GM has been busy with several NEW eco fuel technologies, one such being the hydrogen powered Chevy Equinox.

The Chevy Equinox is a limited production vehicle which will be powered by hydrogen, batteries, and a fuel cell pack. If it sounds complicated, don’t worry, because it is. Essentially with the technologies in place, this SUV will produce zero emissions and no co2 greenhouse gases.

The fuel cell car has also recently won the prestigious “Green Car Vision Award” for its innovative and ambitious fuel conservation and efficiency vision and efforts. Beating out other heavyweights, including the hydrogen powered BMW Hydrogen 7.

After weighing the achievements and importance of these vehicles, jurors felt that one vehicle stood out as a natural leader in this pack: Chevrolet’s Equinox Fuel Cell. This advanced vehicle brings to the highway an efficient powerplant that offers zero emissions, no CO2 greenhouse gases, and highly efficient conversion of its fuel to motive power. It also benefits from 40 years of research and development, building upon the engineering of other high-profile prototypes that have come before it and achieving near seamless operation with its space-age powerplant and electro-mechanical systems. It feels familiar to drive, even as its powerplant works in ways that that are unfamiliar to most drivers.

This familiar feel is important. The Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell is part of an extensive demonstration program that will find 100 such vehicles being driven by consumers and fleets for three months at a time in California, New York City, and Washington DC. Their experience behind the wheel will advance the cause of hydrogen vehicles considerably.

The Equinox will be test driven by consumers on the road to further test its viability and marketability. There is no date set for mass production, or when one will come to a dealer near you. But rest assured Chevy is hard at work making this a near reality.

Wanna test drive one? take one for a test drive

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Filed Under: Autos, Chevy Equinox, Zero Emissions, chevy, fuel cell, gm, hydrogen

The very first solar powered bluetooth headset has arrived. It is by a company called Iqua and features bluetooth connectivity and all you need to power up is rays from the Sun.

Model: Iqua 603 SUN
Size: 48 L x 25 W x 12 H
Weight: 14g
TalkTime: Up to 12H
Standby Time: Infinite (in sunlight)
Battery Type: 3.7v/110mAh Lithium-Polymer
Operating Distance: 10 meters

It’s too bad the contest over at CellPhone 9 ended, as they had an Iqua Sun 603 giveaway. The lucky winner was announced just this past Monday. Congrats, Lori.

This headset should net you a good run, plus no batteries are required, and you can use both outdoor and indoor light for this solar powered headset. Grab one online at Iqua.

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Filed Under: Autos, Solar, drivers

Nissan is serious about taking the lead in next gen green vehicles. They have recently begun talk and negotiations with tech corp NEC, to mass produce and market LI-ON batteries.

This NEW partnership will allow Nissan to get closer to what it wants the most right now, which is to be the leader in the electric vehicles market. Nissan would like to make it to market first, over Honda and over irking eco minded competitor Toyota.

The Nissan-NEC venture, to be called Automotive Energy Supply Corp, is supplying the batteries Renault will use in the electric cars it’s building for Israel and Denmark. The governments of those two nations have rallied behind Silicon Valley startup Project Better Place and its plan to bring affordable EVs to the masses. Nissan is looking at a similar arrangement with the government of Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture, which wants to develop an electric vehicle fleet and charging infrastructure. Getting a few thousand electric cars on the road before its rivals will give the joint venture a solid lead in the market.

This will certainly give Nissan a leg up in the electric vehicles sector. The Li-ION batteries will be mass produced, power up the next generation of plug-in hybrids and electric cars, PLUS they have been proven to out perform the current crop of Prius, nickel-metal hydride batteries. On average lasting more than 60,000 miles. In fact, Nissan and NEC are so confident in their new EV batteries, they plan to sell them to other manufacturers, as well. Production is ready to start at 13,000 batteries for next year, rising to 65,000 a year by end of 2011.

Toyota and Honda, no doubt, are not resting on their laurels. Let’s see how they compete.

