Husqvarna has finally revealed a concept electric riding lawn mower they’re calling the Panthera Leo.  It uses li-ion phosphate batteries and can run for 2 hours before needing a charge.  It has five motors, quiet operation, and very unique looks. The front of the motor looks a lot like an electric rotary razor.  You know, those ones the commercials promise gives a close shave with the “floating, independent heads?”  Hopefully the mower works better than the razors.  Incide... Read Full Story

Mercedes-Benz unveiled its Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid at the UITP World Congress and Mobility & City Transport Exhibition in Vienna earlier this month.  The bus is hydrogen powered and has so far shown good performance during fleet testing. Daimler says that the Citaro uses the same fuel cell technology as the Mercedes F-Cell B-Class car, which will undergo production in small lots this fall.  The buses have been part of the HyFLEET-CUTE test program, which began in 2003.  During this testin... Read Full Story

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has created a new Electric Vehicle Group as an industry-wide collaborative promotion effort.  The group’s focus is to bring together all of the various players in the EV industry in the UK and internationally to promote interaction and collaboration between industry partners, government, science, and more. SMMT’s Electric Vehicle Group hopes to address a wide range of issues involving policy, legislation, research and development, ma... Read Full Story

Geoff Bjorgan is a tinkerer, there’s no doubt about it.  This latest creation of his is an awesome rendition of what he can do if given the time to do it and a few items to cannibalize for parts. He discovered a junked 1986 Honda motorcycle in his friend’s garage, used his sawzall to cut off all the “unnecessary parts” and added some electric bits and batteries.  The result?  Well, you’re lookin’ at it. It weighs in at 120 pounds and is a pedal-assist elec... Read Full Story

While a lot of attention is put onto cars and trucks in electric transportation, the field of aviation is seeing its share of innovation too.  We’ve covered light aviation with the ElectricFlycer C and other prototypes and planned technologies in electric airplanes. This solar plane, built by a team lead by Bertrand Piccard, though, is different.  His new prototype is the cloeset yet to the real thing (so far).  It spans 61 meters and weighs about 1,500 kilograms and will be flying tr... Read Full Story

So you’re zipping down the highway in your new, sleek, hydrogen-powered ZeroFuel car and you suddenly see the fuel gauge glowing red.  Uh oh. Well, no matter.  Those two cups of coffee and that 44oz Big Gulp you had and that are coming back to haunt you will save the day. How? Because the hydogen-powered ZeroFuel can use the ammonia that makes up a large part of your urine to make more hydrogen.  That’s how.  And you thought that the only time to pee in someone’s car was ... Read Full Story

If you remember Dale Vince, the self-proclaimed King of Wind Power in the UK and founder of Ecotricity, then you’ll probably recall that he had a rather egocentric plan to build a “Wind Powered Car.”  In reality, it was an electric car concept that would be charged by power from the wind turbine grid. I was pretty skeptical about this whole thing from the beginning.  In the end, it’s basically a rich man’s project that will never see the marketplace or any of ou... Read Full Story

Shaped very similar to the iMiEV, this car made its debut in 2008. Since then, the Maya 300 has been undergoing road and technology testing and is now ready to hit the streets at large. Using the new technology from ExxonMobil Chemical, the Maya’s greatest bonus comes from the greatly-increased battery capacity thanks to ExxonMobil’s separators and its implementation in lithium-ion Manganese Oxide (MN) batteries. The little car will first emerge from hiding in Maryland this ... Read Full Story

In 2006, ExxonMobil Chemical made the news when it was announced that they, along with their Japanese affiliate Tonen Chemical, had developed a prototype separator for use in lithium-ion batteries. This new technology, they claimed, would boost the power:density ratio by at least 40%. Well, they were wrong. It now boosts it by up to 70% instead. That’s wrong in a good way, for sure. The technology centers around a new nano-technology breakthrough in thin film separators which has se... Read Full Story

Tesla has announced that they expect to be profitable before the end of July, as was expected and announced in February.  While some questioned that the company would ever become profitable, battery sales greatly augmented pre-sales and purchases of the Tesla Roadster.  New deals with Daimler and others didn’t hurt either. Meanwhile, if you haven’t heard, former Tesla Motors CEO Martin Eberhard has filed suit against the company and against current CEO Elon Musk for breech of co... Read Full Story