A123Systems announce six initial certified partnerships that are authorized to install and convert the hybrid Toyota Prius to an plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The conversion is expected to increase the gas mileage of the Prius to over 100 MPG for the first 30 - 40 mile commute.

The L5 module, designed for the the 2004 - 2008 Toyota Prius, provides approximately 5 kWh of power and takes only 4.5 hours to recharge. The A123Systems L5 module runs $9995 which includes installation and a 3 year warranty.

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Greg Lucas of Hybrid Cars and Trucks just launched a new resource dedicated to informing consumers about hybrid and electric cars.

The advantages of hybrid vehicles are obvious, especially fuel economy. But Greg’s site promises to provide more than the obvious and goes into how hybrid vehicles work.

An interesting site, stop by and hybrid cars.

One problem with hybrid vehicles today is the recharging system. It just takes too long to recharge your battery. Given, that the hybrid electric vehicle range is extended with an internal combustion engine, for a “true” electric car, fast recharging of low batteries is a necessity.

With a 5 minute recharge time, A123Systems M1 cells charge almost 20 times faster than traditional Lithium-Ion cells. Also, at 1/3 the weight, expect that the vehicle range will be extended. A123Systems uses nanoscale materials that are inexpensive, nontoxic and safer than Li Ion batteries.

GM is prototyping A123Systems’ batteries in their Saturn Green Line Vue plug-in hybrid SUVs and are expecting double the fuel efficiency.

One thing the hybrid cars promise users is the most, is their ability to save gas by consuming less, as well as reduction in atmospheric pollution. For that reason more people prefer to own hybrid vehicles these days. Hybrid cars run on both fuel and engines that are powered by battery. This means that, they consume less oil and emit less gas when compared to gasoline powered vehicles. Hybrid car, no doubt is a possible solution to the sporadic hike in fuel price in the oil market.

Because of the benefits or advantages accrued from using or owning hybrid cars, the US government had welcomed and supported the manufacturing of this model of car. It has also allowed importation as well as encouraging automobile company in the country like Ford and General Motors to manufacture hybrid cars.

Some of the advantages derived from hybrid cars include the following:

(a) Savings on low gas usage:

Hybrid car combines both electric power and gasoline powered engine. Hence each function all by itself, and combines together depending on which is weaker or stronger when running. The regenerative braking feature enables the engine to compliment each other

(b) Consistent performance:

Unlike the traditional gas powered engine, hybrid cars do not require transmissions to make their engines work at full capacity even at reduced speeds. Hybrid cars function normal and on a consistent basis at any motor speed.

(c) Environmentally friendly:

Hybrid cars, because of their combination of electric powered and gasoline – powered engines, emit significantly less gas into the environment. The effect of this in the long-run will be a clean population free environment around the globe.

(d) Convenience:

Less amount is expended on gasoline for hybrid cars. This is because of the battery powered engine used by hybrid cars. This is in perfect contrast to owners of the convention gas powered cars who cannot help but feel the scourge of the soaring fuel pump price. Also, most hybrid cars are easy to maneuver on the road because of its light weight. The designs are also something to behold and they come in style.

Some are of the opinion that buying or owning a hybrid car is not ideal for now because of its expensive nature. Notwithstanding its cost, the advantages to be derived from owning this type of vehicle in the long run is worth it. It will be better if more people demand for hybrid cars because this will induce the manufacturers to manufacture more and the price will eventually fall in no time at all.

We live in an age of information and technology that has made everything around us smarter. Electronic and digital components have made life easier in our homes, offices, and automobiles.

Some of life’s bells and whistles, like nose hair trimmers, are no more than budget-grabbing gizmos. However there are many intelligent tools that can bring convenience and safety to our daily tasks.

In the vast world of "smart" technology, the automotive electronics market is king. Indispensable features such as anti-lock braking systems and electronic stability control are perfect examples of smart and safe automotive electronics.

Recent developments by industry experts have created a huge increase in the number of electronic devices installed at automotive plants. Just to give you an idea of how quickly cars have evolved electronically, the Apollo 11 space craft traveled to the moon and back using a mere 150 kilobytes of onboard memory. It’s remarkable to think that the typical CD player uses a whopping 500 kilobytes just to keep our favorite songs from skipping.

Listening to uninterrupted music is a mere iota of how electronics have impacted a car’s performance in order to benefit drivers.

Telematics is the term used for the technology that involves automobile communication systems. The term was originally used to describe the blending of telecommunications and informatics or information technology. This industry has been gaining more and more attention from car manufacturers over the past years. In the mid-1990s, industry insiders predicted that telematics would become "the" go-to technology; increasing overall sales and more importantly, transforming the automotive industry into a major player in mobile technology. In reality, these forecasts panned out to be less than what was predicted. From an initial industry projection of over $40 billion dollars, the figure has been whittled down to half as more conservative measures were considered.

