A brand new car that gets 84 MPG and costs less than $7,000 sounds too good to be true, but Elio Motors just unveiled a new three-wheeled vehicle that hits all those marks. The affordable two-seater Elio gets amazing mileage, and it’s small enough for a congested urban environment.

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Post tags: Elio, Elio car, Elio green car, Elio Motors, green car, green transportation, personal transportation, three-wheeled car

Flat-pack goods typically make more efficient use of materials and have lower shipping costs, and in recent years companies have designed everything from flat-pack beds and dressers to flat-pack lamps and even houses. Now, British philanthropist Sir Torquil Norman’s Global Vehicle Trust has developed the OX, the world’s first flat-pack truck. The inexpensive vehicle, which is intended for use in developing countries, can reportedly be assembled in just 12 hours by three people using basic tools, and it can be taken apart again in less than six hours.

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Post tags: "flat pack", Africar, flat pack vehicle, Flat-pack truck, Flatpack, flatpack truck, flatpack vehicle, Global Vehicle Trust, green transportation, green vehicles, Ox, Sir Torquil Norman, trucks

Can technology save the world? In short: No, not by itself. A sweeping set of changes in the way we interact with the planet is needed to stabilize our rapidly deteriorating biosphere and avert a bleak future. Technology is simply a tool to help us achieve these changes. A dangerous argument, however, is when decision-makers and influencers say our impact on the planet is not a concern, and changes in our behavior are not needed in the near future, or ever, because technology will save us. Sounds ridiculous, but various forms of this argument are commonly invoked in government and international forums, particularly when profits and votes come into play.

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Post tags: can tech save the world, drones, eco-innovations, environmental damage, genetic engineering, global issues, life saving inventions, recycling, tech solutions for a changing world, technology and climate change, technology and global warming, water issues

Freeman Thomas won his first drawing competition in the first grade—it was a fire truck. Today, Thomas is credited with delivering some of the hottest designs in the automotive industry. A pioneer in his field, he has designed everything from the New Beetle to the Audi TT, and he’s been steering Ford’s Strategic Design department as Director since 2005. In anticipation of our ‘Design with a Conscience’ webcast—a thought-provoking event, which brought together visionary California architects and automotive designers eager to talk about the intersection of car and building design—we asked Mr. Thomas to answer few questions for us about the future of car design, as well as some of the things that inspire his work. Read on to hear what he had to say, and then find out what was discussed in the webcast here.

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Post tags: aia conferences, aia discussions, aia panels, AIA san francisco, American Institute for Architects (AIA) San Francisco, architecture conference, architecture panel, architecture webcast, automotive panel, design conference, design panel, design webcast, design with a conscience, eco design, ford, ford motor company, Ford Strategic Concept Group, Freeman Thomas, Green Design Events, live webcast, strategic design ford, strategic design ford motors, sustainable design, webcast

To say that it’s been a good week for Tesla would be quite an understatement. First, the Tesla Model S earned Consumer Reports’ highest-ever rating with a score of 99 out of 100. Then, after 10 years in business, the electric car maker announced its first quarterly profit in Q1 of 2013 with a net income of $11.2 million. In the wake of the news, Tesla stock prices surged 24 percent, and shares of the company’s stock reached $69.40 when markets closed in New York on Thursday.

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Post tags: electric car, electric cars, elon musk, emission-free car, EVs, green cars, model s, plug-in car, tesla, Tesla electric car, tesla model-s, Tesla Motors, Tesla profit, Tesla quarterly earnings

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Post tags: alternative transportation, aviation industry, aviation safety, electric vehicles, flying car, flying hybrid electric car, future of flight, green transportation, Massachusetts, Terrafugia, TF-X, transition

Read the rest of British Artist Laura Bacon Weaves Willow Branches Into Powerful Sculptures

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Post tags: Art, Botanical, british art, green materials, Laura Bacon, recycling / compost, sculptures, site-specific, waving, willow

Charging time and cost are two of the biggest obstacles facing electric vehicle battery technology today. Fortunately, researchers at the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden just developed an integrated motor drive and battery charger that can shorten charging time from eight hours to two while reducing overall cost by $2,000.

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Post tags: chalmers university of technology, cost, electric vehicle, ev, fossil fuel, integrated charger, saeid haghbin, Sweden, time, volvo ab

Many of us would love to own a shiny new car, especially if that vehicle were at the forefront of cutting-edge technology. Electric vehicles seem like an enlightened way to get around without having to resort to a gas-guzzling jalopy or sacrifice personal freedom. Unfortunately, if you are considering buying an EV, you will almost certainly come away from the dealership with a much lighter pocketbook. In an effort to lessen the sting of going green, California Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi has proposed a bill that would use the post-purchase value of the car to reduce taxes and fees for plug-ins.

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Post tags: ab-1077, assemblyman al muratsuchi, California, credit, electric vehicle, ev, ford, hermosa beach, legislation, plug-in, revenue and tax committee, sales tax, Toyota

Minnesota’s Mall of America may be known as the largest retail complex in the country, but it is also now home to 72,000 lady bugs!  The ladybugs were released inside the 96.4 acre mall to help tend to the complex’s 30,000 plants and trees. The plants act as a natural air filter for the mall, and the ladybugs will help protect them from aphids and other pests.

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Post tags: eco design, green design, ladybird, ladybug, Ladybug pest control, ladybugs mall of america, Mall of America, natural pest defense, natural pesticide, pesticides, sustainable design

Marauding pigs introduced by Spanish explorers are ravaging land across the United States, and local governments are virtually powerless to defeat them. But Louisiana has a secret weapon: the Dehogaflier. Designed by Cy Brown and James Palmer, this homemade drone is equipped with a thermal camera that allows the engineers to find pigs in dense vegetation when they head out on their nightly raids. Once located, Palmer shoots the pigs with a rifle furnished with a night vision scope. The part time plane hobbyists have exterminated scores of boars, sows, and babies in this way, and farmers are lining up for their services.

