Finally, some real ethanol news. It’s nice to find some actual news stories to comment on instead of cantankerous op-ed pieces that might as well have been written five years ago, for how relevant they are now. We’ve got cantankerous covered, thanks.

Anyway, auto supplier Ricardo Inc. has built an ethanol-burning engine that, they claim, has better fuel economy than a traditional gas engine. Using diesel engines as a model, Ricardo built one that runs on a 30% to 50% ethanol blend that tops off at 15 mpg and weighs between 400 and 500 pounds. Meant for heavy trucks, their engine costs less than a comparably-sized diesel engine. The problem, of course, is that Ricardo’s optimum blend isn’t available anywhere yet, but Oil Price Information Service’s Tom Kloza points out that “people are agnostic” when it comes to fuel prices, and we don’t see gas getting much cheaper any time soon. It also helps that the U.S. Energy Information Administration is projecting improvements for the ethanol industry this year, based on a reversal of gasoline consumption dips that will boost demand for biofuels, and the rising requirements of federal renewable fuels standards.

And for what it’s worth, 2004 presidential candidate Wesley Clark supports ethanol. In fact, he was on hand for Ricardo Inc.’s engine test at today’s Washington, D.C. Auto Show, where he talked up ethanol’s job creation and environmental benefits, as well as the role it could play in national security. Clark may have been the laziest presidential candidate this side of Fred Thompson, but at least something can stir him to action. We’re glad it’s ethanol.

So Porsche has officially said no to proposed hybrid versions of the 911 or the Boxster - hybrid components, they claim, would add too much weight, and sports cars aren’t meant for city driving anyway. Debatable point, but whatever. The good news is that Porsche does want to make an all-electric sports car, assuming it could meet the performance standards of a regular engine. Or, more likely, when the corporate yuppie fartbags who drive Porsches can be convinced to go electric.

But hybrids are making progress elsewhere. Peugeot is still in production for its 2011 diesel-hybrid vehicle, the 3008 Hybrid4 Concept, and both Mercedes-Benz and GM are following suit. “Both cars are mild hybrids,” says Fox News’ website, “meaning the electric motor adds power to that of the combustion engine, as well as restarting it from stops. But they are not capable of running in all-electric mode, like…the Toyota Prius.” That was…surprisingly vitriol-free for Fox. Huh.

Anyway, hybrids and other green cars have been a hit for American automakers, whose finances are still delicate after Detroit’s 2007-08 freefalling crash - The Daily Green reports that “Ford’s hybrid sales were up 147% for the year,” adding that “the Ford Fusion Hybrid is a hit.” Ford has been recouping its losses, ending 2009 with a full percentage point gain in US market share, and their stock price is now 10 times improved. Their success could partly explain why GM is gunning for hybrid and diesel-hybrid vehicle production in the coming year - both GM and Chrysler are still struggling. Then again, Ford could go nowhere but up - owners of the ‘93 Taurus understand what we mean here.

Still, this is all promising news for 2010. Keep sending us stories, folks, and we’ll keep reporting ‘em. There might be a list in the works, too…

Way back in May of last year, we laughed off the prospect of a chocolate-fueled car in our List of Things that Wouldn’t be Powering Cars Any Time Soon.

Well boy, are our faces red. Turns out a group of plucky young squires from Warwick University have designed a chocolate-powered race car. Really.

According to a write-up from Jalopnik, “its body is made of potatoes, the steering wheel is carrots,” referring to the recycled plant and fruit fibers/extracts used to build it, “and the fuel is derived from chocolate.” And it works, too; the car can hit 145 mph and apparently corners like a champ.

So we have to scratch chocolate off that list of ours. Anyone got any ideas for something to replace it?

Branching off yesterday’s Tesla Motors post, they’re one of the 111 teams competing in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize contest, which put an unnecessary “x” in its name about 7 years too late for cool points. Nevertheless, it awards “a $10 million prize to build a practical vehicle capable of getting the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon of gas.” Some of the other teams include Indian company Tata Motors Ltd.; Aptera Motors, another CA start-up with big/futile hopes for a three-wheeled electric car (look out, ladies); LINCVOLT, Neil Young’s conversion project that we wrote about last year, and many others, of course. None of the Detroit manufacturers are entering anything, but they’ve got other things on their plate right now, be it getting the Chevy Volt ready for consumers, being forcibly restructured by the government, or both simultaneously.

The road competitions for the PAX-Prize will start next year, so gentlemen, charge your engines!

