Nothing says style like the blah color of grey, right? Usually, grey is a step up from beige, but the new Smart Fortwo Edition Greystyle, the latest special edition Fortwo from Daimler, actually makes grey look pretty good. Kind of Batman-esque. The new Batman. Not old school Batman like the Batsmart from the 2008 SEMA show.

What turns a Smart into the Greystyle? On the outside, an exclusive matt dark grey paint with odd lime green mirror caps are key, as are the 15-inch six-spoke alloy wheels. Open the door and you can find nappa leather – just like on some Mercedes-Benz models – on the seats and a three-spoke steering wheel. The Greystyle comes in both coupe and cabrio flavors. Under the hood, the Greystyle offers either a 52 kW (71 horsepower) engine that has micro hybrid (start-stop) capability or a standard 62 kW (84 hp) engine, as is common in the Smart Passion trim line. The Greystyle is now available in Germany for €16,135 ($22,129 at today's exchange rates). More information after the break.



[Source: Daimler]

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Ford's electric vehicle (EV) naming scheme is becoming clear: add the word "electric" to a vehicle's standard name and presto, you've got the name of your new EV. Example Number One: the Ford Focus Electric. Example Number Two: the Ford Transit Connect Electric, which will get its official North American debut at the Chicago Auto Show this week. The 2011 Transit Connect Electric will go on sale into production later this year and will offer a range of 80 miles per charge and a top speed of 75 miles per hour. The van's 28 kWh battery recharges in six to eight hours.

Businesses that like the style and practicality of the the Transit Connect but don't necessarily think a plug is the way to go can choose a Transit Connect version that is powered by Ford's engine prep packages that burn compressed natural gas (CNG) or propane (LPG, or liquefied petroleum gas). This model, too, will arrive later this year. More details after the jump.




[Source: Ford]

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Now that the Super Bowl is over and the Audi Green Police commercial has aired without harm, one of the companies peripherally connected to the ad, T3 Motion, is proudly proclaiming their product's use by said police force. The product is the T3 Series electric trike, which has sold over 2,000 units and is used by police and security forces around the country (we've featured the trike on these pages before). The T3 Series can go up to 20 miles per hour and uses swappable batteries. Now, what's up with the company's CT3 personal commuter vehicle?

Back to the Audi ad. We also think there's a GEM electric vehicle that the Green Police use, which means Audi likes Chrysler EVs. As for what the anteater-like critter sniffing cars in the roadblock scene is, we'll leave it up to the zoologists out there to let us know. Watch the ad after the jump.

[Source: T3 Motion, Inc.]

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The chances that Bright Automotive will get $450 million from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program (ATVMLP) might have gone up a bit thanks to a recent visit from a representative of the Obama Administrative. Teno Villarreal, special assistant for the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, spent time in Anderson, IN, last week and learned more about the the Bright Idea plug-in hybrid van. Representatives from the start-up automaker told Villarreal that up to 6,000 jobs could be created if the Idea goes into production (up from 5,000 claimed earlier). Villarreal's response was, "It's great technology, a great company. There's real excitement about the possibilities at Bright." So, maybe?



[Source: The Herald Bulletin]

The move to official automaker support for higher blends of biodiesel has been a slow one. One important step along the way were the establishment of American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards for B20 (20 percent biodiesel mixed with 80 percent petro diesel) in the middle of 2008. Last year, General Motors announced that the new 6.6-liter Duramax V8 engine would be factory certified to run on B20 sometime this spring. That time is now.

GM officially announced today at the National Biodiesel Conference that the 2011 Duramax 6.6l turbo diesel engine will be able to accept B20 (more details here). This engine will be used in the 2011 Chevy Silverado, the GMC Sierra heavy-duty pickups, the Chevrolet Express and the GMC Savana full-size vans. The Silverado will be unveiled this week at the Chicago Auto Show, so stay tuned for more from the Windy City.

[Source: General Motors]

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While Toyota still hasn't officially recalled the Prius, they have admitted the world's most popular hybrid has potential brake problems. The company is now also looking into whether the Prius' country club cousin, the Lexus HS hybrid, and the Japan-only Sai hybrid, which is based on the HS, might also need their brakes fixed. As of yet, nothing has been decided, but we expect more news soon.

