alternative fuel vehicles

On Tuesday, six prototype cars powered by natural gas for their first 60 or so miles and by gasoline thereafter were unveiled in Washington, D.C. Now, the natural-gas industry is taking them on the road to "drive a conversation about the benefits of natural gas as a transportation fuel for...

To date, natural-gas vehicles have come with significant compromises. The high-pressure tanks that hold enough compressed natural gas to run 200 miles or more take up many cubic feet of space in the trunk, load bay, or pickup bed. But what if you could design a vehicle that had just enough natural...

On June 3, Hyundai delivered the first ix35 Fuel Cell vehicle in Europe, to the City of Copenhagen in Denmark. Production of the company's hydrogen-fueled vehicle began in February. That means that its first production hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle is now on the roads, albeit at low planned volumes...

We've been thinking a lot about natural-gas fueled vehicles, for reasons that will become clear in due course. Writing about green cars can occasionally be awkward, because there are different audiences for diesels versus hybrids, for plug-in electric cars, and for other types of alternative fuels...

The U.S. is increasingly awash in natural gas, so it's natural to consider it as a potential vehicle fuel. From passenger cars to long-haul trucks, both compressed natural gas (CNG) and refrigerated liquid natural gas (LNG) are being eyed as a replacement for diesel fuel and gasoline. Now, natural...

Leave it to the Germans to be blunt. Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn has rendered his company's verdict on the future of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles: They're not viable. Fuel-cell cars suffer from a lack of infrastructure, he said, will be far too costly for consumers, and use a fuel that...

The sequester is now with us, and Congress has lower approval ratings than South American death squads, but President Obama is doggedly pursuing his green agenda nonetheless. Today, he will announce a plan to divert $2 billion of Federal oil and gas lease revenues over the next decade from general...

While gasoline engines will be with us for many years, and plug-in electric cars are coming slowly, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles remain in the background. Four makers have said they will launch production cars powered by hydrogen between 2015 and 2018. Now, one of those companies has slammed on the...

Plug-in electric cars get a lot of press, perhaps more than their current sales might warrant. It's clear to industry analysts that the proportion of plug-ins among new cars produced will grow, slowly, over the coming years and decades. But don't count the gasoline engine out just yet. The rate of...

Of all the Chevrolet models, the Corvette sports car may be the one least likely to be considered green. Indeed, the world rocked on its axis when the lead engineer said two years ago that, one day, there might be a Corvette Hybrid. But considerably sooner than that, you can have your very own...

Tesla Motors gets a huge amount of media attention, and Fisker Automotive isn't far behind. Other automotive startups, including Coda Automotive and tiny Wheego Electric Cars, are less well known. But can you name the startup automaker that's built 2,500 cars since last September? Hint: It's none...

Let's face it: political discourse in the U.S. isn't very pretty. It's generally a matter of two large parties -- each backed by an army of fundraisers, copywriters, and statisticians -- shouting at each other in front of sympathetic audiences. Over the past couple of decades, the situation seems...

Last week, governors of more than 20 states joined together to ask the auto industry for a specific kind of car: a mid-size sedan powered by natural gas, rather than gasoline. This week, the industry responded, with auto-company representatives gathering in Oklahoma City to discuss the request with...

Give Chrysler credit for consistency. A company executive said yesterday that it would indeed build electric and hybrid vehicles, though "sparingly" and for the "right kinds of targeted applications." The comment came from Bob Lee, Chrysler's vice president and head of engineering for engine and...

The London Olympics now underway are a showcase for green cars. Automotive sponsor BMW is getting massive exposure for 4,000 of its greenest vehicles, including lower-emission ActiveHybrid models, fuel-efficient diesels, and much-anticipated i3 all-electric city car and i8 plug-in hybrid sports...

With flex-fuel cars that can run on E85 ethanol still a minority of the vehicles on sale, you might think ethanol isn't as important as some other future fuels. But up to 10 percent of every gallon of gasoline you buy today is ethanol, and that proportion may rise to as much as 15 percent if gas...

When anything is referred to as "not dead yet," it's usually dead--or very close. But despite the headline reference to a legendary Monty Python skit (NSFW), a recent post from Pike Research makes the case that hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles likely have at least a limited role to play in future...

It's hard to keep things secret in the auto industry. So when Bloomberg reported yesterday that German luxury maker BMW had broken off talks with General Motors on joint development of fuel cells, writer Dorothee Tschampa explained why. It appears BMW jilted GM because it found a more attractive...

There's a storm a-brewin' in Louisiana over alternative vehicle tax credits. (There's a sentence that didn't end like you'd expect.) In 2009, the state legislature passed Act 469 (PDF), which offers a tax credit of up to $3,000 to anyone who purchases a low-emissions vehicle that runs on...

A government-funded laboratory that helped pioneer the battery technology behind many electric vehicles, including the Chevy Volt, has recently begun to focus on developing technologies to improve natural gas-powered vehicles, in anticipation of government and industry soon seeking to bring...