Toyota’s GRMN II concept hybrid car will be showcased at the Nürburgring 24-hour endurance race from June 23 through June 26, held at the famous racetrack near Nürburg, Germany. GRMN stands for “GAZOO Racing Tuned by MN” with GAZOO  standing for a motorsports development program in Japan, and MN standing for “master of Nürburgring.”

GRMN II features a mid-engine layout, with the 3.5 liter 2GR-FXE engine driving power to the rear wheels. Meanwhile, electric motors up at the front drive power to the front wheels, for a stable ride and better maneuverability. The car features both hybrid and electric-only modes, which lets you choose whether to go for spirited driving or keep the emissions at (or near) zero for an eco-friendlier ride.

If you’re into cars, you probably know that “the Ring” is one of the more challenging tracks in the world. What’s more interesting is that it’s a public access toll road, so you can go ahead and time your laps for 20 Euro a pop.

Belgian automaker Imperia has jumped in with a hybrid plug-in vehicle that will sure put cars like the leaf to shame for no other reason than the fact that this particular hybrid actually looks like it belongs on the Autobahn. The Imperia GP has a 212 horsepower engine paired up with a 134 horsepowered electric engine. That means this particular plug-in hybrid can go 45 miles on a single charge. More importantly the GP can go from 0-60 in about four seconds so those riding in it will never have to know they are actually helping the environment.

Of course all of this depends on the car actually hitting the market. While a concept model was revealed at the Brussels auto show, Imperia has given no indication of when someone can buy the car.

This three wheeled, two person vehicle is known as the MET and perhaps the neatest thing about this little car is that the battery pack for the car is by the third wheel. The battery packs are also extremely cheap which means that a person can usually own more than one at a time. This way, instead of having to stop at home and charge the car whenever its battery pack runs out they can simply switch out the battery pack quickly and easily. As of now there has been no official price released for the MET nor when they will actually be available.

[Geeky Gadgets]

Toyota in particular is trying to produce as many different kinds of electric vehicles and hybrids and one of the ones they have been working on for a couple of years was an ultra compact iQ Electric Vehicle. The first step towards actually getting these cars into the hands of drivers is the auto show next month where the company will show off a near production prototype. This particular model is supposed to be very much like the FT-EV but with a better battery that can travel as many as 65 miles on just one charge. Toyota says it will begin leasing the car to European customers in 2012 with North America to follow soon after.

The Wind Explorer traveled more than 5,000 km (3,107 miles) from Perth, through Adelaide, and to Melbourne. The cost of gasoline? None. The trip was powered all by wind.

The Wind Explorer prototype, built by Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer in Germany, is powered by lithium-ion batteries that can be charged using a mobile wind turbine. The car is said to achieve full charge overnight, although, of course, we assume this is during a particularly windy day.

The Wind Explorer is very compact, at 200 Kg (440 lbs), and sits low on the ground, aiding in aerodynamics. So far, the car has only been tested in Austalia, but the creators are confident that this kind of technology has great potential, especially amid global warming issues. The car has zero carbon emissions, and is noiseless.

The ESFLOW operates thanks to two different motors that are both housed over each of its rear wheels. Because of these dual motors, the ESFLOW still has plenty of kick, being able to go from 0 to 60 in just five seconds. The ESFLOW is expected to debut next month at the International Motor Show in Geneva and if there will be one drawback to the car it will be that it won’t be nearly as economical as the Leaf. While the Nissan Leaf has an MSRP of around $32,000 the ESFLOW will have a more expensive and lighter body made of aluminum and other composite materials making the car a higher price.

Turkish auto maker Etox may not be ready to give Tesla a run for its money just yet when it comes to producing a hot rod that runs completely on electricity but it is getting closer. Perhaps the one thing that could topple Tesla in popularity is the fact that the Etox electric Zafer could only cost about $19,000 when it hits showrooms. The major drawback for the Zafer EV would however be how fast it is expected to go. Estimates from industry insiders say that the electric Zafer is looking to top out at 75 MPH, which isn’t exactly the top speed most sports car drivers are looking for.

