We Obsessively Cover the Green Scene…

We've been smitten with the Mission R electric motorcycle from Mission Motors since it was first revealed at the tail end of 2010. It looks beautiful, both stripped down naked or dressed up just enough to be street legal. Now living in something of an active retirement after handily winning the only road race it ever entered, the bike has recently found its way into the hands of a select few journalists, where it continues to make big impressions.

The latest example of such a scribe is Jensen Beeler over at Asphalt & Rubber. Though not philosophically opposed to electric motorcycles, he hasn't exactly been impressed by what's commercially available at this point in time. Given the chance to take the Mission R on an extended ride through town and country that included a climb to the summit of Mt. Tamalpais, it seems he's now beginning to understand the potential benefits of an electric drivetrain. Indeed, after his experience he wrote, "...the connection between rider and machine is surprisingly more entrenched on the Mission R than any other motorcycle I have ridden."

You see, besides offering obvious noise and air pollution reductions, the battery-powered bike also does away with something else: rotating mass. The lack of internal parts moving about makes this machine feel a lot lighter and maneuverable – flickable, even – than its 550-lb weight might suggest. In conjunction with its superb chassis and the power to easily lift the front wheel at 70 miles per hour, the Mission R deftly illustrates how electric bikes can offer a superior experience than their gas-sucking counterparts.

Check out Beeler's lengthy ride review here (along with some great pictures). If that's not enough journalistic praise for one sitting, you can also read Alan Cathcart's similarly positive piece over at Cycle News. Pressed for time? Scroll below and watch the Mission R set a NEDRA quarter-mile record on the drag strip with a speedy 10.602 second pass.

Well this kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it.

Since Olympic organizers have shut down London's only hydrogen refueling station, three of London's hydrogen-powered cabs are being shipped – via diesel-powered car transporters – 65 miles away for refueling. Why did they do that, you ask? Because of security concerns, reports UK's Swindon Advertiser.

The cabs, which are owned by HyTEC, are being used in London during the Games, but then have to be shipped to Swindon, the nearest hydrogen filling station, for a three-minute refill. The drive takes quite a bit longer. Given the absurdity, there remains a chance that a hydrogen refueling station at Heathrow Airport might be opened before the end of the Games.

Just prior to the start of the Olympics, five hydrogen-powered buses that were being used to shuttle people between Tower Gateway and Covent Garden were taken out of service and replaced by diesel buses because the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said hydrogen storage at the station posed a security risk.

It's like an extra tapas dish being thrown in with the whole meal, we guess.

Renault has a new idea to increase sales of some of its gas-powered 2012 model-year vehicles in Spain: throw in a Twizy EV.

The Australian publication Car Advice reports that buyers of cars like the $25,000 Laguna Grand Tour Wagon get a 6,990-euro ($8,560) Twizy EV for, uh, free, Car Advice reports. Models such as the Latitude and Espace are also part of the promotion.

The promotion reflects how Spain hasn't been too friendly to Renault this year. Through June, Renault sales in Spain were at their lowest in almost two decades.

The 17-horsepower Twizy, which is about a foot shorter than the Smart ForTwo, has a full-battery range of about 60 miles and a top speed of about 50 miles per hour. Renault first started selling the Twizy in France this March and began sales in the UK in April.

Is this a backhanded compliment?

After Nissan reported – again – that monthly sales of the first mass-produced U.S. electric vehicle continued to disappoint, our friends at Plug-in Cars realized something: the Nissan Leaf is kind of like the original Honda Insight.

Introduced to the U.S. in late 2010, the Leaf might be falling out of favor with the U.S. public because it's too ahead of its time and because it doesn't quite have the combination of attributes – i.e., range, cost, size – needed for car buyers to take the leap into EVs. This is pretty much how the first-gen Insight – the first hybrid sold in the U.S. – was received. Debuting in late 1999, that Insight was rated at 70 miles per gallon and was what Plug In Cars called a "wonderfully inventive first attempt at something new." The model also sold just 17,000 units before being discontinued in 2006. Originally, Honda had hoped to sell 6,500 units a year.