Happy St. Paddy’s day, folks! Hope you spent it safely and responsibly, in the spirit of Corn Car’s Official St. Patrick’s Day Mascot, Flashy the Drunken Leprechaun (pictured at left).

Now then, to business. Two states - Florida and Washington - have recently introduced tax breaks for electric cars. Both states intend to drop their sales tax on the vehicles, and the proposed Florida bill intends to give tax breaks to businesses that use electric cars. Some in Florida are even suggesting that lanes on main roads and highways be reserved for electric cars. This is a pertinent issue in the Sunshine State, home to some of the worst driving in continental America; a state where “merge” is a personal challenge and the levels of pack-animal aggression would make even Marylanders scratch their heads. It is an automotive hinterland where people routinely back out of their driveways at 60 mph. That they’ve even considered sacrificing an entire lane for the smaller, gentler electric car is staggering.

Of course, before we get all gooey, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America Stefan Jacoby says that it will take 35 years for the electric car to “gain a significant share of the global automotive market.” Indeed, he insists that “there is no country on earth that is really properly prepared for electric cars,” because most power grids aren’t set up to withstand hundreds of thousands of vehicles plugged into them. Which is a legitimate concern, and one that we’ve pondered from time to time. But it’s also true that Jacoby doesn’t want electric cars to take off before then, what with VW’s commitment to diesel engines and all.

Either way, it’s good to get people using electric cars now so that our infrastructure can mature with the technology - we certainly don’t want to be saying that we’re not ready for electric cars 35 years from now, do we?

The year is 1978. The Cold War rages on, artificial insulin has just been invented, the city of Cleveland goes bankrupt under the temperamental eye of then-mayor Dennis Kucinich, and the world sees both the tragic death of Keith Moon and the equally tragic birth of Ashton Kutcher. And, weirdly enough, Jack Nicholson was driving a hydrogen car. Probably while wearing flared pants and a shirt with lapels large enough to threaten commercial aviation, and his bit about the car “revolutionizing suicide” due to the lack of poisonous exhaust fumes was in poor taste, but this is still pretty amazing. Even moreso than those taffy-thick Canadian accents. Yikes.

Returning to 2009, Daniel Sperling appeared on The Daily Show recently to explain the government’s role in advancing fuel-efficient cars. Sperling didn’t have too many nice things to say about corn ethanol, claiming that it doesn’t do much for climate change and that the money would be better spent on electric cars, but the more interesting portion of this interview was his explanation of what has kept electric/hybrid/hydrogen cars from rocketing into the mainstream; the technology is well on its way, but the auto and fuel industries (and consumers of course) need to accept it, and the government is the mediator between those two forces. We hadn’t really thought about it that way, but that does make a lot of sense and, really, that smacks of Obama’s approach to the issue. In our next post, we’ll suggest ways for the government to sweet-talk Big Industry into accepting flex-fuel cars, but feel free to comment if you have ideas of your own.

Once again the forces of industry are outdone by bored teenagers - Luke LaBorde, an 18-year-old boy in San Antonio, TX, converted a gas-powered Bradley kit car to run on electric power, for a mere $18,000 (which, in car money, is a drop in the bucket). The car can go about 40 miles per charge (each charge uses less than a dollar’s worth of electricity), at a top speed of 55 mph, and runs on “an electric motor driven by eight lead-acid batteries.” LaBorde figures that, all said, it took about 150 hours to complete, spread out over three months.

Bradley cars, for the uninitiated, included the GT, Scorpion and GT II,  and could be bought as parts to be assembled by the purchaser. LaBorde bought his on eBay, of course, and got help from his hydraulics-repairman dad, but had never built or converted a car before undertaking this project. In fact, he doesn’t see it as much more than a hobby. But hopefully the major automotive companies were paying attention to this, because it will be brought up the next time they complain about the cost or timeliness of electric vehicles.

We’ve said it before, but it’s still true that when people think of electric cars, they picture - with no offense intended to electric car hobbyists - hopeless tragedies like the dorkmobile to the right of this sentence. But the basic idea of a plug-in electric vehicle still has some promise; San Diego Gas & Electric conducted a yearlong study that, in the end, “confirmed the viability of electricity as a clean and low-cost transportation fuel.”

More specifically, the study showed impressive reductions in tailpipe emissions and in tailpipe emissions and overall fuel costs with a plug-in hybrid compared to a standard hybrid model. The study converted two 2007-model standard hybrid vehicles to run on lithium-ion batteries; the modified cars “achieved a 60% increase in gas mileage, a 37% decrease in carbon dioxide (CO2) tailpipe emissions, and an 18% reduction in fuel costs.” By the time these things hit showrooms in 2010, the efficiencies are projected to be even higher than they are now.