Nevertheless, that is by no means an indication that the development of this telematics technology has been or will be abandoned. In fact, on average automobile manufacturers spend $2000 on electronic systems for every vehicle that comes off the line — in incredible increase from the $110-per-car budget of the early 1970s. This huge increase in spending is reflected in everything from engine performance to entertainment systems, security features to safety devices. Every component of the vehicle works together to provide automobiles that perform better, are more comfortable, and ultimately safer to drive.

Some of the most common smart and safe automotive electronics are as follows:

Controller Area Network More than one computer runs your car. There is actually a network of computers called the Controller Area Network (CAN). Like a LAN (Local Area Network) that’s commonly used in home and business computers, the CAN links computers together. In your vehicle, the CAN basically links the many separate computer systems together and allows them communicate with each other. These interconnected systems involve everything from critical systems like engine management, cruise control and anti-lock brakes and cruise control, to less-demanding applications like automatic window and seat controls.

Fuel Efficiency Skyrocketing fuel prices have forced automotive manufacturers to realize the need for fuel-efficient vehicles, and to meet that demand. Smart automotive electronics are used to create the more efficient burning of fuel, such as the electronic fuel injection system (EFI).

The technology used in hybrid vehicles takes this one step further, with electronic devices that allow the driver to automatically switch between gas and electric engines.

Safety Devices There are generally two categories of devices designed to protect the safety of the driver and passengers: active and passive safety devices.

* Active safety devices: These are systems that constantly work to ensure the safety of drivers and passengers. Examples of active safety devices are dynamic steering response (DSR), traction control (TCS), and acceleration slip regulation (ASR).

While the average driver may not notice these systems at work, they are constantly sensing road and driving conditions and adjusting the car’s performance accordingly to create a safer ride. Electronic Stability Control has been shown by researchers to have a large safety benefit in reducing single vehicle skids.

* Passive safety devices: While these features may be more visible and seem simpler, they are also controlled by smart and safe automotive electronics. Thanks to developments in electronics and technology, airbag deployment has seen a tremendous amount of improvement over the years. Early airbags would deploy too early or too late, offering little or no benefit to the driver and passengers. Now, more advanced systems have created devices in your car that are actually programmed to the conditions that can lead to a high collision impact. Airbag and seating adjustment systems are deployed to minimize impact and decrease the degree of injury to the people inside the vehicle.

Think of the advancements over just a decade, and you’ll agree that the car of today certainly is a far cry from its predecessors. Modern automobiles offer more than simply a means of getting from point A to point B. Smart and safe automotive electronics make "getting there" as comfortable and as secure as possible.

With the issue of global warming taking on international importance in recent years, unsurprisingly the focus has fallen on car drivers, with cars seen as one of the major contributors towards global warming. Green cars have been held up as a potential solution, one that motorists should be embracing.

But are green cars actually ‘green’?

Firstly, let’s take pure electric cars. Unfortunately these electric cars are anything but good for the environment. The electricity that they run on is produced in power stations, where only 30-40% of the energy is converted into electricity. Transferring this electricity along electric cables then results in a further 30% being lost to heat energy. So by the time this electricity reaches an electric car a huge amount of the energy has already been lost. Good for cutting down inner city pollution but efficient it certainly isn’t.

Recently hybrid cars have been preferred, cars that contain both an electric motor and a petrol engine. The battery for the motor is powered by the energy generated from braking. When it comes to being ‘green’ these cars in theory offer many more environmental benefits.

In practice this isn’t necessarily the case. Consumer magazine Which? tested four hybrid cars by driving them throughout London. The results were disappointing, as mentioned by George Marshall-Thornhill, senior researcher for Which?, “Some of these should have performed much better.” And this is all without mentioning how to dispose of troublesome electric batteries.

Then there’s the cost of hybrid cars. The Toyota Prius is the most popular hybrid car and can be purchased for around £17,000. However, with fuel economy claims in doubt and 55% of people believing that green cars are too expensive, there is still some way to go before green cars arrive on a large scale.

The facts are that green cars use more energy to produce, are harder to dispose of, their fuel economy claims have been doubted, and they are simply too expensive. The age of the green car has not arrived yet.

Eighty percent of car buyers are using the Internet to research cars and used car prices. For vehicle research, the Internet’s great! For vehicle prices, the Internet sucks! It sucks because the prices do not reflect reality for the buyer or the seller. Web sites that place values on vehicles have created more confusion than ever.