This week, Nissan announced that it sold 395 Leafs last month, down from 535 in June and down sharply from the 931 units sold a year earlier. It wasn't until the second-generation Toyota Prius arrived in 2004 that hybrid sales took off. The big question, if this analogy is correct, is whether or not we someday get a "Prius" from the all-electric world.

Japanese soccer moms, rejoice!

Nissan started selling a hybrid version of the Serena in Japan this week, the first time Japan's best-selling minivan has gotten the green treatment.

The Serena S-Hybrid gets 15.2 kilometers per liter in two-wheel-drive mode (there's also a four-wheel-drive version), which equals about 36 miles per gallon (on the lenient Japanese driving cycles) and is about 25 percent more fuel-efficient than the conventional Serena.

That improved fuel economy will cost you, since the Serena S-Hybrid starts at about 2.38 million yen ($30,250), compared to the gasoline-powered version's base price of 2.16 million yen ($27,500). The conventional Serena sold about 50,000 units in Japan during the first half of the year. Nissan first unveiled concept versions of the Serena hybrid in late 2010.

The German Olympic team may be trailing the Chinese and Americans in London when it comes to medal count, but at least it has a cool ride. Audi has presented the team with an A1 e-tron decked out in German colors, to promote the automaker's plug-in vehicles.

The 102-horsepower extended-range plug-in can sprint along at 80 miles per hour and includes an on-board gas-powered engine/range-extender that provides about 150 miles of range after the initial electrons are used up. As fun as that might be, for now, the car's being used for nothing more than a shuttle between the Olympic Village and the MS Deutschland cruise ship.

The German automaker has been busy publicizing its work on its e-tron group recently, including posting a video of its e-tron Quattro in June and operating a pilot project with its battery-electric version of its A3 hatchback in Colorado.

Will carsharing become a viable solution for American consumers concerned about traffic congestion, air pollution and making hefty car payments? Will it ever be an appealing transportation alternative, as it is in Europe? It depends on who you ask.

German carmaker Daimler is promoting car sharing through its Car2go subsidiary, where users access Smart Fortwo minicars (in ICE and electric versions) in cities like San Diego, Portland, and Miami. Major car rental companies Hertz and Enterprise entered the short-term rental market a while ago to compete with the largest carsharing vehicle provider, Zipcar. As for Zipcar, carsharing is seeing growing interest on college campuses, however, a recent academic study has shown consumers have concerns that need to be addressed

The study, conducted by Fleura Bardhi (Northeastern University) and Giana Eckhardt (Suffolk University) doesn't dismiss car sharing for U.S. consumers, but suggests taking a more realistic and less ideological approach to making it work. The Zipcar users surveyed said they're not in love with the experience – the car isn't their own, they don't need to take care of it and they don't have connection with the brand.

That being said, they do expect the carsharing company to enforce compliance to their rules. Users expect Zipcar to keep the car on schedule with a filled gas tank, and other amenities. No big surprises here – American consumers do tend to demand a lot these days. Carsharing providers need to be very mindful about how they deliver the message and the service.

U.S. sales of advanced-powertrain vehicles in July had their slowest year-over-year growth rate in three months, and below-peak gas prices may be putting domestic consumers in a little less of a frenzy when it comes to lowering their refueling bills. Additionally, electric-vehicle sales stalled, another small indication that the American public remains somewhat hesitant to plug in full time.

Automakers sold more than 39,000 hybrids and plug-in vehicles last month. That marked an impressive 66-percent growth rate from July 2011's total of more than 23,000 units, but which represented the slowest growth rate since April's 54 percent. Alt-fuel sales in June doubled figures from 2011.

The slowdown may reflect how the lack of a summer spike in gas prices is coaxing more people back into their old buying habits of less fuel-efficient vehicles. U.S. regular gas, while rising by roughly eight cents a gallon to about $3.53 a gallon last month, stayed well below their early April peak of about $3.90 a gallon, according to AAA.

Toyota maintained its lengthy lead as the biggest U.S. hybrid maker, more than doubling its alt-fuel sales from 2011.

