How to make your own Biodiesel from Canola oil!

Convert your car to an EV for around $5,600! (plus batteries)

GBS is a high-tech manufacturer who specializes in developing and manufacturing of LiFeMnPO4 power battery packs. GBS owns a patented environmentaly friendly solvent binder (which replaces “PVDF”) and creates a unique scalable battery cell design. GBS has developed more than 10 battery products with single cell capacities ranging from 20AH to 400AH. They are the ideal energy sources not only for electric bikes, scooters, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs), but also for energy storage devices used in solar and wind electricity generation applications and other multi-power systems, as well as military use.

GBS Features

- 10% higher energy density by weight and by volume than Thundersky batteries.
- Superior safety performance due to patented new safety valve and pressure cap designs.
- Batteries do not explode or catch fire when batteries are shorted or punctuated resulting in internal shorts.
- Robust connection due to new electrode terminal design using four rivets or four screws per terminal. This helps prevent loose connections caused by vibration.
- Reduced impedance due to improved electrode terminal design.
- Improved cycle life.
- New cell structure better facilitates BMS integration and battery pack formation, and improves air circulation.

Specifications

- Nominal Voltage: 12.8V (4X 3.2 V)
- Nominal Capacity: 40 Ah
- LiFeMnPO4 chemistry
- Operation Voltage Range: 11.2 to 14.4V
- Weight: 6.6 kg or 14.6 lbs
- Dimension: 125X208X180 mm or 4.9X8.2X7.1 in
- Max Charging Current: 3C
- Max Discharge Current: 3C (continuous) / 10C (pulsed)
- Cycle Life : >1500 (80%DOD)
- Operating Temperature: -20 to 65 C or -4 to 149 F
- Self Discharge Rate: <3% monthly
- Accessories included: jumpers, bolts or rivets, washers, split washers and cell covers

The ALL-NEW SILICA COMPOUND in the Yokohama AVID ENVigor delivers ultra-low rolling resistance for increased fuel efficiency, without sacrificing treadlife, comfort or grip on dry, wet or snow-covered roads.

I'm not usually one for supercars, but this McLaren P1 is going to be a hybrid. An electric motor will grant you an additional 176 hp instantly and help decrease shift times by quickly dropping engine speed when downshifting.

Cool.

Rapid-charge li-ion battery project seeking crowdfunding, promises 100% charge in 16 minutes. This could be great news for EV batteries. FUND THEIR PROJECT!

The French Pyrenees town that staged the world's first Grand Prix nearly a century ago now hosts the world's first electric car Grand Prix. Pau in southern France has seen many a race since 1901 - but none as quiet as this one.

Audi is constructing a huge synthetic natural gas plant in Germany that demonstrates its commitment to renewable energy just as it provides some valuable R&D to help prove e-gas is economically and environmentally possible. The 44,000-square-foot plant is in Werlite, a small town in northwestern Germany near the North Sea, 217 miles north of company headquarters in Ingolstadt, near Munich.

The goal is carbon-free fuel, and it sounds far from easy. Wind turbines generate electricity to manufacture hydrogen by electrolysis, which then is used, along with CO2 captured from the air, to produce methane. Audi calls it e-gas.

Audi will be plugging into the power produced by a massive wind farm two miles off the coast of Zingst, a resort town along the North Sea. The synthetic gas would be distributed through existing CNG pipelines to gas stations. The e-gas plant is set to absorb nearly 3,000 metric tons of CO2 from the air annually, and feed 1,000 metric tons of e-gas into Germany's public natural gas network.

The demonstration plant, with what Audi is calling a Methanation reactor, is set to begin a test run in spring 2013. Audi also is marketing an A3 Sportback, designated as a TCNG, to run on the synthetic natural gas. The A3 Sportback TCNG arrives in dealerships in Germany late in 2013.

Generating your own power, or manufacturing your own fuel, seems to be the new thing for automakers. Last week, VW plugged in its huge solar park, which will power its LEED-certified factory in Chattanooga, TN to make the fuel-efficient Passat.

US on track to increase number of public charge stations by 40% in 2013. Once there is more infrastructure, hopefully people will be more likely to buy EVs.

VW starts up largest solar park at US auto factory in Chattanooga, TN. In December 2011, the Volkswagen plant near Chattanooga, TN was certified LEED Platinum. That's a difficult level to reach – as we described at the time – but the one billion dollars the company spent there fit snugly into the VW corporate storyline: we're going to make cleaner cars at cleaner plants. We're going to reduce CO2 emissions by 30 percent (between 2006 and 2015). We're going to make sure our production facilities are 25 percent more "environmentally compatible." We're going to Think Blue. Located just a short bus ride away from the factory, the 65-acre solar park (33 of which are the solar panels themselves) is the largest single array in Tennessee. It is also the largest solar park at a US auto factory. It is made up of 33,600 individual solar panels that together generate 9.58 megawatts of DC power (that's at the panels, it's 7.6 MW of AC power going into the plant) and 13.1 gigawatt hours of electricity a year. That's 12.5 percent of the plant's power needs. In CO2 terms, this means emissions are reduced by 6,675 tons a year, or the amount that 360 average US homes would generate.

Cool diagram of all the systems that made GM's EV-1 tick.

SF Bay Area will get more quick-charging stations for Nissan Leafs. Northern California Nissan Leaf owners may be in for their own San Francisco Treat of sorts, as the automaker said it's planning to deploy more quick-charging stations that will be accessible to the electric vehicles, Plug In Car reports.

Nissan spokesman Tim Gallagher, speaking with the San Francisco Bay Area Leaf Owners Association, said that Nissan will add "a lot" of quick chargers during the next 60 days or so, with many being deployed at Nissan dealerships. Gallagher didn't say whether they'd be free to use or would charge drivers.

Still, such chargers, which will use the Japanese-based CHAdeMO standard, will be able to add as many as 60 miles of range to the Leafs in about 25 minutes. More access to quick chargers will likely help Nissan continue its sales upswing for the Leaf, especially in the EV-happy Bay Area. Nissan Leaf sales last month jumped 56 percent from a year earlier to 1,489 units, allowing total-year Leaf sales to overtake 2011's numbers and reach 9,819 units. A big price drop on the 2013 model won't hurt, either.

The Top Gear guys build their own electric car. How hard can it be?

Here's how Popular Mechanics would build a 100mpg car.

Get the absolute most mpg out of any car by HYPERMILING. Check out the techniques in this video.

Here's an often overlooked way to get better gas mileage: low resistance tires. Click for an article about how they work.

Want to build your own electric car? Follow these blogs from 3 guys who did it for less than $2,500 including the car!