Hybrids

While the Americal Le Mans Series has already had a green race-within-a-race for alternative-fuel vehicles, NASCAR is taking baby steps toward eco-friendliness. The final race of the season on Sunday, November 16, had the series’ first-ever hybrid pace car, a 2010 Ford Fusion.

NASCAR isn’t going all tree-hugger on anybody, but it is trying to reduce its carbon footprint, according to a report on NASCAR.com. Organizers also hope the mere presence of a hybrid on the track will help crack the alternative-fuel ice with the sport’s fans, who tend to favor high horsepower and big trucks. But in a year of volatile gas prices and growing green awareness, even die-hard speed freaks can see the advantages in a higher-mpg vehicle.

The hybrid version of the Fusion, and its nearly identical twin the Mercury Sable, will be available to consumers in spring of next year. The official unveiling of the car will happen at the L.A. Auto Show, November 21-30.

Image courtesy of NASCAR.com.

Shorepower Technologies Portland, Oregon, location is the latest in a recent line-up of companies that will convert hybrid cars like the Prius to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs. The company itself isn’t new, but the conversion side of the business is. They’ve just completed and delivered their first conversion — a Prius, of course.

Shorepower uses the Plug-In Supply kit to add 20 lead-acid batteries to the stock battery pack that comes with the car. The extra batteries fit in the rear cargo compartment under the carpet, with a metal lid between batteries and cargo.

• A converted car can go up to 50 mph on EV-only power, as opposed to about 42 mph for an unconverted Prius.
• Car can go an estimated 8-12 miles in EV-only mode
• Fuel economy can be as high as 80 mpg, according to Shorepower’s tests
• $6,700 includes parts, labor, and shipping the kit to Shorepower’s HQ for the conversion

The company also does EV conversions and uses the Hybrids Plus kit to swap out the factory lead-acid batteries for lithium-ion packs in the Ford Escape. Shorepower is also responsible for the new curbside charging stations popping up in the Portland metro area.

This isn’t an endorsement, and I’ve never used a Shorepower product, but it’s good to know who the reputable businesses are as the U.S. switches from a gas-dependent model to having choices in alternative fuels.

Images of the conversion to come.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized its list of the top low-mpg cars for the upcoming model year. It doesn’t restrict itself to merely small cars or green cars with hybrid systems or alternative fuels, oh no. The EPA lists the most fuel-efficient cars, from minicompacts, like the Mini Cooper, to midsized station wagons, like the Kia Rondo.

The overall winner in the mpg race was–hold on to your hats–the Toyota Prius, with a rating of 48 mpg city and 45 mpg highway. Here’s the top ten, in case you’re in the market for a brand-new car. The kicker is that these cars, with their low fuel usage and emissions, are the hottest cars on the lot these days. Finding one at a reasonable price may be tricky.

To see the full list, visit FuelEconomy.gov.

1. Toyota Prius, 48/45
2. Honda Civic Hybrid, 40/45
3. Smart ForTwo convertible and coupe, 33/41
4. Volkswagen Jetta and Jetta Sportwagen diesels, 30/41
5. Toyota Yaris, 29/35
6. Mini Cooper manual, 28/37
7. Nissan Versa, 26/31
8. Mini Cooper automatic, 25/34
9. Hyundai Sonata, 22/32
10. Honda Accord, 22/31

And for you glass-half-empty, hell-in-a-handbasket types, the EPA lists the cars with the worst mpg as well. That list tends more toward the Lamborghini/Ferrari/Bentley end of the spectrum, though I was suprised to see the Saab 9-3 on the worst list.

I’ve been at two auto events recently where the new Dodge Durango hybrid was made available for journalists to drive and evaluate. The first was Mudfest earlier this month, where the Durango hybrid topped the Best Family SUV category, where it competed with non-hybrid vehicles.

The second event was just a few days ago, when Chrysler/Dodge brought a handful of new models to Portland, Oregon, for the press to peruse. The 2009 Dodge Durango hybrid had just that day earned its official EPA fuel economy rating of 20 mpg city, 22 highway, and the company learned that the SUV was eligible for a $2,200 tax credit. The new rating marks an improvement in the hybrid Durango’s mileage over its conventional, petrol-burning Durango sibling by 50% in the city and 40% overall.