Toyota maintained its lengthy lead as the biggest U.S. hybrid maker, more than doubling its alt-fuel sales from a year earlier to 23,044 units. Prius sales more than doubled to 16,643 vehicles, with the Prius C compact and Prius V wagon each accounting for about 3,000 units and the Prius Plug-in moving 688 vehicles. Toyota's other hybrid models boosted sales more than sixfold, likely on the popularity of the redesigned Camry Hybrid (Toyota didn't break out sales), while Lexus hybrid sales were up marginally.

General Motors also continued to see big year-over-year gains on both the popularity of its Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in and this year's introduction of its mild-hybrid Chevrolet Malibu, Buick Regal and Buick LaCrosse e-assist models. The Volt moved 1,849 units, marking the model's second-best monthly total (after March's 2,289) and representing more than a tenfold jump from a year earlier. The Volt also surpassed the 10,000-unit threshold for the year. Overall, GM's alt-fuel sales surged to 5,067 units from just 277 a year-earlier.

Ford also entered the world of year-over-year alt-fuel sales gains for a change, boosting its July sales by 13 percent to 1,791 units, primarily because Fusion Hybrid sales more than doubled from July 2011. Lincoln MKZ sales jumped 24 percent to 594 units, partially offsetting the effect of a 92 percent plunge in Escape Hybrid vehicles sold.

German automakers Volkswagen and Audi stayed just ahead of last year's diesel-sales pace, with each boosting year-over-year sales by 2.5 percent to 7,993 units and 643 units, respectively.

Most notably, Nissan continued to experience lagging sales of its Leaf, whose sales of 395 units marked a 58 percent plunge from a year earlier.

On the flip side, automakers looking to boost electric-vehicle sales were likely disappointed by July's results. Most notably, Nissan continued to experience lagging sales of its Leaf, whose sales of 395 units marked a 58 percent plunge from a year earlier. Year-to-date sales were down 26 percent to 3,543 units.

Additionally, Ford sold just 38 Focus Electric vehicles, down from 89 in June, while Mitsubishi's sales of its i EV matched its June total of 33 units after hitting a monthly high of 85 vehicles in May.

Honda also recorded the first sales of its leasable-only Fit EV, with seven units moved last month.

Honda also continued to disappoint with hybrid demand – its July sales of 1,227 units marked a 44 percent plunge from a year earlier. While Civic Hybrid sales jumped 51 percent from a year earlier to 471 units, CR-Z and Insight sales dropped 62 percent and 58 percent, respectively. Honda also recorded the first sales of its leasable-only Fit EV, with seven units moved last month.

Porsche also had lower sales of its hybrids, falling by 27 percent from a year earlier to just 95 units sold.

Through the first seven months of the year, U.S. alt-fuel sales were up 56 percent to more than 304,000 vehicles. Toyota has accounted for almost 193,000 of those, while Volkswagen has moved more than 50,000 diesels. GM sold almost 30,000 alt-fuel vehicles year-to-date, marking more than a fivefold jump from a year earlier.

Alternative energy and cleantech have been a platform for political jabs and Congressional hearings in Washington over the past year – the Solyndra scandal, Chevrolet Volt post-crash-test battery fires, and Fisker Automotive's Department of Energy grant loan quickly come to mind. The latest one deals with companies committing fraud tied into the federal renewable fuel standard, and it's not pretty.

Oil companies like Sunoco buy renewable identification numbers (or RINs) from biodiesel suppliers to earn credits to meet the renewable fuel rules, but things aren't turning out so well. Last month, for example, Jeffrey David Gunselman, former CEO of Absolute Fuels, got busted by the feds for pilfering more than $50 million in fake RIN credits without producing the biodiesel needed to meet federal standards.

This isn't the first time it's happened. In June, Rodney Hailey of Maryland, who headed Clean Green Fuel LLC, made $9.1 million for selling renewable fuel credits that were not delivered, and is now facing legal consequences. Similar fraud cases have been reported in Texas and Alabama, and Congress is being pressured to address the problem. The Environmental Protection Agency is revising the program to reduce fraud, and has been sued by people that were rooked by Rodney Hailey. For those doing business in alternative energy and cleantech, it's wise to do some background checking.