“My car’s worth $25,800.” “I looked up used car prices on the web and my vehicle’s worth twenty grand.” I hear quotes like these everyday. I wish, for the customer’s sake, that the values are real. By “real” I mean a viable number according to market value.

As hard as it is to accept, even for me as a dealer, what we think a car is worth, and what it’s actually worth according to “market value” is often drastically different.

To find a vehicle’s value the context must first be discussed. What’s context?

Context includes, but is not limited to:

1) Vehicle condition: mileage, maintenance, 1-owner…etc 2) Desirability: new model, special editions, just plain cool… 3) Seasonality: plow trucks, convertibles, 4-wheel drive…etc 4) The Economy: factory incentives, gas prices, hybrids, SUVs 5) Location: Beverly Hills versus the Bronx

Now, each of the above context variables could easily have several sub categories. For example…

Vehicle condition is extremely relative. One person may think there vehicle is perfect, someone else states it needs $1000 worth of work.

Desirability is also relative. A bunch of very cool bells and whistles may not add any value, or it may add $1000’s.

Seasonality is relative. A convertible in the summer has more value than one during a Chicago winter. A plow truck in June will have significantly less value than in November in the northeast.

Economic recessions, exorbitant gas prices, combined with manufacturer incentives can shift new and used car prices all over the map.

Location has a major effect on used car prices. A convertible in California is worth more than one located in Canada.

To summarize, context funnels down to market value. Web sites such as Edmunds, NADA, and Kelley have drastically missed this mark, creating a host misinformation. To be fair, these are great research sites, but they can not be the final say on price.

Stating that a vehicle is worth a certain amount of money based on a web site’s data does not take the above factors into account. It’s a value based on misinformation.

These web sites have created an aura of trust when in actuality, the values are mythical. The market is the real indicator of vehicle worth—for better or worse.

What should one do? Buyers and sellers would be wise to follow the market. Check out autotrader.com, cars.com, and/or *ebaymotors.com and watch what vehicles are being advertised and sold for. While these sites are not the final word either, they’re much more accurate than web sites leaning heavily on opinion and averages.

Note: eBay used car pricing is generally wholesale. In other words, it would not be accurate to compare a wholesale-priced eBay car (which may need a significant amount of reconditioning) to a retail-priced vehicle in showroom and/or perfect working condition.

In the end, and this come straight from industry expert, Barry Roth, “Take the highest price and the lowest price you find on the Internet and throw them out. The remaining numbers in the middle is where one should wade. But don’t forget value. Price is one thing—value is the real key to a great car”

For more on used car values visit www.medwayimports.com/

They use less fuel. They are much more efficient. They are much less polluting. And what’s more, they require much less maintenance. Yes, hybrids really do score better on all counts when compared to conventional vehicles. In fact not only do they need much less service, they are also made to run better and last longer. So you should take all these factors into consideration when you are making a choice. Let’s take a look at why they don’t need as much maintenance.

Firstly, they have fewer parts than a conventional car and hence, fewer parts to wear out. It’s the way they are built. There’s no regular starter and this technology means that there is one part less that needs to be replaced. No starter also means there is no chance of accidentally grinding the flywheel. The battery and the motor too do not require too much maintenance. The engine lasts longer than a conventional engine and requires as much maintenance perhaps as a conventional one. A hybrid does not need any valve adjustments done and even if there are valves, they do not get worn out because the engine does not run constantly. And the injectors do not need regular cleaning, in fact maybe they never need to be cleaned because there is hardly any deposit on them.

The hybrid car uses electricity to run the air-conditioning system unlike the conventional ones that use a traditional pulley that is driven off a gas motor. So this means there is no air-conditioning belt to wear out. There is also no belt used for the steering because it is not hydraulic but electric. So it has very little kickback even when driving over rough, uneven roads.

The hybrid car’s generator can multi-task. The generator is an important part of the hybrid car and there is a separate gas engine that powers it. A hybrid engine is really very small, maybe 10 to 20 horsepower and it is so designed that it gets maximum efficiency if it runs at one speed. Because the generator does many tasks, there is less wear and tear of the other parts and when braking or coasting, the car can recapture the energy. So there is no wastage of the battery and the battery does not need to be replaced very often. With the generator handling a lot of the braking – in fact 80% - it means that extends the life of the brakes too. There is also less chance of the rotors getting warped. Thanks to less of a heat build up, the life of the brake fluid is extended too and the brake pads last longer.

Hybrid cars also have warranties that are much longer. Most of the Toyota and Honda cars have much longer warranties on their hybrids than on the conventional ones. There’s an 8 year or an 80,000 mile warranty on the Honda Insight while for the Toyota Prius, you’ll get a 100,000 mile warranty or 8 years on the hybrid system and the battery. These longer warranties make the hybrid an attractive buy.

