Aptera is gearing up for the market release of both its Aptera Local and Aptera Everywhere vehicles early next year. The company has drawn high-profile backers including Google alongside a myriad of independent investors that have allowed Aptera Motors to construct a new production-ready manufacturing facility in Vista, CA.

The Aptera Local, as the name suggests, is primarily designed for short-trip driving in or around cities. With an all-electric engine, fueled by a combination of charges and exterior solar panels, the Local should average around 120 miles per charge when driving at 55mph. Charging the car’s integrated battery system is expected to take between two and four hours in the typical home and should cost somewhere in the range of $3 per charge (assuming energy costs remain stagnant).

The Aptera Everywhere, on the other hand, integrates both electric and and gasoline-driven technologies to give the vehicle an estimated 300mpg for a 120 mile trip with a fully-charged battery. The vehicle first utilizes the battery but then defaults to a gasoline system to recharge the battery while driving. On longer trips, the Everywhere is expected to average somewhere around 130mpg - still far better than anything on the road today.

Inside the Aptera, the company has added a number of luxury features as standard including GPS navigation, exterior cameras, a combination CD/DVD/MP3 player, and keyless ignition - making it one of the hottest hybrids on the road.

The car’s interior, while advanced, pales in comparison to its breathtaking exterior that’s sure to catch eyes each and every time it leaves its charger. The Aptera’s slick curves, unmatched aesthetics, and state-of-the-art technologies have quickly infiltrated the wallets of eco-friendly consumers in California as the company began taking pre-orders earlier this year. $500 today will get you a reservation for the car like none other. The Aptera Local is expected to carry a price tag of around $26,900 while the Everywhere comes in just shy of $30,000. Still, if today’s price of gas is any indication, the Aptera’s relatively high price tag could soon become a bargain - and a stylish bargain at that.

For years, the “smart” car has been a staple of European city-living. The tiny cab for two rose to popularity shortly after its joint-venture introduction by both Mercedes-Benz and Swatch, previously known only for their luxury cars and luxury watches, respectively.

Over the years, the duo have introduced everything from smart roadsters to the Vibe-like forfour; the fortwo, however, has been the only model to survive the true tests of time. Today, over 900,000 people are proud owners of one of the tiniest cars in the world. Originally designed to be just long enough to fill the width of a parking space, the smart fortwo has grown ever-more popular for the space-conscious city-dweller.

The car was introduced in the United States early this year and has been popping up across the country ever since. Dealers have been left scrambling to keep up with demand as gas prices grow higher and higher and everyone from New York urbanites to suburban soccer moms have begun to embrace the way of the small car.

As people begin trading in their Hummers and Suburbans for more wallet-friendly models like the Prius, the Civic, and now the smart, the tiny European car that used to be somewhat of a comedic attraction in the US is quickly becoming the next Prius.

The company is set to introduce its smart fortwo in China sometime next year, with a new electric model planned for release in 2010. Its new electric incarnations are currently in the wild throughout the city streets of London as both the company and a small segment of its customers work out the potential bugs.

Today’s roads are a different place than anyone ever could have imagined they would be thirty years ago. Back then, they were still determined that our cars would be airborne by now. Still, America is in the midst of a turning-point that’s just now getting off to a great beginning. Let’s see where it takes us.

There are two sides to every story - even the story of how America’s gas prices have multiplied in the last decade. While rising gas prices are affecting virtually every aspect of our economy, they may indeed be a very necessary wake-up call that may just be the very recipe that evokes a long overdue push for changing our consumption of everything from fuel to food.

Until recently, gas was seen as nothing more than an ubiquitous commodity that was available on every corner for next to nothing. No one worried about how “efficient” their vehicle was and alternative energy was merely a side project scoffed at by most of the nation. 

As prices have gone higher and higher, however, America has started to question its energy usage for the very first time. Hummer’s are out of style, people are consolidating their errands, and almost every company in the country is hard at work on something powered by anything but gas.

Driving less has the potential to spark a dramatic reduction in the nation’s obesity rate as the bicycle once again becomes an accepted mode of transportation, people think twice about eating out, and walking becomes an easier way to get around. Even better, with less cars on the road, congestion is bound to ease up (at least a little) and road maintenance costs should decrease within a few years.

Are high gas prices a good thing right now? Of course not. At the moment, they’re plaguing the pockets of ordinary citizens and making it near impossible for much of America to continue living the way they did yesterday. But in the long run, the change in the price of gas may be just what we need to redefine tomorrow’s America as an environmentally conscious, moderation-friendly nation that has taken a step back to rethink its position within the world. Perhaps this won’t be today and probably not tomorrow but, within a few years, $8 gas and the possibilities above could indeed become reality.

Mercedes-Benz is hard at work on phasing out its reliance on petroleum in a move that could leave its lineup gas-free by 2015. In the next several years, Mercedes will continue the ongoing development of alternative fuel technologies including electricity, fuel cells, and advanced biofuels. The multi-billion dollar plan is set to be delivered gracefully and could begin producing results as early as this year.

100 of the company’s new electric Smart cars are already being tested on the streets of London, with a possible street release date as early as 2010. In addition to the new electric Smarts, the company has also been developing its next remarkable engine - Diesotto. I’ll spare you the techie details (mostly because this is a design blog), but leave you with the possibility that you could see Mercedes’ newest biofuel engine on the road as early as 2010.

(Source: EcoGeek)

BMW’s latest breakthrough highlights a proprietary design that frees the frame from the limits of steel - replacing it, instead, with a space-age material that allows the exterior of the car to remold itself in response to a variety of situations.

As if the mere existence of a functional vehicle with the ability to change itself on-the-fly isn’t cool enough, BMW’s engineering and design teams took their efforts one step further by integrating a number of potentially useful features into their highly conceptual design. Not only do the doors open in a similar fashion to moving a blanket, but the car’s spoiler protrudes from the back of the car only at the speed at which the car’s engineering team has determined its necessity. Unlike the myriad of other vehicles that possess this technology, the GINA is able to fluidly show and hide the spoiler without physically touching the frame of the car. Instead, a mechanism beneath the fabric simply stretches it to create the car’s spoiler before your eyes. Perhaps the sleekest feature on the GINA is the sheer sense of personality confined within each of its headlights. Much like the eyelids of a person, the car’s headlights reveal themselves following quick shift in the tightness of their surrounding skin. The result is something truly spectacular.

Though BMW’s GINA may be one of the hottest models ever to roll off of their production line, the chances of seeing this vehicle in a showroom one day are rather slim - to say the least. It’s far more likely to spend its days in BMW’s Design Museum in their homeland of Germany. If you’re ever in Munich, feel free to stop by and say hello to GINA; you won’t be disappointed. To really get a feel for GINA beyond the pictures, BMW has graciously provided a video of the concept in action.