The firm’s “Megacity” car “will be an emission-free city vehicle for metropolitan areas around the world,” the Munich-based firm said in a statement.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government aims to have one million electric cars on the road by 2020.

Daimler is poised to launch this year an electric version of its mini “smart” car, as well as a version of its Mercedes A class.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest automaker, expects to launch its electric car in 2013.

Something truly amazing comes from Turkey: some students from Sakarya University just released a prototype of what seems to be a car… but a car that consumes no more than a liter of hydrogen in a range of 568km (355 miles)!

Their new hydrogen car, called SAHIMO, weighs 110kg and was voted as the third-most fuel-efficient vehicle in the 26th Shell Eco Marathon contest last year. The student team behind the project is now looking at how to almost double the distance on the same 1 liter of hydrogen: 1000km.

SAHIMO’s prototype wasn’t cheap to build: it costed about $170,000, but I think a production version would be much cheaper. If they made it for two persons, it was great, even if it consumed 2 liters per 568km! Wow.

Toyota’s vice president Matasami Takimoto, asked about the company’s plans on releasing new zero-emission technologies at a recent shareholders’ meeting in Aichi Japan, said that they have plans to release a fuel cell-based car in 2015, not disclosing further details.

It seems like Toyota is touting with fuel cell technology since 2002, when they released a limited version of the hybrid Prius powered by a fuel cell. Storage technologies have not been encouraging the development of fuel cell technology, because of their inability to store hydrogen at the desired pressures and in the desired quantities, and because of their prohibitive price. Still, recent discoveries found that carbonized chicken feathers are a good starting point for making hydrogen storage much more viable, lowering the price of a tank to an incredible value of only $200. Carbon nanotube or metal hydride-based storages are ranging from $50,000 to $5.5 million. So, Toyota might just have a point this time.

The company says their car can drive up to 120 miles on a charge, thus making it perfect for urban environments, where you don’t usually drive more than 50 miles per day. ExxonMobil has partnered with Electrovaya, whose Li-Ion SuperPolymer batteries will move Maya 300 on the roads.

You will be able to charge your Maya 300 on your standard 110V outlet in 8 to 10 hours, so it’s a perfect timing for nighttime, when you usually don’t use it. Improvements can be made to this, by placing EV charging stations all over town or at gas stops to decrease the charging time by charging the battery faster and increase the car’s autonomy, making it suitable not only for urban areas. Still, thinking that this car will cost only $20-25,000, compared to other much more expensive ones, it seems like a deal for the regular urban commuter. The production and commercialization are set to start in 2011.

Nissan has already promised that they will unveil an electric car prototype. Well, now we find out it’s scheduled to be presented in August. It is a medium-sized five door powered by Li-Ion batteries. The debut will be made at the Tokyo motor show. The HQ from Yokohama, Japan, will be opened on August 2.

The production for Nissan’s new electric vehicle is set to begin at the end of 2010, in Japan. The plans are to produce about 50,000 cars initially, but they will only be sold in Japan by 2010, extending globally in 2012.

The U.S. government funded Nissan North America with $1.6 billion to upgrade a factory in Smyrna, Tennessee, for building their electric cars and also a Li-Ion factory. The expected output from the U.S. factory is of more than 100,000 electric cars.

This car’s figures are impressive: it can travel 200 miles, consuming the equivalent gasoline energy of 300mpg in hydrogen. The most interesting fact is that the power comes from a 6kW hydrogen fuel cell. For a comparison, Honda Clarity, has a 100kW fuel cell onboard – anyway, the size is not to be compared. What’s not so impressive is the maximum speed – 50mph, but considering you’ll use this car to get around your town, 50mph is more than enough.

The car’s body is made from a composite material and has four small electric motors embedded in each wheel, that also act as regenerative brakes.

The cars will be leased over 20 years, with fueling included in the cost, and the materials will be recycled at the end of each year’s lifespan. Hugo Spowers, head of Riversimple, said: “Cars evolved under very different constraints to those of today, so we must move on. The sale of cars still rewards the maximization of resource use – whereas we now accept that we must minimize resource use.” Sebastian Piech, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, along with other members of the Piech family, have backed the project so far.

