of this perpetual motion machine they’re calling the EVT-3 until next Monday, August 25. And Fosh’s predicted price of $25,000 is out the window, too. Estimated MSRP of the EVT-3 is over $50,000 now.

There are forums on the site, and posters seem none too happy to be shunned for television cameras. Post headings include “Why Not Show the Demo Video Now?” and “Ok good joke now where is the real car”. The FAQ says the on-sale date is November 28, 2008, but we probably shouldn’t hold our breath.

If the EVT-3 works as promised, it could be revolutionary. But Fosh’s false start isn’t inspiring confidence so far.

Say you’re spending a week in sunny southern California on business, and you just know you’re going to be mortified driving around in your Chevy Cobalt or similar rental car while Jamie Lee Curtis is tooling around town in her Honda FCX Clarity. Fear not — eQocar is here to help your eco-ego and your carbon footprint.

The three-month-old car rental agency in Burbank has a lot full of hybrids, from the lowly Prius to the massive GMC Yukon hybrid. Prices aren’t cheap — the Prius runs $59 a day, while the Yukon goes for $139. And if only the best will do, the hybrid Lexus LS600 can be had for $650 a day.

The Green Car Advisor blog from Edmunds.com says business is brisk for eQocar, and that it hopes to expand further into California and across the nation. It also wants to add the Volt, Tesla, Aptera, and other cars to its current fleet of 45 as they become available.

Peterbilt delivered two hybrid Model 335 trucks to VinLux Fine Wine Transport last week for use in the San Francisco area. The medium-duty trucks have a 30%-50% increase in fuel economy and “dramatically reduce tailpipe emissions of hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and oxides of nitrogen (NOx),” according to a Peterbilt press release.

The trucks have an electric motor to assist the gasoline-powered engine and regenerative braking to capture energy for reuse on accelerating. Representatives of VinLux expect the savings in gas to make up for the premium hybrid price in the next few years of use, while at the same time getting them closer to their goal of reducing carbon emissions.

Three of Japan’s largest car manufacturers have all made announcements recently about their future hybrid plans. Here’s a quick recap, in order of each hybrid’s expected release date:

April 2009 — Honda’s Hybrid

Honda’s Prius-fighting five-door hybrid-only model will see showroom floors next April, according to the company’s American executive VP Dick Colliver. He also said the new hybrid, which doesn’t have an official name yet, will be cheaper than the Prius. Honda plans to build 200,000 of the car globally, with about half of them to be sold in the U.S.

Sometime in 2010 — Nissan’s Hybrid

The first car to carry Nissan’s in-house hybrid technology (its previous hybrids used a system leased from Toyota) will be badged as an upscale Inifiti. The new hybrid features a lithium-ion battery and a V6 engine, but Nissan engineers say there are still some kinks to be worked out before the car hits the streets, notably a lag when the gasoline engine kicked in.

By 2020 — Toyota’s Full Line of Hybrids

The manager of Toyota’s advance powertrain program said at a seminar recently that the company plans to have hybrids in each of its product lines at the end of the next decade. He added that the 1 million hybrid Toyotas sold so far have saved 7 million tons of carbon monoxide emissions, and that the company wants to continue to develop cleaner powertrains. Toyota’s also working to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology to complement its domination in the hybrid market.

This right here is the front driver’s side corner of the production Volt. Are you excited yet? Have you added your name to the unofficial list of 30,000-plus who are interested in buying the car for less than Chevy wants to sell it?

GM has flooded the Internet with so many images and baby steps during the development process that it feels like we’re entering “Snakes on a Plane” territory. By the time the Volt actually appears in driveable, saleable form, we’ll all be over it.

But in case you’re not over it yet, here’s the tail end of the car:

The Cobalt XFE has done so well for GM in these days of expensive gas and carbon-consciousness that it’s expanding the fuel-efficient XFE measures to the much larger Silverado, Tahoe, Sierra, and Yukon this fall.

The XFE models get 5% better mileage on the highway and 7% better in the city, which in trucks and SUVs as big as these is still a pretty small difference. All four models will get 15 city, 21 highway, as opposed to the vanilla varieties, which get 14 city, 20 highway. Huzzah!

The difference the XFE tweaks make is more noticeable in a small car like the Cobalt, where the company first used them. The regular-issue 2008 Cobalt with an automatic transmission gets 22 mpg city and 31 mpg highway; the 2008 FXE trimmed Cobalt gets 25 in the city and 36 on the highway.

