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Cleantech

Molycorp IPO Raises $394M for Greentech Metals

Molycorp, a company that controls one of the largest deposits outside China of a group of metals used in many green technologies, is off to a rocky start on the public markets after raising $393.8 million in its IPO today. Read More »

Hybrid Espionage! GM Takes Couple to Court Over Tech Secrets

Hybrid technology is really getting its day in court. A former General Motors worker and her husband have been accused of stealing (and trying to sell to a Chinese competitor) $40 million in trade secrets related to hybrid vehicles. Read More »

 
 

Proterra Nabs $20M to Build Green Bus Plant, Sway Policy

Cranking out electric buses, developing new transit tech and swaying policies in favor of “clean commuting.” Those are the main initiatives that startup Proterra says it plans to undertake with $20 million in new funding. Read More »

Tighter MPG, Emission Rules Go on the Books for 2012

The Obama administration has just finalized the country’s first ever national regulation to curb greenhouse gas emissions and raise the bar on efficiency for new cars and trucks. The move could pushes automakers to incorporate more green technology into their lineups. Read More »

Hybrid and electric vehicles can only ride so far on the appeal of their fuel economy gains and environmental credentials. For a majority of car buyers, factors such as style, performance and services for information, entertainment and safety will hold more weight in the decision to … Read More »

Uh Oh, Hybrid: Prius Joins List of Toyota Safety Woes

Word out of Japan this morning of a possible defect in Toyota’s 2010 Prius — the third generation model of the popular hybrid — adds another scuff to the reputation of an automaker already grappling with its largest ever vehicle recall. As the New York … Read More »

UPDATED Automakers got their green on today at Day 1 of the North American International Auto Show at Detroit’s Cobo Center, unveiling new hybrid concepts and announcing manufacturing plans for electric vehicles. Government officials and citizen protesters showed up too, respectively issuing praise for the industry’s … Read More »

Milestone: Toyota to Launch "Affordable" Plug-in Prius in 2011

When Toyota detailed plans this summer to lease hundreds of plug-in hybrids based on its popular Prius model by year’s end, the automaker called the program “a key first step in confirming how and when we might bring large numbers of plug-in hybrids to global markets.” Today … Read More »

One thing is sure: The hybrid, tandem-seat 3-wheeler in the works at Oregon-based startup Green Lite Motors is no Prius. Less certain is whether there’s a market for the 4-feet-by-8-feet vehicle, which features “smart standup” technology that Green Lite President and CEO Tim Miller says will … Read More »

A123Systems, the Watertown, Mass.-based battery maker that marked a break in the cleantech IPO drought last month with its initial public offering, shortly after raking in $249 million in federal grants, is now heading to Japan. The company announced a deal this … Read More »

Most Valuable Asset in Cleantech: A Chinese-Speaking CFO

Want to hit it big in cleantech? Sign your Chief Financial Officer up for Mandarin lessons. “The hottest commodity today is a Chinese-speaking CFO with an MBA from an American school –- that person is worth a mint,” venture capitalist Steve Westly said this week … Read More »

PREVIEW: Green Cars to Watch at the Tokyo Motor Show

For an international auto show organized around the theme “Fun Driving for Us, Eco Driving for Earth,” it’s only fitting for some cool green designs to be in the works. But while most automakers will have some kind of lower-emission offering on display when the Read More »

More Must Reads

In the latest chapter of a bitter rivalry between two hybrid auto entrepreneurs, startup GreenTech Automotive has just unveiled plans to make an initial investment of $1 billion and start producing 150,000 vehicles annually at a new hybrid development and manufacturing facility in Tunica … Read More »

Mobile Banking, Solar Power Put to Work for Water Distribution: A community in Musingini, Kenya, is working with Safaricom and Grundfos Lifelink to implement a solar-powered, pay-for-use water vending system using smart cards and mobile phones. — NYT’s Green Inc. Plug-in Prius on Deck: Toyota plans … Read More »

Wean vehicles off of one limited resource — petroleum — and get them hooked on another: lithium. That’s what some critics have raised about switching over to electric cars that use lithium-ion batteries, since the U.S. imports most of its lithium from Chile and Argentina, while … Read More »

Cash for Algae Fuel Down Under: The Algal Fuel Consortium won an A$2.72-million ($2.26 million) research grant under a government program in Australia to develop microalgal mass cultivation systems to generate biomass from captured CO2 emissions, and use it as a feedstock for pilot-scale production of fuel … Read More »

Car-sharing networks like Zipcar — the largest in the U.S. — often earn environmental points for helping to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. And as we’ve written on GigaOM Pro (subscription only) and on Earth2Tech, these services — hooked up to communications … Read More »

The latest hint about China’s role on the road to more affordable hybrid and electric cars comes courtesy of BYD this morning. The Chinese battery giant and newbie automaker that won investment from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway firm last year, has snagged a battery … Read More »

What About Charging?: The Department of Energy is spending $2.4 billion to help develop technology for electric vehicles, but relatively little has been awarded for a crucial element that remains in short supply: the infrastructure needed to recharge vehicles once they are on the road. Read More »

Cash for Clunkers Tally: Cash for clunkers may not be the most cost-effective emission reducer, but trade-ins under the program have resulted in an average fuel economy gain of 9.6 MPG, which translates to an estimated $1,000 in savings at the gas pump and 660,000 metric … Read More »

Less than eight months after Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally hightailed it to Capitol Hill in an Escape Hybrid, pleading for a bailout, the automaker has today posted a $2.3 billion quarterly profit and increased its U.S. market share by 2 percentage points — … Read More »

