Green
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What happens when you give an Italian design studio free reign to create an electric car wearing one of Italy's most celebrated badges? You get the Abarth ScorpION concept, by IED. Unusually the ScorpION wasn't present on Abarth's own stand amongst the hotted-up Fiat 500s and a single seater series race car, instead lurking across the hall on Istituto Europeo di Design's (IED) own stand. This led us straight past the car several times before noticing it, a fairly subdued gray paint scheme not attracting as much attention as the design itself deserves. The concept behind the ScorpION is that...
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You'll Pay $700 More For Gasoline This Year (If You're Average)
According to the Department of Energy, the average U.S. household will pay $700 more for gasoline this year than it did in 2010. In a weekly review of the oil market, the department's Energy Information Administration noted that prices will rise at least 10 cents more over the current national...
John Voelcker -
Build Your Dream, or Disaster? Wikileaks, Buffet & Electric Car Woes
An open policy of reverse engineering, doors that fall off and shady sales practices are hardly the things you’d expect of an automaker trying to make it into the U.S. market. But as newly surfaced diplomatic cables published on Internet whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks show, the battery firm...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Green-Car Faceoff: Who's The World's Fastest Plug-In Hybrid?
We don't spend much time covering single-seat speed machines like the Veritas RSIII Roadster here on Green Car Reports. But the previously gasoline-centric performance car crowd is quickly coming around to the remarkable acceleration benefits of stored electricity. The latest example? Veritas is...
John Voelcker -
Audi Powers Onward With Clean-Diesel Lineup For U.S. Buyers
While Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz are the long-term diesel stalwarts in the States, relative newcomer Audi has ambitious plans. During a lengthy teleconference yesterday, Audi confirmed that it would add TDI clean-diesel models to every car it offers in the U.S. market by 2015. Audi has frequently...
John Voelcker -
2012 Renault Twizy: A Closer Look, And Do We Need It?
Is it a car? Is it a scooter? No: It's a Twizy, which could be considered a combination of the two. If you're following the world of electric cars with a keen eye then you'll no doubt be aware that French manufacturer Renault is taking electric vehicles quite seriously, just like its Japanese...
Antony Ingram -
It's not coming to the States--at least not for several years--but the Tata Pixel concept shown at last week's Geneva Motor Show is worth paying attention to. It shows how a more upscale four-seat urban car could be built on the underpinnings of the tiny Tata Nano, the world's cheapest new car. One clever feature: The 10-foot-long Pixel's scissor doors open up, rather than out, so they stay within the car's footprint without impinging on passing traffic, cyclists, or pedestrians. But there's another feature that's even cooler: 'Spin on the spot' parking, which lets the Pixel park in little...
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Up To 15 Mile Electric-Only Range For Honda Plug-In Hybrid, Debuts In Accord In 2012
Honda has been slow to the game when it comes to plug-in hybrids and electric cars but at the recent 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show the automaker proved that it was not completely in the dark in this area. On display at the show was a new version of its Fit compact car powered by an electric...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Fill Your Cart and Your Car: Supermarket Charges Electric Cars
In the past few years we’ve seen electric charge stations pop up everywhere from gas stations to electronics stores and banks. But now electric car owners in the Pacific Northwest have a new place to charge: the grocery store. Enter Fred Meyer Store. Based in Portland Oregon, the firm has...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
How Much Does a Tesla Model S Battery Pack Cost You? We do the Math
Yesterday Tesla Motors Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Ownership Experience George Blankenship wrote an update on the upcoming Model S electric sedan on the company blog. Alongside an update on the alpha testing of Tesla’s much anticipated seven seat sedan, Blankenship outlined the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2011 Chevy Cruze Eco Gas Mileage: We Get 34 MPG--Which Is Fine
With political uncertainty in oil-producing states, and the rising gas prices that brings, you can expect to see a lot more headlines saying "40 MPG!" We just did a quick overnight road test of a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco with the six-speed manual transmission, which the EPA rates at 28 mpg city and...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Ups Electric Car Production: Every Third Car a Leaf
It may be the first full scale, all-electric production car from a major automaker to be sold in the U.S. but Nissan hasn’t exactly been quick to get it into the hands of customers. That should change however with the announcement that the Japanese factory responsible for making the five-seat...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
The last we heard of the Fisker Karma was that the plug-in hybrid luxury sedan was still on track for delivery, either this month or in April, but with an increased starting price of $95,900, up from the original price of $80,000 announced back in 2008. While we’re not holding our breath for that to happen given the number of broken promises and delays already incurred, there are new reports claiming that the first Karma derivative (essentially a new bodystyle based on the same platform), could be unveiled as early as September’s 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. The information comes...
