We Obsessively Cover the Green Scene…

It looks like Blue's fighting Red over the Green.

Democratic members of Congress and some U.S. military leaders are planning to fight the Republican-led effort to quash efforts to expand use of biofuels for the U.S. military, the Colorado Independent reports.

Proponents of more biofuel use by the military say they can help hedge against the type of fuel-price increases that will cost the federal government $1.3 billion in 2012. Petroleum use also causes safety issues. About one in 30 convoys designed to ensure the operation of refueling lines in Iraq and Afghanistan has led to a soldier casualty. More petroleum use also causes more greenhouse gas emissions, and the resulting climate change causes natural disasters that boost disaster-relief requirements from the military, biofuel proponents say.

Last week, the Talking Points Memo blog reported that a Republican-led group within the House Armed Services Committee put at risk hundreds of millions of dollars worth programs approved during the past few years by voting to disallow the U.S. Department of Defense from paying more for biofuels that would be used in military vehicles than regular fuels. Such a ban would reverse projects such as last August's a three-year, $510 million project with the USDA and DoD that was designed to develop biofuels for the private sector.

The Fisker Karma might look good from the outside, but the view from the driver's seat is anything but infotaining.

That's the detailed, expert opinion of Brian Greenstone, an Austin, TX-based programmer who owns both a Karma and an Aston Vantage, according to The Truth About Cars. Greenstone also has enough time and passion for his cars that he recorded a 41-minute video about just why the Karma's infotainment and climate control panel, the Command Center, is so tremendously bad (he also made a 27-minute video reviewing the car as a whole. Both are available below). Greenstone gives the system an F. That's up from an F- before a recent software update. These are grades only an owner can give, someone who's spent time getting to know the car. He says:

• Automatic climate control? It "basically doesn't work."
• Bluetooth? The screen "gives you no information."
• Changing audio inputs using the steering wheel controls? "I have no idea what audio mode I'm in."
• System settings? "I've got to take a breath before I start talking about this. This is awful. This makes you wonder what two-year-old designed it."

In short, Greenstone doesn't like the Command Center. Fisker, since these are mostly software issues, the ball is in your court to improve things. Do a good job and Greenstone might just bump you up to a D-.

Reports of Mercedes-Benz and Tesla building an electric A-Class together are nothing new. In fact, a fleet of 500 A-Class-based E-Cells was built for Europe. Most recently, a Tesla earnings report revealed that Tesla was still working on an all-electric powertrain for an unnamed EV for Daimler, the evolution of a deal that began when Daimler invested in the Silicon Valley automaker in 2009. The two automakers also worked together on the Smart ED.

So, what's this then in a Dutch website? A report on Groen7 says that "a source at Tesla" has revealed that the previously unnamed EV Tesla is busy with (among other things) is an updated, electric version of the new A-Class, one that will perhaps arrive in 2013. We had previously guessed the secret Tesla-Daimler deal would result in an all-electric B-Class, but being wrong there won't stop us from trying to predict the future again: the hints are present that this next A-Class EV will remain a small-scale project. We hope we're proved wrong.

There are two ways automakers can go when producing a vehicle with electric propulsion – be it a hybrid or an outright EV: make it look the same as any other car, or make it stand out. Like Toyota (for example) did with the Prius, Nissan made the Leaf look (for better or worse) unlike a conventional sedan. But while Toyota answered the call for more space with the equally "distinctive" Prius V, Nissan has gone a different route in producing a bigger brother for the Leaf.

That route is called the e-NV200, pictured above in concept form. And while the nose, unique shade of blue and electric powertrain are conceptually borrowed from the Leaf, the rest is nearly identical to the existing NV200 van that is being rolled out in New York as the city's new taxi of choice.

Nissan has just announced the production of the e-NV200, set to start next year at the same plant in Barcelona, Spain, as the conventionally-powered NV200. As a result, Nissan will hire 700 more workers at the plant and invest some €100 million (U.S. $126 million at today's exchange rates). Details like projected cost and annual capacity are not to be found in the press release below, but Nissan does say the electric van will be built starting some time in fiscal year 2013. That means some time before the end of March 2014.

The battle lines are hardening.

