South/Latin America

Honda is broadening its green credentials on two continents, building a trial "smart home" in Northern California and embracing wind-power for its Brazil factory. The Japanese automaker this year will build a home at University of California, Davis, that, among other things, will be powered by ...

Chinese automaker BYD will soon be running a fleet of 49 electric vehicles as emissions-free taxis in the capital of Colombia. BYD will supply 46 of its e6 EVs to Bogota for what will be the first all-electric taxi fleet in South America. Three more e6 EVs will be provided for Colceincias, ...

The energy efficiency of electric buses from BYD didn't get lost in translation, apparently. The Chinese company entered its all-electric buses in a fuel-efficiency testing program put on in Colombia by the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and InterAmerican Development Bank (IABD), and the buses ...

If you've been yearning for some electric road-racing action of the four-wheeled variety, rest assured, plans for the FIA Formula E Championship are firming up and moving forward. In fact, Rio de Janeiro has just officially signed up to host one of the events in 2014, possibly near Gloria ...

Little car, big plans. Renault is looking to expand distribution of its Twizy electric vehicle to countries such as Turkey, Israel, Japan and Singapore as well as South America after selling about 6,500 vehicles throughout Europe. This news comes courtesy of Technologic Vehicles, which cited an ...

Brazil-based Tac Motors has reached an agreement for electric motorcycle maker MotoCzysz to make the electric powertrain for Tac's new electric SUV, the eStark. The agreement is worth about $27 million and will involve MotoCzysz making 3,600 powertrains – each about the size of a suitcase ...

Around the 7th of November, when a sheen of oil first appeared on the sea in the vicinity of a Chevron appraisal well in the deep-water Frade field of the coast of Brazil about 230 miles from Rio de Janeiro's famous beaches, the company claimed the occurrence was due to natural seepage. Now, the ...

British Petroleum (BP) is set to expand its Brazilian ethanol output with its full acquisition of biofuel firm Tropical BioEnergia S.A. Set to take effect immediately, BP will acquire the remaining 50 percent of Tropical BionEnergia from existing joint venture partners for $71 million. Those ...

With Brazil's ethanol prices soaring, the nation's government is expected to put forth a policy to reduce the mandatory ethanol blend in gasoline. Brazil's energy minister, Edison Lobao, recently met with President Dilma Rousseff. The two immediately arrived at the conclusion that unless Brazil's ...

Lagging U.S. sales of E85, lax trade restrictions and Brazil's worst sugarcane harvest of the last decade will allow the United States to overtake the South American nation as the world's leading ethanol exporter during the second half of 2011, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) ...

Quick, name the country certified by OPEC as number one in national oil reserves. Saudi Arabia? No. Canada? Nope. Venezuela? Bing! After redefining as extra-heavy crude a field previously classified as tar, OPEC certified the South American nation of Venezuela as the controller of the world's ...

Ever wonder what it's like to hike across the massive Amazon Rainforest, the most species-rich tract of land in the world? Well, wonder no more 'cause Google Street View will take you inside the tropical rainforest, which is shortlisted as one of the 7 Wonders of Nature by the New Seven Wonders ...

Brazilian energy giant Petrobras, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Petrobras Biocombustível, will invest a massive $2.5 billion between 2011 and 2015 to increase production of biodiesel and ethanol. This hefty chunk of change is part of $4.1 billion Petrobras earmarked for its biofuels ...

T3 Motion, makers of the Segway-ish T3 Series Electric Stand-up Vehicle (ESV), has partnered with Telestop Electronic Control Devices to distribute the ESV in Chile. Telestop, a major Chilean distributor of security and military devices, will sell the T3 ESV to police, military and security ...

A sugar cane shortage in April caused Brazil's ethanol prices to soar, rising 65 percent to $6.31 a gallon or more than double what it was the year before. Since Brazil blends its gasoline with a mandated 25 percent ethanol, the rising cost of the biofuel directly affects pump prices. Even though ...

Renowned adventurer Rainer Zietlow will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the legendary Pan-American Highway by embarking on a two-week drive from Argentina to Alaska on the world's longest road. Crossing through portions of 14 countries and covering a distance of nearly 16,000 miles, Reiner, ...

In one of the biggest biofuel deals to date, Shell, along with Cosan – one of the world's leading producers of sugarcane-based ethanol – has launched a multi-billion dollar joint venture (JV) to become a leading producer of the low-carbon biofuel. Named Raízen, this massive ...

Brazilian energy company Petrobras has set aside nearly $400 million for research and development related to advanced biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol and aviation fuels. According to Petrobras Biocombustível's head of technology management, João Norberto Noschang Neto, the ...

Cuba may be where the cars of the past survive today, but it's also a place that's interested in the fuel of the future. According to Tania Carbonel Morales, director at the Center for Studies on Renewable Energy Technologies (CETER), hydrogen is being studied on the island nation as an ...