The XFE designation means the vehicles were lightly redesigned with more fuel-efficient engines and better aerodynamics. The four new trucks all have:

• 5.3L Flex-Fuel engine
• Aluminum cylinder block and heads to reduce mass
• Lowered suspension to improve aerodynamics
• Aluminum wheels and spare to reduce mass
• Low rolling resistance tires with higher tire pressure

Fan site GM-Volt.com has a waiting list for the Chevy Volt with more than 33,000 names on it. (Actually, as of the moment I’m writing this post, there are 34,179.) This number is the kind of encouragement GM engineers need to get the Volt to the market on time in late 2010.

The problem with the list is that its about as unofficial as unofficial can be. The Web site is not in any way affiliated with GM, and there are no deposits being taken by the company yet. The “Wait List” on GM-Volt.com asks for name, address, enthusiasm level, and the price you’d be willing to pay for the plug-in hybrid.

California led the pack of Wait Listers by far, with Texas, Florida, Michigan, and New York rounding out the top five most interested states. On a scale of 1 to 10, enthusiasm was just over 9, but people aren’t so excited about parting with the cash. The average Wait Listers were willing to pay for the PHEV was just over $31,000, about $9,000 short of what GM expects MSRP to be. Nearly 8,000 responders were willing to put their money where their keyboard is, though, with the average deposit they were willing to plunk down for the Volt being $2,500.

Toyota announced that it’s changing its plans for which models will be built where, including the popular Prius. The company has a plant under construction in Blue Springs, Mississippi, that was supposed to produce gasoline-powered Highlander SUVs, but with the high demand for low-emissions, fuel-efficient cars, it’s changed its mind. Beginning in 2010, the Prius will be built in America — good news for those who’ve found the recent short supply frustrating.

The Highlander will still be built in the U.S. as well, but at a plant in Indiana. The Tundra pickup truck, which currently rolls off two production lines in the U.S., will be consolidated to one factory in San Antonio, Texas. Toyota has also suspended Tundra and Sequoia production from now until November in response to the drop in truck demand.

The Prius will be the second Toyota hybrid built in the U.S.; Camry Hybrids sold in the U.S. come from a factory in Kentucky. Since the Mississippi plant will be producing the 2010 Prius, we can assume it will be the new, redesigned, 3rd-gen Prius expected to debut in January at the Detroit auto show.

It’s a sign of the times when an institution like the Kelly Blue Book turns its eye to alternative-fuel vehicles. When people talk about “blue book value” or even just “book value,” they mean Kelly Blue Book, so it’s significant that the company has launched the slightly confusingly named Kelly Blue Book Green.

The site offers articles on the latest alternative fuel vehicles, including electric-, hydrogen-, and ethanol-powered cars. It also has a widget to help you decide if its time to trade in your car for a hybrid (or similar brand-new gas-saver) based on your driving habits. Are you willing to pay the premium? Are you willing to give up one dinner out with drinks per month to make the switch?

Pricing and comparison shopping is where KBBG shines, since the company has decades of practice. With premiums being tacked on at dealerships and used hybrids holding their value like a dog holds onto his bone, KBBG is a useful tool for navigating these new alterna-fuel markets.

Nine auto manufacturers and a cadre of governmental and industry groups have put together the Hydrogen Road Tour ‘08 to showcase the clean fuel in 31 cities in 18 states. The caravan left Portland, Maine, Monday, August 13, and will reach Los Angeles Saturday, August 23.

The tour is a partnership of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the California Fuel Cell Partnership, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the National Hydrogen Association. Each of the nine  manufacturers has one car in the 3,000-mile parade, except VW, which has two:

• BMW Hydrogen Series 7
• Daimler F Cell
• Chevy Equinox FCV
• Honda FCX Clarity
• Hyundai Tuscson FCV
• Kia Sportage FCV
• Nissan X-Trail FCV
• Toyota Highlander FCV
• Volkswagen Touran and Tiguan Hymotion

With only 61 operational hydrogen fueling stations in the entire country (28 of which are in California), you may wonder if they plan to drive cross-country on one tank of fuel. The answer is, “Sort of.” There are actually two giant tanks of hydrogen fuel following the fleet for topping up on the go.

I don’t mean GM has found a way to turn corporate bluster into a fuel source, though that would ease the burden of the price of gasoline. A while back, the Department of Energy issued a challenge to automakers. It asked them to improve fuel economy by 10% using nothing but wasted exhaust heat to help power the vehicle.

GM, with BMW close on its heels, has developed a thermoelectric generator that could create enough electricity to augment or replace the usual alternator in a gasoline-powered car. Thermoelectric devices can use temperature differences to create electricity. When one side of the generator is heated, electrons move to the cooler side. The movement creates a current, which is collected by electrodes and converted to electricity.

