Photo: Autoblog

Audi is showing an all electric version of its A1 minicar at Geneva, but this one has a novel twist. Like the Chevy Volt, it’s battery powered and uses a gasoline motor to recharge the batteries; unlike the Volt, or any other electric car to date, the A1 e-tron concept uses a Wankel motor to produce the charge. More after the jump.

Opel/Vauxhall is bringing the Flextreme GT/E concept car to Geneva this year. It’s like the Volt, only faster and better looking. The car can cruise at 125 miles per hour while achieving 175 miles per gallon. Like the Volt, it’s powered by electric motors and batteries, with an internal-combustion engine that drives a generator for extended-range. The Flextreme uses slide-out panels that deflect air around its rear to achieve a staggering .22 drag coefficient. I like the way it looks, but at the pace the auto industry moves, we won’t see a design like this hit the market for, say, 50 years.

Source: Gizmag

I don’t mean to be a bummer, but a team of researchers from UC Berkeley, Switzerland, and Spain, have found that exposure to exhaust fumes thickens arteries and could increase the chances of cardiovascular disease.

The study looked at people in the Los Angeles area who live within 100 meters of a highway. It found that their arteries thickened by 5.5 micrometers – one-twentieth the thickness of a human hair – per year, more than twice the average.

“For the first time, we have shown that air pollution contributes to the early formation of heart disease, known as atherosclerosis, which is connected to nearly half the deaths in Western societies and to a growing proportion of deaths in the rapidly industrializing nations of Asia and Latin America,” said study co-author Michael Jerrett, UC Berkeley associate professor of environmental health sciences. “The implications are that by controlling air pollution from traffic, we may see much larger benefits to public health than we thought previously.”

Via: UC Berkeley

It seems that Nissan is now ready to jump into the electric car fray with the new “LEAF” Zero Emissions Vehicle. Right off the bat the little Nissan gets some points. It’s good looking for a compact has room for four and has an 80% charge rate of about 30 minutes. The problem however is the range, as it tops out at 100 miles on a single charge. Not good if you’re planning a weekend road trip.

Found on eBay is this 1918 Rauch and Lang electric car, built by Baker, Rauch and Lang of Cleveland, Ohio. The car has been in the same family since 1954, but was last restored in the late 1950s. The car has not run since 1960 and is being sold as is.

Bigfoot. El Chupacabre. The Loch Ness monster. Honest politicians. People swear that they’ve had encounters, and swear on a stack of bibles that these critters exist. The Tesla Model S, revealed to the public just about one year ago, fits in the same realm; call it “auto-cryptozoology”. With clean lines reminiscent of a Maserati, it looked to be the out-of-the-park home run alternative to Chevy’s plain vanilla Volt electric sedan.

Have dreams of launching a boutique auto firm? Startup Trexa may have a way for you to get into the biz. The company has created an open-source electric car platform that can be used to develop unique rides. Before you scoff, check out the specs:

Every car nut dreams of building a custom ride, a one-off wonder that reflects its owner’s heart and soul. But not even the fantastic fever dreams of a madman could conjure this. The guys at Hector’s Chop Shop in Santa Rosa, Ca., are building an electric, rear-drive ‘69 Honda N360.

The Toyota Prius notwithstanding, General Motors and Chevrolet squandered the leadership position in alternative-propulsion vehicles that they stated to hold with the twin introductions of the EV-1, and the Chevrolet S-10EV. What, you never heard of the S-10EV? Ahhh, come, sit, and learn how GM regained it’s swagger after two truly forgettable decades of producing mostly uninspired vehicles, and introduced a truly revolutionary car – The EV-1 – along with the companion S-10EV.

In a speech before the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) in Washington, DC, former NY Governor George Pataki called for a 40% market penetration of electric vehicles before the end of the current decade.

Calling the US reliance on foreign oil “one of the most devastating policy failures of our time”, Pataki rejected current projections for market share of up to 7% by 2020.