Companies to watch in green tech: Transportation

With Earth Day upon us, CNET's green reporters sat down and selected five leading companies in five different clean-technology categories. Here are the transportation companies selected:

1. A123 Systems: Like a number of other companies, A123 wants to sell lithium-ion battery packs for electric cars and plug-in hybrids. The difference is that A123, which spun out of MIT, has influential friends. General Motors invested in the company and is testing A123 batteries for its hybrids, including the Chevy Volt expected in 2010. So is Norway's Think, which makes an electric town car. In all, the company … Read more

Another diesel engine start-up comes out of stealth

January is diesel engine month, it seems.

Following announcements from EcoMotors and Transonic Combustion, San Diego's Achates Power has said on its Web site that it's creating a clean, light, fuel-efficient diesel engine.

The company has also received investments from Sequoia Capital, a relative newcomer to energy investments, Rockport Capital Partners and Interwest Partners. (VentureWire has a brief interview with Achates CEO James Lemke.)

Achates has not said how its engine will work, the company has three patent applications on file with the U.S. Patent Office. Two of the patents describe what's known as an opposed … Read more

Transonic merging diesel engines with gas

It's sort of like an organ transplant for cars.

Transonic Combustion, which has been relatively secretive until now, has created a fuel injection system that will let diesel engines run on regular gasoline. Diesel engines get better mileage than regular gas engines, explained CEO Mike Cheiky in an interview. However, diesels typically emit more particulates. Gas is also far more readily available than diesel in the U.S. Insert Transonic's components into a diesel engine and you get the best of both worlds.

Additionally, the company's fuel injection system dramatically increases the internal compression in an engine, … Read more

A second company promises 100 mpg engine

At the Detroit auto show, attendees are going to be talking about the magic 100 mile per gallon mark.

EcoMotors will be at the show to talk about its diesel engine which it says will let cars go 100 miles a gallon by 2011. At that level, you could get across the country and only have to stop once for gas.

Khosla Ventures has invested in the company. The firm also has an interest in Transonic Combustion, which has developed a fuel injection system for getting diesels (as well as other types of engines) to go 100 miles per gallon. … Read more