Green
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This coming Saturday, January 29, Mercedez-Benz will be celebrating its 125th birthday. One-hundred-and-twenty-five years after Carl Benz received the first patent for his Motorwagen, the German automaker will open its latest exhibition: New Start-The Road to Emission-Free Mobility. Sadly, however, some of Mercedes-Benz’s best electric offerings are missing. From January 30, visitors to the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart will be able to view a selection of Mercedes’ alternative fuel models, ranging from its early fuel cell car to its as yet unavailable Diesel-engined 2012 SLK...
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Chelsea Sexton Slams Bias On Both Sides Over Electric-Car Range (Guest Post)
by Chelsea Sexton Slanted, anti-EV reporting is hardly a new thing, and I suspect we're in for a lot more of it in 2011 as plug-in vehicles hit showrooms. But the recent BBC "Mini Adventure," a 484-mile journey from London to Edinburgh in a Mini E, has caught fire like nothing I've seen in a while...
John Voelcker -
Congressmen Propose Lifting Number Of Vehicles Eligible For EV Tax Credits
Hot on the heels of President Barack Obama’s pledge of support for expanding U.S. production and sales of plug-in electric cars in his State of the Union address earlier this week, comes more support for the zero emission vehicles from a pair of Michigan Democrats. Brothers Rep. Sander M...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Volvo V60 Plug-In Hybrid Wagon Coming At Geneva Motor Show
While working energetically on its C30 DRIVe Electric battery-electric vehicle, Swedish carmaker Volvo has also been developing green powertrains for its larger vehicles for several years. Now, it's ready to unveil the first of these, a plug-in hybrid version of its V60 station wagon, a model not...
John Voelcker -
Smart Makes It Three: First Smart Electric Drive Delivered
And the entry of electric cars into the U.S. market continues apace. The first 2011 Nissan Leaf was delivered in San Francisco on December 12, and the first 2011 Chevy Volt came three days later in New Jersey. Now, Smart has delivered the first example of its own electric car, the 2011 Smart ForTwo...
John Voelcker -
2011 Nissan Leaf Laurels: Euro Car of the Year, U.S. Cell Plant Underway
Initial deliveries of the 2011 Nissan Leaf battery electric car have been fitful, compared to hundreds of Chevy Volts sold each week. But Nissan's first modern mass-produced battery electric car continues to rack up accomplishments (and the company says it will be at full production by March)...
John Voelcker -
As we've discovered, some car dealers are less than enthusiastic about the prospect of selling and servicing electric cars. Luckily, others are more game. Either way, what can you expect from your local electric car dealership when you take your shiny new EV in for a service? Training You'd be hoping for highly trained technicians, and according to megadealer Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation Inc, that's what you'll get. He can't wait to start servicing EVs. "Fixing these vehicles will require special training and special tools, and dealerships excel at that". Only the cream of the crop will...
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Why Custom Rims Won’t Go Down With Your Electric Ride
Customization has been a part of car ownership ever since Henry Ford told customers they could have any color “as long as it’s black.” But while lightning bolt graphics and a kick-ass sound system may be part of your electric car dream, a new set of pimped out shoes could put your...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Obama Sticks With 1 Million Plug-Ins by 2015, Cuts Oil Sweetheart Deals
His party may be under increasing pressure from the Tea Party movement as it fights conservative attempts to stifle everything from healthcare reform to government spending, but President Obama is still keen to push the electric car revolution. Speaking at last night’s State of the Union...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Obama Doubles Down on Plug-In Cars, More Policy Tweaks Coming
Last night, in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama reiterated his support for expanding U.S. production and sales of plug-in cars that run on grid power. Today, according to the Detroit News, a slew of policy changes will be unveiled by Vice President Joe Biden to advance that...
John Voelcker -
Electric Car Espionage: Now With Secret Swiss Bank Account
Every good spy film has a smattering of illicit love, sexy cars and covert operations. Suspending disbelief, such films make for good entertainment. But for one former Renault employee the real world has taken a turn towards the covert world of James Bond or 24 with accusations that he had an...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Volkswagen Says It Will Build 2-Seat, 260-MPG Plug-In Hybrid
What's good gas mileage? 30 mpg? 40 mpg? The 50-mpg combined rating of the 2011 Toyota Prius, the most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S. this year? Nah. How about 261 miles per gallon? Or, for the Europeans in the house, a mere 24 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. You heard right. The...
