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The newest San Francisco treat just might be the Honda Fit EV, which car-sharing service Zipcar says will be available to its customers there starting this month.

Zipcar will station Fit EVs at City Hall as well as the InterContinental and Parc 55 hotels. The car-sharing company, which says the EV can be recharged from a 240-volt station in less than three hours, will rent out the car at a starting rate of $8 an hour.

Zipcar will also hold demonstrations and free test drives next Monday and Tuesday at San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza. The company says it will add Fit EVs to its fleets in Los Angeles and Portland, OR, this fall.

The Fit EV, whose first deliveries were in California in July, has been rated by the EPA to have a single-charge range of 82 miles, or nine miles more than the Nissan Leaf. Honda is leasing out a limited number of Fit EVs in the state for $389 a month. Check out the press release below.

Pure driving joy, with a big open-mouthed smile. That's what we see on the face of Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima as he puts a 2012 Tesla Model S through its paces on a test drive down some curvy California roads.

Best known for winning the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb six times in a row – including in 2011 when he became the first to accomplish the feat in under ten minutes. Tajima-san attempted to top that this year in his custom-built electric Monster Sport E-Runner Pikes Peak Special, but a motor failure less than a mile from the start ended his day. That short circuit, however, hasn't seemed to dampened his enthusiasm for battery-powered cars.

Indeed, the jovial racing giant appears to have quite enjoyed his time behind the Tesla wheel, as the video below shows him piloting the all-electric fastback like one might expect a driver of his stature would. Using the whole road and with little regard for the possibility of a speeding ticket, Tajima has his passengers both bracing and grinning nervously while he guides the Model S roller-coaster-like through the twists and turns.

His assessment of the new electric American hatchback? Well, scroll down for video of a little Monster-on-Tesla action and see for yourself.

Talk about extending your range.

Coda Automotive, which sold its first battery-electric sedan in March, is looking to expand its U.S. dealership network to about 30 next year, Bloomberg News reports, citing an interview with Coda CEO Phil Murtaugh.

The Los Angeles-based company will add dealers in locales ranging from Oregon to Florida next year in a longer-term effort to capture as much as 15 percent of the non-luxury EV market in the U.S.

Coda has delivered about 100 cars since March, though says it has orders for about 1,000 more. The Coda Sedan has been rated by the EPA to have a single-charge range of 88 miles, or about 15 miles more than the Nissan Leaf. The Sedan is priced at $37,250 before the $7,500 federal tax credit many EV buyers in the U.S. can qualify for.

Coda, which opened its L.A. headquarters late last year, has raised $320 million in private funding and said in April that it was moving forward with its efforts to work with China-based Great Wall Motors to build what it says would be the world's least expensive mass-produced EV.

Now it's going to get fun. Reports are out that the U.S. Department of Defense will buy as many as 1,500 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids from General Motors, and some folks are already in a tizzy about it.

The New American reported that the Pentagon will buy the extended-range plug-ins in order to cut its carbon footprint and save on refueling costs in the process. Fox News followed up by noting that the purchase would be "the latest controversy in the Volt's short life" because the Volts would be purchased "at taxpayer expense." Fox also cited a recent Reuters report saying that GM was losing almost $50,000 for each Volt sold and that sales have been "moribund."

That number is highly misleading, as ex-GM executive Bob Lutz, who led the development of the Volt, said when he disputed Reuters' math and said the car may come close to breaking even before its lifetime is up. Meanwhile, a Defense Department purchase would appear to be further recognition of how the Pentagon is concerned about global warming and how gas prices, which for U.S. troops in Afghanistan can climb as high as $400 a gallon, are eating away at the Defense Department budget.

Either way, a Pentagon acquisition batch of Volts would further help a model where sales have been on an upswing. Last month, GM boosted Volt sales more than ninefold from a year earlier to a monthly record 2,831 units. The automaker has sold 13,497 Volts through the first eight months of the year, almost twice as many as GM sold all of last year.

The Defense Department hasn't made any announcements regarding potential Volt purchases. GM representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from AutoblogGreen. Stay tuned...

