natural gas
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A couple of months ago, we told you about Volkswagen's 2010 Jetta TDI Cup Street Edition, a specially trimmed version of its clean-diesel Jetta sedan that commemorates the TDI Cup racing series, now in its third season. But VW has other green racing activities elsewhere too. Our sister site Motor Authority notes that Volkswagen will race a fleet of three natural-gas powered car on the famed Nürburgring circuit in Germany in a 24-hour endurance race that starts on May 12. The cars are all Scirocco coupes, a model not sold here but based on the same underpinnings as the more familiar Jetta...
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Natural-Gas Honda Civic To Oklahoma As U.S. Lags in NGVsThe U.S. buys more hybrids than any place else in the world except Japan. We have a handful of clean diesels, with sales slowly increasing. But the "other alt-fuel" for automobiles--natural gas--is barely a blip on the U.S. market. Nonetheless, Honda is plugging away (ahem) with its 2010 Honda...
John Voelcker -
2010 Chicago Auto Show: Electric 2011 Ford Transit Connect, Alt-Fuel Taxi
It's long been known that Ford's first electric car would actually be a truck. Now, we have all the details of the 2011 Ford Transit Connect Electric, an all-electric conversion of the Transit Connect commercial van that offers a range of up to 80 miles on a full charge. The 2011 Transit Connect...
John Voelcker -
Green Tires From Orange Peels Use Less Oil, Bring Better MPGs
Sadly, they're not actually orange. Nor do they smell like citrus when they get hot. But by infusing orange oil into natural rubber, a new line of tires from Yokohama cuts four-fifths of the petroleum needed to manufacture a tire. They lower rolling resistance too, meaning better fuel efficiency...
John Voelcker -
Is Toyota Planning To Build a Camry CNG Hybrid?
If you've followed any of the news coming out of the 2009 SEMA Show, the mecca for modified cars, you may have seen that Toyota's display included a modified version of the Camry CNG Hybrid it showed last fall at the Los Angeles Auto Show.The Toyota Surfrider Camry Hybrid CNG, which pairs the...
John Voelcker -
House: $150 Million for R&D, Natural-Gas Hybrids--But No Tax Credits
Less than two weeks after a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate to provide tax credits for buyers of natural-gas vehicles, or NGVs, the House has passed an entirely different bill that funds research and development of NGVs. Unlike the tax credits in Senate bill S.1408, which would...
John Voelcker -
Every time we make a joke involving the US Marine Corps, first we check it with our friend Cap'n Connors, a former Marine. With multiple deployments under his belt, and much multicolored art under his skin, the cap'n is our source for all things having to do with the most profane of the armed forces. Even he was impressed at the steps his service has taken to green its Camp Pendleton base along the southern California coast. And a substantial portion of their efforts go toward alternative-fueled vehicles. Most prominent are two Chevrolet Equinox Fuel-Cell Vehicles, the popular midsize...
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California HOV-Lane Stickers For Hybrids: Worth $1,200 To $1,500
Imagine a special sticker that let you use those high-occupancy vehicle lanes, zipping past stop-and-go rush hour traffic, blissfully alone in your car. If you live in California and were one of 85,000 lucky hybrid owners, you know exactly what I'm talking about. In 2005, California decided to open...
John Voelcker
