U.S. DOE
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One of the interesting side effects of plug-in electric cars turns out to be a greater awareness of energy sources and uses. A 2012 California study, for instance, showed roughly four out of 10 electric-car drivers either had or were considering solar panels to provide electricity to their home. And because electric cars everywhere in the U.S. have lower wells-to-wheels carbon-dioxide emissions than the average new vehicle, their ability to slow those emissions that contribute to climate change is huge. DON'T MISS: Scientists debate: could renewable energy entirely replace fossil fuels in...
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How Much Do Plug-In Hybrids Plug In? Volt Has Most Electric Miles, Data Shows
It's one of the big unknowns about plug-in hybrids: How much do they actually get plugged in? Battery-electric cars have to plug in to remain usable, but plug-in hybrids and range-extended electric vehicles don't. And while some makers--most notably Chevrolet and Ford--happily release data showing...
John Voelcker -
How A Chevy Camaro Gets Greener: Student Competition In EcoCar 3
All cars are getting more fuel-efficient under the rising requirements for corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) from now through 2025. Still, if you thought about the category of cars with good gas mileage, the Chevrolet Camaro muscle car likely wouldn't be high on your list. DON'T MISS: How Do...
John Voelcker -
Biofuel Company Latest To Pay Off Government Loan Early
Government lending to green technology companies has been a political hot potato in recent years. Huge loans were offered to dozens of companies. Automakers, solar companies, biofuel concerns and more received money, but high-profile failures like Solyndra lent credence to those critical of the...
Antony Ingram -
Energy Department Launches 'eGallon' To Explain Electric-Car Cost, Efficiency
It isn't easy to compare gasoline and electric vehicles. Sure, you can look at EPA stickers, sit in them and appreciate the way they drive, but comparing like-for-like on an economic basis is requires some thought. The U.S. Department of Energy has simplified the process with its new eGallon...
Antony Ingram -
Henrik Fisker Partners With Chinese Firm To Bid For Fisker Automotive?
The man after whom electric automaker Fisker Automotive is named, Henrik Fisker, could now be the man who buys back the company as it spirals into bankruptcy. Just a week after ex-GM executive Bob Lutz and Chinese firm Wanxiang bid for the ailing automaker, Reuters reports the company's co-founder...
Antony Ingram -
Green energy and electric vehicles are an easy target for politicians at the best of times, but even more so when they fail, taking down millions in unpaid government loans with them. Fisker Automotive isn't dead yet but it does owe the U.S. Department of Energy a large proportion of the $193 million it spent getting the Karma electric vehicle to market. The House Oversight and Government Reform committee will meet on April 24, reports The Detroit News, to discuss the decision to award $529 million in loans to the struggling startup. Much of the original figure was frozen in 2011, as Fisker...
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Vehicles In 2050: No Petroleum Required, DoE Says
It's both exciting and frustrating living in the current automotive age. Exciting, because we're truly seeing an eclectic mix of powertrain technologies being developed, the fruits of which we're increasingly able to drive. And frustrating, because there's still no surefire way of knowing what...
Antony Ingram -
Toyota Loans Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicles To DoE For Research
Their part in the future energy mix for vehicles may be small, but several companies are taking a renewed look at hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. That's if recent partnerships are anything to go by, at any rate--Toyota and BMW recently joined forces, as have Ford, Renault-Nissan and Daimler. The U.S...
Antony Ingram -
DoE Increases Biofuel From Biomass Funding By $10M
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has announced it will put up another $10 million in funding towards the expansion of biofuels. It's the second positive announcement in recent weeks for biofuel advocates, as the Senate's "fiscal cliff" avoidance measures have also seen many biofuel initiatives...
Antony Ingram -
DoE's Battery Research Center Seeks 5X Improvement In 5 Years
If you want to know how advanced cars might be in the next hundred years, just take a look at how far the car has come along in the last hundred. Unfortunately, electric cars missed out on decades of development over the last century. Battery technology in particular still suffers many of the...
Antony Ingram -
Rejected For Loans Tesla Got, Inflatable Car Firm Sues DoE 3 Years Later
Oh, those DoE loans. They arose in the recent U.S. presidential debate--not just once or twice, but three times--and continue to generate debate. So here's more fuel for the fire: A company rejected three years ago for loans is now suing the DoE. Its proposed product? An inflatable electric car...
