The Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, explains to Time magazine where zero emission cars are a 2012 reality because of governance:

You are going to have a collaboration between cities, government and car manufacturers toward making it easy for the consumer to go for zero emission cars. We have been very surprised by the very positive collaboration we have seen from many governments — we’ve signed Portugal, Denmark, Israel, France. We’re working with the Chinese. The overwhelming response from public officials is amazing. When zero emission cars are on the market, all the others are going to look really obsolete.

There are different ways of getting there. In Israel, for example, you don’t buy the battery. You buy the car, but you lease the battery. You pay a fee per month. We are working on quick charges where you can get the battery mostly charged in 25 minutes.

The leased battery model is interesting. Clearly the US is missing from the list of “positive collaboration”.

Wired reports that Rainforest Fungus Naturally Synthesizes Diesel:

A fungus that lives inside trees in the Patagonian rain forest naturally makes a mix of hydrocarbons that bears a striking resemblance to diesel, biologists announced today. And the fungus can grow on cellulose, a major component of tree trunks, blades of grass and stalks that is the most abundant carbon-based plant material on Earth.

“When we looked at the gas analysis, I was flabbergasted,” said Gary Strobel, a plant scientist at Montana State University, and the lead author of a paper in Microbiology describing the find. “We were looking at the essence of diesel fuel.”

The beauty of the diesel engine is that Rudolf Diesel wanted fuel to be available in abundance. He specifically did not want people to have to use engines that depended on limited sources, especially those controlled by powerful oil corporations. Thus, it should not be too much of a surprise that the Gliocladium roseum fungus can break down wood and turn it into something akin to diesel fuel. It does, however, surprise me that there is now a question of whether petroleum is actually a byproduct of an ancient conversion by organisms.

W00t. The TDI is coming to America again in 2009. Hybrid Cars has a review:

By most accounts, clean diesel is beginning to make its run into the automotive mainstream in the United States. So, we decided to take the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI out for a test drive to judge for ourselves.

“If any car is going to wake America up to the diesel movement, it’s this one,” Ben Davis, road test producer for PBS’s MotorWeek, told Hybridcars.com. The Jetta TDI’s combined benefits—high performance, high fuel economy, and small carbon footprint—come at the right price: about $22,000.

Very cool.

We achieved 36.4 miles per gallon with the Jetta TDI in a 181-mile mixed driving loop in an around the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. The test was comprised of approximately 70 percent highway driving, and 30 percent city driving. The results put this compact diesel ahead of most subcompact cars, and on par with many hybrids currently on the market.

The Jetta TDI is powered by a 2.0-liter common rail turbocharged engine—producing 140 horsepower and an eye-opening 236 pound-feet of torque. The high torque output is characteristic of a diesel powertrain, resulting in very fast launches from zero, and effortless acceleration on the highway.

Couldn’t agree more. These new diesels are phenomenal. Old diesel is like driving a cart pulled by a horse. The new diesels are peppy and fun to drive; no comparison to any diesel made before 2004.

I posted a comment on the Hybrid Cars site too after I read some of the disinformation written by others.