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Mia Electric: 2011 Geneva Motor Show, The Microbus Concept
If you read our guest post by actor, TV presenter and electric car convert Robert Llewellyn, you may have noticed his mention of a little electric microbus by the name of "Mia". Sitting in the middle of halls 4 and 5 with major manufacturers like Honda, Toyota, Renault and Ferrari in all...
Antony Ingram -
Social Networking for Your Electric Car? Crowd-Source a Plug
We all know cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf feature smart GPS systems capable of locating the nearest official electric car charging stations, but what happens when you combine the power of a social network with the need to plug your electric car in? Enter PlugShare, a new crowd-sourced way to find...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Silly Little Electric Cars Doing Damage To The Industry?
Tucked away in a little corner just off Hall 6 at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, something weird and frightening lurked. Hiding behind the shiny stands of Kia and Smart and sitting in what looked like a poorly-carpeted entrance foyer, a collection of electric motoring misfits vied for the attention of...
Antony Ingram -
Photo Gallery: Think City Assembly Plant Tour, Elkhart, Indiana
During the Detroit Auto Show in January, we visited the Think electric-car assembly plant in Elkhart, Indiana. It's not necessarily a place you'd expect to find electric cars being put together, but the rows of electric two-seat hatchbacks in blue, red, and black turned out to be surprisingly...
John Voelcker -
CA: Where Small Green Cars Matter & Why Detroit Has To Care
Detroit pride is back. Domestic brands are winning quality awards, and matching or beating import labels on consumer satisfaction indices. If you watch television, you've likely seen the spinoffs of the widely discussed, utterly illogical feel-good Chrysler 200 ad featuring Eminem with the...
John Voelcker -
To battery swap or fast-charge? That’s the question facing automakers worldwide as they decide on the best standard to adopt to charge the latest generation of electric cars. But just like the early days of video cassettes, a standard war is waging in which there can only be one winner. And despite the quicker, fully automated world of battery swapping the technology backed by Renault-Nissan and Better Place is facing an uphill struggle to become the accepted technology for charging electric car batteries for long distance trips. Theoretically Perfect in a Perfect World Just like the...
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Report: Smart ForTwo Electric Drive Available For Sale In 2012
The Smart brand has enjoyed modest success in the U.S. since its launch here back in 2007 but with a lack of any new models or updates, the oddly-designed minicar brand has fallen largely off the radar of late. Furthermore, even with all the hoopla surrounding electric vehicles at the moment...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
BREAKING: Nissan Leaf To Get Faster Charger 'In a Year Or So'
You just never know what you'll hear at conferences. You might, for instance, hear Nissan America's director of product planning, Mark Perry, casually mention that the Nissan Leaf electric car now permits Level II 240-Volt charging at 3.3 kilowatts--"and we'll raise that in a year or so." In other...
John Voelcker -
8 Reasons Why Gearheads Shouldn't Hate Electric Cars
Of all those that electric cars have to impress, the toughest crowd to crack has to be gearheads. Brought up on a diet of power, speed, noise and passion, it's tough to get into the clean, green and silent world of electric cars. And we should know - here at AllCarsElectric we aren't just electric...
Antony Ingram -
Do Businesses Need an Electric Vehicle Experience? GE Thinks So
Vehicle tours, the de facto way of getting a new electric car in front of the people most likely to buy it, are pretty much an accepted stage in any electric car rollout from a major automaker. So why is General Electric, a company which doesn’t even make an electric car embarking on its own...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2011 Geneva Motor Show Through A Convert's Eyes: Guest Post
by Robert Llewellyn I was only there for one day, and I'm still recovering; car shows are fairly energy sapping events. Everyone I met in Halle 7 said the same thing, "Oh, Geneva is the best one. It's not too big, you can get around and see everything." Remind me never to go to the really big ones...
John Voelcker