Autoblog Green

What you see here is the 2010 Toyota Prius. The car itself will arrive on time in a few months. What won't be part of the deal are lithium batteries. In March 2007, Toyota confirmed that the next-gen Prius would get li-ion betteries, but then pulled a "just kidding" in May of that year. With a company that plays things as close to the vest as Toyota does, there's no telling current status of its li-ion production plans, but having a li-ion-powered Prius available in early 2009 would've been darned sweet. (click on the picture to advance)

The Zap Alias has made appearances in a few recent posts for its unexpected appearance at the NADA conference last weekend. That debut means we finally got to see a rolling version of the prototype in action, which is very cool. But, let's not forget that we'd been told the Alias would come out sometime in 2008, a deadline which certainly passed (we're not counting the styling mock-up that showed up all glittery and silver in September, BTW). Now that a mule (at the very least) is available, who wants to make a bet as to when you'll be able to drive one yourself?

The Volkswagen Jetta TDI was initially supposed to hit dealerships in March of 2008, but they didn't appear until later in the summer. All in all, not a big deal, especially since these cars were worth waiting for.

The MDI Air Car (sorry) was supposed to be here by now. In 2007, the French company said that it would be building the compressed air-powered vehicle in Melbourne, Australia sometime in 2008. We were also supposed to see 6,000 of these on Indian streets by last August. Whoops.

While the deadline for a diesel-powered Tata Nano technically hasn't passed yet (it was supposed to be here sometime in 2009), the chances that Tata Motors can deliver an oil-burning version of the world's cheapest car are awfully slim. We need to see a gas-powered Nano first, and that's been all sorts of delayed.

Ahh, Phoenix. For a while this year, we thought the company was dead - or at least playing possum. For months we heard nothing, but then we learned about the deal with Maui Electric and felt better. Still, the company's all-electric SUT was supposed to go into production in 2007, then 2008 and now, with partner SsangYong in trouble, there's no telling what will happen.

The all-electric three-wheeled Triac was supposed to be available for delivery last November, then December. Currently, the Triac website reads: "the first volume production vehicles are pre-ordered" and that "We hope that you will remain patient as we continue making every detail worthy of the name Green Vehicles."

An October release date for the production Aptera 2e line now looks likely, but we've been burned before. Aptera had promised to start production of the 2e by the end of 2008. That didn't happen, and the self-imposed January 16, 2009 deadline to at least get the first production model out the door was only kind of met. We hope the next nine months go a little more smoothly for the flightless bird.

We'll cut GM a little slack here, because they never actually said they've have the plug-in Saturn Vue hybrid ready by 2010, just that it could go into production "as soon as 2010." As with the diesel Nano, this deadline hasn't passed yet, so it could still be met. Sources at GM have told us, however, that 2011 is a more likely target. Knowing that the General is currently focused on getting the Voltec technology right and not failing as a company, we'll keep that 2011 date written in our calendar in light pencil, m'kay?

Who isn't ready for the Tesla Model S? Even though this lower-cost EV (compared to the Roadster) was supposed to be revealed in the spring of 2008, we don't even have a picture to show you today. We had hoped to see the car in Detroit earlier this month, but no dice. The next targets? The Geneva Motor Show in March or maybe a special event in late February. You've waited this long; you'll probably stick around for a few more months, right?