John Voelcker -
Ask most people about Chrysler's plug-in hybrid prototype program, and you'll get something like, "Huh? Chrysler has plug-in hybrids?" In fact, the company does: 23 minivans and 109 pickup trucks on the roads for almost a year now, all prototypes to test the technology. Today, the company announced it's pulling them all off the roads--"withdrawing from service" is the specific phrase--due to damage sustained by three separate pickup trucks when their 12.9-kilowatt-hour battery packs overheated. Chrysler says there were no injuries from any of the incidents, and the pickups were not occupied...
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Senators Question DoE Loans To Fisker, Cite Qatar Investment
It's fair to say Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors is on a high at the moment. The first owners finally have their brand new 2012 Tesla Model S cars, and the company is receiving plenty of positive media attention. Meanwhile, its rival Fisker has been much quieter--and when there has been news...
Antony Ingram -
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 -
First Chrysler Plug-In Hybrid Minivans Delivered For Testing
There's likely a huge market demand for higher-mileage minivans and wagons, but so far, the 2012 Toyota Prius V is the sole entry that gets more than 40 mpg in EPA testing. So the news that Chrysler delivered four plug-in hybrid versions of its Town & Country minivan to the city of Auburn...
John Voelcker -
Coda Abandons Plan To Build Its Battery Cells In U.S.
We breathed a sigh of relief when Coda announced it had started production of its electric Sedan earlier this month. Then, we positively jumped for joy when little over a week later, the first customers started taking delivery of their new 2012 Coda Sedans. It had certainly been a long time coming...
Antony Ingram -
Elon Musk: Daimler Saved Tesla, DoE Loans A Bad Idea
In the toughest days of Tesla's early years, CEO Elon Musk said on film, he wired $3 million of his personal fortune to the company so it could make payroll. Now the always-quotable CEO is downplaying the effect the $465 million in U.S. Department of Energy low-interest loan guarantees it received...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Log one more startup car company the U.S. Department of Energy has declined to fund. The latest entry on the lengthening list that includes Virtual Vehicles Co. (renamed NextCar), Aptera Motors, and Bright Automotive is Carbon Motors of Connersville, Indiana. The five-year-old startup proposed to build a carbon-fiber police cruiser, solely offered to law enforcement buyers, and power it with a diesel engine sourced from BMW. Carbon had unveiled its E7 four-door sedan, featuring an aluminum space-frame, four-wheel independent suspension, and 50-50 weight distribution, late in 2008. That same...
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DoE Secretary Chu: Gas Prices Hurt, But Oil Dependency Worse
Unless you don’t drive a gasoline-powered car, the chances are you’ve noticed the spike in gasoline prices lately. But according to the U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu, the U.S. Department of Energy isn’t about to intervene with a knee-jerk reaction designed to immediately...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Startup Bright Automotive Shuts Down, Slams DoE Loan Process
Startup plug-in vehicle maker Bright Automotive announced today that it is closing down. While General Motors had invested $5 million in the company, Bright had relied on the hope that the U.S. Department of Energy would grant it low-interest loans under the advanced-technology vehicle...
John Voelcker -
Fuel Cell Research Continues: DoE Seeks Viability Feedback
Like many of the paths towards improving the ways in which we use energy and reducing our dependency on oil, hydrogen fuel cells have their plus and minus points. To find out just how feasible fuel cells are, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has issued a request for information (RFI) to seek...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Will Be U.S. Made, Says Toyota
Buy a gasoline 2012 Toyota Highlander crossover in the U.S., and the chances are it will have been made at Toyota’s Princetown factory in Indiana. Opt for the more fuel efficient 2012 Toyota Highlander Hybrid model, and your car will have been made a third of the way around the world in...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Fisker Loan Woes: Bump In The Road, Or A Big Pothole?
On Monday, we told you that California-based Fisker Automotive had announced it was laying off employees and contractors after it missed deadlines associated with its $529 million low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy. But while Fisker’s cull of employees has totaled at least...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield