Hybrids

This must be Fiat 500 News Week. How else to explain the drumbeat of announcements, from its innovative TwinAir engine to a special U.S. model offered only to current Fiat owners? Today's item: The company will develop a mild hybrid version of its 500 minicar, fitted to the 0.9-liter TwinAir...

[UPDATE: Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes says the original report via Bloomberg that Tesla would develop two separate electric models for Toyota was erroneous, and may have been further confused later by the fact that Tesla had developed two prototype RAV4 vehicles.] ++++++ UPDATE: Citing Japanese...

Auto industry analysts get paid to issue reports, and most of them are vastly better at data analysis and number crunching than we'll ever be. That doesn't mean, however, that sometimes their data isn't misleading. It's important to keep context in mind, and not miss the forest for the trees...

We’ve already been treated to an all-electric version of the MINI in the form of the MINI E experimental vehicle, which from our initial drive we determined is far from ready for production, but a hybrid variant could be a much more viable option for the immediate future. BMW appears to have the...

You may remember that in California, 85,000 lucky owners of three hybrid vehicles were granted special stickers giving them access to High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes, even with only a single occupant in the car. Well, their luck runs out on December 31, the last day those stickers are valid. While...

Nissan (and its Infiniti luxury division) may have been late to the table when it comes to hybrids but the Japanese automaker is boasting that its new generation of gasoline-electric vehicles will smash the competition out of the water. Nissan claims that its first vehicle fitted with its own...

Nissan has showed us the future of the automobile with its advanced Leaf all-electric vehicle but that doesn’t mean it’s game over for the internal combustion engine. Gasoline and diesel powered cars can live on, well into the future in fact, thanks to new fuel-saving technologies that Nissan...

Hybrid vehicles have been alternately portrayed as the saviours of modern transportation or the last gasp of the dying oil-based economy. Either way, Toyota has capitalized on their popularity with its world-beating Prius, even managing to sell more than 2.5 million hybrids worldwide--and at a...

Hybrid technology's responsible for those airy fuel economy numbers from the likes of the Honda Civic Hybrid and the Toyota Prius, but the 40-mpg barrier's about to be broken by a pair of compact cars--without any batteries or hybrid add-ons whatsoever. Earlier this year, we showed you the 2012...

If you're shopping for a hybrid vehicle, time is drawing to a close to take advantage of the Federal government's hybrid tax credits. But before those credits expire at the end of 2010, there's one new hybrid you'll want to add to your shopping list: the upcoming 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. It's...

We already know that many Toyota Prius owners have a very special bond with their cars. It’s this connection with the Prius that many rival automakers would love to emulate but are struggling to do so. Mention the word “hybrid” and the first vehicle almost everyone will think of is...

Imagine if your car could talk. What would it say about you? While for the immediate future, this is largely an impossibility, one aspiring actress based on the “West Side” has envisaged just what it could be like if cars were able to talk. Alyssa Price, the proud owner of a Toyota Prius and...

The 2011 Nissan Leaf electric vehicle is set to go on sale this December and order books for the car are filling up fast, with the first year’s allotment already gone. Infiniti, too, will get its own version of the Leaf as well as a new hybrid version of the M sedan, previewed by the 2012...

Lotus Engineering, the British sports car company’s automotive consultancy division, together with parts supplier Fagor Ederlan has announced today that it plans to develop its compact three-cylinder range extender engine for production. Lotus will be handling the engineering side...

The sporty hybrid coupe will hit dealerships later this summer.

What do you get when you take some of the inspiration of Honda’s much-loved CRX two-seater from the 1980s and cross it with the also-much-loved Insight coupe from the past decade, then give it the latest version of Honda’s hybrid system? Honda says you get the 2011 Honda CR-Z...

The grant works through the Department of Energy to help expand EV use.

Ford is at the forefront of the alternative power push, having been one of the first on the market with a hybrid vehicle and now less than a year away from launching its first all-electric model. However, we are still at the start of the alternative power revolution but in as little as a decade we...

Mercedes-Benz offers a clean-diesel Bluetec version of each of its large utility vehicles, the R-Class, GL-Class, and M-Class, along with a Hybrid version of the ML. But even combined, the standard gasoline versions of these vehicles are still far ou

With the impending death of the Mercury Milan Hybrid, there's just one luxury sedan that gets the EPA's top fuel economy ranking for the 2011 model year--and that would be the Milan's surviving sister, the 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. While it waits patiently for an on-sale date this fall, the MKZ...