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REPORT: Suzuki CEO denies talks with VW amidst tie-up rumors
Suzuki Alto Lapin - Click above for high-res image gallery Hear about those reports last week of a potential tie-up between Suzuki and Volkswagen for microcar development? Osamu Suzuki, Chief Executive at the automaker that bear his name, heard those rumors, too, and they apparently came as news to him. Though Suzuki falls short of denying outright that any potential deal could be struck, he told the Chunichi Shimbun Daily (via Reuters): So far there's been absolutely no contact (with Volkswagen). Lately, we've been the victim of a lot of ... Read more →
REPORT: Volkswagen considering stake in Suzuki for micro-car alliance Jeremy Korzeniewski
Suzuki Alto Lapin - Click above for high-res gallery According to reports from Reuters and Manager Magazin in Germany, Volkswagen is keen to purchase a 10 percent stake in Suzuki in order to ...
REPORT: S. Korea targeting Japanese li-ion products Sebastian Blanco
Mitsubishi i MiEV - Click above for high-res image gallery The long-simmering confrontation between South Korea and Japan has affected all sorts of relationships between the two countries. While ...
Hyundai starts accepting orders for Avante LPI Hybrid in Korea Sebastian Blanco
Hyundai Avante LPI Hybrid - Click for high-res image gallery Hyundai's Avante LPI Hybrid has been a long time coming. First discussed back in 2007, the company is finally ready to take pre-orders ...
Toyota Camry Hybrid gets nip/tuck for ASEAN market intro Jeremy Korzeniewski
Toyota Camry Hybrid for Thailand - Click above for a high-res image gallery It may have taken a year to make it happen, but the locally-built Toyota Camry Hybrid is finally ready to go on sale in ...
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Coskata's cellulosic ethanol road show hits Thailand, China, Australia 2 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Representatives from one of the GM-backed cellulosic ethanol concerns, Coskata, have been visiting the Asia-Pacific region recently to tout their anything-into-ethanol technology. In Thailand, they recommended that the Thai government work to make "Thailand the ethanol manufacturing hub for Asia," ...
SsangYong brings diesel-hybrid Eco C200 CUV to Seoul 3 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Click above for high-res image gallery of the C200 The Seoul Motor Show was the first place for new versions of SsangYong's C200 compact urban vehicle (CUV) to see the light of day. The C200 Eco (above) puts up a green flag with a diesel hybrid powertrain that should reduce CO2 emissions by 50 ...
Detroit Electric signs deal with Proton, plans 2 new electric cars 3 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Last September, the revived Detroit Electric brand announced in Malaysia that it planned to produce a new line of electric vehicles by the end of 2009. At the time, nothing was official, but the electric cars on display were based on the guts of Proton Savvy and Persona sedans, leading us to wonder ...
Sufat announces new electric scooters 4 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Looks like Vectrix could might have some competition coming its way. Sufat, apparently a major scooter manufacturer in Vietnam, has just announced plans to produce a new electric scooter that it says is capable of hitting speeds of 80 miles per hour. Acceleration is equally impressive, with the ...
Chevrolet Mini (aka Spark) to launch production in India this year 5 months ago on AutoblogGreen
The tiny subcompact that GM first showed as the 2007 Beat concept could start production by the end of this year in India. A report in Indian Autos Blog indicates that for the Indian market the car will be called the Mini - rather than the Spark moniker it will have when it comes to the U.S. in two ...
Motorcycles and scooters compete for fuel-efficiency bragging rights in Philippines 5 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Conspiracy theorists will need to take a back seat for this story, as Petron, the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines, recently held a "race" called the Sprint 4T Endurance and Economy Run of 2009. This was the first year the event took place, and it was designed to pit ...
Ssangyong out of money; what does it mean for Phoenix? 6 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Click above for high-res gallery of the Phoenix SUT Earlier this month, we found out that Phoenix Motorcars was still working on its all-electric SUT, but that its use of the Altairnano lithium titinate battery is currently in question. Even before that, Phoenix announced that it would be ...