If you are making up your mind between a conventional car and a hybrid one, look at all the long-term advantages. Hybrids are built so they last longer and they don’t need as much looking after as a conventional car. Add to that the fact that they don’t guzzle as much gas and have fewer parts, therefore less maintenance and you’ll see why it makes good sense to decide in favor of the hybrid.

Vehicles that will help you save money on gas

Prices at the pump are rising steadily; more and more of the vehicles being released get very low gas mileage. This makes it really hard to get around town or to work, on a budget. Well, there still are tons of options for vehicles that can save you tons of money at the pump.

If you’re not ready to take the plunge and buy a hybrid or electric vehicle, there are many gas-engine cars that get very good gas mileage. For small cars, the mini cooper (28 city/36 highway) gets you the most miles for your gallon. If you’re looking at midsize or large cars, you should check out Hyundai. The Elantra gets 27 city/34 highway, and the Sonata get 24 city/34 highway. If you’re looking into station wagons, the Pontiac Vibe and the Toyota Matrix both get 30 city/36 highway.

If you’re looking for a car with even better gas mileage, you should check out hybrid cars. The concept of a hybrid is that its engine is actually a combination of two engines: a traditional gas engine, and an electric engine. Unlike true electric cars, the electric engine is charged by the gas engine, so there’s no need to plug it in. And while all the power is ultimately derived from the gas engine, these cars, van’s, and SUVs still get way batter gas mileage and saving you tons of money at the pump. If you’re looking simply for the best gas mileage overall, you should check out the Honda insight; it gets 60 mpg city, 66 mpg highway. Plus it’s from Honda so you can be confident you’re getting a solid long lasting vehicle. If you’re looking for an SUV, the vehicle with the best gas mileage is the Ford Escape hybrid. It gets 31 mpg city, 36 mpg highway. Imagine, getting the gas mileage of a car (or better) from an SUV.

Another option for saving fuel that will be available on the market soon is the plug-in hybrid. You’re probably thinking “why would I want to plug in my hybrid when I can just get a regular hybrid?’ One dollar to get as far as a gallon of gas, that’s why. A plug in hybrid is the same as a regular hybrid except you have the option of charging the electric engine. This means that if you only take short trips, your gas engine will rarely even have to turn on, and electricity gets you as far as a gallon of gas for about $1. And, unlike normal electric cars, you never have to worry about your battery dying so you can go as far as you want on your gas engine.

If you want to just skip the gas altogether, there have been some great advances in electric vehicles. You’ll forget everything you know about electric vehicles when you see the Tesla Motors Roadster. It’s fully electric, so you can always get a gas mileage equivalent of about $1 per gallon. Unlike traditional electric cars, this one runs on a lithium ion battery, so it can go farther between charges (about 250 miles), it can go a lot faster (top speed of 130 mph), and to be honest, it just looks cooler. If an electric car ever catches on, it will most definitely be this one.

With any type of vehicle, you should keep your car in good shape and making sure it gets regular tune ups, this will help keep up gas efficiency. Also remember that the weight of the vehicle matters. Carrying around stuff you don’t need and always having a full tank will raise your gas mileage.

Hybrid Cars Save Money If you have been sitting on the fence about deciding to purchase a Hybrid car, you no longer have any excuse to be squeamish. Consumer Reports just released a study this August that confirms that Hybrid cars will in fact save you money over the long run.

The combination of generous tax credits along with the fuel saving nature of these vehicles is what makes them a good long term value. The difference in up front cost between a hybrid and its traditional counterpart is often between $1200 and $7000. Thats a wide gap, and can be enough to leave you wondering if its worth it.

The good news is that if you act fast and purchase your new Hybrid car before the tax credits phase out in 2007, alot of that upfront additional cost will come back to you in the form of a tax credit. Meanwhile, you will enjoy long term savings on fuel costs.

Did you know that as of 2006, Hybrids account for only 1% of new car sales in the US? As gas prices rise, the ratio will likely change as people seek to cut costs out of rising fuel prices. Unfortunately, if you wait too long you will no longer be able to take advantage of the tax credits that are being phased out. If you are considering purchasing a Hybrid car, you are better to do it now.

The study, conducted by Consumer Reports assumes that you keep your Hybrid car for several years, long enough to notice the difference in cost of filling up. Of course, the more you drive to work, school, or on vacation, the faster and greater your savings will add up.

If you are researching Hybrid cars, be sure to check out http://www.hybridrevolution.org This site lists updated information on all makes and models of Hybrids available and soon to be available.