In India, for example, Tata Motors has come up with the Tata Nano that’s priced almost the same as a motorcycle, but with the added benefit of 4 wheels, a roof and some (small) trunk space. Mitsubishi wants in on the mini car game, and so it has introduced the Global Small concept.

The concept car will debut at the Geneva Motor Show, and while Mitsubishi has not released any specifications or details, the car will likely be powered by a 1.0 to 1.2 liter engine mated with a CVT. Added features are a regenerative braking system, which will return braking energy into whatever power source the car has. The tires will be low-friction, and the brakes low-drag. The body itself will be designed with aerodynamics in mind. All this will contribute to fuel efficiency.

According to Mitsubishi, production will start March 2012 at a new Thailand facility, and will be priced tentatively at about $13,119.

One company, 350Green is looking to making driving an Electric Vehicle just a little bit easier by installing several charging stations in commercial areas that are heavily trafficked in the Bay area. This particular project will basically be a sort of test for other companies in other parts of the country to see just how successful independent charging stations can be. These particular charging stations will be located in Albany, Menlo Park, Milbrae, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Sunnyvale and they will all be installed at no cost to the businesses surrounding the charging stations. The project in the Bay area is expected to be completed by 2012.

Nissan says that when the plant is finally completed it will be able to produce 200,000 Leaf batteries a year, which of course means that Nissan will be able to step up the production of the Leafs themselves. Carlos Tavares who is the chairman of the American branch of Nissan automotive issued a statement in which he said that “Nissan is making significant strides to be one of the largest producers of electric vehicles and batteries in the United States.”

The construction of the plant is expected to cost around $1.7 billion, and 80 percent of that amount is coming from a loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The new Ram plug-in hybrid is one such truck that Chrysler hopes will make car and truck enthusiasts think of that company when they think of green vehicles. The Ram hybrid works to pair a 12 Kwh battery with Chrysler’s very own hemi engine they are known so well for. The battery, made by Electrovaya has been billed as one that will allow drivers to go 20 miles on electricity alone and after that the car’s regular combustion engine would kick in.

Unfortunately, at the moment, Chrysler is not offering this particular truck to individual consumers but it can’t be too long before the company decides to offer the Ram to a wider audience.

The Car DVR looks a lot like some kind of odd desk lamp but it is in fact a motion activated video camera that is also equipped with an SD card. The Car DVR works best when it is placed on the dashboard or somewhere in the back of the vehicle where it can simply be set and left to do its job. The device will record high quality 640 x 480 video but only when the car is moving. The point of the DVR is when the driver gets into an accident; the video it records will serve as proof of who was the real culprit in the accident. While the camera only records 20 minutes total, the Car DVR costs a measly $40 a piece so it’s not hard to own more than one in each vehicle.

[Geeky Gadgets]

The Comodo console has a touchscreen display that comes equipped with a speakerphone, a backup camera display, a GPS antenna and an always on cellular modem that allows the console to connect to a 3G wireless network. Using this particular connection drivers can connect to internet radio stations like Pandora and can listen to the music as they travel across the landscape. Of course music isn’t the only positive with this console. The Comodo’s GPS navigation will give real time updates on traffic and warn drivers when they are approaching dangerous terrain. It will also warn when someone is speeding.

Now the Whip LiFe has suffered another setback as the Department of Transportation still refuses to give a thumbs up on the little EV that can reach a top speed of 65 MPH and can go as many as 100 miles on a single charge. The car sells for about $32,995 (or at least it will when sales are legal) and the company claims that somewhere around 500 people have pre-ordered the car and are simply waiting for them to be made available. Wheego says they are still optimistic that the US government will approve the car by the end of January but later in the winter or early spring is more likely.

Professor Srdjan Capkun of ETH Zurich and his research team took 10 different models from the eight major car makers who put out Keyless Entry cars and found that every single one of the cars was eminently hackable.