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Filed Under: Autos, Eco Friendly, Green, Li Ion, electric cars, electric vehicles, ev, honda, nec, nissan, toyota, transportation

I must warn you this car is not pretty, but it is quite rare. ABC found on eBay Motors a rare EV, the 1980 AMC Hornet Electric Vehicle.

The manufacturer Solargen, has not been in existence since about the mid 80’s, when it went out of business, below is an excerpt from ABC, on what happened.

Solargen used lead-acid batteries to power small electric motors which replaced the classic inline six cylinder engines of AMC models like the Concord and Hornet. Apparently, the vehicles were only capable of about 30 miles or so of range and couldn’t quite reach highway speeds. Not surprisingly, therefore, the company didn’t last very long.

If you are a car collector, this is an interesting find. Below are some of the features of the AMC Wagon EV:

Engine Type - 2 Cylinders

Transmission - Automatic

Body Type - Wagon

Miles - 51 (since 1980)

Fuel Type - Electric

The 1980 AMC Electric Vehicle listed on eBay is going for $3,500 and as of this writing, there are no bids listed. Grab it while you still can.

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Filed Under: Autos, electric cars, electric vehicles, ev

A recent study from the Public Policy Institute of California is asserting that hands-free cellphone laws, such as the one taking effect in California on July 1st, will save 300 lives per year.

Based on data from municipalities, including the California Highway Patrol, this statistic is not an entirely accurate picture of possible or future road safety. Currently the results from the report above include guess-timates, based on information collected from accidents and mobile phone users, in states that have had the hands-free cell phone laws in effect for some time, such as Connecticut and New York.

Will hands-free phone laws make our roads safer?

According to Joe Kolko, who conducted the cell phone and accident study from PPIC, the answer is yes.

Kolko discovered that traffic deaths during bad weather fell 52 percent within six months of the laws’ taking effect. Fatalities on wet roads dropped 38 percent and rush-hour deaths fell 17 percent.

Data from New York, which enacted the nation’s first hands-free law in 2001, suggests the pattern holds up over the long haul. Four years after the law passed, traffic fatalities during lousy weather or on wet roads were down about 64 percent. Kolko assumed California would see similar declines and applied those figures to the number traffic fatalities in adverse conditions to arrive at 300 lives saved per year.

Clearly his guess-timates paint a picture of increased road safety.

But many questions remain such as, will drivers en masse adhere to these new laws? Should drivers be told by the government when and how to use their cell phones? When will better reporting take place to accurately record whether a cell phone triggered an accident?

I’m sure as time passes, all 50 states will have passed similar laws, and drivers will not be allowed to drive while on their cell phones. I especially feel that TWD (texting while driving) is a far more dangerous activity performed behind the wheel. Essentially while a driver is on a call, be it on a hands free device or not, distraction can and does occur, which brings me to my reader question.

Reader Question

Do you think that hands free devices will make for greater road safety?

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Filed Under: Autos

The Zap-X Electric Vehicle is being tuted as “the fun, compact, and affordable EV”. Due out in the year 2010, this high performance crossover electric car is to be engineered by Lotus.

Some of the features of the Zap X include:

• APX Light Weight Aluminum
• Architecture Design
• Electronic Braking System (EBS)
• Rack and Pinion Steering
• Solar Glass
• Lithium Batteries
  (Bio-degradable Non-Explosive)
• Power Windows
• Power Door Locks
• Power Steering
• GPS
• On Board Carputer with Full Entertainment System

The stylings of this EV reminds me of a cross between a Ford Mustang and a small SUV, not terribly exciting a design. The Zap-X ride comes in at a top speed of 155 MPH, horsepower at 644, and a ridiculous charge time of 10 minutes.

The Zap-X EV is not yet available anywhere and some of its marketed features (such as charge time) will need to be seriously tweaked, before they become reality in many or most homes.

What Zap-X lacks in design, atleast they make up for in fuel efficiency and technology.

Price Tag: $60,000

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Filed Under: Autos, Eco Friendly, Fuel Efficient, Green, electric cars, electric vehicles, ev, transportation, zap x