We Obsessively Cover the Green Scene…

The U.S. government would be more effective at spurring plug-in vehicle sales if it provided more financial incentives to consumers instead of automakers. At least, that's the opinion in a Bloomberg News editorial.

Saying that finding alternatives to gasoline "a worthy public goal," Bloomberg says the government should expand purchasing incentives beyond the $7,500 it provides for buyers of some plug-ins and hybrids. President Obama has said he wants 1 million plug-in vehicles to be on U.S. roads by 2015; the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards he proposed last year would mandate about a 70 percent fuel economy improvement by 2025. Bloomberg figures the government should hand out money to buyers, not companies, to encourage sales:

Providing loans to companies that can get their own financing in the capital markets is a questionable way to reach [the goal]. A better use of government money would be to encourage consumer demand – by continuing, and expanding, tax credits or other incentives for people who buy vehicles that use little or no gas.

During the past three years, U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Financing Bank has made more than $8 billion in loans at about a 1 percent interest rate to established automakers such as Ford and Nissan as well as advanced powertrain specialists like Fisker and Tesla, strictly for the purpose of developing electric-drive vehicles. Bloomberg called such a strategy "questionable." Such automaker loans are guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Energy.

According to those old Trident commercials, four out of five dentists recommended sugarless gum for patients who chewed gum. Well, here's something a bit greener to chew on, General Motors says this: almost two out of every three miles driven in a Chevrolet Volt are battery-powered.

That's what the official Chevrolet website dedicated to the extended-range plug-in is calculating. The spinning meter (you can kill some valuable time watching it) says Volt drivers have cumulatively tallied just over 100-million miles (the data is constantly updated, live, from the cars out there). Out of those, over 63 million were powered from electricity, as opposed to the gas that's used to power the car's on-board generator once the juice runs out.

The upshot, according to Chevy, is that Volt drivers have saved 3.32 million gallons of fuel compared to all-gas driving. At today's fuel prices, that adds up to about $10 million, according to AAA's latest gas-price survey. GM is looking to further generate sales momentum for the Volt. Model sales through the first half of the year totaled 8,817 units, or about 1,100 more than Chevy sold all of last year.

Could this be a case of "do as we say, not as we do"?

A quick look at a recent Consumer Federation of America (CFA) survey certainly seems to indicate it.

According to the CFA's May poll of 1,000 people, Americans overwhelmingly favor the Obama Administration's plan to ratify stricter fuel-economy and greenhouse-gas emissions standards, which would require automakers to improve fleetwide fuel economy by about 70 percent over the next dozen years.

Almost nine in 10 people surveyed said the U.S. should cut its oil consumption, while three-quarters were in favor of the proposed fuel-economy standards. And two-thirds said they were okay with higher vehicle prices that would likely be the result of such standards.

Additionally, respondents said – on average, of course – that their next cars would get about seven miles per gallon more than their current vehicles. All of this is fine and good, except there's one problem: Americans tend to buy a lot of gas guzzlers as soon as the price of fuel drops. Earlier this month, TrueCar reported that fleetwide fuel economy in June fell for the third consecutive month, likely reflecting the steady drop in gas prices during the past few months.

Later this year, the Obama Administration will likely impose 2025 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards that were outlined last year. The standards would mean a real-world fuel economy requirement of about 40 miles per gallon, compared to the current average of about 23 miles per gallon.

General Electric's WattStation home charging stations are damaging the on-board chargers of some Nissan Leafs, causing GE to acknowledge issues with the station and to work with Nissan on solving the issue, according to recent reports.

One Nissan dealership in the San Francisco Bay Area sent e-mails to Leaf drivers telling them to not use the WattStation because it may disable the car from being able to be recharged, PlugIn Cars reports. The issue is likely to related to a diode on the car's on-board recharging system, and the Leaf is apparently the only plug-in car affected by this problem.

GE's response, the New York Times reports, is to work with Nissan on a fix. GE, which started selling the home chargers about a year ago, confirmed that no other car models are affected, the Times said. So far, Nissan hasn't announced a policy for Leaf drivers to use or refrain from using GE's WattStations.

We've heard it before: Kids today don't care about cars, and many are ambivalent about whether they will even drive or not. As hard as it might be to understand that mentality for some of us, it's a bigger problem for the automakers, who have lately been bending over backwards and jumping out of planes to appear relevant to young people.

So here's an idea, even if it's not a new one: Use Lego to get kids to love cars.

The managing editor of the Automotive News website recently took his family to Legoland Florida on vacation, where he was struck with the notion while watching his kids drive little Ford Lego cars, part of a sponsorship that launched last fall. According to the report, Ford's southern dealers are quite pleased with the deal, and have been using tickets to the amusement park as an incentive.

