Remember when GM came out and proclaimed that the company will be different from here on out? Well, the Chevy Camaro Transformers mash-up proves that buried somewhere under the piles of Government loans, remnants of the old company still exists. For only $995, you can buy into a fad and forever brand a LT or SS Camaro as a nerd car for the rest of its life with badges and racing strips. Plus, check out the center armrest. The pleather has been branded with a hot iron!

Photo Gallery by Picturesurf

Well, I’m at the IAC building on the West Side of Manhattan, but GM already announced Project PUMA and I feel stupid for having trekked all this way for it.

10:17 AM – And here we go.
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UPDATE: Check out our test drive…

General Motors and Segway have teamed up on Project PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility), a two-wheeled city vehicle capable of reaching speeds up to 35 miles per hour, and going 35 miles on a single charge at a cost of 35 cents per charge.

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Battery pack on the left belongs to the Chevy Volt and the one on the right, to the ‘97 Chevy EV1. The Volt’s battery utilized lithium-ion cells to produce the same 16kWhrs as the older, and 800 lbs heavy, EV1 lead acid unit. Next up: glovebox-sized units that you can swap out like a power drill pack. Okay, I just made that up, but that be sweet.

Flickr via OhGizmo

You don’t need a $40,000 Chevy Volt to be part of the green crowd. Just convert your current vehicle from gasoline to electric. It might cost you more than the car is worth, but you won’t be sending your bucks overseas. 

CNN is showcasing two fellas that did just that. One with a Honda Civic del Sol and the other with a Chevy S-10. Both are now electric and both were converted by their handy owners. The gents said it wasn’t that hard and took about four months to complete. The S-10 cost $12k in upgrades and can now run 40 miles on a single charge, hitting a top speed of 60 mph. 

It’s going to take a long time to overcome the initial cost but for drivers fed up with the whole oil thing, why not send your money to the local power conglomerate instead.

If a list compiled by a Chevy Volt enthusiast is accurate, GM is going to sell a eco-friendly boat load of Chevy Volts. Lyle Dennis, a New York neurologist with way to much time, gathered the 34,776 (at last count) on his website GM-Volt.com over the last year. The one glaring issue though, is that the average price they were willing to pay for the GM wunderkind worked out to $31k. Rumor is, GM is hoping to sell the vehicle for $40k — easy math.

So maybe not all of those signatures will buy a Volt, but chances are, a lot of tree-hugging, deep-pocketed motor heads are going to have one plugged into their garage real soon.

Reuters is reporting that General Motors may be unveiling a “showroom-ready model” of its electric car, the Volt, in September. It was previously thought that the Volt wouldn’t be released until 2010, but “a deepening slump in sales” has apparently pushed GM to get the Volt on the market ahead of schedule. September’s a good time for GM to unveil the new car, too, as it’ll mark the company’s 100-year anniversary.

The Chevy Volt will be powered by conventional lithium ion batteries and can be recharged using a standard 110-volt household electrical socket. The car can only go 40 miles on battery power alone but uses regenerative braking and other “range-extending onboard power sources” like gasoline or ethanol for longer trips, according to Chevrolet’s web site.

GM is currently holding the Challenge X competition and today it rolled into NYC. Unfortunately, I’m on my deathbed and was unable to make it to Central Park this morning, but thanks to YouTube I can give you a glimpse of what’s going on. Challenge X is an engineering competition that has 17 North American universities competing against one another to rebuild a Chevy Equinox to make it more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The above video is from a track day held in New Jersey at the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. I’ll post video from today’s event once it’s up. It’s good to see an American automotive company caring about the future while they’ve been helping to pollute it for the last 50 years. Heh. Full list of teams after the jump.
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Honda will be leasing a limited number of its FCX Clarity sedans in California this upcoming summer. The cars use hydrogen fuel cells that’ll be topped off via a "home fueling station that uses a home’s existing natural gas supply to produce hydrogen."

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Allow my inner treehugger to take over for a few moments. And allow me to talk about cars because we don’t often do that. GM is launching Project Driveway in NY, LA, and Washington, D.C. that will allow over 100 eco-conscious individuals the opportunity to test-drive the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell electric SUV for three to 30 months. Yesterday in Westchester, NY (White Plains to be exact) the first of six hydrogen vehicle refueling stations was opened and the facility will manufacture and store 30 kilograms of gaseous hydrogen from water using CO 2-free hydropower that’s being supplied by the NY Power Authority. Awesome.

This time next year, you may find yourself listening to NWA or Ice Cube and hearing something about a “hot jack move”. Whatever you do, don’t pull a “hot jack move” on a GM vehicle, because the company is improving its OnStar service vastly. 2009 vehicles with OnStar will come with a new feature called Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, which will remotely slow down a vehicle once its been reported stolen and located via a GPS receiver.

So again, let’s review:
-”Hot jack move” in 2007: OK
-”Hot jack move” in 2008: Not OK

Glad we’re clear on things. Now go back to sippin’ your gin and juice.

GM and OnStar Create Technology to Help Save Lives [Street Insider]