Keyless Entry cars send and receive signals to and from the wireless key fob and while most of the time the fob and the car need to be close together in order to get the car to start, the professor was able to massively amplify the signals using basic antennas. This meant that someone could steal a car from outside someone’s house while the fob was inside, or the car could be stolen from outside a grocery store while the owner was inside shopping. Truly no car is theft proof in this day and age.

With the partnership, GM will have an entire year of exclusivity in order to put Powermat devices inside their vehicles. With the Powermats fitting in the middle of the car like a compartment that holds devices like your cell phone or iPod, these Powermats will both hold them and charge them.

GM has said that these consoles will also be put in the back of their cars for those passengers. The company says that the first cars to have these will be the Volt but they plan to use them across the fleet of their vehicles. They are not expected to be incorporated until at least 2012.

Starting this spring, anyone who wishes to buy the $299 special OnStar rearview mirror, as well as pay the $18.95 per month fee will be able to do so. Best Buy will be on of the main retailers of the service, GM announced yesterday. The auto maker says that the mirror will work in 99 percent of the top 20 non-GM selling vehicles over the last few decades, in other words, somewhere around 55 million autos will be able to employ the service.

The OnStar service has been in use by six million subscribers since its release over 10 years ago.

The first version of the Ford MyKey would actually allow parents to set the top speeds which children could drive the car. There are several different speeds that can be set and a chime sounds every time a speed limit is hit. Now the advances in the MyKey will make it so that specific channels on an included Sirius radio will be made unavailable if parents decide that the content is far too adult or explicit for them to listen to.

These new additions will first be launched on the new Ford Taurus and Ford Explorer. Officials at Ford say that in the end the point of MyKey is actually to let parents feel more comfortable giving the keys to the car because of the limits that can be put in place.

Seoul, South Korea has announced that it is the first in the world to roll out all electric commercial bus service for its city. While there have previously been several different pilot programs all over the world and there have been other electric vehicle forms of public transportation, this is the first all-electric commercial busing program.

The initiative is in concert with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hankuk Fiber. These particular buses are expected to be able to run for about 52 miles on a single charge (about 30 minutes of activity) and can hit a maximum speed of 62 miles per hour.

While trotting out their new Fit EV, Honda also gave a short look at their newest Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), the Honda Accord. While the Accord is still very much in the test stages, the Japanese automaker did offer some specifics including saying that this Accord would use a new kind of hybrid engine specifically designed for midsize and large Honda cars. The new engine will start appearing in their fleet in 2012.

While the Accord was a sight to see, it was the Fit EV that really stole the show. While the Accord is expected to have just 10 to 15 miles range in the city on battery alone, the Fit can go as far as 100 miles without a recharge. The Fit EV can also be fully charged in just under 12 hours.

On December 15th, Hertz will add the Fortwo Electric Vehicles to their already green fleet. The rental car company has already announced that they will be adding the Nissan Leaf and the Coda Sedan to their fleet in greater and greater numbers as the months roll on. Unfortunately for those who wish to use the Fortwo EVs, Hertz will not be rolling out these particular vehicles in many markets. At the present time the Fortwo EVs will only be marched out in San Francisco, New York City and Washington, D.C. While it is a safe bet that sooner or later Hertz will expand its rental fleet of EVs to other markets, there is no word on when that may be or even concrete evidence that such plans are in the works.

While the law that mandates this is drawing quite a bit of attention this week, it was actually encapsulated in George W. Bush’s 2007 Transportation Safety Act. That act slowly incorporates the new addition with just 10 percent of new cars manufactured needing the camera by 2012. In 2013, the number of cars that must be produced by each manufacturer jumps to 40 percent and in 2014 every car manufactured needs to have the back-up camera. Studies show that these cameras can save just over 300 lives and avoid somewhere in the neighborhood of 18,000 car accident related injuries each year. What exactly this will do to prices of cars in the long run has yet to be seen.

Honda showcased its BRIO prototype in India earlier this year, and has unveiled its latest design at the recent Thailand International Motor Expo.

