Oil prices are low, production prices are rising. Love this news!

The top lithium ion 18650 batteries hold about 3.4 A*h (~ 0.2C). The above mentioned figure of 1.5 times the energy density results in a battery that is 5.3 A*h (almost 20 watt*hours). Wow!

There are so many organizations and ideas in this article that I look forward to failing - OPEC, BP, oil shale, the oil-corrupted parts of the Middle East, Russia, and the US. May EVs put them in the garbage can of history and good riddance.

The authorities in the EU and here should immediately subpoena email records. It will be interesting to see who pulled the trigger on this. May justice be served.

Lad - Modern diesels are wickedly complex and your point is well taken. However, in the Land Cruiser there will be times when you might want to go 500+ miles between refuelling. I bet if one drove this car carefully, then you could average over 30 mpg even on dirt roads. If it's got a 20 gallon tank and Jerry can on the back, then your range would be 750 miles. Electric is not there yet. Also, if you're driving in Africa, your odds of finding, say, a level 2 charging station is pretty low. For now, electrics are best in the urban/suburban cycle IMHO. Sadly, 90+% of these sold in Europe will be used how SUVs are used here in the States - like oversized station wagons for suburban transport. HarveyD - eliminating 99% of carbon dioxide emissions would require making a given ICE 99% smaller ;^)

It will be interesting to see if the new running mode will require more urea. I suspect that VWAG decreased this amount to extend the time between refills. They should be fined punitively for this! Henrik - My 1600 kg 2001 VW Golf TDI with 1.9L engine and now ancient rotary fuel pump averaged 48 mpg on 100% biodiesel and 52 mpg on regular D2. I believe it was well over 20% efficiency. Todays 1.4-1.6L TDI engines with 2000 bar common rail fuel systems can easily top 65-70 mpg in the Golf platform. This might not be Prius efficiency here, but it's damn close. It's too bad there isn't a Prius-'D', with, say, a 1.2L 3 cylinder diesel in it. That would probably break 90 mpg if driven mindfully.

It would be nice if they expressed the heating efficiency in actual terms, like joules of heating delivered per KWH (or something), vs. existing resistive heaters. Also, there is no mention of any potential dangers of a sprayed CNT dispersion. Might abrading one of their sprayed surfaces produce an aerosol of CNTs? Better test that well before unleashing it. I hope it's safe, b/c it's very cool tech!

If we assume $300/KWH, then the battery pack is 77.1K USD. That's one expensive pack, but looking at the total cost of ownership might make this a very desirable option. They say 135K USD will be saved over 12 years in maintenance costs alone. If in 12 years the bus travels 500K miles at 10 miles/gallon, then that's 50K gallons of diesel, which is 150K USD (3 USD/gallon). The KWH price would be a tiny fraction of that. Sounds like a winner to me!

"intense financial and economic pain" - Cry me a river 0.1 percent of the one percent! I guess Lamborghini, Bugatti and Ferrari will feel the pinch of fewer Saudi orders. Oh the tragedy!

My 2001 Golf TDI would get up to 57 mpg on biodiesel, 60+ mpg on D2. The price here in CA is minimally more for diesel. The Insight is a very cool car, but it's a two door and the max. weight you can put in it is 350 lbs. It says so right there on the door frame. That's two average Americans and an 8 oz. cup of coffee. If you have a 20+ mile commute on the freeway each day, then you're better off buying a diesel. If you are doing a lot of city driving, get a Prius. Until Toyota makes a Prius with a diesel motor, there's no best option. It completely depends on your situation.

This should be a 2.0L diesel making >= 150HP and >= 250 ft*lbs of torque, but either way, I hope this gets released in the US. We are starved for mid size diesel pickups!

It would be great if they shoe horned this engine into a Prius as it would help greatly with it's sub-50 MPG highway fuel economy.