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Post tags: Animals, Cy Brown, dehogaflier, disease, DIY drone, drone, Environment, exterminate wild pigs, farms, feral pigs, James Palmer, louisiana, Louisiana Hog Control, make your own drone, News, pests, Spanish explorers, wild pigs

Photo by Conservation Drones

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Post tags: conservation, conservation-focused drones, drone technology, drones, Environment, environmental monitoring, green design, green technology, sustainable technology, Wildlife conservation

In this economy, it isn’t just students and homeowners who are having trouble paying back their loans. In a statement on Monday, the US Department of Energy said that it had seized $21 million from Anaheim, California-based electric car maker Fisker Automotive, Inc. on April, 11. The DOE said that it will continue to seek repayment from a loan agreement made back in 2009. A payment was due this week, but was not met. This decision came several weeks after the company laid off three-quarters of its workers and had part of its $529 million loan frozen back in 2011.

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Post tags: anaheim, aoife mccarthy, California, congress, DOE, Finland, Fisker Automotive, House of Representatives, hybrid car, karma, loan, solyndra

Hyundai just unveiled a series of new concepts for single-person vehicles that can navigate heavily congested cities – including a multi-rotor flying car! The next-gen vehicle is propelled by four electric motors and propellers and it can hover over the ground, keeping the driver above congestion.

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Post tags: HYUNDAI, hyundai E4U egg car, hyundai five-jointed car, Hyundai IDEA festival, hyundai multi-rotor flying car, hyundai portable transforming car, hyundai road car/ bike, hyundai spare tire electric bike

GreenTech Automotive, manufacturer of the electric MyCar, and Chinese automaker JAC Motors have announced a new partnership that will include the development of a five-passenger electric sedan. The new electric sedan will combine JAC’s Rejoice vehicle platform with an electric powertrain from GreenTech Automotive. All vehicles will be assembled in the United States.

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Post tags: battery, electric car, electric motor, electric sedan, electric vehicle, green car, green transportation, greentech automotive, jac motors

Last week we reported on the groundbreaking new media platform Earth 2 Hub which aims to create a space for the world’s most creative artists, designers, scientists, and storytellers to explore and share their solutions to the numerous problems facing earth and its inhabitants. To shed more light on Earth 2.0 and the newly-unveiled hub, we talked to Melissa Sterry, who is one of the most well-known futurists on the planet. A design scientist and transformational change strategist for the built environment, utilities, manufacturing, design, publishing, media and communications industries, Melissa is also a PhD researcher at AVATAR – the Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research group, where she is developing The Bionic City – a sustainable smart city that transfers knowledge from earth’s ecosystems to create a mega-city blueprint that can withstand extreme meteorological and geological events such as flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, eruptions and earthquakes. Step on in for a fascinating glimpse of what the future of design and architecture might hold.

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Post tags: biomimicry, Bionic City, Earth 2 Hub, Earth 2.0, eco design, Futurist, green design, Melissa Sterry, social media, sustainable design, Technology

Why just harness light or vibration individually when you can use both to create electricity? Making sure to fully exploit both sun and sound simultaneously, researchers from Sungkyunkwan University and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in South Korea have engineered a novel new device standing only 300nm tall. Publishing their work in the most recent issue of Nanotechnology, the team explained how their hybrid harvester could take advantage of the separate sources of energy to produce a single, constant output of electricity.

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Post tags: dae-yeong lee, Electricity, hybrid harvester, Light, nanotechnology, piezoelectric generator, power, samsung advanced institute of technology, silicon nanopillars, south korea, Sungkyunkwan University, vibration

As electric vehicles claim an increasing share of the road, their counterparts in the air are just starting to take off. On March 28, the SportStar EPOS two-seater electric plane made its first 30-minute flight. Czech company Evektor-Aerotechnik designed the aircraft with a single 50-kW Rotex electric motor and a trapezoidal wing span of 10.46 meters. Powered by a 40-Ah battery from Kokam, the SportsStar EPOS can reach up to 260km/h with a cruising speed of 150km/hr.

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Post tags: aero friedrichshafen, czech, electric airplane, electric vehicle, evektor-aerotechnik, germany, kokam, lithium polymer cells, rotex electric, sportstar epos, vzlu pragu

From cell phones to electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries are the power pack of choice. They are capable of keeping large amounts of energy in a small space with relatively little weight, making them an efficient means of saving and delivering electricity. Researchers led by Maksym Kovalenko from the Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry at ETH Zurich and Empa have developed a battery using tin nanocrystals for the anode that enable twice as much energy to be stored.

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Post tags: anode, electrolyte, EMPA, ETH Zurich, lithium ion battery, maksym kovalenko, nanocrystal, nanomaterial, tin

Looking to burn a little rubber while also burning some calories? Outrider USA manufactures and sells their Ultralight Adventure Vehicles that let you pedal while reclining comfortably on their electric hybrid bikes. Each of their four recumbent bikes features three wheels for stability and dynamic handling; they’re assembled here in the United States, and they expel zero tailpipe emissions. With the advantages of an electric bicycle, riders can cruise up to 40 mph with 100 miles of range.

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Post tags: cyclist, electric, fletcher, hybrid, Lithium Polymer Battery, north carolina, outrider usa, recumbent, speed, ultralight adventure vehicles