The supermini car is in line with Honda’s “new small concept.” Most manufacturers these days–particularly Asian carmakers–have small cars that cater to the young and energy-conscious market. Some examples include the Hyundai i10, Mazda2, Suzuki Alto, and even the Ford Fiesta. The Honda BRIO, at 3.6m long and 1.68m wide, will be smaller than the Honda City and Conda Fit.

So called A-class vehicles, these cars focus on compactness and energy efficiency. They also have low sticker prices, which appeal to the youth. Honda will likely market the BRIO with something in the lines of “my first Honda.”

No word yet on what powerplant will go under the BRIO’s hood, but it will likely be similar to the lower-end City’s 1.2 Liter SOHC engine. Asian emission caps for “eco cars” will mean that the BRIO should do better than 47 MPG, which should be better than the Ford Fiesta’s 40 MPG highway results.

This is the 2nd known delay for the California startup car company and it is one that could eventually spell the death of the group before it really gets off the ground. New CEO Steve Heller, who replaced Kevin Czinger in early November, says the delay is due to making sure that production goes smoothly. The Coda car is actually being produced in China, using Coda specifications and directions and when the units are almost finished they will be shipped to the Coda plant in California to install the electric drive train. Heller insists that there aren’t any real problems with the process but that as a new CEO, he simply wants to make sure the procedure is moving as efficiently as possible.

The Coda is expected to cost about $44,000 when it finally does hit the market

Renault-Nissan is banking on the popularity of Electric Vehicles to continue to climb right along with gas prices and has announced a plan to step up production of models like the Leaf to the point where they will be making around 500,000 units per year within the next 3 years. Renault Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said that sales of the Leaf are expected to approach 20,000 units by the end of the year and that he expects Electric Vehicles to make up 10 percent of all automobile sales by 2020. It is because of this that his company has stepped up production of both cars and battery packs to a level few other companies are willing to go right now.

The Mitsubishi Outlander Live Drive website will be up for a little over a week and will allow anyone who is lucky enough to actually get past the technical problems to actually steer a car with the arrow keys on your keyboard. The site actually ran into quite a few problems since its Monday launch but there have been verified users who have been able to access and drive the car from time to time.

Considering that even when the site does actually work, there is quite a waiting line there is also a training course that can be used to prepare you for the chance to drive a robotic car.

The Stratasys says that the Urbee can get 200 miles per gallon on the highway with an impressive 100 MPG in the city. Little else is currently known about the vehicle beyond the fact that it will debut to the general public at SEMA’s show in Las Vegas this week. The Minnesota based Stratasys teamed with Kor Ecologic in order to build the first run of this unique looking hybrid vehicle. The design and build of the prototype will also be featured on the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet sometime in the near future.

According to Stratasys, the Urbee is the only vehicle out there that can operate solely on renewable energy. Expect more to be known about this car about its debut this week.

The Power Regeneration Unit (Pru) attaches to the EV with a special hitch and when the hitch is locked into place the Pru is actually self powered but guided by the guiding vehicle. The Pru is never actually towed, because that would tax the EV but rather the “smart hitch” tells the Pru when to increase or decrease speed as well as when rough terrain is being encountered.

When connected to an EV with a 100 mile range, EMAV says the Pru will add another 700 miles on six gallons of fuel. Of course the best part about the Pru is that it is not just a mobile charger but actually has a compartment that can store belongings during a road trip. The Prus are designed to follow midsize and compact EVs and will be available in early 2011.

Incorporation both videos, images and diagrams, Ford shows the difference between regular gasoline, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and full electrical vehicles but does not push one type of vehicle over another. The site allows the users to see how each car functions and what the various pros and cons of each type of car is. The site also offers links to the other Ford product websites that tout green vehicles such as EcoBoost and MyFord Touch. Nancy Gioia, who is the director of Global Electrification for Ford said the company produced the site because “”Most of our customers are used to traditional gasoline engines powering their cars, so this technology is new to them. This site gives them the tools to learn about our electrified vehicles with resources they are most comfortable with.

