Russia
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It's difficult to invest in renewable, alternative sources of energy when state-run oil pays the bills. And it's even harder for renewable energy when gasoline is all but free, courtesy of the same state. Now The Financial Times has taken a look at Russia's growing lag in embracing renewable energy to offer a serious alternative to oil and gasoline. DON'T MISS: Big energy hugely underestimates electric cars, renewable power The political environment and economics of Russia make that investment difficult. The state-run oil and gasoline industries generate about 15 percent of GDP, 35 percent of...
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VW to build Atlas TDI diesel in U.S., but only for export to Russia
Volkswagen is planning a diesel version of the Atlas crossover, but not for the U.S.
Stephen Edelstein -
Russia Decrees: Every Gas Station Must Have Electric-Car Charging Too
Russia will require all gas-station owners to install electric-car charging stations by November 2016.
Stephen Edelstein -
Russian Plutocrats Crave Tesla Model S; Electric Carmaker Resists
Tesla has quite a following in Russia.
Stephen Edelstein -
More Olympics Green Cars: Soviet Hydrogen-Gasoline Minibuses Of 1980
The Soviet Union deployed hydrogen-gasoline prototype vehicles at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Stephen Edelstein -
Yo-Auto Natural-Gas Hybrid Update: Production Now In 2015?
With Teslas and BMW i3s dominating the green car headlines, it's easy to forget that plenty of other automakers are creating their own low-emission vehicles. In Russia, that company is Yo-Avto. The automaker has promised a natural gas hybrid vehicle for some time--and that time could now be 2015...
Antony Ingram -
Remember the Yugo? It was a small, cheap econobox, based on 1970s Fiat underpinnings and imported to the U.S. from its home country of Serbia. They actually sold over 100,000 in the U.S. between 1985 and 1992, but the model is derided as slow, unreliable and thoroughly undesirable. The image of Russian carmaker Lada is much the same in Europe, where several of its models were sold throughout the 1980s and 1990s. And now, Lada is jumping on the electric car bandwagon with a new car, revealed at the 2012 Moscow Auto Show. Normally such news would be treated with trepidation, but the combination...
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Saab, Aptera, Think: Can China, Russia Save Electric Cars?
Last week, something miraculous happened: after more than a year of being prepped for burial, Saab rose from the dead. Of course, there had been previous attempts to revive the quirky car company -- notably, one led by Chinese investors Pang Da and Youngman (subsequently, a Chinese bank and...
Richard Read -
Russian Yo Natural-Gas Hybrid SUV: Production By End Of Year
In the years since Soviet rule ended in Russia, the number of cars on its roads have steadily increased, driving pollution and congestion to unimaginable levels. Now Yo-Auto, the same Russian company responsible for the Yo-Mobile Hybrid Electric Car -- a vehicle already as synonymous in Russia for...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Has Bankrupt Electric Car Maker Gone Russian? Da, We Think So
It’s been bankrupt four times now, suffered delayed launches and even resorted to anthropomorphism to sell its excess stock, but now Norwegian electric car maker Think could be heading to Russia. Now with more twists than a badly subtitled daytime television Mexican telenovela, the story of...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Lots Of Orders For Yo Russian Natural-Gas Hybrid, Prokohorov Says
According to Russian billionaire businessman Mikhail Prokhorov, the company building a new natural-gas hybrid car known as the Yo now has orders stretching out as far as 10 years into the future. The business magnate, investor, and former basketball player told satellite TV channel Russia Today...
John Voelcker -
Russian Billionaire's Natural-Gas Hybrid Electric Car, Yo
Never let it be said that Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov doesn't put his money where his mouth is. He plans to invest 150 million euros, or about $200 million, in a new company that will build the world's first production natural-gas series hybrid vehicle. The car will be called Yo, which is...
John Voelcker -
Russia. Onion domes, remnants of Communism, enormous natural-gas reserves, and a fierce love of Vodka. These elements have now somehow combined to convince Mikhail Prokhorov--reportedly Russia's wealthiest man, new owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, newly-minted publisher of the New York-based Snob magazine, with rumored ties to the Russian Mafia--that he should start a new car company in Mother Russia. It plans to build natural-gas powered hybrid electric cars--distinguished by standard two-tone paint, no less--dubbed, for now, the City Car. The Prokhorov City Car isn't the...
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So Much For World Car-Free Day; Most of the World WANTS Cars
Yesterday was was World Car-Free Day. Did you notice? Nope, us either. Because while it may be amusing--for a few seconds--to imagine a world without vehicles, it's also sorta silly. It's like imagining a world without vapid blond stars who get way, way, WAY too much press. Might be nice, never...
John Voelcker