At issue here are the competing DC fast charge standards, CHAdeMO (which is established and works with the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsubishi i) and the new SAE Combo Charger (which is not yet available on any cars for sale, and won't be for a while). CHAdeMo is, mostly, supported by Japanese companies, while the SAE Combo plug gets its backing from U.S. and German automakers. The two sides are currently in a war of words, but an important one.

Shad Balch, GM's manager of environment and energy policy, said during a recent public hearing in California that there should be a CHAdeMO embargo, "we need to make sure, especially because we're talking about taxpayer money, that ONLY those standards [i.e., the SAE combo plug] are installed going forward," Torque News reports. The crowd booed Balch, but he went on to say that, "there is a very small group of cars that use a non-standardized level 3 charging connector." We've heard that the first vehicle to get the SAE connector will be the Chevrolet Spark, sometime in 2013.

At CHAdeMO's General Assembly 2012, held yesterday in Tokyo, the Asian team responded. According to Hybrid Cars, CHAdeMO president Toshiyuki Shiga (who is also the COO of Nissan) said, "in the U.S. and in Europe there is a movement to eliminate the CHAdeMO by making the combo a regional standard." At the event, the SAE Combo option was repeatedly called "the plug without the cars."

GM and Balch are clearly fighting against Nissan's pure EV dominance, but they can't change the fact is that CHAdeMO is leading the way. Recently, at the SAE World Congress, Nissan was displaying some facts about CHAdeMO. As of the end of March 2012, 33 companies (including charging station suppliers) supported CHAdeMO and there were 1,071 CHAdeMO quick chargers installed around the world. Since the SAE Combo Charger is so new, there are no stations or cars that support it – yet – but most of the charging station companies we've talked to recently said they'll get behind whatever technology customers want. This war of words will likely determine which plug that is.

Vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) aren't quite as exciting as cars that pack a big battery pack, but there's a good chance the gas-burners will play an increasing role in our transportation choice moving forward. Like 1,150,000 big.

Frost & Sullivan has released an analysis that claims that these alternate fuels will sell almost 900,000 units in Europe and almost 250,000 in North America by 2018. The coming CNG/LPG boom is the result of EPA and ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers' Association) regulations that call for lower emissions and, perhaps most importantly, the fact that moving from gasoline to CNG or LPG costs much less than shifting to battery or hydrogen fuel cell powertrains. In North America, the early adopters will mostly be fleets (i.e., UPS) while Europe already has a growing number of CNG and LPG vehicles, with LPG cars – for example the Kia Picanto, pictured, which can run on both LPG and gasoline – being adopted at a much higher rate than CNG vehicles.

The problem, as with all alt-fuels, is that most stations are set up to pump gasoline. Frost & Sullivan says that the "development of enhanced refuelling infrastructure" will be required to make their CNG/LPG sales estimates a reality.

Chip Yates retired his electric motorcycle last year after setting records at the Mohave Mile and Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and notching several (slower than Lightning) FIM World Land Speed achievements on the Bonneville Salt Flats. If you thought he was done with his pursuit of battery-powered feats, however, you have underestimated just how crazy this Californian is. Case in point? He's just announced a plan to trace the path Charles Lindbergh took during his historic flight from New York to Paris in an electric airplane.

Not just any electric airplane though. To get around the energy density limits of today's batteries, the craft is to be refueled during in-flight rendezvous with drones, which will either recharge or swap packs. No, we're not making this up.

In the time it takes to make this flight of fancy flight of the century happen, Chip will keep busy with other high-flying adventures. He is currently converting a Burt Rutan Long-EZ (now dubbed the Long-ESA, for "Electric Speed & Altitude") to battery power, with which he will attempt altitude and speed records this summer. He is also in the midst of taking another important step in achieving immortal airborne fame: getting his pilot's license.

Scroll below for more transatlantic flight details in the official press release. You can keep up with Chip's flying adventures on his Twitter feed and at his new Flight of the Century website.

This is one political flip-flop scenario that could actually please some constituents.

The Obama Administration might reverse its policy of cutting support for hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle development (FCEV) in favor of battery-electric vehicles by putting more resources towards FCEV advancement, Slate reports.

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently spoke at a private event and supported expansion of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, Slate said, citing ex-Shell USA President John Hofmeister. The government's executive branch may be reversing course because of what's so far been lower-than-expected battery-electric vehicle sales in the U.S.

