Land Rover will be showcasing their most eco-friendly sport utility vehicle, the Land Rover Evoque during the Paris 2010 Motor Show on September 30th. However, some early information has already leaked out.

• Luxurious coupe design with a compact and more efficient footprint than other Range Rover models
• Targeting a new group of customers for the Range Rover brand
• Bold exterior is an evolution of Range Rover design language
• Strong, clean interior architecture with a contemporary and sporting feel
• Premium cabin with the high quality materials expected from a Range Rover.
• Available with full sized glass panoramic roof flooding the interior with natural light
• Use of efficient powertrain and advanced lightweight materials
• Smaller – at a 171 inches (434cm) it is 17 inches (432mm) shorter and 7 inches (178mm) lower than Range Rover Sport models
• Permanent all-wheel drive combined with turbocharged four-cylinder engine and an updated six-speed auto transmission deliver excellent perforrmance and fuel economy
• All-new 240 bhp 2.0-litre Si4 turbocharged engine combining six-cylinder refinement and performance with four-cylinder fuel economy
• All-new chassis specification delivers dynamic and agile handling across varied terrain, with optional Adaptive Dynamics featuring MagneRide™
• All-weather, all-surface capability with Land Rover Terrain Response®
• An extensive suite of Range Rover technologies including Bluetooth® audio streaming and optional Surround camera system
• To be sold in 160 countries worldwide, with deliveries from Fall 2011

With their new EcoBoost Si4 engine, the Evoque promises to be as fuel efficient as a 4-cylinder on the highway or in the city. With a release set for next Fall… I know what I’ll be saving for! No word on price yet though.

[ Links: Hello Evoque, Land Rover Evoque ]

Despite those ever-present AT&T complaints of wireless network congestion, the company (well, all wireless carriers) are continually looking for new ways to connect people their 3G networks, be they e-readers or electric cars. AT&T has announced that they’ve struck a deal with Nissan to bring HSDPA 3G connectivity to the new electric Nissan Leaf.

The 3G connectivity not only allows users to access in-car media, but it’s closely tied to the car’s recharging systems, informing you of the nearest recharging stations and allowing users to monitor their battery levels remotely. Given Nissan plans to sell the LEAF worldwide, they chose AT&T because of their support of the GSM standard.

Link to the original article…

A University of Southern California team has produced flexible transparent carbon atom films that may have great potential for a brand new variety of solar cells. Inside a paper recently published in the journal ACS Nano, researchers stated that organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells have been proposed as a method to obtain low price energy due to their ease of manufacture, light-weight, and compatibility with flexible substrates.

This work shows that graphene, an extremely conductive and highly transparent type of carbon made up of atoms-thick sheets of carbon atoms, has high possibility to fill this role. While graphene’s existence has been known for many years, it has only been studied extensively since 2004 due to the impracticality of manufacturing it in high quality and in quantity.

The University of Southern California team has produced graphene/polymer sheets ranging in sizes nearly 150 square centimeters that in turn may be used to create dense arrays of flexible organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. These organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices convert solar radiation to electricity, although not as efficiently as silicon cells.

The energy provided by sunlight on a sunny day is about 1,000 watts per meter square, for every 1,000 watts of sunlight that hits a square meter part of the standard silicon solar cell, 14 watts of electricity will be generated, Organic solar cells are less efficient; their conversion rate for that same 1,000 watts of sunlight in the graphene-based solar cell would be only 1.3 watts.

But what graphene organic photovoltaic (OPV) lack in efficiency, can potentially be compensated by its lower price and, greater physical flexibility. Researchers think it may eventually be possible to cover with inexpensive solar cell layers extensive areas like newspapers, magazines or power generating clothing. In the meanwhile Prof. Ruoff and his colleagues of the mechanical engineering department at the University of Texas at Austin, are studying the basic science in the introduction of graphene-based ultracapacitors for usage in electronics and other fields.

Prof. Ruoff says batteries are relatively slow, they can store energy but require sometime to charge up, and then they distribute energy slowly, over time. Ultracapacitors can be charged very quickly, in seconds, and discharge quickly, but, today, they can’t store very much electrical energy. The introduction of stable and cheaper ultracapacitors should be a key step in using wind or solar-generated power, especially if researchers will find ways to enable capacitors to store energy longer, which is not yet possible.

Even with their current storage capacity, the graphene devices could provide quick energy when needed in certain situations on the ecological way. They could be used, for instance, to absorb heat generated in braking an automobile or train, and store it for a short time, and then employ it for the electrical needs of the vehicle (i.e. starting the automobile or acceleration).

About the writer – Sophia H. Walker writes for the solar battery charger blog, her personal hobby weblog dedicated to tips to help individuals save electricity using solar energy for small gadgets.

Macally [ site here ] has launched its bamboo-made laptop cooler EcoFan Pro. Equipped with two built-in USB fans, the EcoFan Pro is designed for up to 17-inch laptops.

It looks a lot like a picnic table to me. Suggested price is $39.99.

Link to the original article…

HP announced the launch of its eco-friendly ‘HP Designjet L25500 Printer’ in Korea market, which is designed for ease-of-use and available in 42- and 60-inch models. Especially the HP Designjet L25500 Printer utilizes HP’s Latex Printing Technologies to deliver unrivaled versatility for a wide range of large format applications. Offering print service providers with print durability comparable to eco-solvent inks, the HP Designjet L25500 enables users to significantly reduce the impact of printing on the environment, and increase customer value.

The new HP printer is the ideal solution for small and medium digital print and sign shops, as well as copy shops and photo labs.

Link to the original article…

Ever wonder how much you could save by switching to a fuel-efficient clean diesel vehicle? Planning a vacation or a road trip? The Diesel Technology Forum (DTF) can help you calculate your potential savings.

This takes a little bit of calculating but the results are interesting. Visit DTF’s calculator here:

http://www.dieselforum.org/newsarticle/article/clean-diesel-fuel-calculator-2/51/

Plug in the cost of regular gas in your area and the cost of diesel in your area. Plug in the MPG of your existing vehicle and the MPG of a new, comparable diesel vehicle. Plug in an estimate of how many miles you drive a year. You’ll see how much money you’d save by driving diesel, and we hope you’ll check out the rest of the site to learn more about this remarkable fuel, the technology that powers it, and its implications for the future. Here’s a good place to start:

http://www.dieselforum.org/where-is-diesel/cars-trucks-suvs/

If interested, we can also arrange for an interview with DTF’s executive director, Allen Schaeffer (he recently spoke with Treehugger, for example, here):

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/the_th_intervie_31.php

Let’s face it. Gasoline will not get cheaper as it gets more and more scarce. But that means that travel will not get any less expensive either. So if you have to use, do not be wasteful.