This morning the Solar Impulse airplane embarked upon the next leg of its sun-powered journey across the United States. The solar-powered giant has already traveled from the San Francisco Bay Area to Arizona, and at 5am it took off from Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport en route to Dallas. The record-breaking flight marks a pivotal point in the team’s attempt to be the first to fly across the the country without using a single drop of fuel.

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Post tags: Andre Borscberg, Andre Borscberg Solar Impulse, bertrand piccard, Bertrand Piccard Solar Impulse, energy efficient plane, fuel-free plane, lightweight airplane, renewable energy sources, solar impulse, Solar Impulse Cross America 2013, solar panels, Solar Power, solar powered aircraft, solar powered plane

Hong Kong is laying the foundations for a zero-emissions city with a brand new fleet of 45 bright red electric taxis. Manufactured by China’s BYD, which is partially backed by Warren Buffet, each five-door BYDe6 crossover sedan is powered by an iron phosphate battery that charges in two hours and has a modest 180 mile range. Hong Kong Taxi and Public Light Bus Association Limited are renting the fleet as part of a six month trial period that some say will earn taxi drivers a better wage and local government officials hail the move as the right step towards a cleaner urban environment.

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Post tags: BYD, china electric vehicles, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, Environment, green transportation, Hong Kong electric taxis, Hong Kong Taxi, News, Public Light Bus Association Limited, sustainable transportation

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

MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, the world’s largest solar boat, set a new record for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a vessel powered entirely by solar energy, smashing its own 2010 record by four days. The 115-foot Swiss catamaran traveled 2,867 miles (5,310 kilometers) across the Atlantic Ocean in 22 days, conducting experiments along the Gulf Stream as part of the PlanetSolar DeepWater expedition.

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", "solar energy", green transportation, Guinness World Records, marine expedition Tûranor, MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, PlanetSolar, PlanetSolar’s Tûranor, solar boat, solar catamaran, solar design, Solar Power, solar powered boat, Swiss solar boat, transatlantic crossing record, TURANOR, World speed record boat

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Post tags: bicycle, bicycle power, bike design, eco-friendly bicycle, eco-friendly film festivals, electricity generating bike, film festivals, french design, green bike, green films, green transportation, pedal power, pedal powered projectors, wood bike st etienne

Many great minds at companies like Google and Tesla have been laboring towards creating a self-driving car system. Millions of dollars have gone into the research, resulting in expensive prototypes and costly components. Nineteen-year-old Romanian student Ionut Budisteanu took the top prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for developing an autonomous system that would only cost $4,000 and safely guide a car through the streets.

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Post tags: artificial intelligence, autonomous driving system, Google, intel international science and engineering fair, ionut budisteanu, radar, romania, safety, self-driving, teenager, tesla, vehicle

A new global study by Cisco found that half of the world’s consumers would trust a car that that can operate without a human driver. Cisco’s Customer Experience Report surveyed more than 1,500 consumers across 10 countries and focused on the automobile buying and driving experience. The global report examined consumer preferences of technology in the course of these experiences and overall levels of trust in future automotive innovation.

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Post tags: automated driving, autonomous car, car technology, Cisco, driverless car, green car, green transportation, innovative car technology

Today is National Bike to Work Day, and all across America, people are ditching their cars and trucks for a cleaner, healthier journey via bicycle. Our friends at Voltaic Systems joined in the fun to support NYC’s Bike to Work Day, and it’s no surprise that they added their own solar-powered flair to the day’s festivities. Company staffers decked out a commuter bicycle and with a custom-built bike trailer carrying 60+ Watts of portable solar panels, 180 Watt hours of charging capacity, and lots of connectors to charge up smartphones, tablets and even a MacBook, in an effort to show New Yorkers how much fun can be had when human and solar power are combined.