Some consider hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles a best-of-all-worlds solution to cutting both petroleum use and greenhouse-gas emissions because the vehicles can be filled up in minutes and can go almost as far on a full tank as gas-powered vehicles. Still, costs remain an issue because of the limited number of HCEVs and the challenges of hydrogen distribution to refueling stations. General Motors has estimated that it would cost as much as $25 billion to build out the 11,000 hydrogen fueling stations needed to support a "mature" FCEV fleet, Slate reported. Currently, there are only about 50 stations across the U.S., according to the Energy Department.

Last year, Pike Research estimated that automakers will sell about one million FCEVs by 2020, less than Pike Research's prior estimate of 2.8 million vehicles. Toyota, GM, Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and Hyundai are among the automakers that have targeted 2015 for mass production of FCEVs.

A million here, a million there. Sooner or later, those numbers add up.

Toyota announced today it has sold over four million hybrids around the world since introducing the first Prius in Japan all the way back in 1997. Sales were slow, at first, but the pace is now picking up. For example, it was around 14 months ago that Toyota announced it had sold three million hybrids around the world. With the sales success of the newly introduced V, C and Plug-In models and Toyota looking for hybrid production capacity in the U.S., we imagine it won't take another 14 months to sell the next million. Especially since Toyota now sells a total of 18 different hybrid models around the world and make up 15 percent of the company's overall sales. You can see a timeline and lots of numbers in the press release below.

We've noticed that 2013 Ford Fusion configurator has been updated with dollar values for each of its four models, however, we're not so sure the pricing is that black-and-white. Ford has also updated the disclaimer at the bottom of the page, to read, "Prices and features are for survey purposes only and are subject to change and features may become unavailable at the time of vehicle introduction." In other words, don't get too fixated on the numbers, as they're not locked down yet. And by playing with the configurator, you're likely serving as a FoMoCo lab rat – after all, this is the company that never met a focus group it didn't like.

It's worth noting that Ford has not issued an official press release on pricing yet. But for now, it seems like the base Fusion S will start at $22,495, though we're not sure whether that includes destination or not. Stepping up to the SE at $24,490 will upgrade the steel wheels to alloys, add heated, lighted mirrors with turn signal indicators, and get you body color rocker panels. Inside, the SE has a power driver's seat and a better stereo, and backseat passengers get an armrest and their own HVAC ducts. The SE also allows you to order other stuff, including navigation and start/stop, or opt for a different engine than the base-spec 2.5-liter four-cylinder with automatic transmission.

The 1.6-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder is available with a manual or automatic on the SE for $25,290, while the start/stop-equipped version (automatic only) is $25,585. The 2.0-liter EcoBoost with automatic is $26,745 when ordered in SE trim. Ford lists a number of different packages and options, but they seem to be offered on a sliding scale, such that the packages are more expensive on the lower-priced models. For instance, the Luxury Package with leather and heated seats, among other equipment, is $1,505 on the 1.6-liter EcoBoost but only $1,050 on the 2.0-liter EcoBoost.

On the SE Hybrid, which starts at $27,995 and is equipped with a non-EcoBoost 2.0-liter four-cylinder and a CVT, the same Luxury Package is listed at $2,000. Apparently if you're saving all that money on gas, you can afford to pay double the guy with the most powerful engine.

At the top of the Fusion price list, of course, rests the Titanium, which offers a lot of the optional stuff standard for $30,995. It's also the only way to get all-wheel drive, which will set you back $32,995. Note that the Titanium is exclusively powered by the 2.0-liter EcoBoost and is not available with a manual, so you won't be configuring your Fusion as a dual-use weekend rally car.

But then again, Ford will likely change this all tomorrow.

It seems like it was just a few years ago that car manufacturers used to laugh at us when we'd ask why a new model didn't get any better fuel economy than its outgoing predecessor. "Car buyers don't care about fuel economy," was the refrain, "They certainly won't pay for it."

