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At January's Detroit Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz eagerly showed off its hydrogen-powered F-Cell car, vowing to prove the viability of fuel-cell vehicles by driving three of them around the world. And now, 18,641 total miles later, it's completed that circumnavigation, arriving safely home at the company's Stuttgart headquarters. Does this prove fuel-cells are ready for prime time? Well, the trip took 70 driving days to cover four continents, and the vehicles' range topped out at just over 400 miles -- in Kazahkstan. But M-B admits there are only 200 refilling stations worldwide; in most cases the F-Cells had to rely on a tag-along mobile refueling unit. The company hopes its demonstration will spur development in a refilling-station infrastructure: having a fuel-cell car you can't easily refuel must feel like owning a flying DeLorean in 1885. Autoblog

You know how we said that 780bhp electric pipe dream Jaguar had last year wasn't going to be anything more than a concept? Well, we were wrong. Sort of. You see, the British automaker  has  just announced its intention to produce a limited run of 250 C-X75 supercars in partnership with Formula 1 team Williams, however the retail model will eschew the craziest aspect of the original design -- the twin turbine engines at the back. Those will be replaced with a four-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine, which will aid the four electric motors (one attached to each wheel). Don't worry, though, this tweak has actually made the C-X75 accelerate even faster, as it's now rated to go from 0 to 60mph in under three seconds. 2013 is when the earliest production of this road-faring beast is expected to commence, with prices starting at £700,000 ($1.15 million), and there's even a glimmer of hope that a version with the gas turbines will also be built at some point dow...

When we heard that Brammo was hitting the dirt in a Las Vegas motorcross race we had horrific visions of a bright green Enertia with knobby tires struggling in the dirt, pitching its rider over the bars on the first yump it encountered. Thank goodness we can now say with confidence that is not the case. The company has announced it has not one but two new models coming, both specifically designed to handle questionable terrain. The Engage is a full-sized dirtbike, available in both motorcross (offroad) and supermoto (onroad, mostly) variants, and is just a few letters short of a beautiful marketing tie-in. It starts at $9,995 for the on or off road racing versions and then steps up to $11,995 for the street-legal SMS Super Moto, which you can see above wearing some pre-production bodywork. There's also the Encite MMX Pro, a more hardcore racing version that lacks a price. More details and a video after the break. Brammo Engage and Encite Interestingly t...

New Yorkers, this is your "Taxi of Tomorrow." After two years of deliberation, Nissan's NV200 was chosen as the city's exclusive taxi yesterday, edging out models from Ford Motor Co. and Turkish manufacturer Karsan. The four-passenger van is slated to hit New York's streets in late 2013, after which it will be gradually phased in on a more widespread basis. With a manufacturer suggested retail price of around $29,000, the commodious NV200 boasts a 2.0L 4-cylinder powertrain, transparent roof panel, driver navigation system, overhead reading lights and a mobile charging unit, replete with a 12V outlet and two USB ports. Nissan also placed an emphasis on passenger and pedestrian safety, with front and rear-seat curtain airbags, standard traction control and an external lighting system designed to alert others when the NV200's doors are opening. The van's microbial seat fabric should help assuage the fears of many germophobes, while its "low-annoyance...

Oh, how the winds of fortune can swirl. Just a few weeks after finally selling its first LiFe electric car to a happy couple in Atlanta, Wheego appears to have suddenly fallen on hard financial times.  Very  hard times. Speaking to  Automotive News , CEO Mike McQuary claimed that his startup's coffers are bare enough to jeopardize future production of Wheego's flagship, battery-powered two-seater: "My constraint is primarily capital. We'll be living hand-to-mouth as we try to get the first cars built. The next 200 will creep out as we raise money." McQuary didn't say how far behind schedule Wheego is at the moment, but part of the problem seems to be finding enough money to buy parts for its $32,995, 100-mile range EVs. The company's plant in California was supposed to produce 200 vehicles a month starting in January, in the hopes of eventually churning out 60,000 a year. Those plans, however, were soon derailed, due to unexpectedly delayed appr...

