• Team Hydrophi Ford 500 PHI Ride
• Team Future Vehicle Technologies eVaro
• Team Edison 2 Very Light Car
• Team EVI Wave 2
• Team Tango
• Team Optamotive Surge
• Team Aptera 2e

Let’s start with the electric vehicles: After Energy Secretary Steven Chu eliminated funding for hydrogen fuel from his budget, the Senate has reinstated it for the department’s 2010-2011 budget. Chu prefers straight-up battery electric vehicles for the future of greener transportation, but he says he’ll work with Congress on hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric vehicles.

Speaking of electric vehicles, you may have noticed that many of the EVs on the road today, especially neighborhood electric vehicles, have three wheels instead of four. Thanks to some heavy lobbying by Aptera and its three-wheeled brethren, Congress has extended research and development loans to manufacturers of safe, high-mileage vehicles, even if they are short a wheel.

Requirements for the loan:

• Vehicles must be fully enclosed
• Vehicles must meet all the same safety standards as conventional vehicles
• Vehicles must carry two adults
• Vehicles must average 75 mpg or equivalent

Mercedes-Benz reported last week that several companies have partnered with the German government to set up a hydrogen infrastructure for electric cars with on-board fuel cells. The H2 Mobility initiative, as it’s called, will have a hydrogen fueling station network in place by 2011, they say.

Infrastructure has been a stumbling block for the clean-emissions hydrogen fuel vehicles. No one wants to buy a hydrogen-powered electric car if there’s no place to refuel it, but no one wants to install hydrogen fueling stations if there aren’t any cars to fill up. Germany has decided to end the stalemate by partnering with businesses like Daimler (Mercedes’ parent company) and Shell, plus the National Organization for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology to expand the hydrogen fueling network by 2011, with further expansion and the introduction of consumer-ready hydrogen-powered EVs in Germany by 2015.

Here’s how it all breaks down:

• The average fuel economy of the manufacturers’ car and light truck fleets will increase by 5% every year beginning in 2012 and ending in 2016
• Cars must average 39 mpg; light trucks and SUVs must average 30 mpg by 2016
• Overall average will be 35.5; current overall average is 25 mpg
• Will go hand-in-hand with EPA initiative to reduce tailpipe CO2 emissions by 40%

What’s not known is how extended-range electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt or hydrogen cars like the Honda Clarity will figure into the calculations. The feds say they’re working on it.

If you’d like this information in a live, five-minute video starring yours truly, check out Portland’s KGW NewsChannel 8.

Mercedes announced that it will produce a small number of hydrogen-fuel call cars for real-world testing in Europe by the end of the year. The cars will be small, but not micro-sized like the company’s teeny Smart car.

Speaking of which, the electric-powered Smart cars that Mercedes promised will be in production by the end of 2009, too. Berlin will get to test them first, so hold on a little longer, EV enthusiasts, while the Germans work out the kinks.

Image of the Smart EV at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show by Kristen Hall-Geisler.

Halvorsen has no intention of busting down garage doors in the middle of the night to take away gasoline cars. The new rules, if enacted, would apply only to new cars sold in 2015 or after. Her idea is to push car companies to make cleaner-running cars, not to wreck the Norwegian economy–even though Norway is the sixth largest oil exporter in the world, according to Reuters. On the other hand, Norway is home to electric-car upstart Think.

Last month, the finalists for World Green Car were announced, and now we have a winner: the Honda FCX Clarity. It beat out the Mitsubishi i MiEV and Toyota iQ for the title at the 2009 New York Auto Show.

Currently, the hydrogen fuel-cell-powered Clarity is only available for lease in California. The i MiEV and iQ are available in Japan, though Mitsubishi’s little EV is hell-bent on global domination.

Past winners of the World Green Car have been:

• 2008: BMW 188d
• 2007: Mercedes-Benz E320 BlueTEC
• 2006: Honda Civic Hybrid

Photo by Kristen Hall-Geisler.

Dozens of junior-level Mercedes-Benz employees and students in Germany worked together for a year to create the F-CELL Roadster project, a fuel cell-powered open car. The project was designed to give the trainees hands-on experience with developing alternative-fuel vehicles.

The spoked wheels of the design project reference the earliest Benzes of the late 1800s, while the seats are thoroughly modern carbon fiber with hand-stitched leather upholstery. It’s got a joystick in place of a steering wheel (a hallmark of any “car of the future” destined to never see production) and the fuel-cell system in the rear. The F-CELL has a top speed of 15 mph, but a range of over 200 miles.

It would be a miracle if the F-CELL ever reached the market, as it was intended as an in-house learning experience, but it’s just these kinds of projects that are going to expand the availability and viability of alternative fuels in the near future.

Mazda is giving the guinea pigs a shot at its new hybrid minivan, the RX-8 Hydrogen RE, to corporate fleet customers in Japan. The RX-8 is Mazda’s rotary engine, which has in this instance been modified to use gasoline or hydrogen fuel at the flick of a switch. It’s the first leased vehicle in the world to be able to use either type of fuel, according to the company.

The three finalists for World Green Car of the Year have been announced, and while none of them are widely available, none of them are big surprises, either:

• Mitsubishi i MiEV (electric)
• Toyota iQ (gasoline)
• Honda Clarity (hydrogen)

Only the Clarity is available in the U.S., and it’s only leased to a select few customer in certain markets. The i MiEV is sold in Japan, and the iQ is sold in both Japan and Europe. The iQ, in case you’re not familiar with this foreign-only car, is the size of a Smart ForTwo and a 1-liter gasoline engine that gets 55 mpg.

The New York Times “Wheels” blog notes that with such disparate fuels and production levels, it’s not exactly a level playing field. Nonetheless, a winner will be announced at the New York Auto Show, which is being held April 10-19.

Image of the Honda Clarity by Kristen Hall-Geisler.