history

Battery technology is getting better, it just isn't getting better as quickly as we'd like. Certainly, battery advancements haven't kept pace with the astounding advances in areas like electronics, and it has failed to produce the cheap, capacious, powerful cells we'd like to have for driving our ...

Electric vehicles have been trying to make it big since the late 1800s, and the story truly seems to be repeating itself today. Take the story of chemist Pedro Salom and inventor Henry Morris. The duo cruised the streets of Philadelphia aboard their 'Electrobat,' one of the first automobiles, on ...

Despite what you may believe after driving through Detroit on I-75, we enjoy an excellent road system here in the United States. Few of us take the time to think about exactly where those roads came from or how the federal ...

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/autos/1936_Mercedes_260D_Was_First_Successful_Diesel_Passenger_Car'; Rudolf Diesel filed the patent for his signature engine in 1893. However, its installation in a passenger car didn't occur until ...

Although the closest thing you can get to an electric car at BMW these days is one with Start & Stop technology, a hybrid (in the near future) or, if you're lucky, the Mini E, BMW has a long history of developing electric cars. ...

Today, ethanol is not the most favored solution to oil dependency, but it was not always so frowned upon. Here's a car that deserves a place in the history of ethanol's growth. A Brazilian friend of mine pointed to me to the first mass-produced ethanol car (with the exception of the Ford T): the ...

A new Indiana Jones movie is coming to theaters this May. New episodes of the short-lived Young Indiana Jones TV series were released on DVD recently. I caught an episode on the History Channel called Spring Break Adventure which includes a story about an electric car. The plot involves a scientist ...

Imagine a classic radio announcer's voice in a static-filled newscast. He says:"Ladies and Gentleman: I am standing at a Washington, DC gas station. You can see the cars lining up. Due primarily to a shortage of rubber needed for the war effort, gasoline is to be rationed to avoid unnessary ...

I was a full-time Alt Fuel technology consultant/researcher back in the 1990s. Among my fellow wizards, the PNGV was a big deal. We attended conferences every year or so and watched the Big 3, with federal funding, develop hybrid cars that could meet an 80 MPG target number. They were getting ...

This video is a tour of the Peterson Auto Museum's Alternative Fuels exhibit from G4's Attack of the Show. Turbine car, steam car, hybrids, plug-ins and much more. Below the fold is another video tour of the museum. That includes video of an electric car from 1897, nuclear powered car and other ...