And that’s compared to a hybrid. You can imagine how it must look next to a regular car. Actually, you don’t have to, because the study shows that fuel cost savings can jump as high as 57% when compared to a standard gasoline-fueled vehicle.

This is exciting news for consumers; not only has hybrid vehicle technology resurrected the left-for-dead idea of the electric car, but the aesthetic advances made since the electric car’s heyday could change its stock image from that Easter egg up top to something like the Tesla Roadster, or even something from our list of suggestions (pts. I and II).

We had a lot of fun thinking cool cars to hybridize on Wednesday, and evidently left quite an impression on our intern, who brought in a few ideas of his own. He’s currently on picking-dead-birds-out-of-the-gutters duty, so we’re going to post/take credit for his suggestions in his absence.

Knight Rider
Pro: A sleek, black number with built-in navigational system, super computer, and wireless internet access, all of which speak in William Daniels’ voice.
Con: The car’s artificial intelligence lends it an inquisitiveness that means you’ll get dragged into solving mysteries every week, which adds at least 30 minutes to overall travel time. William Daniels is kind of a smart ass, too.

The Mach 5
Pro: Incredibly fast and surprisingly efficient, especially on highways and other situations where speed is required. It’s also sporty, in a unisex kind of way.
Con: Not only is it from a cartoon, it’s Japanese. We’ve pissed off Detroit enough, don’t you think?

Oscar Meyer Weinermobile
Pro: Everyone in America loves, or at least recognizes, the ol’ Weinermobile. Plus, that kind of corporate sponsorship could really help hybrid fuel and battery research, to say nothing of the possibilities for bologna ethanol.
Con: Blind spots galore. And yeah, try getting laid in this thing. Go on, try.

Mystery Machine
Pro: Perfect for bands on tour, or even cross-country road trips with the family. Fits bunk beds and a camping stove in its spacious cabin, and the color scheme is totally retro.
Con: The chances of being waylaid by creepy old men dressed as ghosts increases exponentially with this vehicle. Getting all the dog hair and bongwater out of the shag carpeting will be a real bitch, too.

Werecar
Pro: Fuel economy that borders on the supernatural, good pickup, and roomier than it looks, the Werecar is great for families and comes in a classic gunmetal gray that hides stains and scratches.
Con: It’s pure evil and kills every time there’s a full moon. Expect higher insurance premiums.

We were sitting around at Corn Car HQ (also known as CCHQ) today, waiting for one of the interns to return with lunch, when the conversation turned to Neil Young and his brilliant idea to hybridize his 1957 Lincoln Continental. Pretty cool, yeah? We think so too, and we ended up tossing around ideas for what other classic, iconic cars could put a cooler face on the hybrid vehicle. Here’s what we came up with, taking care to include pros and cons.

1960 Ford Thunderbird
Pro: Just look at it, for God’s sakes. This car would turn Rick Moranis into a badass rebel who smoked unfiltered cigarettes and wore sunglasses indoors. When people look back on the halcyon days of big, American cars, this is what they have in mind.
Con: Hybrid cars have a pretty steep initial cost as it is, so god only knows what this thing would run you. Plus, guys like this would always be challenging you to races.

The General Lee
Pro: Sturdy, dependable, capable of outrunning county police vehicles and jumping over ditches or haystacks. As a promotional effort, each General could come with a CD of Waylon Jennings voice overs.
Con: Anyone who wants a hybrid at this stage of the game would balk at driving something with Confederate flags all over it. Also, the owner’s manual is probably written in Talladega.

The Bluesmobile
Pro: It’s got a cop motor, cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks, and it’s a model made before the catalytic converter.
Con: The giant speaker would impact the car’s tires and overall fuel economy. Plus, the cigarette lighter doesn’t work.

Dragula
Pro: It looks awesome, and it’s made from a coffin, so your family will save on funeral expenses if you wreck it and die.
Con: It’s made of wood, which carries its own set of issues (rot, termites, etc.). Plus, you kinda need to be 7 feet tall to drive it.

The Original Batmobile
Pro: It has the body shape and flourishes of a 1960s sports car with the whole Batman aesthetic topping it off. Many of its features are voice-activated, and it’s pretty much indestructible.
Con: It’s one of the most conspicuous vehicles ever made. And Batman always wonders how his enemies keep finding him.

As you can see, it was an exhaustive effort. No rest for the wicked here at CCHQ. If any readers have cars to add to this list, feel free to comment.