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Recharge Wrap-up: BlaBlaCar raises $100M, NASA launches CO2 satellite

BlaBlaCar, a ridesharing startup in Europe, has raised $100 million in a funding round led by Index Ventures. After recently growing to 12 countries and 8 million users, BlaBlaCar plans to us the funding for even more aggressive growth throughout Europe. The ridesharing service pairs drivers and passengers, allowing passengers to catch rides between cities while allowing drivers to save money on fuel on road trips. Drivers are not allowed to make a profit, and are only allowed to charge enough to break even after BlaBlaCar takes its percentage, to keep costs low for everyone involved. BlaBlaCar doesn't currently have plans to break into the US. Read more at The New York Times or at Gigaom. NASA has launched its Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 into space to keep track of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. After being delayed on Tuesday, the Delta II rocket equipped with an instrument to measure CO2 launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 5:56 am on Wednesday. It is ultimately headed for a polar orbit to watch how CO2 levels rise and fall throughout the seasons, in part to try to figure out if the land and oceans will continue to be able to absorb half of carbon emissions. The mission will last two years, and should give further insight into climate change. Learn more in the video below, at NASA or at New York Times. Mazda is likely to release a plug-in version of its Mazda2 hatchback with a rotary range extender, reports Australian site Motoring. The electrified Mazda2, and any other future Mazda EVs and hybrids, will likely be limited to markets with government subsidies for such vehicles (which doesn't include Australia) says Mazda Australia Managing Director Martin Benders. "As the best possible fuel economy at an affordable price hybrid doesn't make sense, because the fuel economy gain isn't that great unless half of all sales are hybrid, which won't happen without big tax breaks like in the Netherlands," said Benders. That doesn't rule out the US, though. A prototype version of the range-extended Mazda2 featured a 0.33-liter rotary engine to provide power to the lithium-ion battery pack when depleted. A 2.6-gallon gas tank essentially doubled the electric Mazda2's driving range to 250 miles. Read more at Motoring. Zap plans on selling 1,000 Urbee EVs per month to SunRa for distribution in China.

This map reveals the cleanest vehicles based on location

Naysayers love to point out how dirty the electricity grid mix is when it comes to charging electric vehicles. Curmudgeons are eager to jump into any conversation about EVs to enlighten the lucky listeners about how plug-in cars contribute to pollution, sometimes even throwing in a dash of climate-change denial for good measure. (Thanks, buddy. Pray, tell me more about the plight of oppressed SUV owners.) Unless someone buys an EV just because they think they're cool (which, yeah, they often are), they probably have at least a passable understanding of their environmental pros and cons. As many EV owners are already aware, location has a lot to do with any particular plug-in car's carbon footprint. Still, there's always more to know, and knowledge is not a bad thing, especially if one uses it to do the right thing. That's why this handy-dandy map from Carnegie Mellon University is so interesting. CMU researchers have compiled information about the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of various EVs based on where they're charged, as compared to gasoline-powered vehicles. The researchers looked at the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, and Prius Plug-In Hybrid versus the gasoline-dependent Toyota Prius hybrid and the stop-start-equipped Mazda3 with i-ELOOP and compared grams of CO2 emitted per mile. CMU takes into account the grid mix, ambient temperature, and driving patterns. CMU takes into account the grid mix based on county, as well as ambient temperature and driving patterns in terms of miles traveled on the highway or in the city. For instance, if you drive a Nissan Leaf in urban areas of California, Texas, or Florida, your carbon footprint is lower than it would be if you were driving a standard Toyota Prius. However, if you charge your Leaf in the Midwest or the South, for the most part, you've got a larger carbon footprint than the Prius. If you live in the rural Midwest, you'd probably even be better off driving a Mazda3. Throughout the country, the Chevrolet Volt has a larger carbon footprint than the Toyota Prius, but a smaller one than the Mazda3 in a lot of urban counties in the US. The Prius and Prius Plug-In are relatively equal across the US. Having trouble keeping it straight? That's not surprising. The comparisons between plug-in and gasoline vehicles are much more nuanced than the loudest voices usually let on.

Mazda keeping non-hybrid, non-electric Skyactiv strategy

Mazda still thinks that it can buck the trend of adding those fancy batteries and electric motors to its cars. At least for a little while longer. Hopefully. Speaking to Auto Express recently, Mazda's European boss, Jeff Guyton, said that he expects his company's cars to be able to get a lot more efficient without resorting to any of that fancy electrification stuff. "I think there's at least 20-30 percent better fuel economy by the end of the decade," he said. He said that he expected to get to Europe's low target of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer, "without any significant deployment of electrical drive." This part is all in line with Mazda's long-term Skyactiv strategy, as laid out back in 2011 and first mentioned publicly in 2010. Remember, this is the company that once proudly proclaimed, "Not Electric. Not Hybrid. Not A Drag To Drive." As explained back in 2011, Mazda hopes to wait until other automakers have done all of the heavy lifting on developing plug-in and hybrid tech so that when Mazda enters the market, things will be cheaper. Of course, Mazda has been quietly testing all-electric vehicles and Guyton said that there may be an Mazda EV at some point. "We are interested in electric technology and it will be in the distant future when it will be quite important," he told AE. "But we think it will take some time to be commercially attractive without tax payer-funded incentives." How much of a delay? Well, there is a gas-electric Mazda 3 hybrid available in Japan that uses some powertrain parts from the Toyota Prius, and we all know that the Prius has been around for ages. Maybe in 2025, Mazda will come out with a Leaf-based Mazda 2. Related Video: Green Mazda Fuel Efficiency Electric Hybrid skyactiv mazda skyactiv