Hybrids
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It's not just Toyota that sells multiple models of hybrid cars now. German luxury brands are getting in on the act too. BMW announced today that it was forming a joint venture with France's Peugeot-Citroen to design and build hybrid-electric powertrains. The new enterprise is an expansion of the two companies' cooperation on small four-cylinder engines, which began in 2006. The 1.6-liter engines in BMW's Mini Cooper lineup were the first joint effort, and now the new hybrid hardware is expected to appear in front-wheel-drive vehicles from BMW under both the Mini brand and its own nameplate...
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Chicago Auto Show Preview: 2012 Buick Regal With eAssist Option
Buick plans to add its eAssist mild-hybrid system to the 2012 Regal sedan as an option, making the Regal its second model to offer the mileage-increasing system. According to trade publication Ward's Auto, Buick will introduce the option at the Chicago Auto Show next week. Last November, General...
John Voelcker -
Technical Details Revealed: 2012 Audi Q5 Hybrid Crossover
Sometimes you just never know where you'll dredge up technical details on vehicles that carmakers haven't yet launched. Technology conferences can be a good source. Take, for instance, the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference (AABC) held last week in Pasadena, California. A battery systems...
John Voelcker -
Will Toyota Cut Prius Prices To Keep Hybrid Sales High?
Hybrid sales in the U.S. have flattened over the last couple of years, but they're going great guns in Japan. Now, an analyst suggests that the great popularity of the Prius in its home market may lead Toyota to cut the price there to keep its sales high. The Toyota Prius has been the best-selling...
John Voelcker -
How Chrysler's Hydraulic Hybrid Works: Energy From Pressure
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...
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 -
Later this year Mitsubishi’s battery-powered i-MiEV will finally go on sale in the U.S., having already gone on sale in Europe and Japan and making an appearence at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show last November. However, it’s hard to get excited over Mitsubishi’s zero-emission minicar with the likes of the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt already in showrooms, but new information revealed by Mitsubishi is sure to get any green car fan’s heart pumping. As part of its “Jump 2013” mid-term business plan, Mitsubishi has confirmed that it will launch eight new...
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World's Fastest (Or 2nd-Fastest?) Hybrid: Porsche 918 RSR
Possibly the most rapturously received vehicle at last week's Detroit Auto Show was the Porsche 918 RSR coupe, a hybrid race car that isn't even street-legal. And it's about as far from the quintessential Toyota Prius hybrid as you could get. It doesn't use a battery pack at all, in fact, but the...
John Voelcker -
Sergio Marchionne: Hybrid Minivan Will Join Chrysler 300 Hybrid In 2013
Earlier this week we heard from Sergio Marchionne, the demanding CEO of Fiat-Chrysler, that a hybrid version of the new 2011 Chrysler 300 sedan would arrive sometime in 2013. Now, at Chrysler’s Windsor plant in Canada, Marchionne has revealed that the hybrid 300 will be joined in 2013 by a...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Now We Know: This Will Be The New 2012 Ford Escape Hybrid
Ford was clearly one of the stars of last week's Detroit Auto Show, launching green vehicles and concepts across a wide range of fuel-saving technologies. The company unveiled just a single concept, the Vertrek crossover, but it's an important one. The production version of the Vertrek will be the...
John Voelcker -
Hybrids Redux: Chrysler 300 Hybrid Sedan To Launch In 2013
Chrysler's got bigger problems right now than whether or not it builds hybrid cars. After quickly spiffing up of its line of aging, unappealing cars and crossovers for 2011, the company's engineers are deep into designing modern, fuel efficient compact and midsize Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Prius Plug-In: Can It Measure Up To Chevrolet, Ford And Nissan’s Offerings?
Last week, I wrote about how Ford and GM have staged comebacks that hinged in part on the carmakers’ embracing of new electronics, launching greener cars with smartphone apps and wireless and voice-command capabilities. Toyota will soon be joining the crowd by offering all of the above...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
Audi loves clean diesels, but the German automaker certainly hasn't stacked its entire deck with them. In addition to the upcoming 2012 Audi Q5 Hybrid and the brand's e-Tron electric sports cars in the pipeline, it's now taking hybrids and electric cars seriously, too. And one of Audi's best options for green-conscious U.S. luxury shoppers might end up being the 2012 A6 Hybrid. The front-wheel-drive, not quattro, sedan will combine the brand's ubiquitous—but efficient and responsive—direct-injected and turbocharged 2.0-liter TFSI four-cylinder engine with a strong electric motor...