The GM prototype is set to be tested in a Chevy Suburban next year, where a 10% fuel economy boost would mean a 1-mpg improvement. In a small car like the Chevy Aveo (the Suburban’s exact opposite), the boost could be enough to put its combined economy over 30 mpg. BMW and its research partner Ohio State University will run tests of its prototype next year, too.

Cadillac’s first-ever hybrid, the 2009 Escalade Hybrid, will cost a whopping $71,685, including destination charges. The green-ish Escalade turns in 20 mpg city and 21 mpg highway, same as the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon hybrids, but it costs $20,000 more than either of its stablemates.

The Escalade will hit dealerships in September and will likely appeal to the same people who were buying the top-end luxury SUV in the first place, but now it comes with eco-cachet. That little green “H” logo looks good no matter which aftermarket rims and grilles you choose.

In contrast, the standard-issue 2009 Escalade without the two-mode hybrid system gets 12 mpg in the city and 19 on the highway with gasonline or 10 mpg/14 mpg if you get the E85 Flex Fuel version. The hybrid has puts out 9.2 tons of carbon annually, according to the EPA, while E85 emits 10.1 tons and gasoline emits 12. 2 tons.

Mitsubishi announced that it has partnered with Pacific Gas and Electric to test the new all-electric i MiEV in California at the end of 2008. The utility company will test the four-passenger cars in the “real world,” and gauge the impact charging a fleet of EVs will have on the grid.

Similar testing with seven electric utility companies in Japan went so well that the company stepped up its EV program and will offer the i MiEV in Japan next summer. Global sales expectations for the car are so high that Mitsubishi has plans to build a lithium-ion battery factory that will open in April 2009. The plant will produce enough batteries to equip 10,000 vehicles.

The i MiEV is based on the Japanese-market i-series mini car, but its 47-kW motor is said to have better acceleration and performance than the 64-hp engine in the gasoline-powered version. Though a quick conversion shows 47 kW to be equal to 64 hp, electric motors have 100% torque available as soon as you press the throttle, making it seem quicker.

Keep an eye on PG&E and Mitsubishi to see how these cars play with California traffic and how soon they might reach U.S. consumers.

New online app Fuelly allows users to record mileage, track it over time, share it over the network with other Fuelly users, and compare fuel economy to EPA numbers. Do it from your desktop or take on the go with your iPhone or other mobile, Web-lovin’ technological wonder.

There are currently, as of the minute I’m writing this post, 1,981 cars registered with the site. Interesting note: there are more Jettas using Fuelly (71) than Priuses (34), and more Civics (157) than any other model. There’s one Ferrari Testarossa listed, but right now it says it gets 200,000 mpg after one fill-up. I find that hard to believe.

The site also offers gas-saving tips, most of which I’ve covered over at sister site RiverWired.com, but they always bear repeating. And there’s a forum for asking questions and posting your own fuel-saving tips.

Keep an eye out during the opening ceremonies tonight and throughout the games for Chery’s new hybrids based on its A5 model. The Chinese company’s 10 ISG hybrids and 40 BSG hybrids make up more than half the official Olympic fleet and mark the first time an Chinese brand has participated in the games.

According to a press release from Chery, the first electric car to be used in the Olympic games was at Munich in 1972. While Chery’s cars are hybrids, not EVs, they do improve gas mileage by 15-30%, and cut emissions by 12%. The cars will go into full production after the Olympics.

Volkswagen Group is also supplying cars to the games, with a massive fleet of low-consumption, low-emissions vehicles from its Chinese lineup. Their fleet of 5,000 vehicles includes the Magotan 2.0 TDI, Sagitar 1.4 TSI, Touran EcoFuel, Tiguan 2.0 TDI and Magotan BlueMotion.

Nissan has commited itself to its Green Program 2010, and it keeps making strides toward meeting its goals. This week, it previewed its EV and hybrid technologies, though not any final designs for the cars these powertrains will power.

The electric vehicle will be based on an array of lithium-ion batteries installed under the floor to allow for maxium passenger and cargo space. Though no one outside the company knows what the EV might look like when it hits the market in 2010, it won’t look like anything Nissan currently offers, according to the company.

The hybrid will carry Nissan’s own, recently developed technology instead of the hybrid tech it’s been leasing from Toyota to power the Altima. The HEV will have regenerative braking and power assist like most hybrids on the road right now. The difference is in its parallel powertrain, which has two clutches to improve fuel efficiency, or so Nissan says.

