Valleywag
cleantech
Posts Tagged “
Jalopnik
”
jean-marie le pen
Looking for a neo-Nazi's armored car? Buy it now on eBay
Far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen once called the Holocaust "just a detail" — worth maybe 10 to 15 lines in a 1,000-page book about World War II. The comments cost him a $284,033 fine. Now Le Pen is out of cash. To make some, he's auctioning his armored 1992 Peugot 605 on eBay. The latest bid: 10 million euros. The Peugot has a full leather interior and a CD player, but it's probably not worth that much. Still, if that sounds like a bargain for your very own piece of revisionist history, you've got until May 10 before eBay's auction closes.
2009 toyota prius
New hybrid Prius to conspicuously consume slightly less gas
Details have emerged about the latest model of the Valley's most self-righteous ride, the 2009 Toyota Prius, which hasn't been significantly updated since 2004. It will reportedly be longer, faster and more fuel-efficient. Also, the range of available models is expected to grow — anything from a smaller coupe to a larger, Lexus-like luxury sedan. What's not mentioned? More »
cleantech
Al Gore, Kleiner Perkins raising $400 million green fund
John Doerr and Al Gore have been taking their pitch for a new $400 million environment-friendly venture fund to prospective limited partners, and have already hired a veteran investment manager from Goldman Sachs to run it. This fund, which would invest in late-stage — that is, larger — clean energy and carbon reduction projects, comes in addition to the money already reserved for cleantech in KP's $600 million early-stage investment warchest. Helping to scale electric car manufacturing comes to mind — KP just threw some money at Norway's Think Global. And existing ethanol distillers could also benefit. After all, that kind of money would certainly buy a whole lot of Brazilian slave labor. (Photo by AP/Graham Hughes)
cleantech
Think electric cars coming to America
Norwegian electronic car manufacturer Think Global will ship 50,000 units to American customers, reports Alarm Clock. How much will this cleantech toy with a top speed of 65 mph set you back? $30,000. But hey, think of all the money you won't be spending on gas when you plug the car into our coal-fired power grid. The news comes as Think also announced funding from Kleiner Perkins, which presumably set the VC firm back more than $30,000. Video of the twee coupe zipping around Paris and London after the jump. More »
cleantech
U.S. imperialism can now run on biodiesel
San Francisco cleantech startup Solazyme, which manufactures "Soladiesel" from genetically engineered algae grown in tanks warmed by solar heat, recently completed a successful test running heavy-duty vehicles on its homebrewed fuel, according to a press release. R. James Woolsey, former director of the CIA, arrived at the DESC Energy Conference in Arlington, Virginia in a Ford F-450 with a stock diesel engine powered entirely by Solazyme's B100 all-biodiesel blend. Which means that it can begin powering M1 Abrams tanks that measure fuel use in gallons-per-mile. The tests conducted by the Department of Defense concluded that Solazyme's concoction operates better than existing biofuels in cold temperatures. In other words, look out, Canada.
real estate
Eco ego-inflater now available at home
Have you already bored all your remaining friends with how many miles per gallon your Prius gets? San Francisco architect Michelle Kaufmann has the answer for you: prefab homes labeled with "sustainability facts" like CO
nerdspotting
A tipster writes in:
Larry Ellison drives an Audi R8 to the gym
A tipster writes in: Larry Ellison spotted driving out of 2882 Sand Hill Road in Audi R8, probably coming out of the gym where he is rumored to work out.We haven't got a picture of Ellison in workout shorts, but what about the Oracle CEO's car, the Audi R8? Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson described it as "like smearing honey onto Keira Knightley." Try not to think about Ellison smearing honey onto Knightley while watching Clarkson's review: More »
mine is faster
Mahalo employee can afford a binary-tagged Audi A6
We reported — and CEO Jason Calacanis didn't really deny — that Mahalo grosses about $9,000 a month. But don't worry about Mahalo employees. Here, for example, is Mahalo employee Sean Percival's Audi A6. It costs between $43,725 and $57,075 .