The switching stations, which runs much like a production assembly line, will be placed in the area between San Jose and San Francisco according to Better Place.  The taxis will report to these switching stations to have depleted batteries removed and new ones installed before they continue their errands.  The switching stations will be operational by the end of 2011 according to the company.

Earlier this year Better Place began running a similar system in Tokyo, Japan and it is expected that the San Francisco program will be a mirror image.

The naming of the car will actually come later thanks to an online ballot open to fans of the new invention. The City Car runs on a combination of natural gas and electric power that can attain a top speed of 74 MPH and can go 0 to 60 anywhere from 8 to 14 seconds.

The project, which is rumored to have cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $210 million will be offered in two different models. The City Car can either be ordered as a hatchback or as a coupe and the price of the car is rumored to be anywhere between $10,000 and $14,000 though Prokhorov says he wants his car to be for mainstream Russia.

The Jaguar C-X75 weighs in at just under 1.5 tons (2,975 pounds), goes from zero to 62 in a blistering 3.4 seconds, maxes out at 780 horsepower, has a top speed of 205 miles per hour, and a range of fully 68 miles on just batteries alone. Throw in the two micro-gas turbines involved and watch that range go spiraling out of control to a whopping 560 miles.

There are phrases out there that easily describe my response to this but none of them are suitable for publication. If they could get these into the market–which they have no plans to do, not surprisingly, and quite in line with the second point of the second sentence–I’m sure they’d sell in monstrous numbers assuming the prices could be kept in check.

The Transformer is described as a “flying Humvee”, in which it’s a normal Humvee, until it sprouts wings and a helicopter rotor. Then it can fly.

It’s designed to do things like getting soldiers across minefields without incident, or flying a Humvee out of the blast radius of a detected IED, or even do things like reconnaissance or strike-and-raid operations. But DARPA has some pretty big demands for this craft: it wants the craft to carry four people, be capable of vertical takeoff and landing, and have a maximum range of at least 250 nautical miles, with both driving and flying components.

All I can think is, man, would that ever get me to the store in rapid fashion or what? And think about how great it’d be to drive across inner-city neighborhoods in that! You accidentally find yourself in, say, Cabrini Green, you just fire up the rotors and go right over the top of it until you find the highway.

Sadly, this is all still under design, so we won’t be hopping over long trains at crossings any time soon.

The folks out at Ithaca College are responsible for this lump of bizarre, and they did it by stacking a Wii balance board, a standard infant car seat, and putting it all on top of a robotic, motorized kind of wheelchair. Thus, the babies can control their chair’s movement by leaning left or right according to the direction in which they want to travel.

The chair comes equipped with sonar, so that it can sense and avoid potential crashes, and it can be remotely babyjacked at any time by an adult with a remote control device, ostensibly a specifically-tuned one.

When these will be available is still pie-in-the-sky at this point as further tests need doing, but I kind of like the idea of being about to drive a car by leaning. I’m not as happy about the thought of Junior being able to do it, but still.

Using negative camber, as I said, provides extra grip for better cornering at higher speeds, which is good given what sports cars do on a regular basis. But the problem is, it also can cause uneven tire wear, which is dangerous under the best of circumstances, or at the very least cause you to buy more tires.

Enter John Scott, who designed a tire that basically comes with negative camber. It has a slightly larger circumference on the outer sidewall than the inner one, thus allowing it to be installed in the negative camber style and wearing through thicker rubber where the uneven wear problem is more likely to occur.

Of course most believe that the sports car market will eat these tires up with spoons but Scott, for his part, believes that these tires will work for anybody’s car as well, and provide better handling and shorter braking distances. That’s a definite possibility, but there’s no word yet on when these will hit or how much they’ll cost.

No, seriously–elevated buses.