A few years of three- and four-dollar-per-gallon gas has apparently changed that attitude. According to a new study by Consumer Reports, 37 percent of respondents said fuel economy was now their leading consideration in car shopping, topping all others by a landslide. Quality was the second-most-important factor at 17 percent, while safety was mentioned by 16 percent, and value by 14 percent of shoppers. Two-thirds of respondents said they expected their next new vehicle to beat their current one on fuel economy. And yes, it is the economy, stupid, as 90 percent of those surveyed said high gas prices were the reason why they wanted a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

None of this is too surprising, given what has been going on both in the auto industry and in the larger economy since the economic meltdown of 2008. But we still kind of wonder how performance managed to rate number one with just six percent of those surveyed? Is that it then, there are six times as many tee-totalers than auto enthusiasts out there in the world?

CR says that it called 2,009 people across the country to get its results, obtaining 1,702 responses from adult car owners. Scroll down to read the full press release.

The early delivery hints were spot on. Tesla's vice president of worldwide sales and ownership experience, George Blankenship, has declared June 22 – just one month away – as the day when the first Model S will be delivered. He wrote on the official Tesla blog today that, "We are ahead of schedule and can't wait to put our first Reservation Holders behind the wheel!" We're sure the buyers feel the same way.

Perhaps most exciting, the Model S will now feature adjustable regenerative brakes, which is something we certainly like to see in our EVs. For highway driving, having the brakes grab hold each time we take our foot off the accelerator is annoying, so we look forward to seeing just how much "coasting" the Model S will allow. Blankenship writes that, "Having less Regen means you will likely get less range, but some people still prefer the feel of their car with less Regen." We can't wait until some inspired hypermiler decides to test this for him- or herself. The resistance in the steering wheel and the car's suspension can also be adjusted.

As we learned during the Detroit Auto Show, Tesla's Fremont factory (the former NUMMI plant) has been quite busy preparing to make the Model S. The picture above shows plant employees with the first customer Model S body. 2012 production of the Model S is sold out, but Tesla is still out there trying to drum up sales with Model S promotional tours stops on the west and east coasts of the U.S. as well as a five-city tour of Canada.

Befitting a 21st Century automaker, Tesla says it will webcast the first Model S delivery on its website. Leading up to June 22, Tesla will also post a weekly video about Model S production. So, there's more to come.

*UPDATE: Tesla CEO Elon Musk has Tweeted the following: "Major Tesla milestone: All crash testing is complete for 5* (max) safety rating. Cars can now be built for sale to public!"

The 2012 Ford Focus Electric is officially on its way to dealerships. Outlets in California, New Jersey, and New York – 67 in all – are going to be the first to receive the electron-fueled Focus, with about six cars each winding up on lots. To help dealers build more excitement for what's likely to be a slow-starting sales story, the dealers will hold one of the Focus EVs as a demonstrator.

Even if fewer than 5,000 Focus Electric models find buyers this year, Alan Mulally won't be disappointed. While Ford ultimately expects electrics and hybrid vehicles to account for up to 25 percent of its sales volume by 2020, the company is moving deliberately. Rather than develop and tool an entirely new platform, Ford's move to modify the Focus for electric propulsion is said to allow some semblance of a profit margin, but it's going to take time for consumers to warm to the idea of a $40,000 Focus, even if a third of that price is the battery, and Ford appears to be keeping this in mind.

After the initial 350 or so cars are delivered to the pilot stores, the rest of the Ford dealers across the nation will start getting the Focus EV before spring turns into summer.

Honda will start making a hybrid version of its Fit compact in Thailand this summer, according to the Japanese publication the Nikkei. Production will mark the first time Honda will be making any of its hybrids in Asia outside of Japan. Sales of the Jazz Hybrid – Honda substitutes the name Jazz for Fit outside of the U.S. – will start as soon as next summer.

The reason for the increased production is so Honda can keep up with increased sales of its most popular hybrid. Last year, Honda sold 86,000 units of the hybrid worldwide. Honda first unveiled a version of the Jazz Hybrid for the Japanese and European markets at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. That model uses the same powertrain as the CR-Z and Insight hybrids.

The Jazz Hybrid production would mark yet another victory for the Thail automotive industry, The country is the world's 12th-largest but was staggered in the wake of a flood last fall that killed 815 people and ground auto production to a halt. Honda and Toyota plants there suffered, but both have since restarted production

When or if Fit Hybrid sales reach the U.S. is anyone's guess. Honda unveiled a battery-electric Fit at the Los Angeles Auto Show last November and said it would start leasing the Fit EV to a limited number of customers in the U.S. later this summer.