Zoomi Life

Chrysler has released their new 5-year plan to get back in the black. While the plan talks about better fuel efficiency and more targeted, focused vehicle models within brands, it says absolutely nothing about electrics or hybrids.

Read More: Chrysler’s New Five Year Plan: No Eco-Vehicles

So you borrow your friend’s Tesla Roadster and are stopped at a construction zone waiting to get through. Suddenly a jealous Toyota Prius driver rams you from behind, pushing you underneath a nature-hating SUV driver and totaling your friend’s $120,000.00 car.

Read More: Tesla Roadster Passes the Crash Test

At least the general idea was nice. Chrysler has announced that they will no longer be supplying printed manuals with their vehicles, but will instead include a DVD with electronic versions as well as some instructional videos. This move will save (they say) 20,000 trees per year.

Read More: Unable to Build a Green Car, Chrysler Greens Up the Owner’s Manuals Instead

Once again, Paice, a technology company developing hybrid electric power trains, is suing Toyota for infringements on their patents. The claim is that Toyota is using Paice’s technology in their hybrids.

Read More: Toyota Getting Sued Over Hybrid Patent… Again

Mercedes, whose new E Class sedan has a coefficient of drag (Cd) of 0.24–better than both the Prius and the Insight. When we reported on this in early May, it was a complete shock to us that Mercedes was the current leader. Especially with such a classy-looking vehicle like this E-class.

Read More: Mercedes Plans to Have Coefficient of Drag Down to 0.20 By 2014

This video is pretty funny. Having recently been to California, I can agree with them that every other car seems to be some kind of hybrid.

Read More: Video - Casual Mafia: In My Prius

The Prius may gain a new cousin at Toyota’s premium car company, Lexus. Lexus is preparing a new hatchback model to debut at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show. This model will be available only as a Prius-based hybrid and likely based on the HS 250h.

Read More: Lexus Preparing to Release a Premium Subcompact in Europe

The British Army took delivery of fifty Toyota Prius early this month. The cars will be used by the White Fleet, which is the Army’s non-combat corps of administrators and officers. Sources say that they did test the Prius with a 30mm canon on it, but that the recoil crumpled the car’s roof, so the plan to field them as ultra-efficient combat vehicles was scrapped.

Read More: British Army Receives 50 Prius For Service

In a widely publicized and loudly proclaimed press conference on Wednesday, President Obama and leaders from the environmental, automotive, and governmental sectors came together in the Rose Garden. The universal proclamation from the event was that a new agreement of epic proportions regarding automotive efficiency standards in the U.S. had been reached. Amazingly, both environmentalists and the automotive industry both wholeheartedly agreed with the proposal to raise fuel standards.

Read More: Wednesday’s 35mpg Fuel Economy Standards Debunked

A123 Systems developed the Hymotion L5 plug-in conversion kit to convert a Prius (2nd generation) into a plug-in hybrid (PHEV). Foreign Affairs Auto of West Palm Beach, Florida has been announced as an official installer of the kits–the 12th shop to gain that recognition from A123.

Read More: Hymotion Announces Foreign Affairs Auto As Official PHEV Kit Installer