John Voelcker -
If you’re one of the many thousands of would-be Nissan LEAF customers that have had their orders delayed due to a surprising lack of cars then you’ll be pleased to hear that Nissan has a plan to remedy the backlog. So far, around 3,000 LEAFs have been built at Nissan’s Oppama factory. Until additional production lines in Smyrna, Tennessee and Sunderland, U.K. are brought on line, this single factory will continue to be responsible for matching global demand for the all-electric family hatchback. So how will Nissan bring production up to speed in order to satisfy the...
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California, EPA, DoT Make Nice On Timing Of Higher MPG Rules
Three government agencies agree to "coordinate" their actions and announce "a single timeframe" for proposing new rules. This signals "continued collaboration" among the trio. Yawn. But actually, this is a bigger deal than you might think. In the 10 months since President Barack Obama announced a...
John Voelcker -
LED Headlights Give Your Electric Car An Extra Six Miles
Your electric car can go six miles further on its battery if you use LED headlights. That’s the conclusion drawn by an automotive engineer with Osram Sylvania, according to Autoblog Green. Electric and electric-hybrid car ranges are impacted by external factors like temperature, whether...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
Best Buy Adds Onstar, Electric-Car Chargers; Are Cars Next?
If you haven't been keeping an eye on Best Buy, you may have been stunned by their recent announcements at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). First, on January 6, Best Buy announced that it will offer General Motors' OnStar system (conveniently packaged within a rear-view...
Jason Hendler -
Rent A Tesla For $25/Hour, Just Plan Your Charging Carefully
The all-electric Tesla Roadster is probably the world's best advertisement for electric cars. While crude, cramped, and expensive, its 0-to-60-mph time of 3.9 seconds will make a convert out of any electric skeptic. But thus far, Tesla Motors has built only 1,500 Roadsters, and the car was always...
John Voelcker -
Mazda2 Electric Car Leasing Starts In Japan
We first heard about Mazda’s plans to develop a battery-powered electric version of its Mazda2 hatchback back in 2009, with the automaker finally starting real-world trials of prototypes last year. Now Mazda has announced that its electric Mazda2 (a Demio in Japan) is scheduled to commence...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Chrysler has come out of hibernation with a bang, as far as green and more fuel-efficient vehicles are concerned. The company announced Wednesday that it would partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to build and test prototypes of a different kind of hybrid vehicle, one that accumulates energy not in a battery pack but by compressing a gas hydraulically. CEO Sergio Marchionne joined U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson for the announcement, made at EPA laboratories in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They spoke in front of a silver 2011 Chrysler Town & Country minivan, representing one...
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Electric-Car Startup Coda Announces New CEO, Phil Murtaugh
Coda Automotive, the electric-car startup that last fall delayed the launch of its all-electric Sedan, announced this afternoon that it had hired Phil Murtaugh as its new CEO. It also revealed that it plans to launch its Coda Sedan electric car into the domestic Chinese market once the car has been...
John Voelcker -
Electric Cars And Safety: Crashing For Your Reassurance
Range is one of those recurring talking points with electric cars, used by EV critics whenever they want a cheap shot. Keen to make sure safety doesn't become another, the manufacturers are fighting back by proving their electric cars can be just as safe as their gasoline counterparts. Mitsubishi...
Antony Ingram -
2011 Scion iQ Minicar Sales Delayed Until This Summer
If you're eagerly waiting for the first 2011 Scion iQ minicar to show up at your dealer, sit down and have a nice cup of tea. You're going to have wait a bit longer. Scion's parent, Toyota, is delaying the U.S. launch of the iQ, originally scheduled to happen by March of this year, to sometime this...
John Voelcker -
Hybrid Race? Yep, Lexus CT 200h Laps Before Aussie Grand Prix
The littlest Lexus, the 2011 CT 200h five-door hybrid hatchback, will start showing up at U.S. dealers over the next couple of months. It's clearly a different kind of Lexus--the perplexing "Darker Side of Green" ad campaign and its associated video proved that--but Lexus is using the new car to...
John Voelcker -
Photo Gallery: 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport, Ohm-My-God Sports Car
Driving a Tesla Roadster is an unforgettable experience. To be fair, perhaps driving any car with acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds is unforgettable. But the fact that all the Tesla's torque comes from 6,831 lithium-ion laptop cells powering an electric motor--and the relative...
John Voelcker