In January, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would start building its first hybrid vehicle, the ML-450 SUV in June. But a lawsuit filed in Atlanta recently says the battery supplier didn’t hold up its end of the bargain. Production didn’t get off the ground in June, and may never happen, according to M-B.

Battery manufacturer Cobasys is accused of refusing to honor its agreement to supply the electric power source for the hybrid and of misrepresenting its finances to M-B, according to reporting done by the Tuscaloosa News. The German automaker was slated to begin production of the M-Class at a plant in Georgia this summer, but it says there’s no alternative supplier it can use to get the batteries it needs. For its part, Cobasys says it never agreed to produce the battery pack.

If you’re looking for a winner in this post, it may be GM, whose huge Chevy Tahoe Hybrid currently has a cash bonus of up to $6,000 on 2008 models. GM also builds the Saturn Vue Hybrid, a smaller SUV similar in size to the so-popular-its-hard-to-find Ford Escape Hybrid and the M-Class.

You, Citizen Driver, are not the only one who cringes every time you fill the gas tank or feels  a pang of guilt when your car belches those nasty emissions out the tailpipe. The American Le Mans Series of racing professionals knows your pain. That’s why it’s instituting the Green Challenge at its signature event, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, scheduled for October 4.

Three factors will be considered in naming a winner of this race-within-a-race:

• Performance (of course — this is a race)
• Fuel Efficiency
• Environmental Impact

Cars will be ranked by the amount of energy they use, the greenhouse gases they emit, and the amount of gasoline they displace over the course of the race. Which boils down to going as far as they can, as fast as they can, with the least environmental impact.

ALMS has been taking steps all season to lessen the environmental impact of racing. GM, Audi, and others have introduced race cars running on alternative fuels like E85 and clean diesel. You can bet those teams will be vying for the Green Challenge title. Race fans and consumers are winners in this event, too, as technological innovations on the track often trickle down to cars on the showroom floor.

Even NASCAR is dipping a toe in the clean-and-green waters. Michigan International Speedway, which hosts two NASCAR events during the season, stepped up its recycling efforts this year. During the Lifelock 400 weekend in June alone, MIS collected 15.3 tons of aluminum, plastic, and cardboard. They’re even recycling construction materials from some recent upgrades to the facilities, and they’ve instituted an office recycling program.

Eco-friendlier fuels, recycling … What is auto racing coming to? Oh, right. Its senses.

Lotus Engineering, which I imagine looks like Q’s lab in the James Bond films, has found a solution to the problem of nearly silent electric motors: the Safe & Sound system. The Toyota Prius demonstration car has a speaker attached at the front of the car next to the radiator that emits a “realistic engine sound,” according to the company.

Earlier this year, groups like the National Federation of the Blind pointed out that blind people and their seeing-eye dogs rely on the sound of approaching cars to determine the safety of crossing the street. This spring, a boy on a bike was hit by a Prius, an accident his mother blamed on the silent electric motor (never mind that the car is not equipped with invisibility, like Wonder Woman’s jet). In reaction, people have been searching for a way to make quiet cars safer for pedestrians. One potential solution was the Vibering concept, which would sense hybrid and electric motors and tell the wearer when one is nearby.

Lotus’s system was ironically born from its noise-dampening technologies. Safe & Sound synthesizes the engine sound and varies it depending on speed so people waiting at a crosswalk or walking across a parking lot can hear the approaching vehicle. If it’s a hybrid, and it goes fast enough to engage the gasoline engine, the system automatically shuts off. Also, once the car passes, the sound is no longer heard.

In Sioux Falls, South Dakota — just up the road from this week’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally — one Harley-Davidson dealership has taken a bold step in the future of bikes. J&L Harley-Davidson has added Vectrix electric motorscooters to the mix on its showroom floor.

A recent story in the Argus Leader said Harley riders were open to the idea of an electric bike. The browsers quoted in the story didn’t say they were ready to give up their hardtails and ape-hangers for a 60-mph electric scooter, but they did like that the Vectrix was a zero-emissions vehicle.

Keep in mind, though, that Harleys are no slouch in the mileage department themselves. The 2009 Sportster 883 Low, to pick a model at random, gets 54 mpg in the city and 60 when you get your motor runnin’ and head out on the highway. But what comes out the other end, while hard to pin down with exact numbers, is apparently bad enough to warrant a California emissions fee of a couple hundred bucks.

Toyota’s researchers in Japan are working on using zinc air batteries for powering EVs. That’s right — batteries that create electricity out of thin air.

When oxygen from the air around us is introduced into a battery cell, it reacts with a zinc electrode to create electricity. The materials to build these batteries are cheap, and they have high energy density. So why aren’t these things powering your Mini already? Because not even a Mini is small enough to be powered by zinc air batteries. Right now, the most common use for zinc air is in hearing aids.

