Last month, New York City closed down a few streets to automobile traffic in an attempt to get people out of their cars and into the fresh air (well, the New York air, anyway). The Summer Streets campaign seems to have been a success (based on the website, anyway) and now a similar event will take place next weekend at NYC's South Street Seaport.

The Bicycle for a Day event will happen Saturday, September 20 and will try to get people to "observe a greener, carbon-emission-free lifestyle by traveling by bike, foot, or skates." Sound like fun? Well, there will also be all sorts of entertainment and prizes to be had and the whole thing is hosted by actor Matthew Modine (Weeds, Full Metal Jacket). If all goes well, then Bike for a Day could turn into an annual event. I'm sure the bike couriers in Manhattan are all very impressed.

[Source: NYC & Company]

While the shift to hybrid taxis in New York City has been moving forward for a while now, not everyone thinks that the yellow cabs should be cleaner just yet. Who, you ask? Well, the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade (MTBOT), for one, and they filed a complaint in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, yesterday urging an immediate halt to the city's mandate to introduce hybrids to the fleet. The cleaner cab mandate is to go into effect Oct. 1, and the MTBOT is waiting for a response from the City and the court.

The issue, according to MTBOT, is that the hybrids used as taxis in NYC are not safe for passengers and drivers because they were not built for commercial taxi use - unlike the long-serving Crown Vic, which the author of the MTBOT's report, C. Bruce Gambardella, called "the safest taxicab on the road." Hybrids like the Ford Escape hybrid pictured above are unsafe as cabs because the required partitions between the passenger and driver areas "were found to compromise their safety systems by blocking side-curtain airbags from deploying; become easily dislodged in accidents; restrict drivers from safely distancing themselves from front airbags; and diminish backseat legroom so severely -- as much as 10 inches less than in a stretch Ford Crown Victoria -- that even belted passengers will hit their faces on the hard unyielding surface of the partitions in an accident," the MTBOT said in a statement.

Let's remind ourselves of two facts: first, at the beginning of this year, we heard that 95 percent of NYC cabbies were happy with their Crown Vics and didn't look forward to the shift to hybrids. Second, the Crown Vic gets like 15 mpg. WIth high gas prices and a growing concern about the environment, can both of these things continue to be true?

[Source: Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade]

The Sundance Channel's Big Ideas For A Small Planet is back. The eco-solutions show tidily takes on an issue - like, say Fuel or Drive in episodes from last year's season - and finds three "Big Ideas" to discuss in a half-hour. Sometimes, the episodes are paired with a longer documentary, such as with the series opening Crude Awakening.

For season two, the format of the show remains the same. The next episode, Transport, covers topics we're all in love with here on AutoblogGreen: how to get around in a more sustainable fashion. The breezy mood of Big Ideas makes the problems seem so darn solvable, which I think is a good thing. We all know congestion, global warming, dirty emissions and high fuel prices are a pain in the rear - is it that bad to take ten minutes to imaging how great it would be to live in a bike-friendly city?

This brings us to Transport. The show's idea number one is greener public transportation, which focuses on the efforts of New York City. City planners are working on making better bus lanes (with lights that can hold off a red light to allow an approaching bus through), installing more bike lanes with better bike parking at subway stations, and implementing congestion pricing for cars. The NYC plan to charge $8 per car is still in the works, having received City Council approval in April. One of NYC's greening efforts that not many people know about is how sustainable the garage where New York's subway cars are repaired and cleaned is - rain water is collected to be used to wash the cars, much work is done using natural lighting and there is, for a reason not explained in the show, a fuel cell. Segment one also tells us that there are 500 miles of bike lanes in NYC, and another 100 are on deck for the near future. But the real Bike City USA is Portland, Oregon. Read on after the break.

It's finally arrived. NYC is copying London's Congestion Charge. The City Council voted 30 to 20 for a Home Rule resolution asking lawmakers to approve a Senate Bill empowering the city to impose the traffic plan. Congestion pricing, as the plan is called.

How does it work? The congestion charging zone would be in effect in Manhattan south of 60th Street between 6 am and 6 pm Monday-Friday. Cars will be charged $8 daily, trucks will be charged $21 daily ($7 if it's a low-emission vehicle) when entering the zone and there would be a $1 surcharge for vehicles without EZ-Pass readers. Weekends, evenings and early mornings remain free. Moreover, each taxi ride will be surcharged by $1 for trips that start and/or end in the designated zone. Motorcycles and scooters will have to pay $4. Big Apple drivers can also look forward to increased metered parking rates and residents won't be able exempt from the parking tax, although there will be a residential parking program. What do we get for the cost? The Council committed the estimated revenue of $491 million for transit improvements.

[Source: NYCDOT via Bloomberg]

At the New York Auto Show last week we had our first opportunity to actually go for a drive in one of Ford's new plug-in hybrid Escapes. Last year Ford announced a partnership with Southern California Edison to build and test twenty plug-in hybrid Escapes. SCE will be using the crossovers in their fleet to evaluate performance, durability and mileage. They will also be testing out vehicle-to-grid technology using the Escapes. For our drive, Chief Engineer Greg Frenette accompanied us on a half hour drive around Manhattan, mostly in stop and go traffic. We also had an opportunity to open it up a bit on the West Side Highway.