The folks out at the Shenzhen Huashi Future Car-Parking Equipment company are developing the buses for testing in Beijing’s Mentougou district. They’re designed to work in tracks which ensure the buses won’t tip over, and elevated platforms will serve as bus stations where passengers climb up to the top of the platform, and board the bus as it shows up.

The exact mechanics of this somewhat escape me–that’s putting a whole lot of weight and vibrational stresses on those support structures, and that strikes me as really, really dangerous. But with proper reinforcement and regular maintenance, it might be an idea that works out surprisingly well, at least until someone finally takes my idea of cable-car mass transit seriously.

While there have been some consumer vehicles such as the Tesla Roadster on the market, it is priced at quite the premium meaning it isn’t exactly accessible to the general public. Couple that with the fact that the battery life is sure to die after a somewhat short trip and you can see what the motoring world hasn’t made the complete shift towards electric vehicles.

Lucky for us, GM has had something up their sleeves with the Chevy Volt which combines the benefits of a fuel burning car with the benefits of an all electric vehicle. Basically, how this car works is it features 4 separate electric motors – one for each of the wheels. Additionally, it features a small gas burning engine. However, the gas burning engine is not used to power the car directly but instead used to power the electric motors making for an extremely efficient ride.

However, with all of this seemingly advanced technology crammed into a single vehicle, many have wondered if the price tag will be far out of reach of your every day driver. Today, GM has come froth to finally release the official pricing of the car.

Originally thought to be priced well above $60,000, GM has said that the Chevy Volt will be made available for $41,000 or $350 per month with a 3-year lease. Additionally, you can grab the $7,500 federal tax credit and bring the cost down even further to right around $33,500.

What do you guys think of the Chevy Volt? Let us know.

Owned by a co-founder of Aptera, Chris Anthony, Epic Boats has recently formed some new partnerships and expanded its product line. Now, not only do they make a hybrid wakeboard boat, now they make two new vehicles, the fairly standard dune-buggy-esque Amp and the indeed thoroughly epic Torq, a three-wheeled cruiser with seating for two.

Both use a lithium iron phosphate battery pack, but there’s plenty of separation between the two. The Torq, pictured above, boasts fully 200 horsepower and carries between 24 and 30 kWh of energy, and it carries a reported price tag of $35,000.

The Amp, meanwhile, is much more traditional in its looks but offers up 54 horsepower, letting it get to just over 50 miles an hour. It carries a 14.4 kWh battery pack, and that lets it get about 60 miles between charges. As for the cash charge, the Amp will run you about $24,000.

Sounds like a pretty epic pair of vehicles, all right, and word is that we’ll see these hit market by fall. Don’t know how much of a rush there’ll be to buy a new electric dune buggy, but still.

Just looking at that beauty gets my teeth on edge, I know–and the folks out at Renault seem happy with it too, saying that the project “represents the vision of simple, sensuous and warm”.

But it’s not just a punch to the gut aesthetically, it’s also got a green facet to it too–it’s powered by the exact same size 24 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery that runs the Nissan Leaf, plus it gets about the same range as the Leaf at about 100 miles. This is pretty good on its own, but there’s a little extra here–the third surprise, its quick charge capability. This particular battery pack is set up to accept the Quick Drop exchange. The body is made of Kevlar panels around a steel tube frame chassis, thus making it both sturdy and lightweight.

Now the bad news…this is a concept car, remember, so the chance of it being produced is somewhat up in the air. But the thought that we might be able to get these is definitely an exciting one.

It’s a new kind of technology called “nonvisual interfaces”, and they’ll include things like audio cues and others to indicate when to make turns and brake. One system, “AirPix”, uses jets of compressed air to form a sort of “tactile map” allowing drivers to know where obstacles are near them. A second system dubbed “DriveGrip” uses vibrating motors to indicate when drivers should turn the wheel. Original versions of these were tested on dune buggies, as pictured above.

The results of this ambitious project are being installed in a Ford Escape for a larger demonstration at the Daytona International Speedway just ahead of the Rolex 24 race, with the end result being an eventual move to allow the blind to drive a car down normal public roads.