Cheap Gas Car Blog

2010 Toyota Prius Pics Leaked

New pictures show what 2010 Toyota prius may look like.

New Battery To Yield Big Hybrid Results

CSIRO researchers in Melbourne Australia have developed a new version of lead-acid battery that is cheap, and can store large amounts of energy like the current nickel-metal hydride batteries used in cars such as the Toyota Prius.

The current battery set-up works better than lead-acid because lead-acid batteries form corrosive deposits when they are charged and used repeatedly over a short period of time, and they lose their long life of power, making them break-down in a sense.

The researchers have combined a lead-acid battery with a capacitor to reduce the corrosion on the batteries metal plates.  Making the lead-acid batteries last as long as nivkel-metal hydrid ones.

"By acting as a buffer during charging and discharging, the capacitor boosts the battery's life to match that of NiMH batteries," The company reported.

The new battery is said to boost power output by fifty percent ad last four times as long as a standard lead-acid bettery.  A test vehicle has drivin more than 185,000 km's  with the prototype batteries installed. 

The cost of the battery is projected to be a third of the current battery costs in current hybrid auto's.  The battery is slated for production in 2009 in the US.

New Prototype Hybrid Shipping Truck

New company plans to bring hybrid delivery truck to US.

Smith Electric Vehicles which isbased in Britain, are showing off an all-electric plug-in delivery truck that recharges within four and a half to six hours.  Designed for urban environments, the truck has a range of 130 to 150 miles per complete recharge and a top driving speed of 50mph.  Smith Electric Vehicles plans to begin selling the hybrid delivery vehicles in the US beginning 2009.  The demand for such a type of vehicle is very large, due to the looming environmental crisis, and the need for fleet managers to reduce the cost of shipping via any means possible.  The price of Gasoline and diesel is at a all-time high, causing panic that shipping companies will increase their rates to stay afloat.  Hybrid vehicles such a this one by Smith Electric Vehicles are the first part of a solution to this problem.

Ford Gets Eco Grant

Ford receives $10 Million for Plug-in hybrid Development

Ford Motor Co. will receive a $10 million dollar grant from the US Energy Department to continue a $20 million dollar development program for plug-in Hybrid automobiles.  This consists of 20 plug-in Hybrid Auto's, and the steps needed to convert the fleet from prototypes to comercialization.

Ford is working on a fleet of Escape plug-in hybrids in a partnership with Southern California Edison, the Electric Power Research Institute, Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions LLC and DTE Energy.