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Back in August we told you Lexus plans to unveil a new hybrid-only model at the Detroit Auto Show in January at the same time as the reveal of the new third-generation 2010 Toyota Prius . Now, a newly published rendering from Japanese buff book Mag-X may give us some clues of what to expect from a car they claim will be badged as the Lexus HS250h. We'll let Mag-X take it from here: The drawing reveals a well-proportioned four-door car with Prius-like lines and angles—especially the front slope of its windshield and hood—while retaining design cues which are unmistakably Lexus, most notably the back-end and taillight styling. The publication says the Lexus HS250h will most likely be outfitted with the 2.4-liter engine and electric motor combo found in the Toyota Camry Hybrid, and share many of the same mechanicals as that car. This includes the current-generation nickel metal hydride battery. Carrying over the powertrain would be significantly more cost-effective than developing an entirely...
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There's an idea kicking around in the egghead community about a notion called V2G, or vehicle to grid, where parked hybrid or electric cars would be plugged into the city grid and used as a distributed power storage medium. Car owners would collect a fee as the cars would be used as a buffer to store power generated in off hours for use during peak times. The concept would do away with the need for backup generators and further offset the higher costs of hybrids. What the idea won't do is work without ginormous cross industrial and governmental standardization the likes of which will never be seen in the United States. To Europe, eggheads! [ LiveScience ]
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Chrysler's actually getting a little non- financiapocalyptic press today with the announcement that the Chrysler Aspen hybrid and Dodge Durango hybrid have managed an EPA-estimated 20 MPG city and 22 MPG highway rating. Coupled to the 5.7L Hemi V8 with cylinder-deactivation capability, the powertrain is good for 385 HP and 380 lb-ft of torque. The two-mode gas-electric hybrid system used in the Aspen and Durango is fundamentally the same as that used in the Chevy Tahoe hybrid and, while not Prius smooth, we can attest to it providing a great blend of performance and economy in our tester. [Chrysler]
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In an interview with a German newspaper, BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer has confirmed that a small city car is being developed to cope with future European and American regulations for fuel economy and pollution. But we're talking about more than just an electric Mini here. This will be an entirely new vehicle which will come with either a "very efficient combustion engine" or a pure electric powertrain. Of the standards it will meet will be a California regulation which mandates fuel cell or battery-powered vehicles to have a range of over 200 miles by the year 2012. But the burning question is, what will the car be called? The first thing that pops into our head when we hear talk of a small BMW city car that's completely different from the rest of the range is "Isetta," and that's said to still be a possibility. It would certainly be a more appealing name than 0-Series. BMW has had plenty of retro small car experience with the Mini brand, but a more forward...
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Nissan yesterday unveiled prototypes for both a new all-electric powertrain vehicle as well as the first pictures of a prototype hybrid powertrain built on an Infiniti G35. Both systems would be run off a new lithium-ion battery pack system. galleryPost('nissanenvirotech', 9, 'Nissan Blinds Us With Science'); We knew Nissan was working on a new electric car and yesterday the company revealed that the FWD platform will use a new high-density Li-Ion pack that sits underneath the floor (and out of the way) providing power to an 80 kW motor. Though we still expect a Denki Cube , the new flagship electric vehicle will now apparently not be based on any current platform. The new parallel drive hybrid system in the Infiniti features an electric motor coupled with a gasoline engine like most other HEV systems. Similar to the Lexus LS600h , the Nissan version involves a larger engine, in this case a V6, powering the rear vehicles. In order to achieve more linear acceleration, there...
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Honda has been diligently working on its Toyota Prius -fighter, a dedicated Honda hybrid expected to go on sale early in 2009. But they recently pulled out the trump card in this battle royal — a starting price of just $18,500. The five-door, five-passenger hybrid-only car will get to that low, low price point by using a greatly simplified — and 50% cheaper — version of its Integrated Motor Assist hybrid system. Seems the mileage wars are really starting to heat up. galleryPost('NewHondaHybridSpy', 6, 'Prius Shaped Honda Hybrid Testing Out In The Desert'); Jalopnik Snap Judgment: Considering the Honda hybrid will be coming in a whopping $3,000 less than the base Prius and will wear the depreciation-proof Honda badge, we're betting the number one super-best automaker from the land of the rising sun will be redoubling efforts on its 2010 Toyota Prius . Within three years, we'll be looking at volume sales of high-mileage offerings from Toyota, Honda...
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It looks like the crafty car spies of KGP caught up again with the Honda engineering team in the hot desert sands out west. Just in the nick of time to take an exclusive first set of shots of Honda's new Prius-fighting hybrid. We don't know much about it other than we knew the boys from Honda had something in development to sit on top of Honda's hybrid hierarchy — in the slot just above the 2009 Honda Civic hybrid sedan we saw earlier today. We also know it'll be a global model. Otherwise, you're on your own. Hit the jump for the spy report. galleryPost('NewHondaHybridSpy', 8, 'Honda Hybrid Heating Up In Summer Sun'); We just caught Honda's hybrid-only model that's designed to take on the Toyota Prius. The shape and packaging of this prototype is clearly Prius-inspired, although the overall size looks larger than Toyota's hybrid favorite. The test group consisted of a Toyota Prius, Honda's facelifted Civic Hybrid, and this prototype...
