Zoomi Life

In a bold move, Mazda released a press announcement Friday stating that the company has no plans to develop either a hybrid or an all-electric vehicle of any type. Calling the technologies “niche market vehicles,” Mazda instead says they’ll be focusing on becoming even more fuel efficient using other technologies instead.

Read More: Mazda Not Going Hybrid or Electric

Optare PLC, a UK-based company, has just announced their new Solo EV battery electric bus. The Solo EV electric bus comes in several sizes, and is a new addition to their already-existing Solo line of buses.

Read More: Optare Introduces Solo EV Electric Bus

Ford and Smith Electric Vehicles have announced plans to work together to build commercial battery electric vehicles at a new manufacturing site located in Kansas City. Smith plans to use a recently-purchased portion on an overhaul base located at Kansas City International Airport as a factory to convert Ford Transit Connect vans to its BEV platform later this year.

Read More: Ford Partners with Smith Electric Vehicles to Build Commercial EVs

Dutch-based Detroit Electric and and Malaysian automaker Proton have recently announced a new strategic partnership to design and build battery electric vehicles for sale in Asia, the U.S., and Europe. The deal calls for Detroit Electric to provide electric drive system including a lithium polymer battery system, which will then be installed in vehicles based on two of Proton’s existing platforms.

Read More: Detroit Electric and Proton Announce Electric Car Development Deal

The Seoul Auto Show, set to open on April 2nd in South Korea, will feature several new hybrid unveilings. One of those showing off a new hybrid car is Kia, who is getting into the hybrid game with their new Forte LPI hybrid, a sedan equipped with a 1.6 liter liquefied petroleum engine and 20 HP electric motor.

Read More: Kia Unveiling New Forte LPI Hybrid Car at Seoul Auto Show

The new Honda Insight hybrid became available in showrooms in the U.S. on Friday and Honda says that the handful available nationally now will become thousands in April.

We’ve talked about the Insight here before and it is currently the only real competition for Toyota’s Prius–and good competition at that. Despite sluggish car sales in America, the Insight is expected to do well–as it has in Japan so far–because of it’s low price tag (about $20,000USD) and high efficiency performance (well over 60mpg in real-world testing).

Read More: Honda Insight Hybrid On Sale Now

The release of the surprise Honda Insight hybrid and it’s sub-$20k price tag took most of us with a left hook. In order to compete (and get stockpiles off the lot), Toyota almost immediately reacted by lowering the price of the 2009 Prius to compete.

With the Insight coming to America in just a few months, Toyota is hitting the bricks hard to push the new 2010 Prius model to keep from losing market share. They’ve also got a hopeful ace up their sleeve: the Yaris hybrid.

Read More: Toyota Yaris Hybrid to Compete With Honda Insight

Fisker Automotive announced their first wave of selected retailers to carry the Fisker brand (and the new Karma). The list contains 32 retailers across the United States, which comes very close to Fisker’s announced goal of 40 by June this year.

Read More: Fisker Selects First Wave of North American Retailers

The 2010 model Toyota Prius will enter dealerships nationally at the end of May. We’ve talked a lot about this car, but now some journalists have put it through some paces and are reporting amazing results.

Read More: 2010 Prius Tests at 70+mpg!

The hot news right now is the unveiling of the Tesla Model S sedan, which happened with much anticipation and fanfare. Also released were the specifications for this new car from Tesla Motors. Shortly after it’s unveiling, we featured an article on it here at Zoomi Life, where I gave my impressions of the vehicle and it’s looks.

Read More: Unveiling of the Tesla Model S Uncovers New Specs Too