-
-
Toyota to build Prius in US, stops truck production
"The company said Thursday it will start producing the Prius in 2010 at a plant it is building in Blue Springs, Miss. Toyota already builds a hybrid version of the Camry sedan in Kentucky, but this will be the first time the Prius, which has been on sale for more than a decade, will be built outside of Asia." -MSNBC
Toyota is also planning on temporarily stopping US production of its trucks and large SUVs because of declining demand. The plants will either temporarily close or build hybrid SUVs instead.
This is great news both for the environment and for our economy. It will ultimately result in more jobs for Americans and strengthen the "green-collar" job market. This is evidence of our economy's shift in the right direction.
What do you think? "The company said Thursday it will start producing the Prius in 2010 at a plant it is building in Blue Springs, Miss. Toyota already b... more -
Hybrids Are a Chick Magnet
"So says a survey by General Motors that found nearly nine in 10 women would rather talk to a guy in a Prius than a Porsche. Dumping the SUV in favor of an econobox would make you more popular at parties, too. Eighty percent of respondents said they find people who drive fuel efficient cars more interesting than those that don't. The survey also found 45 percent of respondents consider gas guzzlers a fashion faux-pas."
It seems as though society has moved in the right direction. What do you ladies think? Is a Prius the new Ferrari? "So says a survey by General Motors that found nearly nine in 10 women would rather talk to a guy in a Prius than a Porsche. Dumping t... more -
Hybrids too quiet? Eight year old boys' mother thinks so!
Kids in the middle of the road and gets hit by a car, his mother blames the fact that the Hybrid was too quiet!!
Should of looked both ways!
Help the blind, cut off your mufflers!! Kids in the middle of the road and gets hit by a car, his mother blames the fact that the Hybrid was too quiet!! ... more -
The liger sleeps tonight
A three-month-old liger, the cub of a lion and a tiger, has become something of a celebrity in the Russian city where she's kept as a pet.
Lira lives with her trainer Pavel Zabelkin in a flat in a residential area of the eastern Russian city of Yekaterinburg.
His parents work with wild cats in a circus in another Urals city of Chelyabinsk.
Sonia Legg reports. A three-month-old liger, the cub of a lion and a tiger, has become something of a celebrity in the Russian city where she's kept as a ... more -
Car Show Exhibitors Plug In To Buzz Over Electric Models
Great to see automobile companies competing for the green in more ways than one, but when are these cars going to be made affordable and accomodating for the middle class? You know, those of us who need our cars to drive to work but are still stuck paying over three dollars for a gallon of gas? Great to see automobile companies competing for the green in more ways than one, but when are these cars going to be made affordable a... more
-
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 cooler than I tho... more
-
related topics
Hybrids
Contributors (19)
Hybrids
