2007 Toyota Corolla Le Sedan 4-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Recharge Wrap-up: Q50 Hybrid video, Iran's biodiesel weed

A new video from Infiniti showcases the Q50 Hybrid's kinetic energy recovery technology, borrowed from Formula One. The video details what is going on inside both the Q50 Hybrid and the racecar when it gathers energy to store for later use, offering better performance than an internal combustion engine alone. In the Q50 Hybrid, that electric energy helps the car accelerate from 0-60 in 4.9 seconds. The video also serves to highlight the relationship between racing innovation and performance and efficiency improvements in production vehicles. See the video above. The 2015 Toyota Prius C has been named a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The compact hybrid, updated for the 2015 model year, has been upgraded from a "poor" to "acceptable" rating in the small overlap crash test, placing it on the Top Safety Pick list. Beginning in the 2016 model year, cars will have to score a "good" rating on the test to make the list, which means further improvements will be necessary if Toyota wants the Prius C to maintain its safety status with the IIHS. Read more at Green Car Reports. A couple in Tennessee have been found guilty of scamming the state in a fake biodiesel scheme. John and Lisa Brichetto's Northington Energy LLC received a state loan to produce biodiesel in 2011, but the facility never started production and was later foreclosed upon. In addition to the $142,215 the Brichettos defrauded from Tennessee, the state also invested in utilities and roads, while the US Department of Agriculture also paid for site improvements. Read more from the Times Free Press. Researchers in Iran have developed a way to make biodiesel from a weed. Scientists at the Islamic Azad University have created two liters of biomass for biofuel from flixweed. Flixweed, also called herb-Sophia and tansy mustard, is a non-edible weed that grows in various climates with little to no effort. It was found to contain 22 percent oil and fatty acids, and the biomass contains oxygenated chemical components. "This issue is important because the atomic oxygen in the fuel of a car directly cuts exhaust and the dangerous carbon monoxide and cancerous particles suspended in air," says Mehdi Alami, a chemistry graduate working on the project. Read more at Press TV.

Automakers score 8 out of top 20 most-watched ads on YouTube [w/videos]

Who would have ever thought there'd be a day where people are able to skip television commercials only to go to websites to watch them later? Such is the joy of a DVR and YouTube. AdWeek tabulated the 20 most-watched ads on YouTube, and found that nine were car-related including eight coming from automakers.
Volkswagen continued its Star Wars theme with two ads in the top 20, including the highest-ranking car commercial The Bark Side spot at number three with almost 18 million views, which doesn't even have a single car in it. Some of our favorites are from Chrysler with Clint Eastwood in It's Halftime in America and House Arrest with Charlie Sheen for the Fiat 500 Abarth. Chevrolet, Honda, Audi and Toyota were the other automakers in the top 20, but we'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention one of the coolest ads on the list, the Hot Wheels corkscrew jump.
Of all the car videos, only the Fiat ad wasn't played during a Super Bowl. Check out all eight videos - in order - after the jump. Nike took the top spot with its My Time is Now ad that has been seen online more than 20 million times with Pepsi's Uncle Drew posted up in the runner-up; some of the other videos include four Old Spice commercials and an ad in which Snoop Dogg is pedaling Hot Pockets.

2019 Hyundai Nexo First Drive Review | Promise for fuel cells

According to the Kardashev scale of measuring advanced civilizations, a Type I civilization is able to harness all the power available on its home planet, including solar, wind and geothermal. A Type II civilization harnesses all the power generated by its sun. A Type III civilization harnesses all the energy of its home galaxy. Humanity, as physicist Michio Kaku is fond of saying, is a Type 0: We derive all our energy from burning dead plants and animals. And humanity being what it is, we still prefer crossovers by a vast margin. Fine, says Hyundai. We'll give you what you want, but we're going to nudge you toward Type I in the process. For 2019, the Korean automaker is launching a double-pronged attack on the internal-combustion engine with a pair of crossovers — a pure-electric version of the Kona and the hydrogen-powered Nexo. Hyundai is taking this approach because it believes electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles actually serve two different purposes. According to Dr. BoKi Hong of the company's fuel cell R&D division, the future won't see a one-solution-fits-all revolution in post-internal-combustion-engine (ICE) propulsion. Smaller vehicles — cars, motorcycles, Bird scooters — will be able to run solely on electricity, but Dr. Hong says that larger vehicles — cargo trucks, buses — will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The reason? Scalability. The larger the vehicle, the less sense it makes to equip it with a battery pack. Weight, cost and refueling time all increase along with the size of the conveyance. The longer the distance they have to travel — think cargo haulers or cross-country buses — the less sense it makes to use a battery electric vehicle (BEV). Hydrogen, on the other hand, offers a much more efficient way of storing and transporting energy. A fuel cell drivetrain can be scaled up to fit larger vehicles, but it doesn't require the same proportion of material as a battery. Plus, filling up your hydrogen tanks is as quick as a gasoline top-off, an advantage for long-distance haulers. Hyundai believes there's room for fuel cell vehicle (FCV) passenger cars as well, and the Nexo is Hyundai's latest take on a hydrogen car. Its first was introduced in 2000, based on a Santa Fe. That was followed in 2013 by a Tucson-based FCV. Unlike those, the Nexo arrives on an all-new platform not shared with an existing ICE-powered car. As it did with the Kona EV, Hyundai is offering a crossover in a segment where one doesn't really exist.