Lexus has officially slapped a window sticker on its 2013 ES 350 sedan and ES 300h hybrid. Unlike most new car and truck refreshes, this one comes with a bit of a pricing shocker: the 2013 Lexus ES 350 has been priced at $36,100* – a decrease of 1.7 percent compared to the 2012 ES sedan. (Add delivery charges of $895 to all listed prices.)

That asking price will net the driver a 268-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 engine (248 pound-feet of torque) and a six-speed automatic sending power to the front wheels. The EPA estimates that combo is good for 21 miles per gallon city, 31 highway and 24 combined.

Want something a little more... electric? Checking the box for the ES 300h and its 2.5-liter engine/electric motor hybrid combination will run you $2,750 over the base ES, the lowest hybrid price premium Lexus has. Those $38,850 bring fuel mileage figures of 40 mpg city, 39 mpg highway and 40 mpg combined courtesy of its 200 total horses. Drivers can also engage an EV mode that keeps the gas-powered engine off at low speeds for short distances.

Want to know more about the 2013 ES? Click here for our detailed First Drive report, then scroll down for the official pricing press release.

Don't worry, you won't be tested on this.

Michigan State University scientists have found a biofuel production method that the institution says boosts energy from the production process by a factor of 20.

Gemma Reguera, a microbiologist at MSU, led an effort that uses – stay with us – a combination of microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) and multiple forms of bacteria to ferment agricultural waste into ethanol. More details are available below, but, in a nutshell, the process does a better job of removing waste products while recovering more energy from the fermentation process used in the production of ethanol.

The merits of boosting ethanol production as a way to cut foreign-oil dependence have long been debated by scientists, ecologists and anyone else willing to join the fray. Advocates say more ethanol production cuts gas prices, while others have criticized government subsidies that until last year were given to ethanol producers and have expressed concern over the environmental effects of producing corn-based fuel. Whatever side of the debate you're on in that fight, it's hard to argue with a more efficient process, especially one that's 20 times better. Wait, 20 times better? Yup, we just double-checked. 20 times better. Yikes.

EV West is due to race its awesomely awesome converted BMW M3 in the upcoming Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on August 12. With a bit of unexpected time on its hands – the event was delayed due to the recent Colorado wildfires – the outfit tossed the keys to one Bill Caswell to let him discover what 420 or so electric ponies feels like.

Now, Caswell is a rally racer who, outside of golf carts, had never driven an electric vehicle before. With a little bit of guidance through the start-up process, however, he was soon making his way down the streets of San Diego. Initially impressed by the smooth power delivery, his grin grew to a broad smile, interrupted by outbursts of "Oh My God!" and "It just surges!" as the adrenaline and electrons flowed freely through their respective systems.

While we can't predict whether the car will come out on top in its maiden "race to the clouds", we are pretty certain of one thing: the driver is going to enjoy the ride. Scroll on down to watch one gearhead's entertaining conversion experience.

Bob Lutz recently stopped by to see Jay Leno at the comedian's Big Dog Garage, and the legendary auto executive has brought along his latest project, an extended-range VTrux electric pickup by Via Motors. The creation combines a 4.3-liter V6 with an electric motor to offer around 50 miles of all-electric driving and a full range of 300 miles. When connected to a 220-volt outlet, the truck takes just four hours to fully charge. What's more, Lutz says Via Motors can install the same driveline in full-size General Motors vans as well as models like the Chevrolet Suburban, Tahoe and, of course, the Cadillac Escalade.

Leno seems pretty taken with the final product, saying he can't tell a difference between the VTrux plug-in hybrid and a standard Silverado pickup, save for its quiet operation. Just like in the Chevrolet Volt, once the batteries go dead, the V6 under the hood takes over to turn a generator to provide power to charge the batteries of the electric motor once again. It sounds like a pretty neat setup, though there's always the looming question of cost – Via Motors estimates the price of a Silverado-based VTRUX at $79,000 – when built "in volume." Check out the full episode of Jay Leno's Garage featuring Bob Lutz below.

What do electric bikes, cars without doors and pod cars have in common? They are all "Micro-Mobility Models," according to Frost & Sullivan, and we're going to be seeing many, many more of them in big cities in the years to come.

Frost & Sullivan expects over 150 micro mobility models will be launched around the world between now and 2020 (60 by 2018), many of them from what we currently think of as regular automaker OEMs. Frost & Sullivan specifically cites the Volkswagen Bik.e, Renault Twizy, Honda EV-Neo (pictured) and General Motors EN-V as examples of micro-mobility models, and F&S says "these models are expected to grow alongside neighbourhood electric vehicles (NEVs), medium-speed vehicles, quadricycles, sub-A vehicles and even kei-cars." Regular readers will know that these sorts of vehicles (as well as even quirkier ... rides like the Honda U3-X unicycle) are right at home in urban environments. That's exactly where they will be needed most – as long as there are places to charge. Frost & Sullivan's announcement says:

As many of the models in the micro-mobility segment are electric, slow growth in electric vehicle infrastructure could also hurt future micro-mobility sales. Also, any change in government focus to increase spending on public transportation over individual cars/personal mobility models could restrain revenue prospects of the micro-mobility market.

