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Hybrid car conversions getting 80 MPG right now
SAN JOSE, CA (KGO) -- About a year ago, CEO's in Silicon Valley challenged one another to start driving electric. On the eve of a huge conference in San Jose, high tech leaders say the plug-in movement is well underway.
Last week Tom Hayse was getting 40 miles a gallon driving his hybrid Prius. That was before his plug-in conversion and a lithium battery packed in the back.
"With the plug-in hybrid, I'm getting actually getting close to 80 miles a gallon, so I'm pretty happy with that."
Tom is one of 30 Silicon Valley CEO's and community leaders who have pledged to be part of what they call the 'plug-in revolution'.
"If only ten percent of the million or so Prius owners converted their cars like we're doing, the price of the battery conversion would come down," says Sass Somekh, Ph.D of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. SAN JOSE, CA (KGO) -- About a year ago, CEO's in Silicon Valley challenged one another to start driving electric. On the eve of a... more -
VW rolls out a sweet plug-in hybrid
Volkswagen's been toying with hybrids for awhile and got electric-vehicle advocates in a lather over the diesel-electric Golf it unveiled a few months ago. Now the company's promising a plug-in hybrid by 2010 and the German government's written a big check to make it happen.
"While the e-motor on a typical hybrid model just supplements the combustion engine, the exact opposite is true on Twin Drive," Winterkorn said during the car's unveiling in Berlin. "Here the diesel or gasoline engine supplements the e-motor." Volkswagen's been toying with hybrids for awhile and got electric-vehicle advocates in a lather over the diesel-electric Golf it ... more -
245 mpg
Gas prices just keep going up. We went to Los Alamos for an introduction to the NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle.) This fun little car just plugs into a regular outlet and is rated at 245 mpg. As Richard Dunn says, ? you can?t beat that.?
We hope this offers an alternative to the family second or third car for those short trips off necessity near home. For more information on plug-in alternatives you can start by visiting www.pluginamerica.com
Thanks for taking the time to watch and help us to consider a more sustainable future. Gas prices just keep going up. We went to Los Alamos for an introduction to the NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle.) This fun little... more -
Ecospot: The brightest future
The brightest future can come from the greatest source of light, the sun! Exciting things are coming with the help; of the sun like plugin hybrids that can commute electric all week and go hybrid on the weekends with 100 mpg! These batteries can give power back to the grid during daylight after loading up on solar at night they can plugi into transfer stations during the day like bees taking honey back to the hive, sweet! It's time to think solar! The brightest future can come from the greatest source of light, the sun! Exciting things are coming with the help; of the sun like pl... more
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Motorhead Messiah / Fuel Efficient Cars - Biodiesel - Hybrids
?Check it out. It's actually a jet engine," says Johnathan Goodwin, with a low whistle. "This thing is gonna be even cooler than I thought." We're hunched on the floor of Goodwin's gleaming workshop in Wichita, Kansas, surrounded by the shards of a wooden packing crate. Inside the wreckage sits his latest toy--a 1985-issue turbine engine originally designed for the military. It can spin at a blistering 60,000 rpm and burn almost any fuel. And Goodwin has some startling plans for this esoteric piece of hardware: He's going to use it to create the most fuel-efficient Hummer in history.
Goodwin, a 37-year-old who looks like Kevin Costner with better hair, is a professional car hacker. The spic-and-span shop is filled with eight monstrous trucks and cars--Hummers, Yukon XLs, Jeeps--in various states of undress. His four tattooed, twentysomething grease monkeys crawl all over them with wrenches and welding torches.
Johnathan Goodwin is a 37-year-old professional car hacker out of Kansas that's making a name for himself by taking muscle cars and doubling their horsepower, and at the same time quadrupling their mileage and cutting emissions by 80 percent.
His latest project: creating a super-efficient electric hybrid Hummer H3 by putting in an electric motor plus a military-grade 60,000 rpm turbine modified to run on biodiesel, doubling horsepower from 300 to 600, getting 60 miles per gallon, and doing zero to 60 in five seconds. It'll also have a hydrogen-injection system that will cut the already low emissions by half.
He's currently converting a 1987 Jeep Wagoneer to biodiesel for Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a 1960 Lincoln Continental into a biodiesel-electric hybrid for Neil Young. ?Check it out. It's actually a jet engine," says Johnathan Goodwin, with a low whistle. "This thing is gonna be even co... more -
Neil Young turns car GREEN
Neil Young talks about retro-fitting his antique car with a bio-diesel engine to make it environmentally friendly.
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Plug in Cars
