The dream of plugging your electric vehicle in for the night is getting closer, but it’s not as easy as a Glade Plug-In. It seems that that the new breed of electric vehicles won’t just plug into our home outlets along with the toaster or the alarm clock.
Because of this, Nissan announced that all future Nissan Leaf owners are required to have a Nissan-certified electrician visit their home before purchase. The electrician will survey the home and declare whether or not it’s up-to-snuff to handle the $2,200 (on top of the $32K car price) charger installation. If the home doesn’t meet standards, the electrician will provide an estimate for upgrade costs.
Nissan has yet to decide whether they’ll charge for the visits, but we figure with the 50% federal tax credit for component installation, and the $7,500 electric car credit, and never going to the gas station again will definitely outweigh the difference.
No, the above graph isn’t a picture of America’s Blue/Red division over each state’s political leanings. It’s actually a picture of how much gasoline each state consumes per capita. Funny how the two nearly mirror each other though, isn’t it?
Unleashed as a concept car in 2007 and touted to be the savior of the General’s future, the Chevy Volt does not appear to be any closer to American driveways.
Now, Chevy is on the heels of the worst two economic years in company history. So, the fact that the Volt is still even an idea, or any other bowtie ride for that matter, is good news. But, for a car that the company is hinging so much of their “future success” on, it seems like they should be cranking these things out.
Well, not yet. But they are getting closer.
The pre-production model was unloaded onto a Manhattan dock a few weeks ago for a gaggle of auto journalists to drive around. (We missed the call; apparently we were tending our tomato garden that day).
So, to make up for not having a firsthand account of the $35K “General’s electric,” we defer to our contemporaries over at Winding Road Magazine. Take it away guys.
Looks like the X-PRIZE Foundation is at it again. This time it seeks to award $10,000,000 for a super-fuel efficient vehicle. To further ideas and designs for realistic, safe, affordable fuel-efficient vehicles, the Automotive X-PRIZE seeks to do for vehicle travel what the Ansari X-PRIZE did for space travel.
By offering up $10 mil, the X-PRIZE is out to “leverage the elements of public interest, entrepreneurial spirit and cross-disciplinary innovation to bring about breakthroughs that benefit us all.” Well, 10 million smackers should do it.
Sponsored by Progressive Insurance, the Automotive X-PRIZE competition is passed the qualifying stages (teams must pass a series of rigorous reviews of their business plans and technical specs) and onto the fun part—the track. From the end of April to September, the 41 teams will gradually be eliminated and whittled down to the one $10,000,000 dollar winner.
Unlike the X-PRIZE for space, the Automotive X-PRIZE promises something more tangible to the general public in the form of super fuel efficient automobiles. We here at Discover Hybrids are damn excited to see what comes out of this year’s competition—stay tuned for the updates.
VW Sweden has awarded the winner for their Fun Theory viral video campaign, and the winner is, not surprisingly, as coated in sticky-hippy sensibilities as the contest organizers themselves.
Now, save for our token right-leaning intern, the staff here at Discover Hybrids loves sticky-hippy sensibilities. Of course, we like ‘em best when they’re stuck on skinny hippy celebrity girls with flowers in their hair and patchouli in their pockets. But we digress.
The Fun Theory, as it states on their site, “is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better.” Not a bad premise. And, judging by the amount of attention this campaign garnered, it’s not a bad way for VW to align themselves with the green side of things.
The above video, The Speed Camera Lottery, is the winner. Go here to check out the other entries and the Fun Theory campaign.
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