It's also being reported by the Japanese media and the New York Times that Toyota will issue a global recall for the Prius early this week, and Automotive News (Sub. Req'd) reports that the car's brake problems will be fixed with a software update to the antilock braking system. With news of the Prius' brake problems spreading, reports of problems are increasing dramatically. While there were just over 100 complaints lodged with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as of last week, there are now over 800, a good sign that Toyota needs to do something, and soon.



Photos copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: New York Times, Automotive News – Sub. Req'd]

As we get ready for the Chicago Auto Show next week, a note about what is apparently the first wind-powered electric vehicle charger in the continental U.S. caught our eye. The charger, installed by the Midwest distributor of Coulomb Technologies charging stations, Carbon Day Automotive, is located in Highland Park – not far from Chicago – and uses electricity generated from wind farms used by Highland Park-based law firm Emalfarb Swan & Bain. Should Dale Vince ever bring his EV to the Windy City, he'll have a place to charge up.

Carbon Day Automotive also has a Solar Charge-Port that blends solar panes with battery storage to offer clean energy at any time. Even more interesting, the Charge-Port:

can act as storm water detention as it ties into the storm sewer and can be recycled through the Grey water filtration systems through the center of our "roof" for irrigation or other hydro purposes.

So there's that.



[Source: Green Car Advisor]

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This year, the green car angle for the corporate adgasm / replay event that is the Super Bowl – we hear there may be as much as 11 minutes of game played today – has been the hoopla surrounding Audi's Green Police commercials. Previous years, though, have had a little more going for them. So, between plays during the big game is on this evening or when the victor has been crowned, feel free to click around in the archives and see what was.

2007:

• Honda to talk up superior fuel efficiency in Super Bowl ad
• It's the Colts, the Bears and Segways in Super Bowl action this weekend
  

2008:

• Yukon Hybrid Super Bowl ad includes imagery from 1976 animated short
• Trying to find the green at the Super Bowl - it's there if you look for it
• Malibu, Vue hybrid Super Bowl ads might not air because of low inventory
• Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning choses Escalade hybrid as his prize

2009:

• Audi gets Cheap Trick to re-record Dream Green Police for Super Bowl ad, download it now for free
• Audi responds to Green Police critisicms over Super Bowl ad

Enjoy.

At the 2008 Chicago Auto Show, Ford unveiled its Transit Connect utility van for the U.S. market. In 2009, the company was back with the urban delivery vehicle, this time decorated for use by a variety of small businesses, and confirmed that a plug-in version would be coming to the U.S. At the 2010 show, which starts next week, the Transit Connect will be back, and this time Ford will be displaying the all-electric version. Finally.

There are not a lot of surprises left to learn out about the Transit Connect BEV. Ford is working with Azure Dynamics on the vehicle (not Smith Electric Vehicles), which will use li-ion batteries from Johnson Controls-Saft to get a range of about 80 miles a charge. The van will be available to commercial fleets sometime later this year, and we'll be in Chicago and will try and get for information from Ford about when the vehicle will be available and how much it might cost.



[Source: Green Car Advisor]

Think conservative political beliefs mean you can't support public transportation? Bill Lind, the conservative co-author of Moving Minds: Conservatives and Public Transportation, says "no way" in a new interview with Melissa Lafsky over at Infrastructurist. Lind says that, "From the conservative perspective, the federal government has two and only two legitimate functions: national security and infrastructure," and that, "This is consistent with a free market economy, because the markets only work if there is adequate infrastructure."

For Lind, the kind of public transportation that conservatives should support is quite specific: commuter trains, light rail, and streetcars. These are options that can make people more productive. Lind's bad kind of public transportation? Buses and high speed rail between cities. Lind's book include reasons why his "good" kind of public transportation should get bipartisan support and said that:

We would like to see a national consensus going across left and right. It's simply a matter of bringing back what we had. We threw it away – we subsidized national highways and taxed electric railways, and we think that was an unwise move, and we need to bring it back. Not put enormous amounts of money into a few lines that would serve geographically only a small portion of the country.

[Source: Infrastructurist | Image: Rususeruru. - C.C. License 2.0]