The podracing in StarWars I was tempered by the grace of the Greenbird’s land yacht design then you might have something that Mercede-Benz designers are saying in 2025 would be called Formula Zero.

Many of us have been watching with interset the race between LG Chem and A123 Systems to become the supplier of the GM Volt’s battery system. After all, energy storage is currently the most crucial puzzle left to solve to make battery electric cars and plug-in hybrids viable. We need batteries that store as much power as possible, in a package as light as possible, with a useful life that is as long as possible, and of course, all that as cheaply as possible. That’s a tall order.

According to Reuters, GM has picked LG Chem to supply lithium-ion batteries for its Chevrolet Volt. Read on for more details.

The deal would be for the first-generation Volt, so the battery supplier might change down the line (especially if someone else can drive costs further down).

Reuters:

“The 400-pound battery pack designed for the the Volt is also expected to be the most expensive element of the rechargeable car and its single most important component.

The Volt is on track to become the first mass-market, plug- in hybrid when it is launched in 2010. It has also become a symbol of GM’s effort to reinvent itself at a time when its sales are slumping and its ability to survive the downturn has come under scrutiny.“

Some things still need to be decided, like how to split the warranty costs for the batteries. The official announcement should be made by GM in November. One promising thing is that most of the Volt prototypes used the LG Chem batteries, and they have apparently been performing well, without major glitches.

Hydrogen powered cars gets a boost from new research coming out of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. One of the often heard complaints about hydrogen powered cars is that the fuel tanks cannot store their fuel for extended periods—having to vent their contents in two to four days’ time.

Current tank prototypes can hold their fuel for up to six days and demonstrated that they were able to go up to 650 miles on a single tank of hydrogen. The new laboratory research attempts to remedy this problem and researchers are hopeful that storage times can be expanded to 15 days in the future.

Paul McCartney should have been celebrating: the High Court of England had just finalized his very public divorce from Heather Mills, and on top of that he had just received a Lexus LS600H as a gift from Lexus for doing some promotional work for them. The LS600H is their flagship hybrid vehicle, with a Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV) rating and an impressive 430 horsepower engine. However, the car’s fuel efficiency is rather poor at 21 MPG.

The Smart Car is undoubtedly cute and novel, but is it a smart choice for drivers that are concerned about the environment as well as their wallet?  The Smart Car has certainly received a lot of coverege to date and continues to evoke mixed reviews from our writers and readers alike.  Eric Taub of the NY Times.

Another milestone for Tesla Motors, the maker of the Tesla Roadster Electric Car: Their Santa-Monica store has opened its doors yesterday. It should soon be followed by one in Silicon Valley.

Tesla has also been doing a PR tour in Europe lately, showing off the Euro-spec version of the electric Roadster (300+hp with a 13,000rpm red-line, instead of the 248 hp listed for the US version). Now all they need is for more cars to be coming out of the assembly line. As we previously reported, the first production unit was delivered to Tesla chairman Elo…

According to Channel 4, Volkswagen will unveil a diesel-electric hybrid version of their Golf hatchback (known as the Rabbit in North-America) at the Geneva Motor Show. The information that has filtered out so far is promising: Fuel economy of 83.1 mpg imperial, 69.9 mpg US. Only 89 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer (for comparison, the Toyota Prius hybrid emits 104 g/km).

Also, the diesel engine used in the Golf Hybrid has been developed specifically with the US market in mind, and California in particular.

The GM Volt plug-in hybrid was supposed to hit showrooms in 2010 for $30,000. Well, apparently it’s not that easy to redesign wipers, stereos and other electrical accessories so they drain as little juice as possible from the battery. GM has announced that the first generation Volt will be “closer to $35,000″. The good news is that the late 2010 deadline hasn’t been officially pushed back, though GM says that if it can’t make it, the car might be delayed until the Spring of 2011.

The Toyota iQ was still a concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show last September, but things are moving fast and the production model is scheduled to debut at the Geneva Auto Show next month. All the details are not yet known, but what we can reliably expect to get is a tiny city car (less than 3 meters in length, or about 20% longer than a Smart) with an innovative 3+1 seating layout (1 adult and 1 child seat or luggage in the back). The engine will likely be 1.0 liter gasoline, possibly with stop-start capabilities like the Citroën C2.