There's one more reason why a higher ethanol-blend requirement is a hot-button issue: drought.

Farmers and farming advocates are asking the Environmental Protection Agency to ease up on ethanol requirements for the U.S. fuel mix because drought conditions through much of the country are causing corn prices to spike, NBC News reports.

Livestock producers and cattlemen who use corn for feed say that ethanol requirements are exacerbating the recent jump in corn prices, have surged as much as 60 percent in recent weeks due to the drought. With that in mind, the EPA is in discussions with the USDA and is watching crop estimates, but has not yet taken any action on the biofuel requirement.

Even before the skies decided to stop dropping enough water, the idea of boosting ethanol-mix requirements has been a controversial one. Opponents say higher ethanol mixes haven't been adequately tested and may damage engines. Proponents say more ethanol use may cut pollution and will reduce dependency on foreign oil. The EPA officially approved the public sale of E15 – gasoline mixed with 15 percent ethanol – in June.

Let's make this clear from the get-go: we know this is satire, courtesy of The Onion. Of course, like all good comedy, the idea for the new, fictional Toyota Prius Solution model contains a grain of truth. After all, if you aren't alive, you really can't add to the world's environmental problems any more. Any questions?

Obviously a riff on the whole "Pious" side of the Prius-driver stereotype as well as taking blind environmentalism to its logical extreme, the Prius Solution manages to put a bloody twist on the Prius "family" branding that the automaker has been promoting since early 2010. It's kind of gross, so you've been warned.

That said, anyone who's been punctured backbone-to-sternum also can't work to solve world's environmental problems, but that's a discussion for another time. Enough talk. Check out the video below.

The City of Brotherly Love will provide some extra affection for owners of Chevrolet Volts and Nissan Leafs.

Philadelphia has become the latest metropolitan area to be included in the public-private EV Project designed to give away Blink home-charging stations to plug-in vehicle drivers of cars like the Leaf and Volt. The car owners will also get an station-installation credit of $400 as part of the project, which also involves local utility company PECO.

The EV Project was launched in 2009 with a $99.8 million dollar grant to ECOtality from the U.S. Department of Energy with the goal of distributing about 14,000 home-charging stations. The Energy Department funded another $15 million for the project in 2010. So far, the EV Project has collected plug-in driving data from more than 33 million miles of electric-powered driving. Ecotality is also offering similar deals in Chicago and Atlanta.

The solar panels are a big help.

Our friend Peder Norby says his family's monthly transportation expenses for his two electric cars – a BMW ActiveE and Honda Fit EV are about half those for the two gas cars he and his wife used to drive.

Norby calculates that the ActivE and Fit EV cost a combined $1,082 a month in lease payments and insurance, compared to $2,031 in monthly expenses for the now-sold 2005 Volvo S60R and 2005 Infiniti G35.

The Norby's previous $450-a-month in refueling costs have been completely eliminated by the fact that the couple's house is solar-powered. The EVs also create savings in the form of zero repair and maintenance expenses (the EVs are virtually new) and lower insurance costs.

The couple, which this year paid off their six-year-old solar-power system through their lower utility bills, brag that they've driven "52,000 miles powered by sunshine."

Toyota has announced that it will recall a total of 778,000 units that may have been manufactured with improperly-tightened nuts on the rear suspension. The manufacturer says around 760,000 2006-2011 Toyota RAV4 models and 18,000 2010 Lexus HS 250h hybrid units may have fasteners that were not torqued to the correct specification during alignment.

If that's the case, excess wear could occur and pave the way for rust and separation, which in turn could cause an accident. Toyota says the company is currently working on a solution. Once available, the manufacturer will notify owners and ask them to make an appointment to bring the vehicle by the closest dealer for a free repair.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced earlier this month that it was investigating RAV4 models for this very issue after receiving complaints of tie rod failures due to rust. You can view the full press release from Toyota below.