hybrid

Vacationing in Japan this week I accidentally rode on the world's first diesel-electric hybrid train in commercial service: The Kiha E200 running on the East Japan Railway's Koumi Line. Aside from being a new train, introduced in 2007, it seemed like any other, but the photographers camped out for a shot along the mountainous route told otherwise.

The train is a working prototype in use since July 2007 with the aim of gathering data for eventual mass production. Like a hybrid car, the diesel-powered engine is used during acceleration and the electric motor kicks in to maintain speed … Read more

Volvo showed off its ReCharge plug-in hybrid concept, based on the Volvo C30 model, at last year's Frankfurt auto show. We were skeptical when we saw it because even though it looked cool, Volvo only had a cutaway demonstration model to show off, and the company has no current hybrid cars among its model lineup. But Volvo reports today that it has a working concept on the road as part of a larger program to develop next generation powertrains. Volvo, in a consortium with Saab, the Swedish government, and energy company Vattenfall, announced a five-year plan to develop plug-in … Read more

Plug-in hybrids are coming. General Motors, Tesla Motors, Fisker Automotive and Toyota are all coming out with gas-electric cars that can be charged from a socket.

The question now is can the grid handle it. The latest voice on the debate, Stan Hadley of the Cooling, Heating and Power Technologies Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, says it won't be easy. Hadley examined 182 scenarios on how plug-ins might be used in different regions in the U.S. between 2020 and 2030. Hadley assumed a 25 percent penetration of plug-ins by 2020.

In a worst case scenario, Hadley postulated … Read more

The military sees a need for a flying robot that can swoop into an enemy position, transition to wheel or track mode, and then get busy icing bad guys--something along the lines of the Griffon UGV/UAV Air Mobility System.

While unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can wing in quickly to reconnoiter or attack enemy positions, they can't follow a target into a cave or a building. Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), on the other hand, can enter structures, search for targets, and examine them at close range, but they're slower than UAVs, have less range, and are limited by … Read more

Sure, your neighbor may have already put in his order for the next year's hybrid coupe, but what's he using to mow the lawn? Now you can scoff at his old pollution machine while you roll out your shiny new solar-powered model--and best of all, you can watch it do its thing while sipping a martini on the deck.

Not only does the "Automower Solar Hybrid" combine solar energy and electricity while navigating itself around the perimeter, according to Sweden's Husqvarna, but it's also 90 percent recyclable and has no exhaust emissions. The company … Read more

When something must absolutely, positively, arrive the next day, people increasingly turn to FedEx. Shipped are everything from million dollar loan documents to birthday presents. FedEx is also integral to the just-in-time supply chain that allows businesses to grow, even as they shrink inventory. FedEx generates over $35 billion annually.

FedEx uses 48,000 vehicles global to deliver our goods. Fed Ex probably utilizes another 30,000 vehicles at its airport operations. At the heart of FedEx operations is a hub-spoke private fleet of jets. Fed Ex has made Memphis, Tennessee, the busiest freight airport in the country.

I valued … Read more

From a distance it looks just like a regular soccermom-mobile. But the car that BMW put center stage this morning at the Geneva auto show represents the German automaker's vision for fuel-efficient technologies over the next few years. The car is powered by a diesel-electric version of BMW's Adaptive Hybrid system, comprising a four-cylinder variable twin-turbo combustion engine mated to a 15 kilowatt electric motor driven by a lithium ion battery pack. BMW says that this is the first diesel engine in the world achieve an output greater than 100 horsepower per liter.

Also a first for a … Read more

We sent Kevin Massy and Brian Cooley to Geneva, along with our video crew, to get full coverage of the 2008 Geneva auto show. They will be posting blogs, photos, and video from the show of the latest concept and production cars. We've already seen quite a few previews of what will be on the floor, including a number of new cars from Volkswagen, a new crossover from Volvo, and some individual concepts that show off beautiful design or wacky tech, such as the submersible sQuba from Rinspeed.

Click here for our ongoing coverage of the 2008 Geneva auto show.… Read more

Current mass-produced hybrid cars use nickel-metal hydride batteries, but Mercedes-Benz says it will launch the first hybrid with lithium ion batteries. Lithium ion batteries are more efficient than nickel-metal hydride batteries and have a better weight-to-power ratio, and are used in the all-electric Tesla roadster as well as in many plug-in hybrid conversions. But large stacks of lithium ion batteries can overheat, a serious problem in an automotive application. Mercedes-Benz announced it has 25 patents around making lithium ion suitable for cars, detailing a key breakthrough of integrating the battery with a car's climate control system, which maintains the … Read more