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New Italian company Tazzari aims to address one of the key shortcomings of electric cars — recharge time — by offering a vehicle capable of taking a full charge in just 45 minutes. Tazzari hasn’t clarified what kind of outlet is required for this compressed recharge time, but as it’s an Italian company, we’ll assume at least a 220v is needed, but likely not a commercial-grade three-phase unit like the one required by the Lightning GT supercar. By comparison, the Tesla Roadster takes 8 hours or so to recharge its batteries, but it’s also capable of a sub 4-second 0-60 time, a 125 MPH top speed and a range of 200 miles. The Tazzari, which will presumably be far cheaper, is only capable of hitting 56 MPH, has a range of 93 miles and does 0-31 MPH in “less than 5 seconds.” While it’s not a performance car, the Tazzari Zero actually looks like it has significant merit as a city runabout, having range and performance considerably greater than its main competition, the G-Wiz. Like...
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It wasn’t until I crashed into a pile of boxes and luggage that I realized riding a motorcycle — even a completely silent electric one with no emissions — around my Brooklyn apartment was a bad idea. I’d been attempting to do a burnout, but the painted concrete floor didn’t have enough grip for the Quantya Strada ’s front tire and plenty for the rear, resulting in a wheelie. Compounding matters was the bar-mounted back brake that sits where the clutch lever normally does. When I went slip the clutch to bring the bike back in line, the brake just tossed me into the boxes. The nice thing about riding a bike in your apartment is that, while you might do irreparable damage to all of your and your friend’s worldly belongings, you probably won’t hurt yourself too badly. galleryPost('quantyastradadrive', 15, 'Quantya Strada Street-Legal Electric Motorcycle'); Never mind the Chevy Volt , never mind the Tesla Roadster , never mind the Dodge ev revealed in concept yesterday. None...
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It wasn’t until I crashed into a pile of boxes and luggage that I realized riding a motorcycle — even a completely silent electric one with no emissions — around my Brooklyn apartment was a bad idea. I’d been attempting to do a burnout, but the painted concrete floor didn’t have enough grip for the Quantya Strada ’s front tire and plenty for the rear, resulting in a wheelie. Compounding matters was the bar-mounted back brake that sits where the clutch lever normally does. When I went slip the clutch to bring the bike back in line, the brake just tossed me into the boxes. The nice thing about riding a bike in your apartment is that, while you might do irreparable damage to all of your and your friend’s worldly belongings, you probably won’t hurt yourself too badly. galleryPost('quantyastradadrive', 15, 'Quantya Strada Street-Legal Electric Motorcycle'); Never mind the Chevy Volt , never mind the Tesla Roadster , never mind the Dodge ev revealed in concept yesterday. None...
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News of Shelby SuperCars' intention to build an electric version of its record breaking SSC Ultimate Aero TT leaked out yesterday prompting the company to make the news official. The company expects the SSC Ultimate Aero EV to be ready by late next year, saying that it will initially feature a 500 HP electric motor and revolutionary batteries capable of holding their charge for "years." Additionally, the vehicle will use a 6-speed transmission and once the first model is out, they'll be exploring ways to fit two of the motors into the engine bay, resulting in a 1000 HP model. It's tempting to call shenanigans on this, but when you've made the world's fastest car, beating huge German companies in the process, you suddenly gain a lot of credibility. SSC are keeping additional details hush hush, but click through to read their full performance claims. West Richland, WA (July 18, 2008) Shrouded in mystery and secrecy, SSC (www.shelbysupercars.com) has announced...
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The problem with the green movement isn't its goal of conservation — that's admirable — it's the gullibility many of its proponents suffer from and which big companies and governments are able to exploit to sell them on far-from-friendly products and policies. Take biofuel for instance. Many of its sources use more energy and effort than they're capable of producing, yet they receive subsidies and publicity over sources that might actually prove sustainable. This chart, put together by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer neatly sums this up. We only spot one glaring omission, poop . galleryPost('biofuelscompare', 6, 'Biofuels Comparison Chart'); [ Seattle PI via Treehugger ] Photogrpahy credit: Daniel Leininger
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The Santa Monica Civic Center has erected one hell of a new, very green parking facility. The building, which looks like a technicolor nightmare, is on task to become the first LEED certified parking garage in the country. LEED is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, basically certifying the building as green. It does have some pretty interesting features, including something current or future electric-owners will love. The top of the parking garage has solar panels that not only power the building, but provide shade for cars packed on the top deck. The entire building was built with green paints and finishes and a low-e glazing system helps maintain the garages temperature a little more efficiently that other parking garages, therefore leaving you with a potentially cooler (or warmer) car after it has sat for eight hours or more. It includes a water treatment run-off system, as well. One of the bigger points of the building is that it has 14 spaces primarily devoted to electric...
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Is socialism staging a resurgence in Britain? We wonder sometimes. With a Labour government back in power, and gas nearing $6 a gallon, conservation may be giving way to regulatory miserliness across the pond, sold to the public with a tinge of green. The UK of course went through its own Malaise Era, after the war. It was a time of weak tea and Kingsley Amis novels, before the Swingin' Sixties episode. And now there's a building sense that the bad times are returning and that carmakers who can't get with the the UK's increasingly aggressive environmental policies are on the wrong side of history. That's the takeaway from British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling's announcement that his first budget will tax high-emissions vehicles and, consequently, reward consumers for choosing low-emission rides. If Britons really want to get into the spirit of things, however, they'll forgo cars altogether and start riding bicycles in emulation of Philip Larkin...
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With green-this, hydrogen-that, hybrid-this and Al Gore-that all slowly taking over the pages of Jalopnik, we thought that we still had the safe haven known as the "traditional engine" to fall back on, free from worries about the environment or mpg or anything else. Until now. Welcome G-Oil to the party, the green-alternative to traditional motor oil. This oil supposedly uses nanotechnology and dehydrogenation, whatever the hell those do, to be all green-like. It contains amino acid, plant exacts, plant-based fatty acids and non-ionic surfacants. Sounds like it would make a nice shampoo! One appealing feature is that when it comes time for an oil change you can combine the G-Oil with Green Earth Technology's G-DISPOSOIL to ensure the oil is 100 percent biodegradable. G-Oil also comes in a variety of weighs including 5w-20, 5w-30, 10w-30, 10w-40, 15w-40, 20w-50 and SAE-30. Man, going green is freaking awesome! [ Toolmonger ]
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