The Escape that Ford brought out to Manhattan was the first of the twenty prototypes being built for the program over the next year and a half. According to Frenette as they build the vehicles they will be changing as the company learns from the previous iterations. The current model is based on the 2008 Escape Hybrid with the 2.3L four cylinder. Future vehicles that will be built starting this summer will use the upgrades planned for the 2009 models including the new 2.5L engine. The primary mechanical changes for this unit involves swapping out the standard 2kWh nickel metal hydride battery pack in favor of a 10kWh lithium ion pack along with a charger and a plug mounted in the left front fender. Aside from that, most of the changes are in software with different calibrations to optimize the use of the lithium battery. Continue reading about the plug-in Escape after the jump.


[Source: Ford]

During the BMW press conference at the New York Auto Show last week, BMW North America president and CEO Tom Purves made a nice swipe at the earlier announcement from Mercedes about those clean diesel SUVs. While Purves talked about the BMW's ActiveHybrid and clean diesel systems in general, he also said the following (listen for it starting at about a minute into the video after the jump):

I heard earlier this morning our friends from Stuttgart talking about the cleanest diesel. We're delighted the industry as a whole is approaching this whole field together. You can also get the cleanest diesel from BMW, but you get performance, too.

There were many chuckles.

Of the 60+ teams that have signed a letter of intent to participate in the Progressive Automotive X Prize, about 15 were on hand at the New York Auto Show. With only four cars on stage, it's easy to calculate that some teams arrived sans vehicle. The group from Motive Industries had just a little folded flyer to show what they've been working on for their entry vehicle. The basic idea for the as-yet-unnamed Motive vehicle is an electric car with an on-board ICE for range extension. The real challenge for Motive will be convincing everyone that "filling up" via quick, robot-aided battery exchanges are the way to go. Four-passenger and full size with biomaterials in the body panels and elsewhere, the vehicle is just now moving off of the design pages. Motive's Darren McKeage and Nathan Armstrong were in New York to give the public a first glimpse of this new car. You can view the flyer in the gallery below and listen to the duo by clicking play.

About a month ago Hybrid Technologies sent out press release that they were slashing the price of their electric vehicle conversions. For some time now, they have been offering up MINI Coopers, Chrysler PT Cruisers and even Crossfires among others. The flaw in the plan however was the pricing. There have been questions about actual performance and how many vehicles the company has actually delivered. The one independent test that we are aware was a battery powered Chrysler PT Cruiser the company provided for testing as a New York City Taxi. That one ended badly after only a few months in service when the car was unable to approach the claimed range and it performed poorly in cold weather. Well, some of the staff from Hybrid Technologies were on hand with a few of their vehicles at the New York Auto Show this week and I managed to get answers (sort of) to a few questions. Their MINI conversion is now priced at $57,500 and they have built two prototypes for testing. However, to date none have been ordered by potential customers. As for their latest offering, a converted Toyota Yaris called Liv Wise, priced a slightly more reasonable $39,500, HT claims to have gotten fifteen serious inquiries and they are attempting to firm up the first order. Once an order is confirmed they will deliver a car within four months. So apparently people are looking for actual demonstrated capability at an affordable price when it comes to electric vehicles and conversions of existing cars may not be the way to get there.

[Source: Hybrid Technologies]

The Automotive X Prize announcer used it. We've been using if forever. And, until recently, MDI and Zero Pollution Motors were still calling their vehicles the Air Car. Now, though, to avoid confusion as much as possible, the preferred term is "Compressed Air Vehicle" (don't look now, but the ZPM website still says Air Car). At the New York Auto Show this week, we finally had a chance to sit down with Guy Negre, the creator of the CAV, and his partner Shiva Vencat (Vencat also provided translation for most of Negre's answers, as I don't speak French) for a talk on what happens next in the compressed air vehicle world.

The CAV team was in New York as part of the Automotive X Prize announcement, and I'm going to have to say that MDI/ZPM seems to be one of the stronger potential entrants into the race. While the design of the vehicle in New York won't appeal to everyone, I think the renderings for the MiniCat (is that what it's called?) could result in a solid X Prize entry. Plus, considering that deals with Tata have already been signed and the air car (whoops) technology has been tested for quite some time, the vehicle won't be bowing out of the race early, I don't think. To hear what Vencat and Negre have to say, listen to the interview yourself.

Click the Saleen S5S Raptor

A quarter century after Steve Saleen started building heavily modified high performance Ford Mustangs, the company that still bears his name, if not his direct involvement, unveiled a new concept car at the New York Auto Show. The S5S Raptor is the second ground-up design from Saleen following the S7R that debuted several years ago. The Raptor is the first car from Saleen specifically designed to run on ethanol. During the presentation CEO Paul Wilbur emphasized the use of cellulosic E85, which several cars in the American Le Mans Series are running this season. The Raptor is powered by a new supercharged 5.0L V-8 that produces 650hp when running on biofuel. Saleen is following many other high performance tuners and builders in switching to E85. It allows them to tune the engines for higher performance without having to use expensive high octane racing gasoline blends. The Raptor is currently a concept, but Saleen is evaluating potential customer interest before deciding whether to proceed with production. If Saleen does proceed it could be available within two years at approximately $185,000.


