The 2012 summer Olympics are over but electric car marathons are beginning to heat up. Israel’s Better Place smashed the 24 hour distance record of 994.14 miles set last month by Renault’s Zoe. The new record was set with a Hoden Commodore. This is an Australian made electric car modified to use Better Place’s innovative […]
A fleet of fancy cars are gathering dust in the short-term parking lots at Abu Dhabi airport. The car parks, walking distance from the terminals, are meant for stays of three days or less. You pay dearly for convenient location, air conditioned walkways and covered car bays. That is, if you actually came back to […]
A simple change in operations gives aviation an environmental win-win-win. Continuous Descent Arrival (CDA) is an aircraft operating technique in which arriving planes descend in a relatively straight line to the runway. In conventional descent, an aircraft drops in a stair-step manner, requesting control tower permission to descend to each new lower altitude, with portions of […]
The Abu Dhabi government in cooperation with Mitsubishi industries has opened the region’s first rapid electric vehicle (EV) charging station. The station is located in Masdar City and is certified to meet the Charge de Move (CHAdeMO) industry standard for rapid charging. This standard can reduce charging time by as much as 90 percent. Charging […]
If you think renewable energies will become an increasingly cheaper alternative to petrol – think again now that there’s peak minerals. As the world moves toward greater use of zero- carbon energy sources, the supply of certain key metals needed for such clean-energy technologies may dry up, inflating per unit costs and driving the renewable […]
A hybrid energy source comprised of solar energy and magnets fuel this futuristic car. Fuel-guzzling, monochromatic sedans will be a thing of the past if Mohammad Ghezel can sell his latest concept. About the only aspect of the future we dare to think deeply about given climate change, population growth and shrinking natural resources, BioThink […]
Public transportation is not popular among the Gulf elite who can easily afford the expense of fueling their own cars. And for many, global warming and climate change are nothing more than buzz words. So it will take a special effort to transform the emirate into one that gives up the convenience of personal vehicles. […]
Police say Ramadan and Bad Driving Habits to Blame As the sun starts to go down after the blistering heat of the day, drivers in Dubai rush to get home for the last prayer of the day and then the iftar, the break-fast meal. But Dubai police say they may be rushing just a little […]
Once Muzer Al-Kasas was able to collect all of the necessary materials, it only took him three days to build a small electric vehicle. Unlike Better Place EVs (which are now for sale in Israel) or any other fancy equivalents, the taxi driver’s inexpensive innovation is a slightly more viable means of transportation for a […]
It’s hard to ignore the lack of infrastructure and safety for cyclists in the Middle East. In Egypt you might get sexually harassed if you are a woman riding a bike in Cairo. With the raised sidewalks, when they exist in Amman, Jordan; and the deathly traffic and smog, riding in Amman isn’t such a […]
After a test trial on about 250 cars Israel’s Better Place electric car company has opened its doors to the general public this week. Apart from announcing new pay-as-you-charge deals, instead of the off-putting flat rate, the company offers a new twist on the limited mobility of EVs: battery switch stations located throughout the country […]
Have you received an email saying your car’s air con could kill you? The jury is still out until more scientific evidence comes in. Car and home air conditioning units provide a cooler internal environment, and may also be a possible source of drinking water in emergency situations . But there is another side to […]
It’s mission accomplished. The Solar Impulse, the world’s longest solar powered flight has landed back home in Madrid, Spain. The flight took 17 hours from Rabat, Morocco. The plane’s maiden voyage was from Spain to Morocco, proving that a solar-powered plane could fly both day and night. Next, say its owners Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard […]
Better Place driving guide Ronit hooks up ZE car after test drive In the six month period since Better Place put its first 100 Renault Fluence electric cars on Israeli roads in January, 2012; the company headed by entrepreneur Shai Agassi has already put around 300 cars on Israeli streets and highways. Many of them have […]
Weird science that this video clip of bus drifting from Saudi Arabia comes to my attention just as I hop off my office bus in Jordan. My bus is a small one, seats maybe 24. It’s lightweight and nimble, one of hundreds cruising Jordan’s roads. Absent a reliable mass transit system, these little buses, which […]