While your plan does sound good at first I am also not a fan of government regulations over the daily lives of the citizens. We could argue though that this is not regulation over citizens it is regulation over our shared enviroment but … The GM Bankruptcy and Green Cars

Volt hype drives Cruze sales Is the battery revolution still just too far into the future? Who killed the electric car? The 50 mpg flex fuel Chevy Cruze, or at least it would, if such an ICE-based vehicle existed, and some day soon, it will. In fact, the technologies for such vehicles …

Instead of a plug-in SUV, I'd rather have an i-based, cheap hybrid. Why not follow the i plug-in’s DNA? Sometime in 2013 Mitsubishi plans to begin selling a new plug-in hybrid SUV based on the Outlander. For years now the PX-MiEV plug-in concept has been making the auto show circuit, with promises that it would one day hit production. Well, the PX-MiEV …

Even after a $7500 tax credit, most Americans aren't interested Calls for level playing field for clean diesel and advanced ICE engines Former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, a Democratic Congressman from California whom worked under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, has joined with the U.S. Coalition for Advanced Diesel Cars in calls for a…

Foreign oil independence? It's all about trucks? That at least 3 percent of pickup truck drivers would buy 40 mpg. That’s become one of the biggest lies in the auto industry these days, but there are many cars that actually achieve 40 mpg in the real world, such as the Toyota Prius or the Honda Insight . But what about trucks? What would it take to achieve …

Main Street has much more power than it thinks, it just doesn't know how to use it. If the 99 percent were richer, would they buy more fuel efficient vehicles? There is no doubt that the wealth gap between the rich and the poor continues to increase, but solely blaming Wall Street and the 1 percenters of society is only a partial solution to addressing this problem. Moreover, as…

Could powering worldwide transportation be this simple? Using just 4 percent of available crop land There was a time when I believed that hybrids and EVs were all that mattered when it came to new car production and sales. Then ex-GM CEO Rick Wagoner enlightened a blogger group I was part of with the…

Are today's lithium batteries already obsolete? Or is the battery space full of disruptive potential? For many years now Toyota has been working on a number of advanced battery technologies. Yesterday, Toyota announced that they are going to try to commercialize one of these new technologies — a solid state lithium battery capable of 621 miles of range — sometime between 2015 to 2020. So, what does…

Now that's a more revolutionary box And I’ll take an electric networked vehicle today About a decade ago I gave up driving as much as possible. As a result, I pretty much hate driving today, especially urban driving. Actually, it’s not so much the driving that I hate, it’s the congestion and the poor driving habits of many of my fellow Angelenos. Fortunately, …

Chinese manufacturing a tough nut to crack for America Is US energy policy too fixated upon batteries? I’m pretty confident that electrification is the future of the auto industry, but I’m not sure whether that electrification will be dominated by batteries, or whether fuel cells will also have a role to play. OK. That’s not really…

The beginning of the modern 'halo effect' Or was it the Toyota supply shortage? Something else? Don’t laugh. Just because GM, for instance, has only sold a few thousand Chevy Volts after almost a year on the market doesn’t mean anything. Sometimes perception is more important than reality. The Volt, in many respects, is about direction, not sales. At least for now. More important, however…

A do-it-yourself plug-in battery pack Is there too much focus on new cars? Today Dot Earth explores the idea of do-it-yourself plug-in electric cars, and whether they represent a way of “tinkering” better efficiency into personal transportation. The piece doesn’t really come …