[Source: Saleen]

In the general hub-bub before the Automotive X-Prize kick-off event yesterday, we cornered Progressive Insurance's President and CEO Glenn Renwick for a few brief moments to get his thoughts on the prize. I mean, it's his company that is putting up the ten million dollars in prize money, so you can bet he's thought long and hard about paying someone that much for a freakin' car. While insurers are not usually known for being happy about seeing money go out the door, Renwick said he hopes the company does indeed fork over the money at the end of the race. Renwick said (rightly, IMHO) that he considers the sponsorship to be simply another way of advertising, and as such is coming out of the company's general advertising budget. You might now see fewer Progressive ads on TV, but you'll be seeing the name much more here on ABG. Fair trade? That's not for me to decide.

Look at it from another angle: if we don't figure out a way to move to highly-efficient personal vehicles (and higher gas prices continue climbing as a reflection of dwindling supplies), what would Progressive have to insure? This might be the best $10m they ever spend. Give Renwick a listen using the flash widget below.

Before this release gets too much older (traveling sure eats int blogging time, I'll tell you that), let's confirm what was announced today at the New York Auto Show about the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The full statement can be found after the jump, but here's a bulleted list of highlights:

• NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg said some really nice thing about the prize, and his city will kick off the first stage of the competition in September 2009 (patience, everyone).
  
• The prize is indeed $10m and is being put up by the Progressive insurance company. Winners will split the money 3:1, with the mainstream category winners getting $7.5 million and the alternative class winner walking away with $2.5 million.
  
• Over 60 teams have signed a "letter of intent" to participate in the contest. The full list is included in the release, but the name that surprised me the most was Goodwin-Young "Linc Volt." That's right, everyone's competing against Neil Young. Is it even fair? That guy rocks, but sadly wasn't in New York today.
  
• Applications for official participants will be accepted starting in two months time, and will be accepted for two or three months. Get your forms filled out ASAP, is how I read that. This things on the go.
  
• We're still waiting for things like the final rules document and a list of host cities for the cross-country race.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a lot of interviews, video and audio from the event. There was a lot of excitement about this award, and I think we captured the vibe. Let us know when it goes up. More after the jump.

Click above for high-res gallery of the Scion Hako Concept

First, the quote: "Will we have a truck in our lineup? Does it make sense to have a hybrid powertrain? Is a subcompact roadster the answer? Or will an SUV ever be viable for us. We don't know the answers but we're very open-minded." That quote comes courtesy of Jack Hollis, vice president for Scion. So, Scion is considering a hybrid, huh? That's an interesting thought, considering the low price-point that Scion operates in. Surely, a hybrid Scion would be pushing into Prius territory price-wise, which might be inconsistent with Scion's image. Whatever the case, we sure hope that the hybrid wouldn't be anything like their new Hako concept. Wow, is that sucker ug... eh, interesting looking.

In other related news, Hollis mentioned a Scion pickup. That's something worth considering, we think, and it's an idea that's been thrown around before. Ideally, we'd like to see Scion axe the Hako, make a real coupe to replace the aging tC and consider a hybrid drivetrain for that machine; test the waters for a compact unibody pickup and reduce the weight of the xB, making it more in line with the original model. Alas, nobody asked us.

[Source: The Detroit News]

When the U.S. Congress passes or is about to pass some legislation relating to issues of automobile safety or vehicles' ecological impact, the Auto Alliance speaks up. Why do we only hear from the group on these issues? The Alliance's Charles Territo sat down with us at the New York Auto Show to explain how ten large automakers - BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes Benz USA, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen - work together. The short answer is that, when it comes to safer and cleaner driving, the industry can agree on what needs to happen: cars need to be, well, safer and cleaner. For example, the Alliance is hyper-excited for alternative fueled cars, which it defines as vehicles available today that don't rely exclusively on gasoline. In this case, that means hybrids, diesels and flexfuel cars. When it comes to specifics like which powertrain technology is best or which bodystyle to promote, well, that's where the companies fight and snipe, all trying to get your dollar. Give Territo a listen by pushing play in the widget below.

Click the Kia Koup for a high res gallery
Kia just officially unveiled their latest concept at the New York Auto Show, the Koup. As we already showed a little earlier this morning the Koup is a front wheel drive coupe that exhibits Kia's latest styling direction. The look isn't hugely original, but it is clean and very nicely proportioned. Of course as is requisite on any concept car with sport pretensions, the Koup has plenty of carbon fiber trim including the mirror housings, the wheels and at strategic locations on the inside. The really important stuff remains under the hood, where the 2.0L turbocharged and direct injected engine resides. In this concept the engine is rated at 290hp, and 289lb-ft of torque. Kia PR Director Alex Fedorak said that they are working on DI and turbo engines and there is a good chance such engines will appear in upcoming Kia's since they are a cost effective way of getting good power with lower fuel consumption.



[Source: Kia]