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Post tags: bike commuting, bike to work day, bike trailer, solar charger, solar panels, Solar Power, voltaic systems

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

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Post tags: alternative transportation, chevy volt, electric car, electric vehicle, ev, ford, ford EV, ford fusion, ford fusion energi, ford fusion energi plug in hybrid, ford fusion energi test drive, ford fusion hybrid, ford hybrid car, fusion energi, fusion energi test drive, fusion hybrid, green cars, green transportation, hybird electric vehicle, hybrid car, Inhabitat test drive, plug-in hybrid, plugin electric vehicle, plugin EV, plugin prius

A team from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have broken their own record after flying their hydrogen fuel cell powered-Ion Tiger UAV for an astonishing 48 hours and 1 minute last month. The UAV, which used liquid hydrogen fuel in its  new, NRL-developed, cryogenic fuel storage tank and delivery system, broke its previous record of 26 hours and 2 minutes which it set in 2009.

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Post tags: fuel cell, hydrogen, hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen power, Ion Tiger UAV, liquid hydrogen, Naval Research Laboratory, NRL, UAV

After three decades of hard work, Amtrak trains in the Northeast Corridor and Pennsylvania get to retire. They will be replaced by 70 high-efficiency electric Amtrak Cities Sprinters (ACS-64) built by Siemens in Sacramento, California. The ACS-64 units are based on the company’s EuroSprinter, and the trains will take over for the Electro-Motive diesel locomotives made back in 1978 and 1988.

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Post tags: acs-64, amtrak, amtrak cities sprinter, boston, California, electric, electro-motive diesel, eurosprinter, harrisburg, joseph boardman, keystone corridor, northeast corridor, pennsylvania, philadelphia, rail, Sacramento, washington d.c.

Read the rest of TEST DRIVE: Drag Race Saturday, Church on Sunday with the Lexus GS450h Hybrid

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Post tags: green car, green transportation, GS450h, hybrid car, Laura K. Cowan, lexus, Lexus GS450h, test drive

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

Consumer Reports recently tried out the Tesla Model S electric car, and after all the testing was done, the magazine found that the Model S outscored every other car in their ratings. “It does so even though it’s an electric car. In fact it does so because it is electric,” Consumer Reports stated. Consumer Reports gave the Model S high marks for its impressive power, overall balance and comfortable ride.

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Post tags: Consumer Reports, electric car, electric motor, electric vehicle, green car, green transportation, tesla, Tesla electric car, tesla model-s

Tesla Motors has long worked towards producing the car of the future, and the Model S may well be the perfect electric vehicle for the middle class. If getting 265 miles per charge wasn’t enough to certify the sedan as an example of cutting edge technology, CEO Elon Musk recently told Bloomberg that he was in talks with Google to develop an autonomous driving system. Musk could take advantage of Google’s 500,000+ road miles to develop the technology, which he refers to as “autopilot” instead of “self-driving” to assuage fears of malfunction.

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Post tags: autonomous, bloomberg, ceo, electric car, elon musk, Google, lexus, LIDAR, light detection and ranging system, Mercedes-Benz, model s, NISSAN, sedan, self-driving, Tesla Motors, Toyota, volvo

Two Lisbon-based entrepreneurs have devised a way to build a new bike from discarded car parts – and they’re planning to ride it the same number of miles that the original vehicle drove to compensate for its air-polluting past. The initiative is called the Carma Project, and it was organized by Leo Burnett Lisbon and B-Bicycle Culture Magazine to raise awareness and provoke constructive debate about urban mobility and alternative modes of transportation.

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Post tags: B-Bicycle Culture Magazine, bicycle design, bicycle sharing, bike out of car parts, CARMA bicycle, green bicycle design, green design, green transportation, Leo Burnett Lisbon, Rcicla Bicletas, recycled car parts, Recycled Materials, recycling, shared bicycles lisbon, urban cycling

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

There are few cyclists who don’t have at least a small addiction to speed – whether it’s cruising down a steep hill or whizzing past traffic. If you really have the itch to fly down the road, you may want to check out the Specialized Turbo, an electric-assisted bike that can cruise at speeds of up to 27 mph. This is the first plug-in from the California-based company — the bike has already been rolling around Europe for a year, but US federal laws have deemed the bike too fast to be sold without calling it a motorcycle until now. The solution? A top-speed limiting gear that won’t let you break 27mph.

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Post tags: California, charger, electric bicycle, lithium ion battery, motor, plug-in, specialized turbo, SRAM, traffic