Zoomi Life

The much-touted “green” President, Obama, has OK’d a slash in the Department of Energy’s research funding budget for 2010. In the typical short-sightedness of government types, DoE Secretary Chu said that because “these vehicles are 10 to 20 years away,” they aren’t as imperative as battery electric technology.

Read More: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Funding Slashed From New DOE/Obama Budget

This was the first hydrogen rotary engine vehicle that Mazda made. It’s a sport coupe and is a dual-fuel vehicle without electric components. The vehicle was first tested on Japanese roads in 2004 and has since become Mazda’s premier eco-vehicle, with 30 of them on their way to Norway for government road testing there. They’ll be available for lease in Norway soon.

Read More: Mazda’s RX-8 Hydrogen RE

The first of the Norwegian-spec’d Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE models have arrived in Norway for delivery to the government. These are the same as the Japanese test models already on the road (one of which was sent last year for Norwegian testing), except these Norwegian versions have left-hand drive and manual transmissions.

Read More: Mazda Norwegian-spec RX-8 Hydrogen RE Begins Delivery

In 2006, Mazda first introduced the hybrid version of their popular Tribute SUV. Since then, they’ve come of age and are some very efficient machines. These aren’t the best hybrids on the road, of course, but until mainstream America decides to give up on SUVs altogether, these are some of the better ones, I think.

Read More: Mazda’s Tribute Hybrid SUV

Mazda is famous for two things: fun cars and Wankel Rotary Engines. The company has two cars in its lineup right now it’s testing as hydrogen models: the Premacy and the RX-8. The Premacy is a mini-van and the RX-8 is a sport coupe and both use rotary engines.

Read More: Mazda’s Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid

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

The KAAN, a race car design from Mazda, looks like a combination of a speed boat and a Klingon vessel from Star Trek (with wheels). It’s name is definitely right out of Sci-Fi. Not sure about those yellow tires either. Could be a stealth device.

At any rate, as goofy as it sounds, this car actually looks kind of cool. I don’t expect any of us will ever be driving one, but it could actually find its way to a race track.

Read More: Mazda’s KAAN Electric Racer Wins Design Award