EEStor: Will It or Won’t it?: There are some indications that startup EEStor is making progress toward its goal of selling an energy storage device “capable of propelling a reasonably-sized automobile down a freeway for a couple hundred miles before needing a recharge,” and plenty of … Read More »

Andy Grove on Industry Transformation: Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, says the auto industry “today is as vertical as the computer industry was before the PC,” and warns that government efforts to protect the viability of General Motors may be as detrimental to innovation … Read More »

Meet the New GM, a company that’s supposed to be more nimble, innovative, and a heck of a lot more profitable than the old General Motors. The new company launched this morning as much of the automaker’s assets transferred over to a company now controlled by … Read More »

Smart Grid Challenge: Can competing smart grid models “challenge and complement one another, or will they be driven by infighting—over standards, regulations, federal investment dollars, etc.?” — Solve Climate Not Cheap, But Financed: For those that can’t scrounge together $109,000 to buy a luxury electric Roadster … Read More »

Until the launch of Honda’s low-cost hybrid Insight earlier this year, Toyota was pretty much the unchallenged king of the hybrid market. It took an early lead with the launch of its Prius, and has hung onto it, acquiring patents along the way — or, … Read More »

Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally and Department of Energy chief Steven Chu don’t agree on everything, but both are laying out plans for the potential of higher oil prices in the future, though neither are sure when, if or how high oil prices will rise. … Read More »

The federal tax credit for plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles in the U.S. — $7,500 — is just enough to let Tesla Motors tout a sub-$50,000 base price for its planned Model S electric sedan. But is the credit, and other incentives now coming into … Read More »

Electric and hybrid car enthusiasts who were just beginning to warm up to General Motors for its recent work on the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, and who years after the film “Who Killed the Electric Car?” skewered the automaker for pulling the plug on its electric … Read More »

The Obama administration is certain about a couple things in its plan for a new national fuel economy and tailpipe emission standard: It’s meant to start taking effect in 2012, and have automakers achieving a fleet average of 35.5 MPG by 2016, four years earlier than … Read More »

Updated with comments from GE: This month General Electric is powering through proposals for cleaner technologies for heavy-haul locomotives like, well, a freight train. This morning the company is unveiling a new locomotive model that it says will produce fewer emissions and offer better fuel … Read More »

For plug-in car and battery makers, there’s a lesson in the Obama administration’s recent decision to pull funding for research of hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles: Don’t rely too heavily on the dole for too long. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, you may recall, formed a cornerstone of … Read More »

Uncle Sam, Hybrid Car Salesman: Soon the Obama administration and whoever is running GM and Chrysler will have to confront the challenge of how to sell the cars they want America to buy, given that demand for hybrid sales has plummeted. — Wall Street Journal Gaga … Read More »

EPA Ethanol Rule on the Way: The U.S. EPA is slated to release a draft of the updated Renewable Fuels Standard this week that will set the course for how emissions from biofuels production and use are measured — and test the Obama administration’s approach to … Read More »

If you’re planning to roll out a hybrid or electric fleet vehicle technology in China, it’s nice to have the government on board. That’s what powertrain developer Adura Systems (not to be confused with lighting management company Adura Technologies) has found. Two-year-old Adura — … Read More »

In his first day at the helm of General Motors, Fritz Henderson wants to deliver one message: We’ll get the job done. Henderson repeated that pledge, in various ways, at a press conference this morning, saying that the automaker aims to quickly reinvent itself as … Read More »

Sunset for Solar?: Solar companies and investors who planned for silicon that was scarce and high-priced must adjust their business models for a glut that looms larger than most anyone expected. First Solar and other low-cost panel makers now face growing pressure on margins. — Read More »

Asia is the region to beat when it comes to cutting-edge battery technology. But there are groups in both Europe and North America that are forming with an eye to stealing some of that Asian dominance in what could someday be a booming market for electric … Read More »

Toshiba Delays Fuel Cell Launch: Toshiba said today it will not begin selling its first fuel cell product — a battery charger that produces electricity from a reaction between methanol, water and air — before the end of this month, as planned. The launch is now … Read More »

Less than six months after Michigan lost one high-profile R&D center for alternative-fuel vehicles (that of Tesla Motors, shuttered last fall), the state has wooed another: Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz Hybrid subsidiary plans to build a $9.9 million R&D facility in southeast Michigan for propulsion systems … Read More »

Every day, millions of car owners drive home, fire up their video game of choice, and devote more time and energy trying to win gold coins, magic swords, and other virtual rewards than they do behind the wheel. So what if their cars also came … Read More »

Automakers around the world may be feeling the pain of the global credit crunch, but some big car companies and their suppliers are expressing confidence in the future of hybrid and electric vehicles. French auto parts maker Valeo said today it’s Read More »

Financial Wizards Wanted: Tax equity investors, the financial specialists that convert tax credits into capital that developers can use to build new wind turbines and solar farms, have all but disappeared — just when they’re needed most. — BusinessWeek Mass Transit Squeeze: More Americans than ever … Read More »

It’s not just cars that are getting a cleantech makeover in Michigan; buses are getting a shot at cleaning up, too. Troy, Mich.-based Fisher Coachworks has raised $3.2 million for its new lightweight plug-in hybrid buses, according to a regulatory filing … Read More »

When Toyota Prius sales sank more than 40 percent last May compared with the same month a year earlier, the automaker blamed it on a global battery shortage. But while the 7 percent drop in fiscal 2009 sales Toyota forecast this week has … Read More »

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