Despite the small size, Toyota hopes that the move from lead-acid and even lithium-ion batteries to zinc-air will blow open the doors of the EV market, providing the range and speed consumers want from a daily driver. There is a lot of possibility here — it wasn’t that long ago that li-ion batteries were only found in cell phones and laptops, not 100+ mph supercars like the Tesla Roadster.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama released a plan this week that aims to change U.S. energy policies and usage. Part of that plan is to get 1 million American-built plug-in hybrid cars — “cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon,” according to the senator’s PDF — to market by 2015.

In the 8-page speech, he mentions an emergency energy rebate of $500 per individual and $1000 for a couple to help with the cost of fuel and food. Where will this money come from? Big Oil’s very own pockets. That seems difficult, to say the least. He also wants to increase fuel economy standards by 4% each year, convert all White House vehicles to PHEVs in his first year, and make at least half of the federal government’s auto purchases PHEVs or EVs by 2012.

As part of his desire to increase “green collar” jobs, Obama wants all new vehicles to be flex-fuel capable, and he would work toward creating the next generation of sustainable biofuels. He also says he would work to keep American auto jobs in the country and encourage automakers to focus on fuel-efficient cars.

He also backs smart-grid technology of the kind Boulder, Colorado, is experimenting with. His plan goes much further than just car-related points, including mentions of controversial subjects like safer nuclear power and clean coal. But some of his other points are more common-sense, like assisting in weatherizing a million homes annually.

It’s not the most invigorating reading, that plan, but it’s important to know what ideas these guys have for our future. To see Republican candidate John McCain’s energy speech from June, click here.

Nissan announced that a new device called the ECO Pedal will be available on some of its 2009 models. The pedal will let the driver know that he may be using more fuel than necessary by pushing back on his foot a little. There’s also a little green “ECO” light in the dash to help you learn to use fuel wisely rather than wastefully.

Nissan says the ECO Pedal can earn a driver as much as 5-10% better fuel economy. They didn’t say which models will receive the new technology, or even which countries might get it.

In the meantime, U.S. car buyers can count on the Nissan Altima hybrid for 2009, which was named one of the top 10 green cars by Kelly Blue Book. The company just announced pricing for the hybrid at $26,650, and the EPA rated it at 35 city/33 highway.

Tonight, stars I am too old to have heard of will be escorted to the red carpet at the Teen Choice 2008 awards in a fleet of Volkswagen’s brand-new 2009 Jetta TDIs, which run on clean diesel. Like everone else in Hollywood, the Teen Choice awards are going green, so Fox, which is airing the show, partnered with VW to showcase its new entrant into the eco-car market.

The ceremonies began their green initiative last year, and will continue to use recyclable materials in the sets and press credentials printed on recycled paper. The Jetta TDI, for its part, uses high-performance, low-sulfur diesel fuel and meets the strictest fuel emissions in the country — including California’s.

At least 15 stars will be arriving at the awards show in the Vee-Dubs, including James Marsden (Cyclops in the X-Men films), American Idol runner-up Katherine McPhee, and Jerry O’Connell, who was in Stand by Me and is now married to Rebecca Romijn. I would have to Google the rest of the list to find their pop-culture accomplishments, but they include Chase Crawford, Leighton Meester, Ed Westwick, Drake Bell, Brittany Snow, JoJo, Rachel Bilson and Sophia Bush.

Honda and Mitsubishi have both launched microsites on the Internet dedicated to their latest entries into the green-car market. Honda is preparing the world for its line of hybrid vehicles on its microsite, while Mitsubishi is laying the groundwork for its i MiEV concept.

Honda is expected to debut its new hybrid at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, a five-door hatchback. The as-yet-unnamed car will be offered only as a hybrid, unlike its Civic and Accord stablemates. Honda also has a hybrid sports car that debuted at the Detroit Auto Show this year, but the CR-Z, as it’s called, has a long way to go to get from car shows to showroom-floor.

Mitsubishi’s microsite introduces the i MiEV, an electric vehicle currently in fleet testing. The car is small, not much bigger than a Smart ForTwo, though Mitsu says it seats four. The car’s lithium-ion batteries are good for 80 mph max and nearly 100 miles, making it a more feasible commuter car than neighborhood EVs like the Zap Xebra or Zenn NEV.

CRAFTY BONUS: Mitsubishi has a page full of paper craft plans and instructions for building models of its cars, including the i MiEV. Seems like an excellent way to recycle that useless meeting agenda someone left on your desk this morning.