Alt Fuels

They're not pretty, but they should catch your attention. Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency issued its design for a warning label to be placed on so-called pumps that dispense the new gasoline blend, which contains a higher ethanol content. Although the legal status of E15 gasoline may...

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...

Licensees of the much-hyped AirPOD minicar are pressing for results from Motor Development International, the Luxembourg-registered firm behind the compressed-air-powered vehicle. In recent postings to their websites and coverage by European news sources, some of MDI's partners are now openly...

The once-unthinkable actually happened last Thursday: The U.S. Senate voted 73-27 to abolish a 45-cents-per-gallon subsidy to the U.S. ethanol industry. Immediately. Because the amendment to end ethanol credits is attached to a stalled economic development bill, however, it will have little...

Biodiesel has gathered a cult following over many years, but outside of a few companies and co-ops, getting an assurance on consistency and quality--especially above b20 (20 percent biodiesel), or for a newer vehicle--can be an issue. Springboard Biodiesel has a solution, and could turn your...

Ask anyone to name an alternate fuel, and natural gas is rarely the first one that comes to mind. Ethanol, perhaps, and increasingly electricity. But natural gas? Not so much. Yet in other parts of the world, as many as 2 percent of the vehicles on the road are fueled by natural gas, in countries...

Forget hydrogen. You can mostly ignore natural gas. Even diesel may not grow much. The two fuels that will largely power us for the next 20, maybe 30, years are already here. They are gasoline (with some ethanol in it), and electricity. That's it. That's all she wrote. First, gasoline Those...

Let's be real: How many of you out there have ever driven a single mile on E85 ethanol fuel? Very, very, very few of you, most likely. The fuel composed of 85 percent ethanol blended with 15 percent gasoline is available only in a handful of Midwestern states. Yet a bill now under consideration by...

It's been a rough couple of years for cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells. As the drums beat louder for electric cars--the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, Nissan's upcoming EV, and more--the hydrogen chorus is waning. But perhaps there's hope. And perhaps it's as close as your nearest urinal. Or, more...

While the legal status of E15 gasoline is in doubt, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with plans for it to roll out before this summer's driving season. That means that drivers will have to pay attention to the labels on their gas pumps, making sure that E15 is only used for...

It may not be the most practical of designs, but a German duo recently succeeded in crossing much of Australia in a wind-powered car. They set records for longest distance traveled in such a vehicle, as well as a 36-hour distance record and others. Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer both developed and...

We approach energy policy with care here, since GreenCarReports is largely about ... well, cars. But a recent article claims it could take just 40 years to convert the bulk of the world's global energy usage from fossil fuels to renewable energy, primarily wind and solar power. That's not only...

Following its October approval of E15 gasoline for 2007 or newer cars, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is to announce today that it will expand the approval to cars from the 2001 through 2006 model year as well. E15 contains 15 percent ethanol, half again as high as the legal maximum today...

We're suckers for new kinds of combustion engines. Ever since we first saw and wrote about the Cyclone external-combustion engine, we've been intrigued by it. Now we have an automotive angle: Suppose you could power a Chevy Volt-like range-extended electric car on nothing more than used motor oil...

Every major automaker selling cars in the U.S. has signed onto a lawsuit filed Monday aimed at halting the rollout of E15 gasoline, which has a higher proportion of ethanol (15 percent) than today's E10 gasoline. The companies cite fears that the greater concentration of ethanol will damage engines...

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...

Last summer, when Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne lauded his company's line of European vehicles that run on compressed natural gas, it may have seemed like an off-the-cuff remark. But in fact, natural gas may be the only green or alternative fuel that Chrysler can feasibly adopt in any kind of...

Finishing our last few stories from the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, we realized we forgot one piece of consumer news: Mercedes-Benz started taking orders for its 2011 B-Class F-Cell hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle last month, and now it has announced the price. So what does it cost to lease a compact...

A new hydrogen refueling station supplied by the Danish company H2 Logic will be installed just outside Oslo, Norway in summer 2011 as part of Norway’s “hydrogen highway“. Together with another planned Oslo hydrogen station in 2011, this means Norway will have one of the...

One of the joys of the huge, splashy, raucous SEMA show in Las Vegas is seeing what manufacturers toss up in the air to show off. Kia brought several customized cars, one of which falls into the green category: a propane-fueled mild hybrid version of its new, and well-received, Forte compact sedan...