Kymco to enter electric bike market with the SunnyBoy 6 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Kwang Yang Motor Co, better known as Kymco, is one of the very best Taiwanese scooter and motorcycle manufacturers around. Most scooter enthusiasts place Kymco right on par with such longtime Japanese manufacturers as Honda. Plus, we often get a good chuckle from the Taiwanese manufacturer's odd ...
Volvo launches flex fuel S80 and C30 in Thailand to go with new E85 stations 7 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Here in the US, millions of flex-fuel vehicles were sold before significant numbers of E85 stations began to open. Over in Thailand there were already two E85 stations before the first car was even sold. Volvo has launched two E85 capable flex-fuel models in the south-east Asian country. The S80 ...
VIDEO: Tata bringing Xenon Super CNG pickup to Bangkok, makes great commercial 7 months ago on AutoblogGreen
It may only be used in America for certain fleets and forklifts, but in some markets compressed natural gas (CNG) is a practical and greener alternative to liquid carbon fuels. The Thai division of Tata believes it's a good fit and is proudly launching the CNG version of the Tata Xenon Super at ...
AMPLE's first highway-speed plug-in hybrid visits Singapore 7 months ago on AutoblogGreen
When we last spoke to Ample Motion, they were offering a special deal to visitors at the Santa Monica Alt Car Expo. Namely, a steep discount on the 2010 R300 plug-in truck. Turns out the $29,999 offer is still good thanks to what the company claims was an "overwhelming response." The November ...
Leo Motors to supply electric vehicles to the Philippines 8 months ago on AutoblogGreen
The Philippines is full of tricycles. In fact, there are some 2.2 million motorized rickshaws, which are known as tricycles or traysikels, in the country. Most of these are powered by very dirty engines that don't have any real emissions equipment, and the government recognizes that this is a major ...
Ener1 get factory, engineering help with acquisition of Enertech Intl 8 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Ener1, the company behind Th!nk battery supplier, Enerdel, has just bought an 83 per cent majority stake of conveniently-named Enertech International. The South Korean lithium-ion battery maker was part of the Saehan Group, which was spun out of the Samsung Group. The company has a facility in ...
New Honda City unveiled in Thailand - is this the look of the new Insight? 9 months ago on AutoblogGreen
click for a gallery of the 2009 Honda City The new Honda Insight concept was teased last week in advance of the vehicle's unveiling at the Paris Motor Show next month. We don't know that the production version will look like, but it'll be similar in some ways to the concept and different in ...
RoboScooter still a go, could cost less than $2K 9 months ago on AutoblogGreen
At the beginning of this year, we first reported on the RoboScooter, which at that time was still a concept. The two-wheeler was designed through a collaboration of three companies including SYM, the second largest scooter manufacturer in Taiwan and a highly reputable company. According to recent ...
Detroit Electric goes Dutch with Europe Electric cars and Proton 10 months ago on AutoblogGreen
After showing practically no signs of life since being revived in a joint venture between Zap! and Youngman Automotive Group last February and officially striking out on its own less than a week ago, Detroit Electric has emerged, in Malaysia, as a Dutch company with $300 million in backing and a ...
Honda rapidly refining PGM-FI, introduces CZ Motard in Thailand 10 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Honda has been building small-bore single cylinder four stroke engines and installing them in simple two-wheelers for over fifty years. You'd imagine, then, that Big Red would know a thing or two about how to make them run well, and you'd be right. In fact, Honda has reportedly been able to eke ...
Proton looking to offer a hybrid in 2 to 3 years 11 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Proton, the Malaysian state-owned automaker which also owns Lotus, is currently working on a hybrid vehicle which it hopes to bring to market in two to three years. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has already driven the car, and he's pushing Proton to get it ready as quickly as possible. Datuk ...
Tata asks Fiat for help selling the Nano 11 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Click above image for a hi-res gallery of the Tata Nano Tata is asking Fiat to assist in selling the Nano overseas, as an expansion of the two marques partnership in manufacturing and distributing cars, engines and commercial vehicles. Fiat's initial intentions are, however, largely directed ...