Based on its last few concept cars, we can definitely see the styling direction that Daimler's Smart brand is taking. The new Smart ForStars concept, which will debut at the 2012 Paris Motor Show later this month, certainly builds on the themes we've seen, as well. While the Smart ForVision concept was a solid indication of the next-generation ForTwo, the ForStars looks like it could be previewing a new Smart model attempting to target buyers of small crossovers.

Smart calls the ForStars concept a "Sports Utility Coupe," and the car's increased ground clearance and cargo space could resonate with buyers looking for a small car this not quite as small as the ForTwo. The overall styling of the ForStars is familiar, with reference from concepts like the ForVision and For-Us. Between the smiley lower fascia with the chubby, dimpled cheeks and the "eyebrows" above the headlights, the new Smart reminds us a bit of an evil version of Speed Buggy. Or a much cooler take on the long-dead Suzuki X-90.

The concept's bubbled roof gives it a look somewhat reminiscent of the Mini Cooper Coupe. Said roof is made from transparent glass panels, giving both occupants a panoramic upward view (it also helps explain the show car's stellar name). The concept car is painted up in a striking Alubeam Rouge exterior color with the matte gray portions of the ForStars showing off the signature Tridion safety cell.

Inside the ForStars, you'll find the same sort of flashy interior found on most concept cars. That said, we wouldn't be surprised to see this car's unique cargo floor make it to a production model. The cargo area is already generously sized for such a small vehicle, and it is made even more useful with a portion of the floor sliding back by almost a foot. One of the coolest conceptual elements we've seen in some time, the ForStars has a video projector built into the hood. Videos can be projected onto a flat surface using an iPhone, and there are speakers built into the side vents of the Tridion cell.

Powering the ForStars is the same electrical components used on the Brabus Electric Drive-as well as on the For-Us Concept – but it has a stronger 60 kW motor to go with the 17.6 kWh lithium-ion battery.

Buried in a press release from Toyota about the loan and lease options for the 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV is the long-awaited confirmation that this is a 100-mile electric vehicle. The EPA has tested the CUV and rates it as having a driving range of 103 miles fully charged and 76 combined miles per gallon equivalent (74 highway and 78 city). This makes it the first non-Tesla-branded EV the EPA has rated at over 100 miles.

The $49,800 RAV4 EV will be available through a 1.9-percent APR loan for qualified customers and a 36-month lease option at $599 per month with $3,499 down. It's coming to select California dealers in major metro markets the week of September 24, 2012. The RAV4 EV is eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit and is also expected to qualify for a $2,500 rebate through California's Clean Vehicle Rebate Program. It will qualify for a white sticker in the state's High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) program. The sales volume is only expected to reach 2,600 through 2014, but this might (might) increase if Toyota decides to build more.

California is the most logical market to start up in. The first version of the RAV4 EV came to California to meet the state's zero emission vehicles (ZEV) mandate. About 1,500 of them were sold between 1997 and 2003, and perhaps these owners will be interested in the second generation RAV4 EV. It's also the state where the supplier of the RAV4 EV's battery and electric powertrain, Tesla Motors, is based.

EV supplier equipment provider Leviton is the approved Toyota charger partner. The fastest available charge time is approximately six hours, through Leviton's custom 240V (Level 2), 40A, 9.6 kW output charging station. For more information on charging options, go here. For details on the Toyota dealer network offering the RAV4 EV, go here.

We can't remember ever seeing a commercial for a bus at all, much less one that was genuinely epic, but we can cross both those firsts off our bucket list thanks to an ad for Denmark's Midtraffik public bus system.

Midttrafik wanted to make riding the bus cool, and the result is this 90-second spot directed by Marc Wilkins that runs through all the awesome features on buses like designer bells with cool functions, donuts of the tire-smoking kind and nice seats. But that doesn't even begin to describe it, so perhaps the tagline on the Midtraffik site puts it best: Drama, desire and plenty of bus. Don't miss it; the commercial (with subtitles) is below.

Tim Draper, co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a multi-billion venture capital firm that supports Tesla, came to Detroit on Thursday slinging either inspiration or insults, depending on what side of the fence you sit on.

"Don't live in your reality distortion field here in Detroit," Draper told the Detroit Free Press in an interview during Teleconomy conference at Wayne State University. "You've got to look at it and say, 'Yeah we could do something here. We can innovate.'"

