Green Car News
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Pull up to an occupied gas pump, and chances are you'll have to wait five minutes max for the car in front to vacate the spot. Arrive at an occupied electric car charging space and you may be in for quite some wait--and debate on who should get priority at EV charging spots is beginning to escalate. PluginCars has come up with a rather handy list of the eight rules of electric vehicle charging etiquette, some more pertinent than others to the frustrating issue of being blocked out of a space. It's all sensible stuff--move your car if you're done charging, leaving notes to ask another owner to...
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2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Unveiled: 240 HP, Higher Fuel Economy
Chrysler-Fiat took the wraps off its long-anticipated 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel, the first light-duty pickup truck to be offered with a diesel engine in many years. The new diesel pickup uses the same 3.0-liter turbodiesel V-6 already fitted to the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel utility vehicle...
John Voelcker -
Will 100,000 Sign Petition For Tesla Motors Sales By Friday?
On June 5, a Tesla Motors fan mounted what seemed like another quixotic effort to support Tesla in selling its electric cars directly to buyers. The petition at WhiteHouse.gov that he or she launched required 100,000 people to sign it within a month, by Friday, July 5. Suddenly, it seems that...
John Voelcker -
Volkswagen To Produce Beach Buggy Based On Up Minicar?
Wind back the clock to September 2011, and one car in particular was making headlines at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show: The Volkswagen Up. VW devoted a huge area of its stand to the simple, fuel-efficient minicar, as well as the range of Up-based concept vehicles it was launched alongside. One of...
Antony Ingram -
LA Metro Chooses Electric Buses From Chinese Company BYD
You might think that the 25 electric buses to be purchased by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority would be roundly applauded. That's not necessarily the case. LA Metro announced yesterday afternoon that it would spend $30 million to buy up to 25 of the battery-electric buses made...
John Voelcker -
Spanish Town To Run Cars On Biofuel From Human Poop...
Humans are a lot like cars. No, seriously--in order to make us work, we need fuel. That fuel is our food, which we metabolize in order to function, and anything not required by the body we produce as waste. Sounds familiar, right? Conveniently, that waste can then also be used to fuel our cars...
Antony Ingram -
It just may be the most minimal safety recall in history. General Motors said yesterday it would recall precisely four 2012 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric cars to fix a potential problem with a brake component that could have safety implications. As reported in The Detroit News, the company identified a defective brake-pressure modulator valve after investigating a failed part returned under warranty for a Volt exported to another country. The failure of that modulator could lead the electronic stability control system not to function properly under emergency braking, compromising the...
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Jaguar C-X75 Hybrid Supercar Video: "Veyron Performance, Prius Emissions"
Not to be outdone by Ferrari, Porsche and McLaren, Jaguar and the Williams F1 team spent the last few years working behind the scenes on their own hybrid supercar, showing that going green could also be exciting. Originally planned with jet turbine range-extending engines, it was then downgraded to...
Antony Ingram -
'Add Natural Gas' Ad Campaign To Promote New Type Of Cars
On Tuesday, six prototype cars powered by natural gas for their first 60 or so miles and by gasoline thereafter were unveiled in Washington, D.C. Now, the natural-gas industry is taking them on the road to "drive a conversation about the benefits of natural gas as a transportation fuel for...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Auris Hybrid Wagon: Are You Missing Out On Europe's Prius V Alternative?
It's easy enough to find a hybrid these days, with plenty of automakers offering cars that blend gasoline engines and electric propulsion to one degree or another. More difficult is finding a hybrid vehicle suitable for more active families, those with greater need for space and practicality. Where...
Antony Ingram -
Renault Twizy Cargo: Electric City Car Loses Seat, Gains Cargo Space
Removing equipment from a car isn't usually the way to make it more appealing, but a new variant of the Renault Twizy city car may have done just that. Called the Renault Twizy Cargo, the French automaker has removed the rear seat from the Twizy's normal tandem layout, replacing it with a larger...
Antony Ingram -
Volkswagen Passat TDI Smashes World Record With 78 MPG On U.S. Trip
Two drivers have set a new Guinness World Record for achieving the lowest fuel consumption in the lower 48 states in a non-hybrid car. Wayne Gerdes and co-driver Bob Winger returned an amazing 78 mpg around the 48 contiguous states in a 2013 Volkswagen Passat TDI, the highest-mpg diesel on sale in...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Motors has dodged two big bullets fired its way by New York and North Carolina legislatures and auto dealers. Last week, the New York State Senate and Assembly adjourned until January without acting on two bills pushed by state auto dealers that would have made it illegal to register a Tesla store in New York state. And yesterday, the North Carolina legislature backed off on a similar measure banning the sale of cars directly from the factory, the Tesla business model. The North Carolina law, also backed by the auto dealers lobby, could have even made it illegal for Tesla to send...