The phrase we keep hearing from SUV manufacturers is “no compromises.” Apparently, Joe Buyer is afraid that his new hybrid SUV will be wussy, and the PR folks are working to counter that. The Dodge Durango hybrid still has a V8 engine, though four cylinders will cut out when the engine isn’t under load. It still has 4-wheel drive and eight seats, and it can still tow 6,000 pounds. (The conventional Durango pulls 8,800 pounds; it’s up to you to decide if that’s a compromise.) But it also has stop-start technology and the two-mode hybrid system. The Dodge Durango hybrid and its cousin, the Chrysler Aspen hybrid, will be at dealerships by the end of 2008 with a price tag starting at $45,340.

The curious thing was that despite the tax credit and the clamor for gas-sipping, emissions-lite vehicles, Chrysler still isn’t wholeheartedly embracing the hybrid platform. While the GM rep I spoke with a couple weeks ago said he didn’t see why all of GM’s large vehicles couldn’t be based on a hybrid system like the Yukon has, the Chrysler rep at the more recent event said his company was going to wait and see. There are plenty of reasons for auto companies to take baby steps these days, but hybrid technology shouldn’t be one of the things they hold back on. Especially if there really are “no compromises.”

If you love the safe feeling of driving a Volvo but not the around-town gas mileage (16 mpg in an S80!), do the Swedes have good news for you. Volvo announced at the Paris auto show, where green was king, that it would introduce start-stop technology in some of its 2009 models, with diesel hybrids to appear in 2012 and plug-in hybrids to come sometime soon after that.

The smaller C30, S40, and V50 will get the start-stop treatment first. This relatively uncomplicated technology shuts off the engine when it’s not under load, at stop lights, say, and starts it back up when you’re ready to get moving. Start-stop will make its way into the rest of Volvo’s lineup in the future.

Diesel hybrid systems will be used in the company’s larger vehicles, like SUVs, wagons, and the big sedans. The Volvo setup will have a 5-cylinder turbodiesel engine to drive the front wheels and an electric motor to power the rear wheels. At low speeds, the electric motor will be able to do all the necessary work.

Automotive News mentioned that electric motors and diesel engines have the same shortcoming, namely a lack of horsepower at high rpm. Volvo execs say that they’re more interested in reducing CO2 emissions, and this is the best way for them to do that. I doubt many people were buying Volvo wagons for their sportiness, anyway.

The Honda Insight, called “the Prius fighter” all over the blogosphere, was officially unveiled at the Paris auto show in early October. Honda president Takeo Fukui took the opportunity to run down a few details of the car, like power and price, at the event.

Here’s a quick comparison of the two mass-market hybrids, one already popular in the U.S. and one prepping for the fight. Keep in mind that Toyota’s got a redesigned Prius up its sleeve for 2010, and it’s predicted to have better mileage and a bigger gasoline engine.

2009 Honda Insight

• Under $20,000 (2 million yen is the target)
• 1.3-liter, 4-cylinder engine
• battery type not available
• 40 mpg city, 45 mpg highway
• five-door, five-passenger hatchback

2009 Toyota Prius

• $22,000 base MSRP
• 1.5-liter inline 4-cylinder engine
• NiMH battery pack
• 48 mpg city, 45 mpg highway
• five-door, five passenger hatchback

[Sources: Automotive News (subscription required), Edmunds.com, FuelEconomy.gov, Toyota.com]

Image courtesy of Honda.

Now that the new 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid has made its Paris debut, like any model worth her skinny jeans would do, the company has launched two new online outlets for the car.

“Latest Insight” is a blog that follows the car from debut to dealership. The design seems to be final with only the manufacturing step left to go, so I’m not sure what “journey” the bloggers at Honda will be following. You can count on posts and pics from every event and auto show the car graces, though.

