Reports are coming in that the United States is paying upwards of $400 per gallon of fuel delivered to troops on the ground, that’s a whooping 100 times more than we pay.

Of course that’s not the cost of fuel by itself. The high rate of gas price there includes the cost of having it delivered to the US ground military operations in Afghanistan, which is by parachute. That’s right, huge Air Force cargo planes drop dozens of pallets on the ground in a remote drop zone containing food, water and of course fuel. Almost seems like a scene right out of Lost huh?

And it appears that it won’t be getting any cheaper for the military as more and more air drops will be occurring now that ground-based supply convoys are becoming more dangerous to setup.

Check out the Wall Street Journal report video after the break.

[Source: Autoblog]

Believe it or not, hybrids are safer in a crash than their gasoline-only counterparts, according to a new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute.

“Hybrids on average are 10 percent heavier than their standard counterparts,” Moore said in a statement today. “This extra mass gives them an advantage in crashes that their conventional twins don’t have,” said Matt Moore, Data Institute President and author of the study.

The study didn’t include cars like the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, which are only available as a hybrid. The study also counted other factors like who drives hybrids and how they generally behave on the road.

While the drivers and hybrids themselves may be contributing to improved safety inside the car, a separate study also conducted by Highway Loss Data Institute suggests that these cars are 20 percent more likely to hit a pedestrian.

The reason, they say, is that while running in electric-only mode they are too quiet, making them less noticeable to someone crossing the street.

Earlier this year, Congress gave the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration three years to decide on a standard for equipping hybrids and electric vehicles with a sound device to alert pedestrians.

Japan is the only country to currently enforce such a standard, according to a CNN article Moore sighted.

Despite that, it seems Nissan has already equipped their Leaf with a system to catch pedestrian attention. Toyota started including the feature on the 2010 Prius in Japan, and will add it to the 2012 North American Prius V.

[Source: Automotive News]

If your cell phone has ever run out of battery power midday, you know how frustrating it can be to charge on the go. Imagine having to do the same for your car.

Driving an electric vehicle (EV) means you’re always thinking about when and where you can charge next. At current charging times that can be significant - DC fast-charge systems on the market today need 30 minutes to achieve an 80 percent charge.

Nissan’s Leaf is one of the EVs available on the market today, and thanks to a recent tech development the automaker hopes to change charging times for the better.

According to a report, researchers at Japan’s Kansai University working with Nissan engineers sped up the charging process by tweaking a capacitor using tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide instead of the usual carbon. The result— a 10-minute charge.

The faster charging process allowed the capacitor to retain almost the same capacity and voltage as lithium ion batteries and appeared to retain durability during charging and discharging tests.

In light of their latest achievement, the same researchers hope to alter the capacitor’s structure to further decrease charging times to three minutes. If they can achieve their goal, charging times will be on par with average fueling times for gasoline vehicles.

The same report also mentioned that while this development will help bring such technology to consumers faster, it probably won’t be widely available for another decade.

[Sources: PaulTan.org and cnet.com]

Just like how elementary school kids promised free lollipops and candy in the vending machines, America’s politicians make the same affirmations. Case in point: Michelle Bachmann will, if elected, give all God-fearing Americans the divine right of cheap gas.

Drill baby, drill! Bachmann told supporters at an event in South Carolina: “The day that the president became president gasoline was $1.79 a gallon. Look at what it is today. Under President Bachmann, you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again. That will happen.”

She didn’t mention specifically where this magical oil would come from, other than some vague rumblings about opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Which, according to an EPA study in 2008 (in the middle of $4/gallon gas), wouldn’t do much to lower gas prices quickly or effectively. But then again, with Bachmann herself salivating at the prospect of shutting down the socialist plot that is the Environmental Protection Agency, it’s doubtful that she heeded this report in the first place.

But hey, cheap gas grabs attention—and promising $2/gallon sure is catchy. With the gauntlet laid down by Bachmann, we wonder what the other candidates will promise to Americans. Maybe Governor Perry will promise a free revolver for every man, woman, and child: Mitt Romney will fly over major metropolitan areas dropping denim jackets from an airplane, and Obama, in a bid to stay relevant and popular, will simply throw change from the rooftops.

[Source: Politico]

If you think $4 for a gallon of gas is pricey here in the United States, you should thank your lucky stars that you’re not a resident of Denmark. The Northern European nation is currently leading the world in gas prices, with a gallon costing an average $9.69, including a gasoline tax of $5.41.

Other countries like Portugal, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are all in the $9 per gallon range, with the Netherlands boasting the highest gas tax rate of $5.87 per gallon. Closer to home, Canada is averaging $4.70 with a $1.20 gas tax, while the United States is still at $3.96, with a 48 cent tax.

At the other end of the spectrum are oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia, where a gallon costs 45 cents, and Venezuela, where it costs a mere 10 cents per gallon. As The Atlantic notes, Venezuela is selling heavily subsidized gas at roughly 98 percent less than market value, and the extra money could easily be put into infrastructure or public transportation.

[Source: The Atlantic]

Ford‘s strategy involving smaller cars priced at a premium will become even more important if gasoline rises beyond $4 gallon, said Ford of the Americans President Mark Fields.

