The Agera, made using lightweight materials such as carbon fiber, is priced at a cool 12.5 crore rupees (ex-showroom Delhi) and is easily the best alternative to the Bugatti Veyron available in India for a sum of 16 crore rupees.

The Agera is more than just a fine interplay of speed and horsepower. Nothing represents the essence and meaning of Koenigsegg better than this model.

But if you aren’t interested in anything else, then here you go – A 5-liter twin-turbocharged engine developed 910bhp and 1000Nm making it possible for the 0-60 sprint to finish in under 3.5 seconds.

The Agera may loose out to the Veyron on top speed figures, but 400kph is frightening fast!

Koenigsegg Agera Image Slideshow

If you cannot view the slideshow above, then head over to the Koenigsegg Agera Flickr Gallery to catch all the images

This story should be enough to – at the very least – give Chevrolet Volt detractors pause: a solar-powered home that pays its owner delicious double dividends.

An Orlando, FL man used the cash from selling solar-panel-generated electricity back to the grid as a down payment for his Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in vehicle and he’s using the power from the panels to fuel the sedan, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Bob Stonerock used the $5,600 he made during the past two years selling power generated from his roof and backyard solar panels back to the Orlando Utilities Commission as a down payment for his $46,000 Volt. Stonerock, a retired doctor, estimates that he will be able to fuel the car almost exclusively from the electricity from the solar panels that power his vehicle-recharging station.

Stonerock is one of the more than 15,000 Americans who will attempt to replace at least most of their gasoline use with electricity by purchasing vehicles such as either the Volt or battery-electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i. Through the first eleven months of the year, General Motors sold just over 6,100 Volts – compared to about 8,700 Nissan Leafs – though both vehicles were constrained by limited supply for at least some of the year.

The Chevy Volt can go about 35 miles on electric power alone before a gas-powered on-board generator kicks in to provide an additional 340 miles or so on a full tank. In November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy named the Volt the fourth-most fuel-efficient vehicle sold in the United States. The federal agencies’ latest edition of their Fuel Economy Guide rates the Volt at 60 miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent, which trailed only the Mitsubishi i, Nissan Leaf and Ford Transit Connect Electric battery-electric vehicles.

Chevy Volt is paid for and fueled by solar power originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If there’s one thing that I’ve proven incapable of doing with tabletop gaming, it’s remembering the names of NPCs.

Not the ones related to this week’s adventure, mind you; those I remember just fine. But throw out a big signature NPC and I suddenly find myself completely blank. It’s bad enough that the only character I can think of off the top of my head is Caine from Vampire: the Masquerade, who mostly occupies a spot in my head for totally unrelated reasons. I can’t help but think that if some clever GM tried to insert a major storyline character into an adventure, I’d wind up being the guy in the party who asked someone breathtakingly important if I could borrow some money.

In the case of MMOs, I often have a bit more of an advantage. After all, Statesman and my character have a bit more interaction in City of Heroes than my characters in other games have with the setting-specific NPCs that I’d really like to be able to name off the top of my head. But even though I can remember who Thrall is, he suffers from the exact same problem as all the others — as long as I’m not playing him, he’s just plain not important.

Continue reading Storyboard: The other gatekeepers

Storyboard: The other gatekeepers originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just like hard working humans, giant companies like to get paid consistently and on time for services rendered. But Verizon’s method for motivating customers to pay up — in the form of a $2 convenience fee — isn’t sitting so well with consumers, or the FCC. A Federal Communications Commission official confirmed that the fee hasn’t gone unnoticed, saying “on behalf of American consumers, we’re concerned about Verizon’s actions and are looking into the matter.” The $2 “payment convenience fee” is scheduled to hit consumers beginning on January 15th, but if the FCC doesn’t step in before then, you can still skip the toll by signing up for AutoPay, or making your way to a different carrier.

Verizon’s $2 convenience fee inconveniences the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A concept version of the Outlander Plug-in hybrid was showcased at the Tokyo Motor Show. Also known as Concept PX-MiEV, the car featured a plug-in hybrid powertrain with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and two 60 kW (80 hp / 81 PS) electric motors.

The battery alone can sustain the vehicle till 50 km. Once the charge starts depleting, the car activates the petrol engine to charge the battery. At high way speeds, the electric motor and the petrol motor work together to give you maximum power. Mitsubishi estimates the PX-MiEV II would have a combined fuel consumption of 60 km/liter.

[Source - WorldCarFans.com]