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GM is accelerating development of the 2010 Chevy Volt in an attempt to ready the production version to reveal as the company celebrates its 100th anniversary in September. Although we know GM desperately needs a cutting-edge Prius-killing success to stem the sales slide, given past RenCen rush jobs, we're not sure that setting a time deadline instead of a performance benchmark is the best way to move forward. A look at potential pitfalls after the jump. Exploding batteries: Remember the flaming plug-in Prius from a few weeks ago? No, that wasn't a manufacturer-sanctioned ride, but it still plainly shows the dangers inherent in releasing unproven technology. The fact that GM has yet to name a supplier for Volt's lithium-ion battery pack is another red flag for the power source. Embarrassing show mishaps: GM needs a win...and they need it to be a clean win, both on the stage and showroom floor. No panels falling off, stalls, massive oil leaks, fires, or collapsing spokes-robots...
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Auto Motor & Sport , by way of Motor Authority , reported yesterday on a joint effort between the energy departments of two august establishments of hybrid research — the United States' Argonne National Laboratory and Sweden's Lindholmen Science Park. The $37 million program will work on developing new plug-in hybrid technology. Also, a better meatball! [ Motor Authority ]
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If you hadn't already divined it from the tea leaves Ferrari has been sprinkling around lately, hybridization is officially coming to the Ferrari stable. Whether it was the bold proclamation at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show that Ferrari would reduce its emissions by 40% by 2012 , or the recent hybridized F1 cars outfitted with the KERS system , we all knew it had to happen. Apparently 2015 is where the blindly thrown dart landed on the wall of time. Ferrari President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo stressed in an interview with German mag Welt am Sonntag (World on Sunday) it was their goal to reach the emissions targets, but the car that emerges will still need be "fundamentally a Ferrari." We agree, and think that if anyone can pull it off, Ferrari can — when cost is essentially no object, a hybrid can be a fire-breathing, huge-torque road menace. And there's no reason to expect anything less from the prancing pony. [ SMH.com ]
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There may be no better indicator that many carmakers have been unable to adjust to the sudden increase in gas prices and the resulting shift in consumer demand than hybrid sales. Although there was an obvious run to more fuel-efficient cars — witness the Civic besting the Ford F-150 in overall sales for the first time ever — hybrid sales overall were down 11% from April to May, down 24.3% month-to-month from 2007 and even the market-leading Toyota Prius experienced a 31% drop in sales for the month. How did that happen? There are a few factors at work here, which we've helpfully outlined below the jump. First off, there was an overall drop in vehicle sales in the United States — that's obviously going to affect sales of the largest fuel-suckers first, but the current economic situation affects anyone looking to buy right now, even in the hybrid marketplace. But the biggest factor isn't the issue of demand, it's supply. Toyota decided to only create about...
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newVideoPlayer("prius-speakers.flv", 506, 423,""); The ongoing saga of THE SILENT KILLERS continues to unfold. Today we encounter researchers at Stanford University demonstrating their external speaker system for the Toyota Prius , designed to warn the blind, children and other susceptible parties that an unusually silent vehicle is on the prowl. Congress is currently evaluating a bill that would establish minimum sound levels for all vehicles and potentially make these two Stanford students very, very rich. Or at least the Chinese company that makes a knock-off version for a fifth the price. [ NewScientist ]
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The current state of gas prices may not be as big of a ball-buster for Prius owners , but recent reports suggest that there aren't as many Priuses on the road as there could be because of manufacturing shortages. One move by Toyota to try and combat this shortage is by building a $192 million battery plant in the Japan city of Shizuoka. Toyota is partnering with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. for a plant that will produce nickel-metal hydride batteries, the same batteries used in the Prius hybrid. Maybe they'd save on materials if they made smaller keys. [ Wired ] (Image via Getty)
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Who knew hybrids were sexy? Wired 's pointing us today to a survey by the General that found nearly nine in 10 women would rather talk to a guy in a Prius than a Porsche. However, at no point does GM ask the question of whom the women would then rather go home with. Wethinks perhaps it's the guy with the Porsche. Or at least the guy with the big C-Class, if you know what we mean. Right? Right?! Yeah, you know what we're talking about. [ GM via Wired ]
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As we start to head into the lazy sweltering days of summer, Death Valley becomes the perfect location for balmy weather testing — a must-have for everything from powertrain endurance testing to figuring out exactly how cold that A/C system gets. Thus, fertile ground for those of you looking to make a foray into car spy shooting. Take the above prototype caught by spy shooter and Jalopnik reader Dan Leathers. The shots show what may be a new but not entirely unexpected development out of Ford — a 2009 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid . How did we gather it's a hybrid from just a glance at the shots? Well, it's a plausible explanation for why it'd be doing comparison testing with a Toyota Camry Hybrid. galleryPost('2009LincolnMKZHybridSpy', 6, 'Lincoln MKZ Hybrid Swelters In The Deadly Sun'); While we already knew we'd see a hybrid version of the 2009 Ford Fusion — a fellow member of the threesome of Ford's CD3-platformed mid-size econoboxes —...
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