Design

  • Rinspeed UC?

    For most automakers, putting a question mark in the name of a vehicle would be a marketing blunder. Fortunately, Rinspeed isn't most automakers. The Swiss company that brought the iChange electric sports car to the Geneva Motor Show last year, has another unique concept in store for this year's event. The UC? concept is a two-seat electric car with aspirations of changing personal mobility. UC? stands for "Urban Commuter" or "You See?" (thus the aforementioned question mark). It's a tiny thing, just over eight feet long, with an eerie resemblance to the Smart ForTwo. Moving the UC? requires a...

  • 2009 Honda P-NUT Concept
    Honda P-NUT Concept Takes On Smart ForTwo and Scion iQ

    The smallest Honda sold in the U.S. is the 2010 Honda Fit, lauded for its almost infinite combination of interior configurations as well as its sporty driving and handling. But while Honda makes cars even smaller than the Fit for Asian and European markets, it hasn't sold them here. Its latest...

  • Sparky the Voltswagen
    Inhabitat Lists Top 5 Modified Greenmobiles

    Do you ever wish your car came in an electric version? Do you find yourself daydreaming about bio-diesel conversions? If so, the bloggers at Inhabitat have assembled a list of vehicles to inspire you. The so-called "Top 5 Pimped-Out Eco Rides" range from a Hummer H1 stretch-limo to a 1985 Chevy S10...

  • Panasonic Lithium-Ion Batteries
    Panasonic Linking PC Batteries Together To Power Cars

    If Panasonic gets its way, your average laptop battery could be the electric vehicle power source of the future. The Japanese consumer electronics company announced Thursday that it has developed a method of binding standard lithium-ion batteries together (Tesla Motors style), for use in...

  • Fisker Joins Tesla In Getting Government Cash For Hybrid Luxury Sedan

    The U.S. Department of Energy yesterday approved a $529 million low-interest loan to Fisker Automotive, which will start building its 2010 Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan later this year. Customer deliveries will start next May. In June, Tesla Motors received a $465 million loan for...

  • Vehicle being crushed, from Argonne National Laboratory video
    Your Tax $$$ At Work: Argonne Lab's Better Batteries, Greener Fuels

    If you watch TV or read the papers, you'll see lots of coverage of people who are pretty unhappy with one facet or another of the U.S. government. This post is about something government seems to do relatively well: pre-commercial research and development. Here at GreenCarReports.com, we usually...

  • 2010 Toyota Prius with chief engineer Akihiko Otsuka, at right

    Since it was launched in 1997 in Japan, and 2000 in the US, the Toyota Prius has only been sold as a single body style. From 1997 to 2003, it was a subcompact four-door sedan. Since then, it has been a midsize five-door hatchback, thoroughly redesigned for 2010. Now, Toyota executives told its dealers, the company plans to use the Prius name on two or three hybrid models in the U.S. market. The meeting, held last week in Las Vegas, was open to all Toyota and Lexus dealers and attended by Akio Toyoda, the company's new CEO. New cars, or new body styles? Two possibilities exist. The company...

  • Steenstra Styletto
    Electric Supercar Alert: Steenstra Styletto Images Released

    Watch your back Tesla. There's a new electric supercar in the works and it's being developed right in your backyard. International car designer, Cornelis Steenstra just released the first images of his zero-emissions, 200-mph-plus, sports car which he hopes to put on the streets by early 2013...

  • Naturmobil 1-horse-power vehicle
    Naturmobil Gives a New Meaning To Green Horsepower

    Six wheels. Two seats. One horsepower. Rear-mounted hybrid powertrain. Top speed: 28 miles per hour. It's the future of green transport. Maybe. In April 2006, Iranian engineer Hadi Mirhejazi began working on what he calls the Naturmobil, a vehicle powered by a single horse trotting on a treadmill...

  • IIHS side crash test of 2004-2006 Toyota Prius
    2010 Toyota Prius Gets Top Safety Rating

    It's almost sold out in some areas, the solar sunroof is smashing sales projections, and now the 2010 Toyota Prius had added a further laurel to its overflowing cap: The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has awarded the 2010 Prius its "Top Safety Pick" designation. That award goes to vehicles...

  • Mahle three-cylinder, 1.2-liter engine develops 193 horsepower
    Big Mileage Gains From Really, Really Small Engines

    We keep saying that one of the ways all cars will get greener and more efficient is for their engines to get smaller and work harder. One of the first production examples of this is Ford's EcoBoost V6 engine, which delivers the power of a V8 with better gas mileage. Now a couple of experimental new...

  • 2010 Toyota Prius - DecoPrius concept, Japan
    Girly Rhinestone Prius To Interest Young Women, Only In Japan

    Sometimes you have to run something just 'cause it's goofy. And so it is with today's item, showing the Japanese-market "DecoPrius" concept whose goal is to lure young women's interest back to a product they view as increasingly anti-social: the automobile. In urbanized Japan, cars are far less...

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