Honda also launched a mini site, “Words of Hybrid,”* that showcases all of its hybrid vehicles, including the original Insight and the forthcoming CR-Z. There’s a link at the bottom of the list for a Jazz Hybrid that can’t be clicked. (The Jazz is the name of the Fit in Europe and the Middle East.) U.K. site What Car says the hybrid Jazz could reach the European market by 2010.

*You can also reach the Honda mini site by visiting Honda’s world hybrid site and clicking “Launch.”

Spooky photo of the Insight courtesy of Honda.

The Northwest Automotive Press Association has released the results, and the first-ever Best Green SUV Award went to the 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid. The field included two hybrids, a diesel, and an SUV with variable cylinder management technology.

SUVs in the green category were judged alongside “regular” SUVs and were scored on the same on-road and off-road handling capabilities, comfort, ergonomics, etc. In addition, the Green SUVs were evaluated on their fuel economy and emissions technologies and innovations.

It’s interesting to note that, because the Green SUVs were run over the exact same courses as the conventional SUVs, they won in other categories as well.

Best Family SUV

• $30,000 - $50,000 price range as tested
• Kid-friendly features
• Winner: 2009 Dodge Durango HEMI Hybrid

Best Luxury SUV

• Above $50,000 as tested
• Advanced luxury features
• Winner: Mercedes-Benz ML320 BlueTec Diesel

Hyundai’s got the blues. Two of them, to be exact. Like Mercedes-Benz, the Korean manufacturer has apparently tired of everything being green and branded its eco-conscious automotive efforts blue, as in the i20 blue and Santa Fe blue Hybrid, both of which debuted at the Paris auto show in early October.

The “blue” designation doesn’t mean hybrid; it means aerodynamic, efficiency, and weight measures have been taken to lower the car’s environmental impact. In the case of the i20, Hyundai took the following steps to lighten its footprint:

• 1.4-liter diesel engine
• six-speed gearbox, rather than a five-speed
• low-friction engine oil
• software to optimize timing, injection, and idle speed
• ISG start-stop system that cuts the engine while the car is not moving and not in gear
• full-length covers underneath the car to reduce drag
• Michelin Energy low rolling resistance tires

All this adds up to 15% lower carbon dioxide emissions and a 15% improvement in fuel efficiency (from 55 mpg to 63 mpg).

The Santa Fe blue, meanwhile, has a 2.4-liter engine mated to a 6-speed transmission and a 30 kW electric motor and a lithium polymer battery. The company says that this parallel hybrid architecture, as they call it, will be the basis for all Hyundai’s hybrids in the future. In the Santa Fe, the system returns 38 mpg. As part of the new blue lineup, it also incorporates many of the features, such as ISG start-stop, found in the i20 blue.

This post is short, but important for anyone who’s got a Prius that they love: Toyota announced last week that it has dropped the price of replacement batteries for its popular hybrid sedan by 10%.

Replacements for the first-generation Prius, built from 2000-2003, can be replaced for $2,229, while second-generation Priuses built from 2004-2008 can get fresh power for $2,588. This, according to Automotive News, will benefit drivers who’ve passed the 10-year/150,000-mile or 8-year/100,000-mile warranty period.

This is good news for folks who like to hang onto a car and drive it into the ground. When the Prius first became available, the longevity of its battery packs was a source of concern. This has turned out to be less of a problem than anyone anticipated, and as time has gone on, prices of nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries have come down.

October 4 is opening day at Mondial de l’Automobile, or the Paris Auto Show to most Americans. Europe has long had more small cars that get better gas mileage than what we can buy in the U.S., and a wider array of clean diesel cars. We can certainly expect to see more of these kinds of autos in Paris this year; the difference is that now we want them, too.

Here’s a list of debuts and concepts to look for at Mondial de l’Automobile as the reports start filling the blogosphere next month.

