The Ford Fiesta is one hot hatch, with thousands of pre-orders already in place and the car soon set to launch. While it is a strong looker with impressive MPG ratings (likely around 40 mpg on the highway) it is lacking in one key area; horsepower.

With 120 horsepower on tap, it isn’t exactly the epitome of excitement. But there has been plenty of speculation about Ford dropping one of its new EcoBoost engines into the hatchback. These spy shots from Autoblog seem to indicate just such a project is under way at Ford.

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The U.S. Postal Service is undergoing a series of dramatic changes soon as the fiscal belt tightening continues. There has been a lot of talk about cancelling Saturday deliveries and switching the fleet of postal vehicles over from gas to electric or other alternative fuels.

The Canadian postal service is taking a different route. They recently secured a contract with Ford to purchase 1,175 Transit Connect vans. With substantially better gas mileage than the standard postal delivery vehicle, the switch could save millions of dollars every year for Canada. So when is the U.S. going to make the switch?

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To me, there are only two good reasons to “Go Green”. To save the Earth from ourselves… and to save some money. While the former seems rather altruistic and selfless, the latter is all about the bottom line. As it turns out, many “green” people may not be in it for all the right reasons.

According to a new study published in the Psychological Science Journal, green people tend to cheat and steal more than their conventional comrades because they see themselves as having the moral high ground. What gives?

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There are so many ways to win a car. Most often, it comes down to a raffle and the luck of a draw. But some car contests are based on skill or experience, and those tend to be the most fun.

GM’s European branch, Opel, is offering just such a contest. They are looking for Europe’s Greenest Driver. After completing an online quiz and driving simulator, 20 handpicked participants will be given a chance to demonstrate their fuel-scrimping skills in a bid to win one of the first Opel Amperas to roll off the production line.

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For as long as I can remember, it used to be that the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the EPA were at each other’s throats. They just never seemed to get along that well, and with good reason. Cars pollute, and the EPA’s job is to regulate and control pollution. Yin and Yang and all that.

But in a strange twist, the Auto Alliance is urging Congress not to block the EPA from setting limits on tailpipe emissions and declaring greenhouse gases a public health hazard. In fact, the Alliance has even been closely helping EPA and NHTSA to craft the bill over the last year. Even weirder is having the California Air Resource Board (CARB) on the same side as the EPA and the Alliance. Have we entered a new era of corporate cooperation? Or are the automakers just trying to salvage a deal between CARB and the White House?

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To me, there is no sound on the planet that can match the sweet symphony of eight cylinders firing in rapid succession. I love the power, and the sound of V8 engines. Alas, America seems to be moving away from big motors and towards smaller four-cylinder engines.

But as much as I love the big engines, the shift is, of course, a good thing for emissions requirements and fuel efficiency. Car makers are shunning big engines for smaller, more efficient power plants as the 2016 35.5 mpg deadline looms just a few years down the road. Less than 5% of new cars sold in 2009 were equipped with V8’s. But even as Americans move away from bigger engines, they continue to buy big vehicles like the F-150. Can this trend continue while still providing the power Americans demand?

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On the heels of an announcement by the British government that Ford would get $550 million in government loan guarantees, Ford has said they will invest $2.3 billion in Britain over the next five years to modernize their facilities and build the next generation of fuel-efficient cars and powertrains — including clean diesel and EcoBoost technologies.

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The unbridled internet rumor mill is both a thing of beauty and an incredibly annoying echo chamber. The latest one to get lost in translation: Nissan has priced the LEAF electric car at $45,000.

Given that Nissan has consistently said for a year now that the LEAF will be comparably priced to a conventional sedan of the the same size and capabilities, this is one rumor that just doesn’t hold much water. Although many have seemed to take it at face value. (more…)

When mixed with gasoline, the researchers envision that the fullerenes would allow the gasoline to be ignited with low energy lasers in an engine instead of with the normal spark plugs. Not only would this lower the amount of energy needed to ignite the fuel, it would also cause the fuel to be more completely combusted, thus increasing the fuel economy and lowering emissions. (more…)

The American Le Mans Series isn’t the only racing outfit getting into green fuels.

This past weekend was the season opener for the Formula One World Championship. This is the peak, the very pinnacle of automotive performance, with teams spending hundreds of millions of dollars every season trying to one up each other with a technological advantage. Drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso  took Ferrari to victory at the season opener of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Ferrari’s fuel sponsor Shell incorporated ethanol into its race fuel for the first time.

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