The micro mobile trend meshes with another one that will define how automakers change in the future: young people don't care as much about cars. Getting the kids into micro rides might not all be smooth sailing, given a 2009 report says that Generation Y does, in fact, like green and gadgets, but are not as big a fan of small vehicles.

More plug-in motorcycles? We're in, says General Electric.

GE Capital reached an agreement with Brammo to provide financing necessary for the e-bike maker to expand its inventory. The agreement will help Oregon-based Brammo expand its dealer network.

This isn't the first time GE has stood behind the concept of electric-powered transportation. Not even close. GE has said it will buy as many as 25,000 plug-in vehicles for either its customers or its own company fleet.

In March, Brammo reached an agreement with North Carolina-based Sheffield Financial to provide customer financing for Brammo's bikes. Last year, Brammo, whose models include the Encite, Enertia, Empulse and Engage (hey, we notice a trend there), got a $28-million equity investment from Polaris Industries, which also owns neighborhood-electric vehicle maker Global Electric Motorcars (GEM).

A month ago, General Motors put out a clever ad for the Chevrolet Volt in support of the Motor City Pride event in Detroit. The commercial, which showed a Volt telling its parents, "Mom, Dad, I'm electric," attracted some positive attention. Actually, a surprising amount of positive attention. In response, the Detroit Free Press is reporting, GM is going to start putting even more Volt ads in LBGT media outlets. As Jan Stevenson, the co-publisher of Between The Lines, the gay and lesbian newspaper where the ad was first published, told the Freep, "This was a good omen. [GM] put their toe in the water, and it worked out really, really well. If anyone's really paying attention to it, they would say, 'Wow, this is an untapped market.'" GM spokesman Tom Henderson told the Freep that the as "told us that this was something worth undertaking when the opportunities present themselves."

According to recent demographic surveys cited by the Freep, gay and lesbian people who are shopping for new cars make about 10 percent more money (an average of $120,641, compared to $109,678 for straight shoppers) and are "more likely to embrace fuel-efficient vehicles and high-tech features," on average. Sounds like exactly the kind of customers who GM should get into a Volt test drive, and it would fit with GM's history of supporting GLBT causes like Gay Day at the Movies with the Camaro (which did cause some problems) and employees who contributed to the It Gets Better campaign.

Talk about burying the lede.

Autocar published a short piece the other day about Tesla Motors releasing its third-generation vehicles – mass-market models that we believe will come in both sedan and crossover flavors with starting prices in the $30,000 neighborhood – in 2015. Cool, but we knew that.

Speaking with Tesla's chief designer Franz von Holzhausen, the publication was also told that future models would feature more distinctive styling compared to the Model S. Those familiar with the man's work (see the Mazda Taiki and Kazamai concepts, as examples) don't doubt his ability to create a unique design language and it's nice to know he will be allowed to spread his artistic wings somewhat. This was also pretty cool.

The best part of the dialogue for us, however, was at the very bottom of the page where Holzhausen disclosed that Tesla is thinking about building a pickup truck. He said, "There will be a time and place for us to develop something around a pickup. That's a market for which the torque of an electric motor would be ideally suited."

Now, how awesome is that? (Answer: Very, very awesome!) Pickups account for a large portion of the market – June 2012 saw 924,129 units sold – and most currently suffer from horrible fuel economy. An electric drivetrain would certainly improve on its environmental impact and also give drivers an improved experience behind the wheel.

While it's likely to be a while before we see such a beast from the California automaker (and when we do, we're certain it will look better than our admittedly poor photochop of the Model X above), those of us who have occasion to haul firewood, go kayak fishing, help friends move, etc., are happy to have an electric vehicle to at least daydream about.

Here are the facts: currently, E15, the newly approved higher blend of ethanol (15 percent) in gasoline (85 percent), is only on sale at one fuel station in the U.S. That Kansas gas station, as we noted last week, requires buyers to purchase at lease four gallons of the fuel at a time, so as to prevent people filling up things like lawn equipment. Also, E15 has been called "probably the single most studied fuel in the history of EPA waivers," by Bob Dinneen, the CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association and the EPA says the fuel is safe for any Model Year 2001 vehicle or newer.

Nonetheless, the Kansas Petroleum Council is sounding the alarm, issuing a press release that says, "Kansas drivers should beware of new E15 fuel at gasoline pumps." KPC director Ken Peterson said in the statement that, "We need to press the pause button on EPA's rush to allow higher amounts of ethanol in our gasoline. The new fuel could lead to engine damage in more than 5 million vehicles on the road today and could void the manufacturer's warranty. ... EPA has an obligation to base this decision on science and not on a political agenda."

For those who like to consider the source, know that the Kansas Petroleum Council works with the American Petroleum Institute to represent "more than 500 oil and natural gas companies."