Toyota Motor Corporation, a Japanese firm announced that next year a new variant of 2012 Toyota Prius V, a full electric hybrid will be offered on most significant markets. Experts at CNET have compared Toyota Prius V and have discovered that 2012 model is larger as compared to previous model. At first glance, the new Prius doesn’t seem pretty different from its predecessor, but you will realize that its interior is spacious as compared to before. This enhancement was given by larger cargo area, quite a few design touches and higher roof. It looks more like a minivan with its standalone console between dual moonroofs and front seats. The 2012 Toyota Prius V is available in Two, Three and Five trim levels. The base Two variant comes equipped with standard  [...]

Volvo V60 Plug-In Hybrid is the first diesel plug-in hybrid of the world and most technologically advanced model ever - electric, performance and hybrid all rolled into one package. It will be available for the price of $75,218, which is around $27,000 more as compared to traditional V60 wagon when it goes on sale in Europe in the year 2012. The company claims that the estimated fuel costs will be one third than traditional combustion engine and its diesel hybrid Wagon will be revealed at 2011 Geneva Motor Show. It also claims that estimated fuel economy for Volvo V60 will be 124 miles per gallon with CO2 emissions of just 49 g/km. Mr. Stefan Jacoby, Chief Executive Officer and President at Volvo said that there is immense interest from the market and are convinced that  [...]

The next course of action with the rosewood worth upto tens of millions of dollars that was illegally logged from the rainforests parks of Madagascar will be determined in a meeting between the Ministry of Forest and Environment and Rosewood Traders. The meeting will be held on 25th Aug. The venue will be Sambava, located in the SAVA region in the north of Madagascar. The trade of rosewood has been banned officially by the government. However, the meeting may allow rosewood c to resume once again from Madagascar. This has set off fear among conservationists that the cons and pros of the industry has rose fears among the conservationists that the areas under protection will be targeted again by illegal logging lobbies. Madagascar has several national parks with rainforests filled  [...]

Over 250 million years ago, the world’s forests are said to have died out and left the earth barren due to some unknown reason. A new study at University of California, Berkeley suggests that the demise of trees was probably accelerated due to a tree killing fungi of an aggressive kind that was triggered to grow due to global climate change. The study was lead by a scientist part of Berkley along with her colleagues from Britain and Netherlands. What the researchers pointed out is that, the possibility of the climate changes in today’s environment could cause a similar increase in the pathogenic soil bacteria that could cause a similar  [...]

Researchers at MIT have discovered a new way to improve the density of energy in lithium-oxygen or lithium-air batteries. The new produced device has the potential to pack several times more energy per pound than the lithium-ion batteries that are currently used in the market for all rechargeable devices such as cars, cell phones, and other portable consumer devices. This discovery was the result of a study continued from a last year’s project that showed an increased efficiency in lithium-air batteries via the use of inert metal based catalysts. Lithium-air batteries have in principle a higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries as one of the heavy solid electrodes are  [...]