CARazed

Finally a hybrid worth buying. The 2011 Toyota Prius will be a plug-in hybrid which will get you around town at normal speeds on electric power. When the batteries run low the gasoline motor will kick-in taking you where ever you need to go. It’s expected to get over 100 mpg.

So don’t waste your money on a new hybrid.  If you need an efficient car today don’t get saddled with payments; buy a simple used high efficiency car and wait for cars like this upcoming Prius.

Now this gal is definitely CARazed and yes that IS a good thing. She runs a blog called A Minor Journey which is all about electric vehicles. The car below is Velma, a plug-in hybrid Prius she modified. Be sure to bookmark her website and RSS feed.

I first saw this on Make.

First, don’t think for a second that it is our patriotic duty to consume and buy bad products just to prop up corporations that make bad decisions. It should be our patriotic duty to make good choices for ourselves, family, community, and environment. If we are individually strong our nation will be strong. Making poor choices doesn’t help anyone.

Second, don’t help support bad business decisions. Vote with your wallet. It looks like Toyota is thinking it can’t sell the plug-in hybrid Prius that it has in development. Help companies like Toyota make the best long term decision and choose not to buy a new car until you can plug it in.

Read more on AutoblogGreen.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles still burn gas and are not the ideal long-term solution to peak-oil preparation but they will be an important piece of the transition. They run on electricity until the batteries run low and then the gas motor kicks to provide power. With today’s infrastructure they allow long distance travel at a lower cost and impact than most cars. For local use they cost pennies on the dollar to operate because it’s cheaper and greener to power a car with electricity.

Aptera, the electric car start-up in Carlsbad, California, announced that it has secured $24 Million in it’s latest round of funding. This includes the money from Google’s RechargeIT. It’s looking more and more likely that we’ll be seeing these aircraft-like electric and plug-in hybrid cars in late 2009.

You can still reserve your Aptera, if you live in California, but you’ll have to get in line for an Aptera Typ-1. 3,300 people have plopped down the $500 refundable deposit already. That shouldn’t be too surprising, these little two seaters will get 300 MPG. The all electric version will go 120 miles on a single charge and the plug-in hybrid will take you as far as you need to go, as long as there is a nearby gas station or power outlet. Both cars will cruise at highway speeds and are super safe thanks to the design and high-tech body construction. Photo credit Aptera Motors.

Valmet Automotive, the same company Porsche contracts to build the Boxster and Caymen sports cars, has been chosen to build the Fisker Karma 100 MPG plug-in hybrid luxury sedan. This is a very good sign that the Karma is on course for a 2010 release and that quality and production levels will be very high. Fisker expects production levels to be about 15,000 cars a year. Valmet has been building Boxsters for Porsche for over 10 years and I’m certain this experience will pay off for Fisker.

The Karma will have a 350 mile range. It will run on a full battery charge alone for 50 miles before it’s recharged while driving by a small gasoline motor. At night Karma owners can recharge by plugging into a normal household outlet. Top speed will be 125 MPH and it will be able to accelerate from 0 to 60 in under six seconds. In other words, the Fisker Karma will be very comparable to other luxury sedans. So far no journalist has gotten a ride in the real thing, to my knowledge. I hope the real thing is as impressive as it looks like on paper.

Volkswagen has announced it is developing a plug-in hybrid and will be road testing 20 cars by 2010. No word yet on if it will go into production but it seems like this project has a lot of momentum. Sanyo has the contract to provide the batteries, the German government is chipping in big money, and several other big automakers are contributing too.

The car will be propelled primarily by an 82 HP electric motor. The diesel (or gasoline if they choose to offer that as an option) generates the electricity for the electric motor when the batteries run low after about 3o miles of all-electric driving. It will also feature technologies like ’start and stop’ which powers off the fossil fuel motor instead of idling.

At night the owner plugs the car into the wall to charge the batteries, saving money because the cost of electricity is significantly lower than the cost of fossil fuel. Plug-in hybrids would also have a much lower impact on the environment even with half our electricity coming from burning coal.

This is the technology to watch. Plug-In Hybrids will be the best transition technology until all-electric cars become common in 20 to 30 years. Plug-In Hybrids will fill the gap by leveraging the existing fossil fuel and power grid infrastructures. They will be much less expensive to own and produce fewer emissions.

If you’re in the market for a new car, buy used until 2010. Vote with your wallet and encourage car makers to innovate in these new directions. You see by lowering our demand for new cars that run on fossil fuel alone we encourage corporate decision makers to do the right thing and build better cars. The corporate bosses will make the right business decision if we move our demand to cars that more efficient, affordable to own, lower our dependency on foreign oil, help make our power grid more efficient, and keep the environment cleaner.

In the mean time keep your eyes on these new technologies and watch more auto makers jumping in this arena. Photo credit Volkswagen.

This latest Toyota concept car is an engineering exercise in light weight materials and extreme green technology. It’s currently making its first American appearance at the 2008 Chicago Auto Show.

It’s powered by a 500cc flex-fuel plug-in hybrid system. The body is made from a green bio-plastic sourced from kenaf and ramie plants and carbon fiber. The entire car, albeit sans doors, weighs only 926 pounds. Everything about this car pushes green technology to the limit. It’s nice to see Toyota really pushing the green envelope and I’m certain these technologies are a sign of things to come. The only trouble might be the length of the wait. More

It seems the folks at tesla are thinking what many other are thinking, that plug-in hybrids are the way to go, at least for now. Now that production dates are set for their P1 Tesla Roadster, Tesla has announced that they are planning it’s next car, a sedan code named White Star.

They’ll offer an all electric version and a plug-in hybrid version. The advantage of course is that when your batteries run dry your car switches over and runs a small gas engine to keep you moving. Official news, facts and figures are not available yet. Most of what we know has been leaked through the Tesla blog, but it sounds like the sedan will cost about half as much as the P1 (so about $40K to $50K).

I’m not surprised that Tesla is moving toward hybrids because it just makes sense. Leverage the current gasoline infrastructure while moving toward all electric cars. Other companies like GM, Toyota, many X PRIXE contestants, and small independent auto makers are all moving in this direction. For example the Fisker Karma will be a plug-in hybrid that is expected to get around 100 miles per gallon. The White Star must be Tesla’s reaction to the Karma.

Here is a simple idea that could rock the foundation of the auto and oil industry, get us off foreign oil, and save each one of us a ton of money at the pumps… and it’s perfectly legal.Stop buying new cars until auto makers deliver 100 MPG cars. Feel free to buy good used cars, just stay out of the new car showrooms no matter what incentive they throw at us. If enough of us stand up and say enough is enough, they will get with the program, look at all the new innovative ideas that use today’s technology, and start building cars we’ll buy.

We don’t even need to wait for the bozos in Washington DC to get a clue. We don’t have to regulate this is the public simply stands up and makes a simple choice. Car makers could even react quickly and begin adapting cars today with available conversion kits if they don’t want to wait to redevelop their cars. In other words there are lots of options for them to continue to sell cars without interruption.

If you’re an auto executive, product manager, or even an auto worker, please don’t think for a second we don’t ike your work or your products. We’re just sick to death of spending money at the pumps, seeing more money go overseas, seeing the dollar plummet in value, and seeing our soldiers being put in harms way for oil. Please do the right thing. Please make the right choice. Please deliver 100 MPG cars!