The electric truck industry in the UK appears to be going into overdrive! Modec continues to land new accounts with their uniquely-engineered vehicle while over at Smith EV, they are celebrating a purchase order from their client, TNT, for 100 of their 7.5 ton Newton lorry (pictured above).

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From left to right: Sterling's new (and first) natural gas tractor, the 360 Electrica battery-powered street sweeper, 360 Electrica the Dymac electric truck. Just three of the vehicles AutoblogGreen encountered at the AFVI Expo in Las Vegas this week. The big news might be coming out of San Francisco, though, because the mayor is talking with Project Better Place.

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UPS, a company which already has twenty-five hybrid diesel electric commercial vehicles in operation, is expanding its fleet of green vehicles by ordering an additional two-hundred hybrid electric vehicles and three-hundred compressed natural gas vehicles from Daimler's Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (FCCC).

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With sales of many car and truck models cratering in recent months as gas prices continued to climb and the real estate market has continued its melt down, there has been one notable exception. Toyota has seen sales of the pioneering hybrid car climb by more than 67 percent in April compared to 2007. Toyota has been able to achieve this while slashing the incentives that they introduced after federal tax credits expired for the Prius. In 2007, Toyota spent $1,471 per vehicle in sales incentives, an amount which dropped to only $123 this year.

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As we've just recently wrote, Toyota has been ordered to pay the very hefty sum of $4.3 million to Paice LLC for patent infringement related to its Hybrid Synergy Drive. At that time, we mentioned that Solomon Technologies had also sued Toyota regarding its hybrid vehicle technology and was appealing a previous ruling that Toyota did not infringe on one of its patents.

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Some interesting two-wheeled, fuel-efficient vehicles popped up on AutoblogGreen yesterday. The Derbi DH 2.0 (pictured) takes styling cues from mountain bikes while the nUCLEUS takes its cues from nothing.

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It's a little hard to make out shrunk down like this, but that diamond on the Mustang plate in the picture above reads "Propane." Just one of many little discoveries AutoblogGreen found at this year's AFVI expo. While all this is going on, we're also tracking Tesla's troubles with production car #2 (or is it?). And two vehicles you might see in large(r) numbers on U.S. roads in the near future are the i MiEV (which recently cruised through NYC) and the venerable Tuk Tuk.

• AFVI 2008: Need some propane for your pony? IMPCO shows off bi-fuel 'Stang


• AFVI 2008: Opening speakers talk geopolitics, oil shocks and GM's lineup


• Tesla Saga continues: When is production car #2 not?


• Tuk Tuk coming to American roads near you?


• i MiEV on iTunes in HD


• This can't get more Italian: the Fiat 500 Giovanni Rana pastamobile


• Toyota loses hybrid patent appeal case


• McCain will discuss environmental policy specifics today


• Trucking group proposes plan to cut fuel consumption and emissions


• Ford Mondeo most driven car in UK, Daewoo Matiz the least


• GM to push premium green image in China


• Biodiesel's fate in Farm Bill reauthorization uncertain


• Renault to have a "range of electrics" in 2010; Nissan-NEC JV working on li-ion batteries


• Look out, Lexus! Audi and BMW bringing ZF 8-speed to market


• Lawsuit filed in hybrid bus hullabaloo


• Ford to build smaller, lighter pickup off next F-Series platform


• Carchops.com take on the Aptera


• Take a drink from a recycled windshield

 

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Man, the dangers of the new automotive world: confusing ethanol for biodiesel and kids hitting the silent Prius.

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German transmission supplier ZF has just started building production samples of a new electric motor that will be part of Mercedes-Benz new mild hybrid system. Mercedes co-developed the system with BMW and displayed it in several different vehicles shown at last fall's Frankfurt Motor Show. The first production application is expected to be the S400 hybrid which will pair a 3.5L gasoline V-6 with the 15kW electric motor/generator and a lithium ion battery to recapture energy from regenerative braking.

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How's this for an idea: add a plug-in hybrid conversion kit to the outside of your car. Sound good? It's called the Poulsen hybrid and it's in the running for the Auto X Prize. Other cool news from the battery-powered vehicle world is more info about the

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Over the years we've seen all manner of different hybrid configurations including mild and strong hybrids with parallel and series arrangements. There are hybrids with internal combustion paired with electric drive and hydraulic systems. Now an Iranian engineer based in Dubai has come up with something truly different. Abdolhadi Mirhejazi has built the Naturmobil (previously, the Naturcar). The Naturmobil literally has one horse power, as in, there is one horse powering the vehicle. The Naturmobil is a six wheeled, polycarbonate framed buggy with a top speed of 50mph although typical cruising velocity is closer to 12mph.

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Back in mid-2006, GM rolled out its first mainstream production hybrid, the Saturn Vue Green Line, fairly late in its product life cycle. That one featured the first iteration of the mild GM Hybrid system. It was in production for less than a year before the first-gen Vue went away in favor of an all-new global design that was developed in a cooperative arrangement between GM engineers in North America, South Korea and Europe.

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The first Tesla Motors store has a party, GM might be working on the second E-Flex vehicle already, and Aptera is busy crushing cars. In short, a busy time if you're a car company trying to get some eco-friendly wheels to market.

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Need to know more about how to design hybrid vehicles? The University of Michigan has an offer for you. The U of M will host an intensive course on the "Design and Control of Hybrid Vehicles" at the end of May to teach participants how to "dynamically analyze, simulate, and design for hybrid vehicles." This dynamic method can be applied to maximize a hybrid vehicle's fuel economy, and U of M states the course will cover powertrain and systems implementation. The dynamic model method has been used on six concept vehicles in the last eight years and there was one example of the process being used to design a hybrid that had an increased fuel efficiency of 46 percent compared to the standard version of the vehicle.

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In the face of rising fuel costs and environmental concerns, GM has realized that China, the world's fastest growing auto market, is in dire need of hybrid vehicles of different shapes and sizes. Hence, amidst the re-announcement of the launch of the Buick Lacrosse (which GM is touting as China's first hybrid since it is built there as opposed to the Prius which is merely assembled in China) in July, GM China's vice president for sales, Joseph Liu, let slip that the company would also introduce the hybrid version of the Cadillac Escalade (pictured above) sometime next year. No price tag was mentioned.

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