Fuel
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Electric cars have the great advantage that their batteries can be recharged anywhere there's electricity. It may not be particularly fast, though modern plug-in vehicles get at least 60 miles overnight, and often double or triple that. But a century ago, drivers of gasoline cars had just as much range anxiety as electric-car drivers—especially if they wanted to take long road trips. DON'T MISS: Ford Model T: what was its fuel economy, really? Today's global network of gasoline and diesel filling stations has developed over 100 years, but it didn't exist at the turn of the 20th century...
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The original biofuel for motor vehicles: wood (and why we don't use it today)
When it comes to alternative fuels, the discussion usually centers around compressed natural gas, or biofuels like ethanol or biodiesel. But before the concept of low-carbon or carbon-neutral fuels even existed, a few early makers and desperate drivers tried something completely different. They...
Stephen Edelstein -
Southeast gasoline drivers to get range anxiety after pipeline rupture?
A pipeline rupture in Alabama is causing gasoline shortages.
Stephen Edelstein -
Bankruptcy shows scope of Peabody Coal's climate denial lobbying
These are tough times for the coal industry. Coal plants are being retired at an increasing rate in North America and Europe, replaced by a combination of natural-gas and renewable generating capacity. These days, virtually any way to produce electricity is seen as better than coal, which produces...
John Voelcker -
China brings its fuel quality standards up to global levels, quickly
China aims to improve fuel quality as well as lower emissions.
Stephen Edelstein -
Cheap Oil Will Last A Decade, Says Huge Oil Trader
Oil prices won't increase much over the next decade, one oil trader predicts.
Stephen Edelstein -
The cost of a barrel of oil is now just a fraction of what it was several years ago, and fuel prices have mostly fallen across the globe as a result. Oil prices rise and fall, but most industry analysts suggest that the emergence of North American production has loosened OPEC's ability to set prices unilaterally. Still, we hear less about the supposed phenomenon of "Peak Oil" than we did a few years ago. DON'T MISS: Big Oil To 'Lose Control Of Auto Industry': Energy Conference And while energy investors have severely punished coal-company stocks, on widespread worries that much of their...
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Electric-Car Battery Energy: Why Waste It On Cabin Heating? (Video)
Among the drawbacks of cars that run on battery power is the energy required to heat their cabins. As electric-car drivers in less temperate climes know, heating the cabin to room temperature has an enormous impact on battery range--conceivably as high as 40 percent. A similar impact is seen from...
Green Car Reports -
Leaded Gasoline Taken Off Sale 20 Years Ago This Month
U.S. leaded gasoline sales ceased in January 1996.
Stephen Edelstein -
Portable Hydrogen Fuelers Go To Six Toyota Mirai Dealers As Stations Lag
With Toyota having delivered a total of 57 Mirai sedan in October and November, the drivers of those hydrogen fuel-cell cars will be looking for stations at which to fuel their new zero-emission vehicles. But the state of California's ambitious program to install dozens of hydrogen stations is...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Tackles Hydrogen Fueling Challenges As Mirai Launch Approaches: UPDATED
As this autumn's launch of the 2016 Toyota Mirai fuel-cell car approaches, its maker is taking steps to ensure that the small number of initial buyers and lessees will be able to fuel up their hydrogen-powered sedans with ease. Some of the 70 or so Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell SUV drivers in Southern...
John Voelcker -
CA Fuel-Cell Car Drivers Say Hydrogen Fuel Unavailable, Stations Don't Work (UPDATED)
While they enjoy driving their cars, early lessees of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in Southern California are complaining that they can't reliably fuel them at the handful of stations now supposedly operating in their region. The stations are frequently inoperative, they say, closed for days or...
John Voelcker -
Steelmaker ArcelorMittal plans to install equipment that converts carbon monoxide into ethanol.
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Agriculture Department To Spend $100 Million For E15 Ethanol 'Blender Pumps'
The USDA will match state funding of "blender pumps" for ethanol.
Stephen Edelstein -
Bills To Kill Renewable Fuel Law, Ban E15 Ethanol Fuel Likely Doomed
The addition of ethanol to gasoline has now been a political hot potato in the U.S. for more than a decade. Joined by cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte [R-VA] introduced two bills in February that together would eliminate the Renewable Fuels Act passed in...
John Voelcker -
Artificial Photosynthesis Might Make Fuel From CO2 & Sunlight, One Day
Artificial photosynthesis involves breaking down CO2 and water molecules, and recombining them into fuel.
Stephen Edelstein -
How Shell Oil Sees The Future Of Energy And Vehicle Fuels In 2050
It's always good to understand how the huge global energy industry views the worlds of today and tomorrow. At last month's Shell Eco-Marathon fuel-efficiency competition, sponsor Shell Oil provided seminars for attending journalists to explain how the company views the energy landscape from now...
John Voelcker -
2015 Ford Mustang EcoBoost: Less Power On Regular Gas
Many carmakers are using smaller engines with turbochargers to try to boost fuel efficiency in new cars, but Ford has been among the most public in promoting the technology. Its EcoBoost line of engines all use gasoline direct injection and turbochargers to produce the same power as larger engines...
John Voelcker -
Five years ago today, Green Car Reports began a daily publishing schedule. At first one a day, and then more, we wrote articles on fuel efficiency, hybrids, diesel vehicles, and the plug-in electric cars that were then still two years away from the market. Think back to February 2009, when the Tesla Roadster was the sole modern battery-electric car available in any volume--at a price of $109,000. FIRST DAILY ARTICLE: GM: Give Us Plugs, We'll Sell You Volts Then fast-forward to today, with no fewer than 16 different cars with plugs offered at least in some regions of the U.S. They include...
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2013 Chevy Spark Proves Popular With Non-GM Customers
When General Motors launched the Chevrolet Volt back in 2010, the plug-in hybrid increased GM’s market share by bringing customers to the brand who would have never before thought of purchasing a Chevy. Now it seems, the 2013 Spark is following in the Volt’s tire tracks. According to...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Want To Track Your Real-World Gas Mileage? Here’s How
With ever-tougher fuel economy regulations and the rising price of gasoline, more Americans than ever before want to know what the gas mileage of their car really is. Keeping records of your car’s gas mileage may sound like a bore, but it will help you figure out where and how you’re...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Nissan’s New Japanese Minivan Uses Brakes To Power Electronics
In hybrid and electric cars, regenerative braking systems are used to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy under braking, slowing the car down and improving gas mileage or all-electric range. But Nissan’s latest iteration of the Japanese-market Serena minivan uses regenerative...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
OK, E15 Gasoline Is Now Approved; Do You Need To Care?
You felt the earth shake a week ago today when the EPA formally approved the sale of E15 gasoline, right? Oh, you didn't? Not surprising, really. No gas station in the U.S. sells E15 today, and it looks like it may be a while before any given driver sees the stuff showing up as one of several...
John Voelcker -
Fueling Stations: Electric Cars Trump All Other Alt-Fuel Types
Since about 1930, U.S. vehicles have largely been fueled on gasoline. Diesel passenger vehicles arrived in the 1960s, and there are now about 120,000 locations in the U.S. that offer one or both fuels. Since then, several alternative fuels have been proposed but largely failed to get a...
John Voelcker