Hasta La Gadget!

Honda has announced that it has delivered its first 2013 Fit EV to a customer. The Fit EV is available in a limited area to begin with including some select California and Oregon markets. The vehicle was given a 118 MPGe rating by the EPA and consumes 29 kWh of electricity per 100 miles driven. The Fit EV is one of the most efficient EVs in the country.

The vehicle is expected to be available in more markets later this year. As with most electric vehicles, the big issue with the Fit EV for most consumers is the cost of the vehicle. The Fit EV is nearly twice as expensive as the gasoline-powered version. The first Fit EV was delivered to husband-and-wife duo of Matt and Becky Walton from Ventura County, California.

The two people were the first to register to lease a Fit EV at the Honda websiteFitEV.Honda.com when registration opened last year. The new owners plan to use the vehicle for commuting. The pair says the fact that the car or you charge its battery pack fully in under three hours is one main reason for the purchase. Like many EV owners, the couple has a standard vehicle for longer-range driving. The Fit EV is only available as a lease at $389 per month for three-year term.

Honda delivers its first Fit EV is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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There’s no question America’s favorite Motor Company faces a hefty amount of competition in the eco-friendly cars department, but the outfit is hoping to lure some green humans away from its adversaries with the upcoming C-Max Energi series. Interestingly enough, but not surprisingly, Ford’s touting the 2013 Energi’s cheaper price tag — when compared to something like a Toyota Prius V — as one of the ride’s features, though it’s also hoping its combined 550-mile range (PHEV-20) and expected 95 MPGe are good enough reasons for you to spend a cool 26k ($25,995, to be exact) on this plug-in hybrid. Ford says dealers are now taking your orders, and that the C-Max Energi will be ready to hit the streets in a few more months.

Continue reading Ford’s 2013 C-Max Energi rolls out 95 MPGe, will cost you $26k when it arrives this fall

Filed under: Transportation

Ford’s 2013 C-Max Energi rolls out 95 MPGe, will cost you $26k when it arrives this fall originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Would you loan your car to complete stranger? I wouldn’t loan my car to my own cousin, much less a random person off the street. However, if you’re the trusting sort driving a General Motors OnStar equipped vehicle, OnStar and RealyRides have teamed up to make it easy for you to rent your vehicle. RelayRides is a peer-to-peer car sharing market.

Drivers list their vehicle along with an hourly rate. The idea is that when the car owner doesn’t need the vehicle, they can rent it out to other people by the hour and make extra money. The interesting part of this tie up between OnStar and RelayRides is that the driver doesn’t have to meet the person renting the car to hand off keys, as OnStar can remotely lock and unlock the car.

Presumably, the renter would also be able to get OnStar to start the vehicle and turn it off remotely as well. The thing that bothers me about this is that I think it would be hard to get a renter to pay for any damage caused your vehicle or to prevent them from taking things out of your vehicle.

If you’re shopping for your dream wheels, but hate poring over brochures, Audi’s got good news: you can now wave and touch to customize your prize ride. The experience starts at the Audi City showroom in London, where you kick off the process by choosing one of the German automaker’s 36 models. Then, you can browse the vehicle on a 210-inch HD display with a Kinect to read your gestures as you swipe around to take the tour. From there, a 32-inch 3M multitouch display helps you customize your machine, even letting you use physical RFID-equipped cloth and paint samples to dial in the specs. Once your Teutonic buggy is just so, you can save everything on a USB key, print out a custom brochure and even share the enthralling details on Facebook or Twitter. The company hopes to add 20 similar stores around the world, and if you’re near Picadilly Square you can try it out yourself — just keep one hand on that non-virtual wallet.

[Image credit: Wallpaper]

Filed under: Transportation

Audi dealership lets you gesticulate your way to a new car using Kinect and multitouch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 05:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It must be pretty cool to be Ken Block. The guy gets to drive cars for a living and is a world-class hoonster. In fact, “Ken Block” translates in the Latin to Hoonicus Maximus, or at least it should. If you’ve ever watched Block’s Gymkhana videos before, you will definitely want to see the latest that was released this week.

The latest video is Gymkhana Five, and this time out Block and his insanely fast Ford Fiesta (possibly the world’s only cool Fiesta) are up to some insane stunt driving in San Francisco. Block was able to get closed access to a bunch of the famous San Francisco city streets, including a suspension bridge, so he could drift and tear the place up.

It’s awesome to see him jump that Fiesta over some of the hilly streets in San Francisco. Be sure and watch the hood on that jump, it appears that the landing ripped the front end out of the car. I bet they needed a new car after that scene or at least had to stop for repairs. Apparently, the movie was pieced together from different scenes shot on different days, but it’s still incredibly awesome. I think my biggest car guy wish would be some hoon lessons from Block.