It’s an interesting idea to lease cars, but this also has a few drawbacks: you won’t own your car, but instead lose money on someone else’s, and you won’t be able to sell it to recover part of your money, like you do with your old Ford, for example. In some situations, still, this is the best method to adopt.

With Better Place considering seriously the option of on-the-fly recharging, through EV recharging stations, Renault-Nissan announces that they will too use the same recharging system for the vehicles they will release soon.

Of course, there will be several methods of recharging, among which is the good-old socket plugging, with a recharging time of 8 hours, while swapping the battery only lasts less than 3 minutes. There is also a quick-recharging option of 20 minutes, that will restore 80 percent of the battery’s capacity.

One thing is most interesting here, though. If until now Priuses and other electric vehicles were expensive due to their battery cost, Nissan-Renault’s new project looks at the problem in a different angle: they will only lease the batteries, and you’ll own just the car, and that will decrease the car’s price dramatically, putting you at safe place of risks involving battery malfunction costs. I think these insurances will also be recovered from the fees applied to the service, but it’s still not as hard to pay a subscription than paying the whole sum at once.

Renault’s first electric car released in Europe will be a version of Kangoo, ready for the market in 2011. So, let’s wait a little – electrification is on its way.

Zhong Tai Electric Car - courtesy Times UK

Despite the economic downturn taking place during recent months, the Chinese auto industry prospers in areas that U.S. manufacturers, such as G.M., with a hundred years of global dominance only has small dreams (see Chevy Volt).

For example, New Power, a Chinese company, has developed an electric version of 2006 Daihatsu Terios, whose license was bought from the Japanese and adapted. Moreover, the compact 4×4 uses a revolutionary battery technology that makes a trade-off between performance and range, offering 250 miles of pure electric driving. The batteries can then be recharged in 6 hours from a normal socket, or in 2 hours from a special high power charger (probably 3-phased).

The Sunday Times was the first western publication to put New Power’s claims to the test. On first impressions the Zhong Tai looked anything but remarkable. The car’s basic bodywork and chassis are based on a 2006 Daihatsu Terios, a compact 4×4, the licence for which was bought and adapted for Chinese production, originally as a petrol car. The electric version looks identical to a conventional Terios from the outside, with the recharging point where the petrol cap should be and only the absence of an exhaust pipe giving the game away.

New Power’s EV has a 0 to 60 acceleration of about 12 seconds, which is ok for a normal car (considering the fact that most of other low-mileage EVs have much higher performance).

It nice to see electric vehicles with such a high range of autonomy hitting the streets, even if they’re in China, for the moment. 250 miles is not a short distance, and if combined with project Better Place’s demonstrated battery swapping stations, the situation is as normal as it can be if you purchase an electric car. The 75mph maximum speed is kinda unsatisfactory for some, but you can get used to it if you consider the electric motors’ torque and other advantages.

The price is expected to be somewhere around $30,000 – a net advantage over Toyota’s Prius, even if you pay $5,000 more. Production is set to start by 2011 – let’s hope they stick to their word.

They are realistic and know that fuel cells are a solution for the future, even if they are not affordable any time soon. Honda, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW all follow the electric and hybrid car trend before switching to fuel cells, so by the time they will hit the market seriously, we’ll have a pretty advanced fuel cell technology – not just dreams.

It’s good to know the big players are online this time – let’s hope their hydrogen dream doesn’t fade away with time. Of course, that would be justifiable only if a better and cleaner solution would have been found.

Although they’re not as appetizing as cars, buses or any other public transport system are mostly ec0-friendlier than an average car, even if their consumption reaches enormous figures (compared to a small automobile).

RATP, the company owning the public transportation in Paris, has thought of a next step in making their buses “greener”. They installed ultracapacitors onboard their already working hybrid buses, testing them as an alternative to batteries. It remains to be seen in real conditions how the ultracapacitors will behave, and what are their weaknesses and strengths compared to classic Li-Ion batteries.

Until now, they say using the new power storage got them a 20 to 25 percent reduction in fuel consumption.

Ultracapacitors have huge charging possibilities, with rapid charging/discharging times, fact that makes them a powerful candidate for vehicle use.