Debuts

• Ford Fiesta ECOnetic, 65 mpg and not U.S.-bound
• Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid, with lithium-ion batteries
• Nissan Pixo minicar, one foot shorter than the Chevy Aveo

Concepts

• Citroen Hypnos hybrid
• Honda Insight hybrid, poised to battle the Prius
• Lexus LF-Xh hybrid, based on the concept LF-X SUV
• Nissan Nuvu EV minicar
• Opel Insignia EcoFLEX sports tourer, clean diesel on sale in Europe next spring
• Peugeot hybrid
• Renault Ondelious diesel mild hybrid
• Suzuki SX4-FCV fuel cell vehicle, already certified in Japan

An editor recently forwarded the results of the Sustain Lane 2008 U.S. City Rankings, asking me to please not gloat about the fact that the city I’ve lived in — and loved — since 2001 is the most sustainable city in the nation. Whatever, dude! We’re number one! Although the easy-to-read dartboard design makes it obvious how well Portland scored in a variety of categories, I’ll run down a few of our car-related kudos for those who are unaware of our awesomeness.

• Curbside EV Charging. The local electric utility company, PGE, just this summer began installing curbisde charging stations in the Portland metro area. Right now, there’s a total of two of the new EV chargers, but most other cities don’t even have a plan yet (though Boulder is one-upping us with its vehicle-to-grid system).
• A chain of EV dealerships. So it’s only a chain of two. EcoMotion has been one of the top sellers of ZAP vehicles in the country — and its been open for just a year. The shiny, new EVs are out front, but the back room holds a trove of used high-mileage, low-emissions SmartWay-certified used cars.
• The OEVA. The Oregon Electric Vehicle Association, part of the national EVA, is active in the area. The offer assistance to those who want to buy electric or convert a car on their own, and they have a presence at almost every green event in town — and there are a lot of those.
• The MAX. While Seattle was building the famed, and failed, monorail system, Portland was laying down tracks for light rail. The latest completed addition, the Yellow Line, finished early and under budget. More light rail connections are being built as we speak.
• Bikes everywhere. Portland has miles and miles of bikeable streets, with designated bike lanes, for the thousands of people who commute using pedal power. Any bike shop has a map of bikeable routes available, and people are even stretching their biking season into the first rainy months of the year.

Okay, PDX is not perfect. There are some safety issues on MAX, especially in the suburbs, and there are notorious and sometimes violent clashes between drivers and bikers almost every month. But there are also a lot of good green car things about Portland that I didn’t even mention, like its bid to build an electric car factory in the future, or the fun and inclusive scooter scene.

I’m done gloating. Check out the rest of the sustainability rankings to find your city. If it’s low on the list — or not on it at all — get moving. Every location on here can always do better. Even Portland.

Photo by Doug Geisler.

The stalwart Consumer Reports has come up with a list of a dozen or so used cars that get great mileage. The list is divided into two categories, under $10,000 and between $10,000 and $20,000. There’s no mention of tailpipe emissions, so the focus is on the price of gas, not the ecological impact of the vehicles.

The hybrid 2000 Honda Insight tops the fuel economy numbers at 51 mpg for under $10,000, but there were only about 17,000 of these cars in the country even while it was still being produced. Good luck finding one now — especially for that price. You might be better off socking your down payment away in a savings account and waiting for the reincarnated Insight hybrid to arrive in dealerships next spring.

It’s interesting to note that the cars are as old as a 1998 Mazda Protege LX and as new as a 2007 Honda Fit Sport with a manual transmission, but even more interesting is the fact that one lone American car, the 1998-2002 Chevy Prizm, made the list. It can be snagged for less than $10,000, and it gets a respectable 32 mpg.

CR, being the people’s advocate that it is, points out that the older cars on the list lack some safety features common in new cars, like ABS and side-curtain airbags. Check out MSN Autos for the full list.

We Americans have it pretty good — freedom of speech, religion, and the press; pursuit of happiness; pulled-pork sandwiches — but not when it comes to green cars. Here’s a rundown of the latest models we want, but can’t have:

• Diesel-powered Ford Ka This little number will get 56 mpg from it’s 1.3-liter engine, and put out 75 horsepower. At the Ford presentation I recently attended, someone asked speaker and powertrain expert Dan Kapp about Euro-spec clean-diesel Fords coming to the U.S., and he said not in the foreseeable future.

• Ford Fiesta ECOnetic Another small, diesel-powered Ford. This one, which goes on sale in the U.K. in November, gets 65 mpg and would be priced similarly to the Toyota Prius, if it ever made it to these shores. Which it won’t. Ever, according to Business Week.

