Jim Motavalli Blog

From 'Jetsons' to your driveway: A folding car
Modern electronic controls help make science-fiction visions like the Hiriko Fold possible. It's an Explorer-sized electric car pod that folds to fit into a third of a parking space. Here's the ultimate solution to urban charging issues!
Why wildly erratic gas prices are driving everybody crazy
Americans are changing their car-buying habits every month, as gas prices send up and down signals to the marketplace. The solution: A price floor for gasoline, guaranteed by the feds. Politically, it's dead on arrival.
Romney to Obama: Sell that GM stock
Romney says his first order of business would be selling off the government's GM stock at a $16 billion loss. That's questionable fiscal policy. If Romney had his way, General Motors would have ceased to exist back in 2009.
The auto industry's cloudy outlook
2012 car sales are looking up, so why isn't the industry happy? Everybody's nervous that the good times won't last, and electrics remain a question mark.
Selling electrics, one car at a time
For the start-ups, selling unfamiliar electric cars to Americans means a lot of guerrilla marketing. That's why Coda and Tesla are opening stores in malls, and Wheego is co-sponsoring contests and selling into police fleets.
Do green leaders drive electric cars?
If EV advocates won't step up to the plate, who will? I admit I don't own one yet, and many other green writers are in the same boat. Read on, and see who's a member of the club and who isn't.
4 cool tech ideas for green cars and renewable energy
Maybe tech won't save the world, but these innovative concepts will make it just a little bit better: River power, pedal power, battery power and iPhone app power.
New electric car conversion kit will charge your car (and wallet)
It may take a while for automakers to build enough EVs to matter, which is why conversion companies are looking to electrify our current fleet. The drawback is that it's still pretty expensive. Fleets are likely to be the early adopters.
Driving? That's so yesterday!
Thanks to Google, Honda and GM, we can see a future of autonomous driving. And it's just in time, because texting and Facebooking young people are falling out of love with the romance of the road.
Ferrari and Porsche offer $850,000 hybrid green machines
The Porsche 918 Spyder and Ferrari F70 offer split personalities: voracious performance on tap, but eco-driving if you tread lightly. Is it a new era of Dr. Green and Mr. Hyde?

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