Green

We asked last year if the new GM would be a cleantech play. It’s looking more and more like that’s the case. Yesterday, the company announced it would be rolling out a hybrid technology system called eAssist in the Buick Regal 2012 that will boost fuel economy by 25 percent. The system...

It's long been known that purchase rebates--buy a car, get a check--are a more effective incentive for purchase of any kind of car than an income-tax credit, which may take a year or more to affect the buyer's cash position. But the current tax credits for purchase of plug-in cars, up to $7,500 for...

Writing about green cars can be a challenge. On the one hand, this site attracts many new-car buyers who want to learn more about more fuel-efficient alternatives to what they're driving now. Consider the Ford Explorer driver who bought a Honda Fit because it was really all he needed. But on the...

Anyone who's stored a car in a rural area has heard stories of the chaos wreaked by nesting squirrels. Engine compartments stuffed with leaves, twigs, nuts, and even entire furry families can cause overheating and sometimes fires. But now a new peril has come to light against which electric-car...

Electric car development is quickly proving to be a worldwide effort, with companies and research institutes from across the globe and in varying industries and fields forming partnerships and alliances in order to accelerate the roll out of zero-emission electric cars. The latest is BMW and its...

The rumors started last week, and they were largely true: Buick plans to offer a model of its Regal compact sports sedan with the eAssist mild-hybrid system. What we didn't have were the projected EPA mileage ratings (based on GM's internal tests). The company expects the 2012 Buick Regal with...

Like many customers in the U.S., our own Marty Padgett got to reserve his 2011 Nissan LEAF in April last year. And now, like so many of the expectant 20,000 who have signed up for a place in the queue to buy NIssan’s first mass-produced electric car, he’s been saddled with an...

The word "propaganda" can mean many things to many people. Today, we're using it in the sense of "a form of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community," as Wikipedia neatly puts it. The busy public-relations team at General Motors is now putting out roughly a video every week on...

Think "hybrid" and what comes to mind? Small or midsize, sometimes odd-driving Toyotas? There's now actually a raft of low-volume hybrid luxury and sports sedans from such makers as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus, and now Infiniti. The 2012 Infiniti M35h Hybrid was officially unveiled at last fall's...

A few months ago we asked the question, what exactly do you have to service on a 2011 Nissan LEAF? After all, the LEAF doesn't even contain many of the items that require regular attention on a regular car, such as oil changes, spark plugs, filters, transmission fluid and muffler parts. Brakes...

We got our first hints that Tesla was planning several new models after the Model S electric sedan following the release of some official slides in the company’s IPO presentation last June. Soon after Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that one of these new models, an electric SUV dubbed the Model...

During the first half of 2010, nearly 13,000 U.S. taxpayers wrongly claimed a staggering $33 million under the electric tax credit incentive scheme, a Treasury Department inspector general report has revealed. The credits, designed to encourage the uptake of plug-in hybrid and electric-only...

We've all heard the stories about people who hang onto their cars for decades. Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 is one; he's got more than 2.6 million miles on it now, after buying it new for $4,150. Then there's Rachel Veitch, who at 91 has logged 562,000 miles--and had no fewer than 18 batteries and...

As electric cars start to trickle into the market and public charging infrastructure grows, their drivers will need to know the best times to charge, the best places to charge on longer journeys, and the exact amount they will pay for the electricity they use. That will require automakers, utility...

If you’re in the market for an electric car one of the biggest decisions to make after you’ve decided to buy a plug-in vehicle is which one to choose. For one family in California, however the choice was far easier: Get one of each. And with good reason. Ten years ago marketing...

The practice of home-building electric vehicles is not uncommon amongst hardcore EV enthusiasts. Our own Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield has converted her own EVs before, and several members on the website Ecomodder have done the same, often using the economy driver's favourite, the Geo Metro, as a...

Of all the electric vehicles planned by major automakers, few are more eagerly awaited than the BMW MegaCity 'i' all-electric urban car, expected to go into production late in 2013 or early in 2014. It's a BMW, which means it will be sporty and handle well. It's likely to be the smallest BMW since...

If you’re like us and find yourself flying too much you probably feel pretty guilty about that gas-guzzling rental car you have to use at your destination. But thanks to Enterprise Rent-a-Car, another option is now available to customers in Ontario, California: the 2011 Chevrolet Volt...

Although EPA gas-mileage ratings may or may not be achievable in real-world driving conditions, they're a good relative benchmark. They're also a very public encouragement to carmakers to make more fuel-efficient cars. Hyundai, whose new 2011 Elantra compact model is rated at 40 mpg highway for all...

There’s something terribly fickle about the bright lights and flashy sets of the TV talk-show genre. But while Jay Leno’s chat show on NBC may have failed to receive positive viewing figures the bright orange 2009 Ford Focus electric prototype used in the show has just found a new home...