• Honda Fit Hybrid So Ford says it won’t bring its diesels to the U.S. because we’re all about hybrids, so why has Honda decided not to go forward with its Fit Hybrid? Competition with itself. It wants all the hybrid love to go to its new Insight, due next spring. So no one gets the Fit Hybrid until the next redesign, a Honda spokesman told Edmunds.com.

• VW BlueMotion Diesel Golf The latest TDI-powered Volkswagen to come down the pike is a quick little four-door hatchback that gets 52 mpg, according to a VW press release, while still achieving 103 hp and a top speed of 117 mph. Luckily, VW did deem the U.S. worthy of the new Jetta SportWagon TDI, which gets 40 mpg on the highway and emits a mere 6.4 tons of CO2 annually.

After giving us coy pictures of front corners and rear decks of the design concept, GM says they will unveil the Chevy Volt in all its production-trim glory at the company’s 100th birthday party September 16. Preproduction models will be built in 2009, with sales of the real deal expected to begin in 2010.

GM chair Bob Lutz told Automotive News Europe that the production Volt will be the “next generation global compact architecture.” For those who don’t speak Auto Industry as a first language, that means the U.S. version of the Volt will use many of the same underpinnings as GM’s upcoming world-market offerings. For examples of this design, keep an eye out for the Opel Astra and Chevy Cruze at the Paris auto show this year.

Meanwhile, according to Motor Trend, GM and the EPA are debating whether the Volt is a hybrid or an electric vehicle. The outcome will decide how fuel-economy numbers will be calculated. The car has an electric motor with a combustion engine that acts as a range extender when the batteries run out.

GM wants the car to pass the EPA’s tests using the electric motor 85% of the time, which would give it a rating of 100 mpg or more. The EPA wants the Volt to pass the tests with its batteries near full charge at the end, which would require the gasoline-powered engine to run most of the time. This calculation would drop the fuel economy to about 48 mpg. When fuel economy is your sales tool, a Prius-like 48 mpg might hurt sales of the $40,000-plus Volt.

There are two giants in the DIY auto-repair world: Chilton and Haynes. And now, for the very brave home mechanic, these two publishers have repair manuals for the Toyota Prius, 2001-2008.

Haynes offers the tradtional paper-bound book that, if you’ve ever pulled a tranny, you’ve undoubtedly seen before. (If you thought that example involved cross-dressing, do not attempt to fix your Prius. Ever.) For about $25, it covers everything from routine maintenance to emissions controls and wiring diagrams, with photos and step-by-step instructions for every procedure.

Chilton has gone all 21st-century on us with its new web site ChiltonDIY.com. Twenty bucks will get you online access to the how-tos for maintenance and repair, with photos and illustrations to guide you through the process. This is the excuse you’ve been waiting for to hook up a wireless router in the garage and plug in your old laptop. You might want to get one of those plastic keyboard covers first.

Be warned, Prius owners: you must have a mechanical bone in your body — preferably dozens of them — to follow along with the more advanced techniques in either repair manual. But curious beginners with a reasonable understanding of how a car works should be able to start with the maintenance and work their way up to master home Prius mechanic.

Honda has been promising to unveil its new hybrid all week, and today, they’ve done it: the company is resurrecting its original hybrid, the Insight, which died a small death only two years ago. The new version will be a five-door, five-passenger hatchback like the Prius, with a similar starting price in the low $20,000s.

The new car looks more like a Civic or hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity and less like the old Insight, with its covered rear wheels and flat Kamm tail. Though the original only sold 17,000 units between 1999 and 2006, it was the first car to break the 70 mpg barrier. Honda expects the new Insight to sell much better, to the tune of 200,000 cars worldwide, half of which will end up in American driveways. The concept will debut at the Paris auto show, October 4-19, 2008, and be available in U.S. showrooms by April 2009.

Honda already has a hybrid version of the Civic, but the Insight will be smaller and lighter. The company also has plans to add a hybrid Fit to the lineup sometime in the future, along with a sporty hybrid based on the CR-Z.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.