Green

A week before the New York Auto Show begins its media previews, Lexus has released more details on its CT 200h premium compact hybrid, which it says will go on sale in the U.S. in early 2011. Widespread reports (which we joined, unfortunately) had previously quoted a spokesman as saying Lexus had...

Mazda's always had cool technology. They're the only carmaker that's steadily developed the compact, high-output Wankel rotary engine, for instance. And they're known for powerful, high-revving piston engines and slick-shifting gearboxes. Then there's the green side of the brand, which already...

Much mystery surrounded the electric versions of the Fiat 500 that have appeared at auto shows over the last year. Now, Chrysler has cleared up a bit of the confusion: It will build an electric Fiat 500 for the U.S. market, with a powertrain developed by engineers at its Michigan headquarters, at a...

On Friday, Aptera held its first online Town Hall Meeting--a chat among eager followers and some of the Aptera marketing team. Their intent, according to the opening spiel,  was to "reduce some of the mystery around the company and open our supporters and depositors up to some of the great things...

We thought we should provide a short update on two highly publicized so-called "runaway Toyota Prius" cases, one in San Diego and one in Harrison, New York. The reputed phenomenon of "sudden acceleration" has been debated at least since a 1986 controversy around the Audi 5000 model. But the two...

Our reader Javier M writes: I'm 99 percent convinced I want a Prius. However, there is one question: Does the "Prius V Model" come with a regular sunroof standard (within the $28,875 price)? I want to purchase the "basic" Prius V, but I do not wish to get any major upgrades (no navigation, etc)...

It's not a particularly new story, these days, but hey, it's also Friday. So we thought we'd revisit one of the more unusual attempts at green cars we've seen. This morning, a friend sent us an e-mail with photos of two taxis commissioned by the Philippine town of Tabontabon, in the province of...

Nissan has upped the ante on its bid to become the world's leading electric-car maker, by announcing a third global factory for production of their 2011 Leaf electric car. The small northern U.K. city of Sunderland will become the third site across three continents to be tooled up to build the...

We're now well and truly on the road to plug-in vehicle nirvana, with the 2011 Nissan Leaf, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, and various other plug-in and electric vehicles due to hit the market within the next couple of years. But there now seem to be hundreds of car companies, enthusiastic business...

Last summer, lots of people thought it was a joke when famed British sports car maker Aston Martin said it would offer coachbuilt versions of Toyota's tiny iQ minicar, in the guise of the greenest Aston ever, the Cygnet. (A cygnet is a baby swan, by the way.) Well, it wasn't a joke. And now Aston...

As we've noted before, so-called sudden acceleration is a confusing, messy, and very uncertain subject. Now a certain San Diego citizen seems to be caught in the cross-hairs of media scrutiny over what is and isn't technically possible in a Toyota Prius--let alone smart to do--if the driver claims...

At December's Los Angeles Auto Show, Hyundai made a big splash by saying it would no longer offer V-6 engines in its Sonata midsize car or its Tucson compact crossover. Instead, it replaced them with higher-performance, more fuel-efficient four-cylinder motors. But Hyundai's just one of many makers...

The nice thing about buying advanced-technology cars is that many of them, at one point or another, come with financial incentives meant to encourage fuel efficiency. Even if the car in question is a 2010 Tesla Roadster, the $109,000 two-seat all-electric convertible that blasts from 0 to 60 mph in...

While the auto industry in general offers an average incentive of more than $1,000 off the sticker price of any new vehicle, many buyers somehow assume this doesn't apply to hybrids. Oh, but it does. You can get money off pretty much any hybrid out there at the moment, since gasoline prices are far...

Unlike some of its Toyota brethren, the 2010 Prius hybrid was never pulled off sale due to recalls. But U.S. sales fell 6.1% in February anyway, against the previous month, though they rose versus February 2009, when the new 2010 model hadn't yet hit dealers. Currently, the 2010 Prius is the...

The 2010 Geneva Motor Show is over, but we realized that we missed out on covering one significant vehicle: Hyundai's i-flow diesel hybrid concept. While the first gasoline hybrid was the 1997 Toyota Prius, only this year will French maker Peugeot introduce the world's first production hybrid with...

We're eagerly waiting to get our hands on a 2011 Honda CR-Z for a test drive. The two-seat coupe, Honda's latest dedicated hybrid, is the spiritual successor to the 1983-1991 Honda Civic CRX, and we're devoutly hoping it's as fun to drive as its predecessor. The performance numbers aren't...

If you drive a small car or, heaven forfend, a hybrid or a clean-diesel, you may have heard the jokes. And the jibes. "Hey, Mister, how many rubber bands that thing have?" And so on. But we've got a foolproof way for you to grin all the way past the gas pumps. Suppose your fuel-efficient green car...

Recent spy shots posted by our sister site Motor Authority show that despite delays, General Motors is continuing to develop the plug-in version of its Two-Mode Hybrid system. While the system is being tested in a discontinued Saturn Vue crossover, it now seems likely to appear in a version of...

Owners of Toyota's iconic Prius hybrid model who thought they'd escaped the rash of Toyota recalls need to think again. The company is working on a fix to reshape accelerator pedals so that they cannot be trapped by floor mats, and will issue details within weeks. The upcoming recall took center...