Hasta La Gadget!

The iconic Volkswagen Microbus is being reimagined. As an electric vehicle.

At the Geneva Motor Show, VW unveiled a brand new concept that brings the van, which debuted in the 1950s, to the modern day. The concept is completely electric, with a motor that puts out 85 kW of power and 199 lb.-ft of torque. VW is also claiming that the new bus has a range of 186.4 miles on a single charge and that it can go from 0 to 62 mph in 11.5 seconds, with a top speed of 87 miles per hour.

The Microbus is clearly aimed (or will be if it ever makes it to production) at a younger audience, with a sleek design and a removable iPad in the center console, which controls the onboard entertainment system. Hit the jump for a closer look, including a glimpse into the six-seat interior.

Trains have some solid advantages over other forms of transportation: they’re fast and they’re much more environmentally friendly. But the current railway infrastructure in North America renders them nowhere near as efficient. In an attempt to remedy this, business magnate and philanthropist Warren Buffett invested a whopping $26 billion in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.

And according to Buffet, while the move was profitable, there were other reasons for his decision to invest such a large sum of money.

“Railroads have major cost and environmental advantages over trucking, their main competitor,” he told the New York Times. “Our country gains because of reduced greenhouse emissions and a much smaller need for imported oil. When traffic travels by rail, society benefits.”

A new study claims that air pollution is a major cause of heart attacks, even more so than cocaine.

Conducted at Hasselt University in Belgium, the study looked at a variety of different triggers for heart attacks and placed air pollution as the fifth most prominent, behind things like smoking and alcohol, but higher than sex, anger, and even the use of cocaine. Traffic was the number one cause of heart attacks.

“Of the triggers for heart attack studied, cocaine is the most likely to trigger an event in an individual, but traffic has the greatest population effect as more people are exposed to (it),” the study explained.

What this means is that while taking cocaine is more likely to cause a heart attack than breathing in smoggy air, air pollution is still more dangerous because a much more significant percentage of the population is exposed to it. It’s not as dangerous on an individual level, but it causes more heart attacks because of its wide reach.

This makes cleaning up the air not just an environmental issue, but a health issue as well.

“Physicians are always looking at individual patients — and low risk factors might not look important at an individual level,” researched Tim Nawrot told Reuters, “but if they are prevalent in the population then they have a greater public health relevance,”

Not only is the Planters Peanut spokesperson Mr. Peanut himself a peanut, but he also drives around in one as well. And now his iconic car is getting a fully fledged green makeover.

The Nutmobile, as it’s officially called, now runs on biodiesel and features a wind turbine, solar panels, parts made from recycled materials, and LED lighting. The folks at Planters see the makeover as a good way to spread their message of sustainability.

“This form of advertising has really taken off,” Joe Doyon told the New York Times. “The advent of camera phones means that vehicles like the Nutmobile get photographed a lot.”

Not too long ago rumors came out that Rolls Royce was working on an electric limousine. Now the company has confirmed that it is indeed working on an EV, which will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show on March 1.

Called the 102EX, the car is a one-of-a-kind, 100 percent electric version of the iconic Rolls Royce Phantom. While no plans are currently in place to put the car into production, the car will serve as a way to test the waters and see whether or not luxury cars owners actually have an interest in EVs.

“We have engineered the world’s first battery electric vehicle for the ultra-luxury segment,” CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said in a statement. “With this vehicle, we begin an exploration into alternative drive-trains, seeking clarity on which alternative technologies may be suitable to drive Rolls Royce motor cars of the future.”

The company is being quite secretive. No specs have been announced and the only images released show small parts of the car. All should be clear on March 1, but in the meantime you can check out the company’s EV home on the web at Electric Luxury.