Manila Police to use WVO from McDonalds 11 months ago on AutoblogGreen
Police in Manila, the capitol city of the Philippines, have taken up a cool new effort in order to save some green, though they will be spreading some green in the process. It seems that the Police force will be converting its cruisers to run on a mixture of waste vegetable oil (WVO) and diesel ...
Pihsiang successfully creates electric car drivetrain 11 months ago on AutoblogGreen
We weren't familiar with the Pihsiang Machinery Manufacturing Co. until finding this story, but it appears that the Taiwanese company is very big into lithium iron phosphate batteries. They seem to show up most often in medical products such as electric wheelchairs, but that looks to change as the ...
Tata Nano production to start this fall, greener variants coming 1 year ago on AutoblogGreen
Tata Motors' diminutive Nano is getting closer to Job 1. if all goes as planned (and when doesn't that happen in the auto industry?) production of the Nano should kick off early this fall. As that date approaches, a number of questions arise. As an extremely fast growing economy, India faces one of ...
Hyundai Elantra Hybrid set for 2009 in Korea with no help from gov't 1 year ago on AutoblogGreen
Hyundai will release its first hybrid vehicle for sale to the general public in 2009, as long as the general public in question lives in Korea. Though the automaker has been testing hybrids for the last few years, only government officials were able to drive the vehicles. According to Hyundai, ...
Toyota to build Camry hybrid in Australia and Thailand 1 year ago on AutoblogGreen
Toyota wants to double worldwide sales of its hybrids to over 1 million units a year within the next decade and is adding production capacity to hep it get there. In Japan today, Toyota announced plans to add production of Camry hybrids at two more plants in Australia and Thailand. The Thai plant ...
Toyota peers into E85 in Thailand 1 year ago on AutoblogGreen
Although Toyota is the undisputed leader in hybrid sales, it has shied away from offering E85-capable vehicles in the United States. In other markets, though, where ethanol is widely available and popular, such as Brazil, Toyota has seen fit to offer vehicles which are able to run on the alcohol ...
VIDEO: Nepal sees an influx of electric rickshaws 1 year ago on AutoblogGreen
The term "rickshaw" covers a wide variety of vehicles around the world but in Nepal it usually refers to the three-wheeler you see pictured above. They used to create clouds of pollution in the capitol, Kathmandu, but the Vikram Tempo rickshaw, the fossil fuel burning version of this conveyance, ...
Pakistani car company buys Canadian NEV-maker Dynasty 1 year ago on AutoblogGreen
The Daily Times of Pakistan reports that the Canadian manufacturer of Neighborhood Electric Vehicles Dynasty Electric Car Corporation has been sold to Pakistani automaker Karakoram Motors. Dynasty General Manager Danny Epp told Canadian Broadcasting that limitations on the use of NEVs on Canadian ...
High gas prices spur demand for camels in India 1 year ago on AutoblogGreen
Elevated gas prices resonate in strange ways. Sure, while the average commuter might now consider alternatives like public transit or carpooling to ease the sting at the pump, the repercussions of high fuel costs are felt globally -- and not just by the average cubicle-dwelling workerbee. Take ...
Taiwan Automotive Research Consortium introduces light-electric vehicle 1 year ago on AutoblogGreen
James Wang, director of the Intelligent Mobility Technology division of the Taiwan Automotive Research Consortium (TARC), believes that Taiwan is the perfect testing ground for small, low-speed electric vehicles. The fact that huge numbers of people live centered around large urban areas means that ...
Volkswagen signs up for eco-car project in Thailand 1 year ago on AutoblogGreen
The government of Thailand wants to see at least 800,000 fuel efficient cars produced in the country annually by 2015. Honda, Suzuki, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Tata and Toyota have already joined the program and received government approval for their investments. The latest company to apply to join the ...
The top five upcoming green events, number three: The Great Race 1 year ago on AutoblogGreen
Although The Great Race has been postponed due to the recall of travel permits through China, the show will go on. According to the official website, "Great Race Sports owners, executives and participants are dedicated to honoring the history of this illustrious race." We think that the race, ...
