Hasta La Gadget!

A Japanese team from Tokai University has taken the top spot at the World Solar Challenge, which was held at the end of last week in Australia. The team beat out the Delft University team which won four consecutive previous Challenges, and this year took second place, with the third seat going to the University of Michigan. The race course travels from southern to northern Australia over 3,000 km (about 1864 miles), and the winning team’s car, Tokai Challenger, completed the race in just under 30 hours, averaging 62 miles per hour. Other notable participants included the MIT-built Eleanor.

[Via Wired]

Filed under: Transportation

Japanese team takes top prize at World Solar Challenge originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zipcar, a widely used car rental service, has raised the bar with tech-savviness with its new iPhone app, which launched in the App Store this week.

Available for free, the Zipcar app automatically lists nearby Zipcar locations on a map. Tapping a location pin displays cars available for rent, as well as their rental fees.

Inside the app, Zipcar members can make, change, extend and cancel reservations. A fancy feature is called “Drive,” where you can tap buttons to unlock, lock, or even honk the horn of your rental car.

We haven’t rented a Zipcar with the app just yet, but we’re interested to see how it’s working out for users. Anyone out there test drive the Zipcar app yet? Feel free to share your experience in the comments below.

Check out a video below the jump to see the Zipcar app in action.

Download Link [iTunes]

Product Page [Zipcar]

48 percent of respondents to a recent Pike Research survey have classified themselves as very or extremely intrested in buying a plug-in hybrid vee-hee-cle, and 65 percent of them were willing to pay a premium price relative to a regular old petrol puffer. This enthusiasm stretched to an average premium of 12 percent which, while encouraging, still won’t quite cover the current price gap between hybrids and, erm, monobryds? It would seem, then, that the environmental, fuel efficiency and plug-in ability benefits aren’t lost on buyers, but neither are basic principles of economics. Our view on things? What we need is a netbook equivalent in the car world — a dirt-cheap hybrid that students and hippies can get behind and stimulate the move of all prices downwards.

[Via Autoblog Green]

Filed under: Transportation

Survey finds Americans want to go hybrid, can’t afford it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nissan’s gotten into a bit of a bragging contest on Twitter — possibly fueled by Chevrolet’s recent, shaky claim that the Volt will get 230 miles per gallon. The company is now saying that its new electric car, the Leaf, will get an astonishing 367 miles per gallon… even though it’s a 100 percent electric car, and runs on absolutely no fuel. So, isn’t that zero miles per gallon? Well, yes and no: all these massive numbers are based on both the Department of Energy and the EPA’s calculations for estimating equivalencies in electric cars. Why? Well, it seems that car companies are still giving us — the prospective buying public — MPG figures because they think that’s what we understand best. Tony Posawatz, vehicle line director for Chevy’s Volt recently admitted to the New York Times that the miles per gallon matrix is “probably not the best measure of goodness” for a car that uses no gallons at all, but that it’s “what people are accustomed to.” We agree — he’s got a point — but people were also accustomed to the hi-fi, the corded landline, and the steam engine. We assure you: people understand that a car that runs on zero gas (and therefore gets an astonishingly low amount of miles per gallon) is really, really awesome. So the MPG matrix is useless when talking about electric cars — we’ll adjust!

Read – Nissan claims 367 miles per gallon for electric Leaf
Read – The Chevy Volt: mileage numerology

Filed under: Transportation

Nissan says its new electric car, the Leaf, gets 367 miles per gallon originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Aug 2009 08:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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High five, Tesla fans — everyone’s favorite incredibly controversial electric car company has just been granted $465m in loans from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program. The bulk of the money will go towards that postponed Model S factory, while the remaining $100m will be used to fund an electric powertrain manufacturing facility that will sell parts like motors and battery packs to other carmakers. Tesla wasn’t the DOE’s only big winner: Nissan received $1.6b (billion!) to build batteries and EVs in Tennessee and Ford received an undisclosed amount to build two upcoming electric cars, but since those companies have largely drama-free upper management that isn’t constantly involved in lawsuits, it feels a little more routine. Still, it’s an exciting time — let’s hope all these tax dollars turn into affordable, convenient electric transportation sooner rather than later.

Update: A “congressional source” has told the AP that Ford’s getting $5.9 billion, so yeah, the Oval’s still the big dog.

Read – Tesla
Read – Ford
Read – Nissan

Filed under: Transportation

Tesla, Ford, Nissan all receive electric car development loans from US government originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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