Each September, Montreal holds a car-free day, called En Ville Sans Ma Voiture!, or In Town Without My Car! centered on Ste-Catherine street. No motorized vehicles are allowed on the street during this day, and a bunch of vendors present green-transport alternatives to cars and various activities. One of the most important events is the electric car demos.

This year, students from the University of Montreal’s School of Engineering presented their solar car, named Esteban IV.

Officially recognizing their brief foray into the compact car market as a major blunder, for 2009, Ford has reintroduced one of their most massive feats of engineering: the EarthRoamer XV-LT Ford 550. An all-terrain recreational vehicle that will make your pop-up camper wet its pants, the EarthRoamer XV-LT prides itself on being powerful enough to endure a rugged terrain while still providing [most] of the comforts of home. Contrary to what it suggests at first glance though, the EarthRoamer XV-LT is not another monstrous, testosterone-saturated gas guzzler.

The University of Michigan team was first across the finish line back on July 22 after a long, hot 10-day 2,400-mile (4,000 km) race from Plano, Texas to Calgary, Alberta. The North American Solar Challenge pits various schools against each other to see who can build the fastest, most efficeint solar car.

This year, 15 solar-powered cars built by students from universities in the U.S., Canada, and Germany completed.

Hydrogen could be the fuel of the future, if someone can help bring the price down.

Hydrogen’s obtained by splitting water into it’s two parts, oxygen and hydrogen. Right now, the only method for doing the splitting involves platinum as a catalyst. Platinum is expensive, and that’s the main reason for the high cost of hydrogen as a fuel. But some researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may have more cost-effective solution.

A new Sam’s Club Solar Kiosk

Cars like the Tesla Roadster are 100% electric, but that doesn’t mean they’re Zero-Emissions. You have to get the electricity you need to re-charge them from somewhere, and the main source for grid electricity in the US? Coal. So to power your super clean Tesla Roadster, you have to burn a bunch of coal. Makes it less appealing, doesn’t it?

Well, in California, being a smug eco/electro-driver just got a little easier, and from a company you’d never expect: Sam’s Club, aka Wal-Mart.

Finally solar power is being applied to cars in some useful way. Sure, the car only measures 33 x 22 x 14 millimeters, but it’s a start, right?

The “World’s Smallest Solar Racing Car” as Ecotopia calls it, is an ultra-small, fully functional toy car with a tiny solar panel that generates enough electricity to run it’s little motor and make it zip all around your kitchen floor, even with just a strong interior light source. Awesome.

Possible Design of Next Prius

At every major crossroads in the automotive industry, car manufacturers have stepped up to produce… garbage.  Ok, that’s not always true, but maybe that isn’t so bad either.  Even failures, often ESPECIALLY failures, have ultimately forced car companies out of a comfortable status quo mentality to produce better, faster and safer vehicles. 

According to this story from a local TV station, John Weber from Boise, Idaho gets around in a custom built, solar powered Geo Metro.

As to why he built the solar powered car, Weber says:

I don’t like to be dependent on big global corporations to get my needs met, I like to get my needs met locally.