After visiting the GM technical center last April, which resulted in the feature story “GM’s Volt EREV,” it was clear the next big step for the Volt would be to get the actual production design batteries into prototypes and onto the test track.  That step has been taken, with an official announcement by GM Vice Chairman [...]

It’s always nice to know along with extremely high worker productivity and a very hard working people, America’s heavy industry is still able to deliver manufactured goods that compete and are sold on the global market.  What better combination of brawn and brains than a modern green locomotive, and in Erie, Pennsylvania, that is exactly [...]

A wheel-motor series hybrid is indeed coming up from Volvo, but don’t hold your breath.  Apparently something very big could be in the wings, some sort of next generation hybrid or e-flex technology, making the announcement of the “Recharge” concept car - a wheel-motor series hybrid - not the biggest story Volvo intends to break this year.  And with [...]

Who will be first to deliver a full-sized, affordable all electric car to consumers? One company quietly emerging as a strong contender for this distinction is Miles Electric Vehicles, based in Santa Monica, California.

The full-sized, freeway capable XS500,
Available late 2009 from Miles Electric Vehicles.
(Photo: Miles EV)

Through 2007 this company, founded in 2004, has delivered [...]

Earlier this month, General Motors hosted about 90 journalists from around the world to provide an update on progress with the Chevy Volt, an extended range electric vehicle they announced as a concept in January 2007.  On third of the way between announcement and planned launch in November of 2010, the Volt appears to be [...]

If you want to make money, you better have a contingency for a future where there’s global cooling, and brokers populate the streetcorners with signs that say “will trade carbon credits for food.”  No rational investor fails to prepare for likely eventualities - and the precautionary principle that informs global warming alarm will not help your portfolio when global [...]

In 2004, in mid-career, already having grown and sold two companies, and after an extensive investigation into the energy-related applications of nanotechnology, Matt Trevithick joined the Venrock team.  Venrock was started in the 1930’s by Laurance Rockefeller, with their first big hit being an investment in McDonnell Aircraft Company.  Since then, Venrock has scored again and again, making [...]