"Create a flying car," he added. "Create something different because you've lost the electric car battle. See if you can win another."

Accord to Draper, Detroit's automakers are just too far behind to be competitive in the EV field: "They have not innovated nearly enough in the auto industry here... they really should wake up."

Of course, given that Draper and his VC firm are big Tesla backers, it's perhaps natural that he would prefer that potential competitors would step aside and give Tesla Motors some breathing room, especially as the company has never turned a profit.

Of course, the Palo Alto-based Tesla says it will sell 5,000 examples of its all-new 2013 Model S electric sports hatch this year. The well-reviewed car is just getting underway, having built over 100 units so far (it has orders for more). Next year, Tesla projects it will sell 15,000 units and the company's head, Elon Musk says the carmaker will finish in 2013 in the black. Of course, that doesn't include all of the losses it has incurred so far.

Honda has dropped another teaser image for the upcoming 2013 CR-Z, a model set to debut at the fast-approaching Paris Motor Show.

While there are few real details to go with the shadowy hybrid image, Honda says its updated CR-Z will receive power bumps for both its gasoline engine and its electric motor. Said output enhancements will not compromise fuel economy or emissions performance, either.

This dead-on front image of the car makes plain a few of the styling changes, too. The new CR-Z is running a strip of LED lighting under its HID headlights. The new front grille is filled with a honeycomb insert, losing the horizontal upper slats of the current car. The lower front fascia has been altered, as well.

Stay tuned for loads more information about the 2013 Honda CR-Z as we move closer to the September 27 opening day of the Paris show.

Things appear to be heating up in the desert.

Some Nissan Leaf owners aren't buying the automaker's claim that suspected loss of battery capacity stems from issues related to the car's display readings and not fundamental battery issues.

To prove the point, about a dozen Leaf drivers are getting together in Phoenix this weekend to compare capacity-display levels with actual driving range, according to Green Car Reports.

Leaf owner Tony Williams, who is leading the effort, says that, while batteries with a full set of "bars" indicating battery capacity will provide as much as an 84-mile range, cars missing two bars and four bars will come up anywhere between 18 miles and 28 miles short of that range.

Reports started surfacing this summer about Arizona Leaf owners complaining that the heat caused the cars to rapidly lose battery capacity. Nissan, which has long said that a battery pack will keep as much as 80 percent of its capacity after ten years, more recently noted that heat could only hurt capacity if it climbed as high at the 130-140-degree range.

Either way, the publicity doesn't help Nissan, whose Leaf sales have lagged this year. Last month, Nissan sold 685 Leafs in the U.S., which was up from 395 in July but way down from 1,362 units in August 2011.

The days of free public electric vehicle charging are coming to an end, and the pay-to-plug reality is spreading overseas. United Kingdom EV charging company POD Point has launched the UK's first nationwide Pay As You Go (PP PAYG) network. It's free to join, has no monthly fee and asks only for a refundable £10 balance ($16 U.S. at current exchange rates) to activate an account. It's the nation's first card-less charging network and uses SMS texts from mobile phones to access charging points and to stop or start charging cycles.

POD Point is based on the Oyster PAG model introduced by Transport for London, offering occasional commuters seamless system access without monthly charges. Demand is strong for card-less charging stations, said POD Point CEO Erik Fairbairn. "Most electric or hybrid vehicle owners use public charge points occasionally, in areas they don't visit every day – yet existing charging schemes are either regional, or charge a high monthly fee regardless of use," he said in a press release, which you can access below.

The PP PAYG network is scheduled to have access to over 750 charge bays by the end of the year, making it the largest UK public charge network. In July of this year, Pod Point initiated a plan to spread public charging throughout Scandinavia through partnerships with energy, electricity supply companies, and automakers. Pod Point is working with utility company Nord-Trøndelag Elektrisitetsverk AS (NTE) to install the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) software to manage the charging network. This allows charging stations from different companies to communicate, and is said to be fast becoming the European industry standard.

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan might have supported full disbursement of the U.S. Energy Department's planned $529 million loan to extended-range plug-in vehicle maker Fisker Automotive. Then again, he might not have. Ah, politics.

