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A new concept wind and solar powered car from Lamborghini solves the problem of efficiently charging the batteries of electric cars.

High fuels prices alone provide enough reason to consider buying a hybrid electric car but then you have to consider the price of electricity to recharge your car’s batteries, which doesn’t come cheap these days.

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Van Loggerenberg’s mail is a bit short on detail - he says only that he “will be staying in the motoring industry, albeit in a slightly different position”. The telling clue however, is that van Loggerenberg’s new email address is at Optimal Energy.

Great news for the Joule and the South African EV industry! GreenCars wishes you success in your new position, Jaco.

Citroen has unveiled the colourful and compact, Revolte concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Perfect for city travel, the Revolte measures in at 3.68 meters long, 1.73 meters wide and 1.35 meters tall and features a three seater cabin design with rear-hinged doors that provide easy access.

Powered by a rechargeable hybrid drivetrain, it features a small capacity internal combustion engine combined with an electric motor. The French concept has no CO2 emission with the electric motor charging the battery pack.

It’s a quiet ride with a high level of driving comfort which comes in eye-catching colors and interesting interiors.

No specifications were released by Citroën as this is a concept car, however, you can expect to hear more about this cheeky hybrid in the near future.

BMW has revealed a bit more information on their exciting Vision Efficient Dynamics concept car which will be officially unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show.  M3 performance with Prius fuel consumption and 50km electric only range? You betcha. Check it out after the jump.

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My girlfriend’s Modus 1.4 started giving problems yesterday. She described the problem as the car feeling slow and jerky. She took the vehicle down to her local mechanic who told her he suspected it was an ignition coil, but that she should take the car to Renault to sort it out.

At this point I began to get apprehensive. We have had no experience with Renault replacement parts so far, and I had no idea what to expect in terms of the cost of a coil.

We arrived at Renault Sandton at 16:45 and explained the problem to the service manager. He immediately drove the car into the workshop and instructed one of the mechanics to take a look. As it turns out, it was one of the ignition coils that had packed up. A replacement coil sorted out the problem 100%.

Now came the scary part - what’s the financial damage?

“Nothing,” replied the service manager.

So, in short, it took Renault Sandton 15 minutes to replace the ignition coil and send us on our way at no charge.

Thank you to everyone there for the fast and friendly service.

Prince Charles has converted his vintage Aston Martin car, given to him on his 21st birthday by Queen Elizabeth II, to run on English wine, a spokesperson said.

The move, part of the prince’s green drive to reduce by 12.5% his carbon footprint up to 2012, was announced in a recent report released on the royal’s activities. And according to the report, the prince, an keen advocate of the environment, has already reduced his carbon emissions by 18%.

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Great news for South African motorists - as of this month, all 52kw petrol Smart ForTwos will come standard with Smart’s MHD stop start system.

The technology enables the little Smart to reduce fuel consumption by 8% in the combined cycle (to 4.3l/100km and 103g / km) and by up to 20% in the urban cycle.

It’s great to finally start seeing this technology becoming available on the local market. Hopefully more manufacturers will follow suit.

Catch the full Smart press release after the jump.

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Optimal Energy, the Cape Town based company that unveiled a full electric multi-purpose urban passenger vehicle named Joule to the world at the Paris Autoshow in 2008, has announced industrialisation plans to mass produce the vehicle in South Africa from 2012. This announcement comes on the back of a further share issue to the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), as well as Innovation Fund, the technology investment division of the Department of Science and Technology, for a fourth round capital investment. Optimal Energy intends raising further private capital towards the end of 2009. South Africans can look forward to pilot fleets of Joule on their roads and around the globe from 2010 onwards.

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