It's amazing what an electric motor and some lithium-ion junk in the trunk can do. For the SWIGZ team, which earlier bested some internally-combused competition on the track, the results are 190MPH from a standing start, completed at the Mojave Mile event. As you can see in the video below the 241HP bike wasted no time in getting up to that speed -- also wasting no time getting into an unsettling head shake and speed weave. Thankfully it was all over in less than 30 seconds and the new (unofficial) record was recorded: 190.6MPH. Fastest for an electric bike in a standing mile -- and pretty darned quick for  any bike. gas 2.0 ChipYates (YouTube)

You may live your life a quarter-mile at a time, but let's face it -- you still care about the environment. To that end, you've patiently awaited Audi's hybrid Spyder, even with the company playing coy about electric vehicles in general. Its latest tease is a far cry from the aforesaid ghost, but the A3 e-tron -- an entry-level Sportback begging to be modified -- is certainly sexy in its own right. Not exactly Fast and Furious material, given that it needs 11 seconds to reach 60mph and tops out at 90mph, but still -- a pair of lithium-ion batteries should give it 90-mile range per nine-hour charge. We'd take the Roadster S' 165-mile ride if given the choice, but we'll confess to confessing as much prior to consulting our practical side. No hard word on availability or pricing -- the company likely wants it on the streets by 2013, but don't go changing your name to Vin Battery just yet. Or Vin Anything, for that matter. Autoblog Green Autoblog.it

EVs are pretty great for getting around major metropolitan areas, but many still feel some range anxiety when it comes time to leave the city limits. True, purpose-built charging stations are few and far between at the moment, but there's another charging option for those who enjoy going green and crave the open road: campgrounds. Turns out the 50-amp, 240-volt RV hookups found in such places can do double duty as juice dispensers for the depleted batteries in your Volt, Leaf, or Tesla. All electric powered roadwarriors need is an adapter to plug in, a few bucks to pay for current, and a few hours of free time. It's not as fast as fueling up the old fashioned way, but RV parks provide plenty of perks (swimming pools, lakes, and seniors who love poker, for example) not found at your average filling station. So, who's up for an eco-friendly road trip? ...

Today at 3:00pm EST Microsoft and Toyota are holding a little webcast and, while they're staying mum on just what the topic of discussion will be, we're hearing they've been having some heart-to-hearts about making dumb power grids a little smarter. The details naturally are yet to be unveiled, but we're presuming it'll be similar to what Microsoft and Ford have worked on for the Focus Electric, technology that enables the car to know when rates are cheapest and only charge up then, also providing detailed data on the car's power consumption. The Tesla-powered RAV4 EV will be Toyota's first pure electric vehicle, and while it surely won't be as invigorating to drive as the similarly Tesla-powered Roadster, thanks to Microsoft maybe it'll be a little smarter. It'll certainly be cheaper. Update : Sure enough. Toyota and Microsoft have announced a ¥1 billion (about $12 million) deal to extend Microsoft's telematics wizardry (which ...

Any new technology generally costs an arm, a leg, and a bit of your sanity to adopt early, but that's a luxury that the well settled auto market cannot afford. In light of its elastic economics, car makers looking to go electric have had to be extremely aggressive in cutting their own profits, an aggressiveness that's now been estimated by Fiat's CEO Sergio Marchionne to cost them as much as $10,000 per unit sold . Fiat's famed little car, the Cinquecento, is going to be hitting the US in a new EV configuration in 2012, in spite of the fact it'll be causing a ding to the company's bottom line. It's not actually clear whether Mr. Marchionne is factoring in research and development costs or whether he's talking purely of material costs, though Fiat's fate is hardly unique -- the Nissan Leaf isn't expected to generate a profit for a good couple of years yet. The Fiat 500 EV's likely price was indirectly revealed, too, by the company...