mine is bigger
Fired TokBox CEO didn't need to know HTML to drive his $80,000 BMW
Early last month Sequoia Capital fired TokBox founder Serge Faguet as CEO. An engineer who spoke with Faguet for a job interview tells us his firing "comes as no surprise." The tipster, perhaps sore that his job interview didn't go so well, characterizes Faguet as "rude and arrogant" and argues that the original idea for TokBox came from cofounder Ron Hose. But mostly, our tipster objects to Faguet's car: a BMW 650i. More »
cleantech
Electric-car vote turns even noted Republicans pro-regulation
Today in Sacramento, the California Air Resources Board is planning to once again relax rules requiring automakers to produce more nonpolluting cars. Instead of demanding more zero-emission vehicles, the relaxed rules would call for more hybrids and higher fuel-efficiency standards, which would satisfy air-quality goals and save automakers $1.3 billion. The program originally called for ten percent of autos on California roads be emission-free by 2003. Tesla Motors is, of course, against the rules revision — but even former Secretary of State and San Francisco éminence grise George P. Shultz is in the awkward position of lobbying Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to intervene in favor of more stringent government regulation (PDF). What is the world coming to? Oh, right. (Photo by John M. Heller)
cleantech
Google's plug-in hybrids to increase Bay Area smug levels
With a laptop tracking power and gas consumption and CO2 emissions, Google.org's four plug-in Priuses serve as a test fleet for the charity's $10 million plug-in electric hybrid vehicle research program. And according to the stats, they're already outperforming the company's two regular Prius hybrids across the board. RechargIT.org is a fantastic PR stunt, but is it good science? More »
google maps
Sergey stymied: Prius doesn't work for Google Street View
In Europe, Google's on a massive hiring binge for the Street View feature of Google Maps, where camera-equipped vehicles snap photos of streetscapes. It's bringing on 300 drivers for the Switzerland-based effort. But the project has been held up by the whim of a founder. Sergey Brin, we hear, is insisting that the project use hybrid Priuses, rather than the staid Saturn Astra it used in Australia, shown here, or the Chevrolet Cobalt Googlers drive in the U.S. Brin believes Toyota's gas-sipping Priuses are better for Google's image. Just one problem.More »
clips
Elon Musk's Tesla caught on video smoking Scoble and Calacanis
Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined egoblogger Robert Scoble and Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis for dinner last night. After, the trio took to the streets of Santa Monica for a little street racing. Scoble and Musk in a Tesla. Calacanis in a Corvette convertible. "The Tesla smoked the 'vette," Scoble reports on his blog. Jalopnik editor Ray Wert tells us this mostly speaks to Calacanis's inability to drive. Both Calacanis and Scoble took video, of course, and both streams are embedded below. More »
great moments in pr
Tesla ships first electric car -- 1 down, 99 to go
Tesla Motors delivered its first production all-electric car on Friday afternoon to company chairman Elon Musk (not pictured, but you know he's pumping his fists like that this very second.) In true Tesla form, the car arrived too late for a planned press event, screwing up the company's New York Times coverage. Helpful hint, guys: Next time schedule these things for Tuesday morning instead of Friday afternoons. You'll get much more media play that way, without relying on wannabe Car & Driver writers like me to carry the flag.
rants
Valleywag's green issue
Someone named Brittney from Samantha Slaven Publicity in L.A. has written me to ask if Valleywag has a "green issue." Well, we're not a print magazine, Brittney, so that's plenty of trees, ink, and energy saved right there. But do we have a "green issue"? Oh boy, do we. Here's our green issue. More »
layoffs
"Stealth bloodbath" cuts 10 percent at Tesla Motors
Tesla Motors founder Martin Eberhard, who was ousted from the company a month ago, lists the names and titles of 26 Tesla employees he claims have been fired following the installation of new management. The turnover came after the company missed its deadline to ship its first batch of 100 electric sports cars. Tesla's new management has attributed the delay to problems with the car's unique transmission. Asks Eberhard, "Is this really the right time for Tesla to be tightening its belt? Get the transmission working and ship the cars. No show stoppers here!" Tesla's VP of marketing, Darryl Siry, is a regular commenter at Jalopnik and Valleywag. Darryl, any comment? VentureBeat has more reporting.
online advertising
