We know that T. Boone Pickens is a fan of natural gas, but powering vehicles with the clean-burning fossil fuel isn't exactly on the top of Americans' wishlist. The newly-formed Natural Gas Vehicle Purchasing Cooperative (NGV Co-Op), started by CALSTART and operational in three states (Arizona, Nevada and California), will help fleet managers "to quickly identify, locate, and purchase a wide range of light-, medium-, and select heavy- duty natural gas vehicles at the best prices." Most CNG vehicles available today are larger work trucks, so aiming at the fleet market makes sense.

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It is time for Neff to put up or shut up. There's a '93 Ford Taurus SHO on Craigslist that will provide him with both the car of his dreams and the ability to handle the extreme driving conditions he faces during Cleveland winters. It's been slightly modified by the current owner, who retained the original bodywork and interior, but then chose to mate them with a '76 Ford F-150 underpinnings. The high-zoot Yamaha motor? Also jettisoned. In its stead, a 460 cubic-inch V8 from a '78 Lincoln takes up residence underhood. Ride height is elevated somewhat over stock, but this should help Neff when it snows, and the new wheel/tire package allows him to avoid traffic by simply driving over it. All this for a paltry $800. This is what we call a complete win-win situation for El Jefe Neff. Commence peer-pressuring Autoblog's Editor in Chief below. Make him do it. Props to Stephen for the tip!

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The Port of Los Angeles is a testing ground for alternative powertrains, mostly LNG trucks and, well, LNG trucks. But battery-powered heavy duty vehicles are not being left out of picture, with the Port and the South Coast Air Quality Management District testing a very, very big electric truck. This behemoth can pull 60,000 pounds of cargo, go 40mph, and has a 60 mile range.

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Members of the United States Armed Forces in need of a new vehicle just got bigger lift from General Motors. GM has revised its military discount program, allowing for increased savings over previous program iterations. Detailed information is available online at GMMilitaryDiscount.com for active and reserve members. The price reductions range from $1,500 for a Buick Enclave to $4,200 for a GMC Sierra. On top of that, other GM offered incentives may also be combined with the military program.

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Remember the WIRED article exposing the, let's say, odd things that have happened at electric car company Zap? EDN's technical editor, Paul Rako, has written an article saying that EV hucksterism needs to be everybody's business. Basically, he writes, don't buy the hype. "When unknown hucksters start peddling their BS it is time to take a deep breath and hope sanity prevails," he said. Rako singles out John Goodwin, who's creating Neil Young's LincVolt, as the best example of EV hucksterism.

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You need to CARRY 6 or more passengers

You need to PULL 6 or more horses

You need to IMPRESS your friends

You WANT to make friends in the country

You're heading to the rodeo and JUST CAN'T take the speck car

You NEED 2,000 pounds of food to feed your horses, chickens, ducks, dogs, and cats JUST FOR a WEEK

You travel 10 minutes JUST to hit a paved road

You LIKE taking up 1 and a half lanes in the city

You LIKE taking up 4 parking spaces

You LIKE looking down on everyone on the highway

Rodeos are starting up this week and I'LL be taking the TRUCK

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Things may be looking up for the somewhat controversial electric vehicle company "ZAP" since Mr Al Yousuf took control of the company the other day. Just after the change at the top happened, the California Air Resource Board added two ZAP models to their list of vehicles eligible for a rebate. Actually, it's the California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE) who hands out the cash on their behalf, as we mentioned when we told you the Vectrix was on the list. The money pile for the program has shrunk somewhat since that post and as of this writing there remains only $468,900. The rebate is worth $1,000 off the purchase of a Xebra sedan or truck and we suggest you take one for a test drive before buying.

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Despite getting an impressive boost in power from 345 hp to 380 hp and from 375 ft-lbs. of torque to 404 ft-lbs., the engineers at Dodge have found a way to increase the fuel efficiency of the full-size Ram pickup a welcome twenty percent. What magic secrets were required to achieve this efficiency improvement? A weight decrease and more favorable aerodynamics are said to play a large role in the achievement. In fact, the engine itself is only directly responsible for five percent of the twenty percent gain.

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Just days after the Al-Yousuf Group bought $475,000 of Zap's convertible debt, the president of that group, Eqbal Al Yousuf, was named chairman of Zap. This is not the first time Zap and Al-Yousuf came together: last November, the group (based in the United Arab Emirates) bought $5 million worth of ZAP shares and Eqbal Al-Yousuf has been on ZAP's Board of Directors since December. Al-Yousuf will become Zap's chairman on June 2. According to Zawya, Zap is the only non-UAE company the Al-Yousuf Group is invested in, but Al Yousuf himself invested in Phoenix Motorcars in December.

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We first heard about the ZeroTruck, a Class 4 delivery truck powered by nothing but good old electrons, towards the end of April. Electrorides, Inc. brought the prototype ZeroTruck to the AFVI Expo in Las Vegas this week, trying to get fleet operators to sign up for an upcoming national tour the truck will make later this summer to show off its capabilities.

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Stop. Pick-up. Go. Repeat. This is the routine your sanitation and recycling trucks follow as they go about their daily rounds, relieving us of the astonishing amount of junk we all manage to accumulate in a week's time. This eats up fuel in traditionally-powered vehicles. Peterbilt might have a solution on display at the Waste Expo 2008 in Chicago (Waste Expo? Who knew?).

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Pickuptruck.com, our favorite website about anything with a bed on four wheels that's been owned and operated by Mike Levine since 1995, was just bought out by automotive mega-site Cars.com in a move that we hope made our good friend a gajillion dollars. Levine now joins Autoblog alumnus Dave Thomas, who runs the Kicking Tires blog under the Cars.com umbrella of sites.

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In Iceland, the leviathan you see in the picture above is called a "jeep." Here in the U.S., it would be called a massively tricked out F-350 Super Duty, or probably just "monster truck." The 6,000 members of Iceland's 4x4 club use them to explore the barely reachable sections of the island nation, trusting 4-foot-high studded tires and a bevy of custom modifications to get them back to civilization.

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GM announcd that it plans to cut a shift at four North American factories that produces pickups and SUVs. The cur means the General will be laying off about 3,500 workers. Of course all this comes as a response to sluggish sales in the respective segments and high gasoline prices.

GM said the cuts mean the company will produce about 50,000 fewer SUVs and 88,000 fewer pickups in 2008.

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Expanding on their product shareing alliance, Nissan and Chrysler announced today that Chrysler will begin builing pickup trucks for Nissan while Nissan will produce subcompact cars for Chrysler.

Under the agreement Nissan will discontinue building its Titan pickup when Chrysler begins production of Nissan trucks in 2011. Chrysler in return will get a Nissan-based compact car which will be produced in Nissan’s Oppama, Japan factory. The car will arrive in North America and Europe in 2010.

The Chrysler car will be built on a new Nissan platform and will follow Chrysler’s already completed design. Chrysler will built the Nissan truck at its Saltillo, Mexico plant and will shift Dodge Ram production to St. Louis North and Warren, Michigan.

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