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2011 Detroit Auto Show: Toyota Prius C Compact Hybrid Concept
As part of the family of four Toyota Prius hybrids that the carmaker unveiled at the today's Detroit Auto Show, it showed a concept for a new, compact Prius hatchback. Low, edgy, and relatively sleek for a highly aerodynamic Kamm-tailed car, the Prius C concept is actually Toyota's second concept...
John Voelcker -
2011 Detroit Auto Show: 2012 Toyota Prius V, Photo Gallery
Auto show press conferences sometimes resemble mosh pits, but savvy photographers know how to get the best angles while protecting vulnerable body parts. Photographer Joe Nuxoll got most of these shots from the event where Toyota launched its 2012 Prius V multi-purpose vehicle (or, for those of us...
John Voelcker -
2011 Detroit Auto Show: 2012 Toyota Prius V, Wagon / Minivan
At 50 miles per gallon, the 2011 Toyota Prius five-door hatchback is the most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S. But, says Toyota, its customers told the company they needed more room--for people, for stuff, for stretching out. So the quintessential Prius hybrid is becoming not just a vehicle but...
John Voelcker -
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Ford C-Max Hybrid & Energi Plug-In Concepts
While Toyota dominates global hybrid production, Ford was the first company to launch a hybrid SUV: the Ford Escape Hybrid, in 2004. Now, Ford is pioneering another hybrid model: the small minivan, or as Europeans call it, the people carrier. Hybrid mini-minivan Between 10 and 10:30 am today at the...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Prius Ad We'll Never See: Animals Worse Than Hybrids
Some of the first emissions regulations in the world came about because of the way the Los Angeles Basin is shaped. Reports of smog in southern California started with the Conquistadors, and by the Sixties, LA was notorious for its foul air. California began regulating auto emissions before the...
John Voelcker -
Recently, we wrote about the move in the private sector to use electric and hybrid delivery trucks. Companies like FedEx and Frito Lay are tapping into benefits of greener cars — even ahead of the broader consumer market because they’re a hedge against volatile diesel prices and can pay returns more quickly. That’s the market that Austin, Tex.-based startup ActaCell is jumping on, citing market drivers like EPA regulators cracking down on emissions requirements and the difficulty of predicting the price of diesel. The company makes high-power lithium-ion batteries for use in...
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Most Popular Posts of 2010: Mazda2, Prius Crashes, Leaf, Volt, and Other EVs
We love looking back to see what's been popular over the course of a full year. And 2010 was definitely chock-full of green car news. Our 10 most popular posts this year are a little less random than last year's most popular, which featured Muslims and ethanol, urine, hybrid Ferraris, and our...
John Voelcker -
2011 Detroit Auto Show Preview: 2012 BYD e6 Electric Crossover, Plug-In Hybrid Sedans
Now that the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevy Volt have reached showrooms--a handful of them, anyhow--a new crop of electric vehicles will launch into the market for 2011. One of those may be the e6 all-electric crossover built by Chinese manufacturer BYD. Famed financier Warren Buffet was so...
John Voelcker -
Chevy's Got the Volt; Will Cadillac Be GM's Hybrid Leader?
Among car buyers, none of the four surviving General Motors brands are really associated with hybrid vehicles. Now that customer deliveries have started for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car, GM's other brands will need some green cred too. What's the future of GM's Two-Mode...
John Voelcker -
Lotus Minicar Confirmed For 2013 Launch
With the handful of new production intent concept cars Lotus showed off at the recent 2010 Paris Auto Show, it’s evident the automaker, typically focused with lightweight sports cars, is trying new things. What’s interesting to see is that Lotus is expanding towards both ends of the new...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Ding-Ding-Ding! Electric Cars Likely To Be Made Noisier By Law
In one particularly hilarious scene in the TV show Weeds, Mary-Louise Parker’s soccer mom/drug dealer character inspires a scary drug lord to buy several Toyota Priuses after he successfully carries out a drive-by shooting while riding in hers. The selling point? The quietness of the hybrid...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat