This week’s sign of the Carpocalypse? Close-to-the-door hybrid-only parking spaces. Our only question is how much carbon Greenhouse emissions are spewed out the tailpipes of the tow trucks coming to tow away violators?
Thanks Jalopnik
67.2MPG. That’s the fuel economy figure Fisker calculated for the Fisker Karma using SAE standard estimations. If true, it puts the plug-in, mustachioed hybrid ahead of the current champ, the 2010 Toyota Prius at 50MPG. Yes i want one!
The Fisker Karma Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) recently demonstrated how quick it is in two ways – it goes from 0-60mph in six seconds and from concept to public driving debut just 19 months after the company was formed. The 403hp prototype Karma PHEV almost silently attained a top speed of 100mph (using no gasoline) as it made its way around the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca during the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races. What we see today is almost what we’ll get. Fisker says the car is 99 percent of what will hit our roads in May 2010 when the first production vehicles roll out, at upwards of USD$87,900.
Hybrid automotive engineering finally made its way to the forefront of the world’s most important motorsport series on the weekend when cars running the “hybrid” Kinetic Energy Recovery System finished first and second at the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix. The winning McLaren Mercedes MP4/24 of reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton and second-placed Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen both used KERS systems, increasing the likelihood that both manufacturers will introduce high performance hybrid sports cars in the near future. Wired recently reported that McLaren was preparing a hybrid supercar, and Car and Driver is also speculating that the expected F430 successor includes a KERS system directly descendant from the F1 car. Ironically, the KERS system is likely to be dumped from F1 in 2010 as part of radical cost-cutting measures.
Thanks Gizmag
It runs on Nickel Cadmium batteries that power a 15hp brushless motor, taking it all the way to 45mph, and has mechanical brakes on the front wheels for added craziness. So that’s real green driving!
Tesla says that 520 S Model all electric sedans have been reserved by customers in first week since it was announced. Each customer must pay a $5,000 reservation fee, which is refundable if they choose not to buy the car. The base price for the Model S, which will be available starting in 2010, is $49,900 after a federal tax credit of $7,500. A limited editon of the Model S is available for a $40,000 reservation fee.
The Model S is the second car unveiled by Tesla after the sportier Roadster, and it’s half the price. But it’s no slouch on performance. The car will do 0-60 in 5.6 seconds (the Roadster is 3.9 seconds) and has an electronically limited top speed of 130 mph. The car should go up to 300 miles between charges. Best of all, I believe I may actually fit in the Model S. The Roadster isn’t fully compatible with people my size.
If you want one, you can reserve it here. You should get it by late 2011.
 
There is that inner voice lead by the prevailing opinion that advises to save up for black days - Of course, that’s definitely the most uneconomical strategy these days. The smart man invests in the future, and Tesla’s recently unveiled Model S confidently heralds the next generation of all electric vehicles, and maybe someday the future of automobiles. The Model S is a refined luxury sedan with serious futuristic design lines that further aim to maximize usability through maximizing interior volume. The car’s smooth sloping roof line and clear visual impact goes further to the interior that seriously convinces with a 17-inch touchscreen control panel smoothly arranged besides a futuristic full-digital dashboard in contrast to classic vegetable tanned Italian leather linings. Touted the future, the Model S features the QuickCharge ability allowing to rapidly recharge the battery pack that fully loaded runs up to 300 miles with some serious performance facts - a zero to 60 sprint in 5.6 seconds, and a top speed of 120mph. $ 50.000
Hyundai recently broke a few molds with its dolphin-inspired cellphone, and it now looks to be doing the same with its latest plug-in hybrid concept, which is set to make its public debut at the Seoul Motor Show next week. Of course, Hyundai isn’t just letting the car, dubbed the BLUE-WILL, get by on those eye-catching lines alone, with it also cramming a direct-inject 1.6-liter gas engine with a CVT transmission and a 100kw electric motor under the hood, and taking a number of other measures to make the vehicle even more eco-minded. That includes some solar cells on the panoramic roof, which you can still see through, and some eco-friendly plastics throughout, including headlamp bezels made from recycled plastic bottles, and other plastics derived from plant extracts.
Tesla Motors won’t unveil the Model S until March 26, but the Silicon Valley start up provided a glimpse of the all-electric four-door sedan with a teaser shot it released this morning.
The sneak-peek comes as founder and CEO Elon Musk tells customers and would-be customers all is well with the electric car company, which he says will be profitable by the middle of this year. He’s also confident the company will get a $350 million loan from the Department of Energy to help build the factory that will produce the Model S, although the feds tell the Associated Press no decision’s been made on that.
As for the Model S, Tesla isn’t offering much in the way of details, but Musk has likened the car to a BMW 5-Series or a Cadillac CTS. One insider we know said it will offer the practicality of a 5-series with the sexiness of an Aston Martin Rapide.
From what we see from the photo, the Model S — designed in-house after Tesla’s famous falling out with designer Henrik Fisker — looks like it draws more heavily from, say, Maserati and Aston Martin than BMW. Its also got better front-end proportions than the Fisker Karma sedan, but then Tesla isn’t stuffing a four-cylinder General Motors engine under the hood to serve as a range-extender.
Tesla says the car will go into production in 2011 and it is expected to cost less than $50,000 once you account for the $7,500 federal tax break on electric cars. That’s less than half the price of the Roadster, which goes for $109,000.
Thanks Wired
 
Classic British luxury automaker Bentley has made it abundantly clear that it intends to bring biofuels to its range as quickly as possible, going so far as to promise that all of its cars will be flex-fuel capable by 2012. To that end, the automaker is planning to launch its first flex-fuel vehicle ever at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show in March, after which it will be brought to New York in April. Details, understandably enough, remain scarce ahead of the car’s debut, but Bentley has us expecting big things for its new supercar, which is obviously based on the underpinnings of the automaker’s younger Continental range.
Biofuel is a broad term and can mean lots of different things, and in this case we’re expecting to see an ethanol fuel running through the veins of the Continentals twelve-cylinder engine. Engines that are tuned properly to make use of the alcohol fuel’s high octane rating can make lots of power, and Bentley is promising that this new production vehicle will be the firm’s most powerful production machine ever.