“There is a natural kind of water level that if a gallon of gas goes over, that may shift the market mentality,” Fields told Automotive News. ”When it starts getting over $4 a gallon or gets to triple digits when you fill up your tank, that catches people’s attention.” Gasoline prices are currently at a national average of $3.55 per gallon, and global unrest means that they are likely to keep rising.

The Focus in particular represents Ford’s new premium small car strategy, with high end models costing as much as $29,000, while still achieving 40 mpg on the highway. But with more than 80 percent of its parts shared in common with global variants (and expected worldwide sales of 2 million per year in 2012), the Focus could prove to be an extremely profitable car for the company.

[Source: Automotive News]

Mercedes has a new, technologically-advanced series of gasoline engines, capable of running on a “lean-burn” mode that both reduces emissions and increases fuel efficiency—but they’re not coming to America because the gasoline here isn’t clean enough for the Silver Arrow’s refined tastes.

The problem is that American gasoline contains too much sulfur—as much as 80-95 parts per million across the country. Mercedes needs a sulfur content of less than 50ppm to function correctly, due to the leaner fuel-to-air ratios that allow them to run more efficiently than conventional gasoline engines. The extra quantities of sulfur would overwhelm the trap that captures oxides of nitrogen from the exhaust stream. With the lean-burn combustion cycle, fuel efficiency increases 10%.

Mercedes has fared better with their low-sulfur diesel engines, as U.S. regulations have limited sulfur content in diesel to 15ppm. But in Europe, gasoline sulfur content has been regulated to “almost zero,” according to Mercedes engineers. The EPA is currently evaluating the impact of lower-sulfur gasoline. Sulfur by itself does not actively impact fuel economy.

Mercedes will still sell the four- and six-cylinder engines in America, but simply without the lean-burn capabilities. One of these engines, called BlueDirect in the U.S., is the direct-injection 3.5-liter V6 which will make it across the 2012 C-Class, E-Class, M-Class, and SLK. It still gets a commendable 21-mpg with 302 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque. The C-Class also gets a new 1.8-liter four-cylinder that also has direct injection but features turbocharged fury: at 201 horsepower and 229 lb-ft of torque, and 24-mpg.

Lastly, Mercedes is equipping the CL-Class with yet another direct-injection powerhouse, this time a V8: with an MPG rating of 15/23, the twin-turbo 4.6-liter eliminates the gas guzzler tax for the CL550, while producing 429 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque.

But take heart, Americans: our gasoline may be filthy compared to the fine, floral bouquets of the Continent, but it’s not just an American issue: Mercedes won’t be able to sell these engines with lean-burning cycles in markets in Asia and Africa. Ideally, the engineers at Mercedes would like to see a global standard for sulfur, so we won’t feel like we’re not worthy of Mercedes’ gasoline snobbery.

[Source: Ward's Auto]

Given the current state of gasoline, the Toyota Prius has been hotter than Justin Bieber tickets. Unfortunately, there’s a nationwide shortage of the popular hybrid across the American market: Cars.com lists just 9,014 available.

Chalk it up to the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, but the Prius has been selling fast for months now in response to higher gas prices. And while the Prius’s current supply might be over 9,000, consider that the RAV4 has been selling at the same rate, but there are over 21,000 of those available.

So if you want 50mpg in your family sedan, it may shock you that there are other cars that can accomplish that seemingly Herculean feat. Not just a 1989 GEO Metro, either; Cars.com has listed a spate of modern cars that can match that figure while simultaneously offering satellite radio, power windows, and crash protection more substantial than a box of saltine crackers. Some are hybrids, some are diesels, and some—like the Fiat 500 shown above—don’t make you venture down the eco-dweeb path, either.

But you’ll have to click through the jump to find out.

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While motorists in North America have had 10 percent ethanol infused gasoline all but forced on them, and Brazil operates almost entirely on E85 biofuel, German motorists have slammed the door shut on the corn-based fuel by simply refusing to purchase gasoline that is made up of 90 percent dino-juice and 10 percent ethanol.

The Super E10 gasoline has an octane rating of 95 , but motorists in Germany are simply purchasing the pricier 98 octane fuel that is devoid of ethanol. The backlash comes from a variety of organizations, ranging from the German ADAC automobile club to Greenpeace, who claim that ethanol can do everything from ruin the mechanical bits of automobiles to increase CO2 production.

While only half of Germany’s gas stations offer the fuel, the problem is so severe that Germany’s Environment Minister is convening a summit to figure out how to deal with the problem. Currently, gas stations are sitting on ample reserves of E10 while the non-ethanol high grades are in short supply.

[Source: The Truth About Cars]

With oil passing the $100/barrel mark on Thursday, analysts are warning that a gallon of gasoline could soon cost as much as $5 this summer.

“If this thing escalates and there’s a good chance that there’d be a shift in supplies, $5 gas isn’t out of the question,” said Darin Newsom, an analyst at energy firm DTN told USA Today.

With major oil companies pulling out of Libya, the 15th largest crude oil exporter in the world, oil futures contracts are trading at levels not seen since October of 2008. While countries like Saudi Arabia could theoretically pick up the slack, the disruptions will still cause a spike in prices. Other factors like increased demand as the weather warms up, and the constantly increasing demand from China, could see average gas prices continue to rise.

[Source: USA Today]