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2014 Mazda 3 Launches: Two SkyActiv Engines, High MPG Expected
Mazda launched its all-new 2014 Mazda 3 compact hatchback today at coordinated events in New York, Melbourne, Istanbul, St. Petersburg, and London. The new Mazda 3 lineup, which will include a four-door sedan version as well when it goes on sale this September, is the second model designed around...
John Voelcker -
2013 Fiat 500e Electric Car 'Sold Out' In California
Fiat has never hidden the fact that its 500e electric car had been developed primarily for compliance reasons, thus there was little surprise when it was announced that sales would be limited to the state of California, at least, initially. It looks like Fiat may have reason to speed up plans to...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2014 Infiniti Q50 Hybrid Priced From $44,855
Anyone in the market for a fuel-efficient sedan with sporty dynamics and a bit of luxury now has a new option: the 2014 Infiniti Q50 Hybrid. The Q50 is essentially Infiniti’s replacement for the G37, and it goes on sale this July with a starting price of $37,605, including a $905 destination...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Drayson Racing Sets New Lightweight Electric-Car Speed Record: 204 MPH
It's been a good week for electric vehicles in motor sport. At the weekend, Audi's R18 e-tron, a diesel-electric hybrid race car, took victory at the Le Mans 24-hour race. Also at Le Mans, Nissan unveiled its 2014 competitor for the race, the ZEOD RC electric prototype. And on Tuesday, reports the...
Antony Ingram -
Lead-Carbon Batteries The Next Step For 'Micro Hybrid' Vehicles?
There's a fairly good chance that, over the next decade or so, an increasing proportion of cars will use micro and mild hybrid technology. That means sourcing batteries with good energy density, lifespan and potential for recycling will become ever more important--and a battery consortium aims to...
Antony Ingram -
The 24 Heures du Mans endurance race, held at Circuit de la Sarthe in France, is the world's most famous endurance car race. It's also a hotbed of automotive technology development. So while Audi's dominance and the sad loss of competitor Allan Simonsen in the weekend's race dominated the on-track news, off-track an electric vehicle made headlines. No, not one of the Renault Twizys we saw running around the paddock--instead, Nissan and NISMO's ZEOD RC (Zero Emission On Demand Racing Car) electric race car. The ZEOD RC will run at Le Mans 2014 in the famed "garage 56" slot, a garage reserved...
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Less-Polluting Clean Diesel Trucks Now 28 Percent Of All Diesels On the Road
Ever seen the Steven Spielberg film, Duel? The film, its plot about an unseen trucker terrorizing a hapless motorist, no doubt conjures a few preconceptions about truckers and the smoke-spewing beasts they command. Truckers aren't as scary these days, nor do their chariots pump huge smokey stacks...
Antony Ingram -
Supreme Court Won't Reverse EPA E15 Ethanol Rules
The U.S. Supreme Court has been slow to rule on many of the biggest cases on this year's docket. Maybe that's because some of the justices are prone to procrastination, or maybe, like seasoned TV scriptwriters, they're just playing America like a violin, getting us all worked up for a rousing...
Richard Read -
Prototype Natural-Gas Vehicles Use Gasoline As Range Extender
To date, natural-gas vehicles have come with significant compromises. The high-pressure tanks that hold enough compressed natural gas to run 200 miles or more take up many cubic feet of space in the trunk, load bay, or pickup bed. But what if you could design a vehicle that had just enough natural...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Strikes Deal To Open Superchargers At Five High-End Malls
Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] and CBL & Associates Properties Inc. have struck a deal to put Tesla's fast-charging technology at five malls across the U.S. Five Supercharger points stations will appear at CBL-owned malls at Gulf Coast Town Center in Fort Myers, FL; The Pavilion at Port Orange in...
Antony Ingram -
Greenhouse Gases & Where They Really Come From: Infographic
We love data. And we love simple but informative graphic presentations of complex data even more. Which leads us to today's infographic, a presentation of the sources and activities that produce greenhouse gases as a result of human activity. Inspired by an earlier similar graphic from 2005, the...
John Voelcker