Green

Sales of the Smart ForTwo minicar plummeted after gasoline came back down from $4 a gallon, but Toyota's Scion brand is readying its own minicar for sale in the U.S. The latest word is that the 2011 Scion iQ will land at dealers in March. The Scion iQ was first unveiled as a concept car at the 2009...

Automakers often do comparison ads showing how their features or specs are better than their competitors', but they don't generally trash other makers' designs in public. Like so many conventions, this one doesn't seem to apply to Elon Musk, CEO of venture-funded startup Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA]...

Hyundai is on a roll in general, and last week we published the first 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid drive report, by our colleague Marty Padgett. This very important model is the carmaker's first-ever hybrid to be sold in the U.S., but far from the last.  In 2012, Hyundai plans an upcoming dedicated...

It's Friday, the day when we round up the random items we've received all week and decide what to do with them. This one, we decided, deserves a reader poll. What do you think, was this innocent grey second-generation Toyota Prius keyed by someone who hates the fuel efficiency and green image of...

For the Friday files, some cool new technology: How about a car that plugs in, but doesn't use that electricity to power the car? Nope, we're not talking about battery electric cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf. Or range-extended EVs like the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. Or even conventional hybrids adapted...

Last October, Simon Hackett and Emilis Prelgauskas set a new distance record for a production battery-powered vehicle: a hugely impressive 313 miles in a 2008 Tesla Roadster. That's around 70 miles more than the EPA's rated range for the world's best -known EV. Unfortunately for them, not even a...

We’ve seen fuel derived from garbage before, and even a race car that ran on chocolate, but now we have an even wilder concept: a Volkswagen Beetle running on methane gas derived from human waste. Yes, you read that correctly. The modified Volkswagen Beetle, or Bio-Bug, was developed as a...

What exactly is needed for electric cars to become mainstream?  It's a question the auto industry has been asking time and time again over the past few years. Over time, the answer has changed. While electric car owners will likely tell you that the only thing they really need in order to live...

The 2011 Ford Escape Hybrid will likely be the last year for Ford's original hybrid vehicle, launched way back in October 2004. At the end of July, Ford had sold 98,500 Escape Hybrids, more than half its total sales of 139,700 hybrids of all types. But all good things must come to an end. For 2012...

As predicted, Tesla Motors posted higher losses for the second quarter during its earnings announcement today — its first as a public company. The electric vehicle maker says it brought in $28.4 million revenue, but lost $38.5 million ($5.04 a share), up from the $29.5 million lost last quarter...

We wrote about the 2011 Coda Sedan and Coda's EV cost calculator not too long ago, and described the cars as a "Chinese-built sedan" with a battery pack "containing Chinese-made lithium-ion cells." The Coda, we said would be "the first Chinese-manufactured passenger car sold in the U.S. when it...

We've been watching it roll closer for years, and now it's all but here: A new era of electric cars. Just three or four months from now, the first highway-capable electric vehicles sold in volume by global automakers will appear in showrooms in California and other regions. By the end of 2011...

Think of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and very little seems conventional about it. With a range of 40 miles per charge and a range-extending gasoline engine used to provide extra power when the battery pack is depleted, Chevrolet is keen to push the car’s green credentials. Built at the Hamtramck...

With the demise of Saturn, GM was left with only one model featuring its mild hybrid system, the 2009 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid sedan, but sadly even that green vehicle was dropped from the automaker’s lineup this year. GM is planning to bring back its mild hybrid models, however, and according to...

Well, business sense, that is.

Last week GM announced pricing for its upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt, revealing that its range-extended electric vehicle will have a MSRP of $41,000. This came as quite a shock to many considering that the similarly advanced Nissan Leaf all-electric vehicle will have a starting MSRP of just $32,780...

Come November, California voters could have a major impact on the state’s environment. The ballot will include Proposition 23, a measure that would suspend the Global Warming Solutions Act that passed in 2006 (otherwise known as Assembly Bill 32), which called for reductions in greenhouse gas...

Not a lot of buyers end up choosing between a Toyota Prius hybrid and a Cadillac Escalade full-size sport-utility vehicle for their new car. Now, in addition to its top-of-the-charts gas mileage--50 mpg on the EPA combined cycle--there's another reason to opt for the Prius: Its earlier models have...

We are mostly humble peasants here at Green Car Reports. We just try to report on green cars fairly, with an occasional bit of acerbity tossed in for flavor. Once in a while, we post a story that hits a chord, including our discussion of why the 2011 Chevrolet Volt may not get either an EV purchase...

The flurry of activity in hybrid and electric supercars has led to several concepts being approved for production, but BMW still hasn't publicly committed to a date for its high-tech green performance car. Mercedes-Benz has its SLS AMG E-Cell; Audi has the E-Tron; even Porsche gave the green light...