Recently, Ryan has joined fellow Republicans in blasting DOE loans to "green" technology companies like Fisker and solar-panel producer Solyndra. But, in a 2008 letter, he appeared to support giving the DOE enough "flexibility" to make its planned $529 million loan to the California-based automaker, according to Delaware Online.

Of course, Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck denied that the candidate changed his views, saying that the funding would've been contingent on Fisker being "approved as a viable recipient." We're not sure what that means either, since the DOE loan was, indeed, originally approved. The DOE granted Fisker the $529 million loan in 2010 but has since frozen all but about $200 million of it because Fisker failed to meet certain predetermined production quotas for its Karma model.

In late June, Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Chuck Grassley (R-IO) sent a letter to DOE secretary Steven Chu questioning the $529 million loan in part because of Qatar's ownership stake in the company. Two months earlier, ex-Fisker chairman and current investor Ray Lane blamed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for the delays in the DOE funding, saying Romney, the son of former American Motors chief George Romney, mistakenly grouped Fisker with Solyndra. Fisker had planned to take over an old GM factory in Delaware to produce the Fisker Atlantic, but those plans have been put on hold, in part because all the loan money did not come through.

For automakers pursuing sustainability initiatives – things like powering plants with solar panels and recycling existing car components – General Motors is stepping it up a notch. GM is working with a Detroit nonprofit group to turn leftover auto materials into warm coats and sleeping bags for the area's houseless.

The recycling campaign was inspired by Veronika Scott, an Empowerment Plan leader at the College for Creative Studies. Scott had started a project to design clothing for the houseless using recyclable materials. While working on a local shoot for a Planet Green cable TV production, she met John Bradburn, GM's manager of waste-reduction efforts. Bradburn told her about Sonozorb, which is a highly oil-absorbent insulating material used to fit into car door cavities and vehicle compartments for sound absorption. GM had been reusing Sonozorb at its plants and the material was also used to clean up the Gulf oil spill in 2010, some of which was even recycled into production Chevrolet Volt vehicles.

It made sense for Scott to request donation of the material from GM, and the company delivered 2,000 yards of the materials. That was enough to make about 400 coats from extra Sonozorb chunks that came from the production of Chevy Malibu and Buick Verano sedans. Auto supplier GDC works on the project, too, reprocessing leftover material into quilt-like fabric for the coats that also transform into sleeping bags.

Scott employs about seven formerly homeless women who are paid to craft about 150 coats a month. The coats are sent to homeless outreach groups in Detroit and other destinations, including Ohio, New York, and San Francisco.

The donations tie into GM's commitment to reduce waste. Last year, the company recycled or reused 2.5 million metric tons at its facilities worldwide. It's also a good way to service the local community. "We're reaching out and helping others," Bradburn told the Detroit News.

Gasoline-powered, internal combustion engines are notoriously inefficient. Some estimates say as much as 70 percent of the fuel's energy is lost to friction and heat. An Automotive News story has engineers saying that only three percent is due to friction. To engineers, that's a huge pot of low-hanging, fuel-efficiency fruit.

Chrysler and Dana Holding Corp. have developed a "thermal management system" (highlighted in blue in the photo above) for the 2013 Dodge Ram that takes advantage of some of that heat. The truck's engine coolant is re-routed to bring the 2013 Dodge Ram's transmission to optimum operating temperature more quickly. When cold, honey-like transmission fluid drags on the powertrain. The sooner it warms up, the less fuel is wasted. The company claims the system improves fuel economy by two percent.

The system may be adapted for other Chrysler vehicles in the future. Similar systems from Dana are also being used on the Ford Edge where it adds about one percent to fuel economy.

Since a vehicle's engine also needs heat to operate efficiently, catalytic converter supplier Tenneco is working on a system that uses exhaust heat to warm the gooey transmission fluid.

For the future, though, Tenneco hopes to use waste heat to eliminate power-sucking alternators. The company is experimenting with thermocouple technology to convert heat directly into electricity. Current thermocouple hardware can convert one to three percent of exhaust heat into electricity. Tenneco says if it can improve that to as much as five percent, enough current can be generated to charge your car's battery with no drain on the engine. Standing in the way of thermocouple tech use on cars is its super high cost. The company hopes within six years to bring the price down 90 percent.