Autoblog

BMW's MINI brand already produces some of the most efficient vehicles for sale in the US, and sources say the pint-sized cars will soon go emissions free, at least in California. BMW is planning to lease 490 Minis in California, with an additional 10 vehicles planned for show car duty. The emissions-free MINIs will be silver with a yellow roof, which should stand out nicely in the land of fruits and nuts.

There are no details at this point pertaining to EV range or date of availability, but BMW claims it will make an announcement regarding electric vehicles later in the year. With all the talk of game-changing vehicles coming in the near future, we're getting the feeling that the upcoming auto show season could be one of the more memorable on record.

[Source: Automotive News (subs req'd)]

Guy Negre's compressed air vision has crossed our desks before. The vehicle, which uses a motor powered by 4,000 psi of compressed air stored in carbon fiber tanks, will actually start production in India soon – after 15 years in development – thanks to some help from India's biggest automaker, Tata, which itself just unveiled the world's least expensive car called the Nano. The MDI Citycat and Minicat are built from lightweight materials and offer large passenger and luggage space with zero emissions motoring. The energy required to refill the compressed air tanks reportedly costs about $2, and there are optional propulsion units to extend the roughly 90-mile (at speeds of 40mph or below) range of the vehicle so you aren't stuck if your air car runs out of breath.

We wonder if the MDI Citycat and Minicat might actually increase the demand for compressed air. We can just imagine someone finding a way to make money selling high-octane squeezed atmosphere. Regardless, 100 miles of zero emissions sounds good to us, and MDI is also considering setting up local factories in various markets to virtually eliminate transport costs and pollution, too. With Tata's large resources and the insatiable demand of the burgeoning Indian market, these clever cars stand a good chance of success.

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]

It's as close as we'll come to a Mr. Fusion for a long time. Project 1221 is an independently-funded project to develop a zero-emissions gas turbine powered vehicle.

They've released their yearly update, which offers scant information shrouded in obfuscatory nebulous prose. From what we can glean, they've hit a wall and are now actively seeking alliances for design, engineering and manufacturing assistance to help bring the project to successful fruition, having exhausted the extent of their expertise and experience. Perhaps outside involvement will move the project along at a greater clip.

The wild-card in the mix is the gas turbine powerplant. Chrysler did significant engineering work in the '60's and throughout the '70s (they even put a turbine in a Volare, what a fall from grace from powering jets), but the technology has been largely dismissed as being not viable for mass-produced automobiles. With a goal of zero emissions, complete combustion of fuel is a must.

Make the jump for the rest of the story.

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Project 1221 MF1 to make 1,500bhp
More Project 1221 details revealed

Slowly, the arguments against owning an alternative-fuel vehicle are being made invalid. There's an electric car for speed junkies. There's even a hybrid for hauling more than two people. The Prius not orange enough for ya? You're covered too.

But until now, if you wanted to haul cargo, your choices were limited, if not nonexistent. Phoenix Motorcars hopes to fill that need soon with its uncreatively-named Sport Utility Truck. The midsize pickup will use not one drop of gasoline while hauling your oversized sheets of plywood or mounds of mulch. The four-door cab will even let you take five of your closest home-improvement-able friends to the megastore, while the 480-lb-ft of torque takes the vehicle to 60 mph in a claimed 10 seconds and on up to 95 mph.

Phoenix says the SUT's battery pack will recharge 95% in 10 minutes with the off board charger and in six hours with the on board charger. The company says its NanoSafe battery packs will get 100 miles on a charge, and are guaranteed for 12 years. It just received a $750,000 order for 10 of the 35KWh packs from Altair Nanotechnologies. That order will help the company meet its goal of selling 500 of the California-built pickups in late 2007 in that state, and 6,000 nationwide by 2008.

Autoblog Green reported on the company from SEMA and has all the technical details on their site.

More photos after the jump.

[Sources: TechEBlog and The Auto Channel]

The Peugeot 207 EPURE concept looks like a production car because, for the most part, it is. What you see is the new Peugeot 207 CC ... almost. A peek underhood reveals the "concept" part of this little French bulldog: it's powered by a fuel cell.

The car's name is an obvious nod toward it's green credentials, and Peugeot used the car's colors to help communicate that theme as well. The white paint, white leather interior, and soft "absinthe" green carpeting and accents communicate the cleanliness associated with its alternative fuel source. Some interior features are concept-specific, such as the instrumentation used to monitor the car's power sources. In addition to that, a lot of the leather-covered interior surfaces will likely be hide-free when the production 207 CC bows.

Peugeot says that it was natural to use a convertible as the platofrm here because the open air dirving experience is most enhanced by the car's quiet operation and emissions-free nature. The power source is a GENEPAC 20 (20 kW) fuel cell that is fed by five 15-liter hydrogen cylinders stored at the bottom of the car's trunk. The fuel cell powers the EPURE's electric motor (Peak power: 95 hp / 133 lb-ft) and recharges its 50 kW Lithium-Ion battery.

(More info, photos, press release after the jump)