Green Car News

Audi has continued its dominant run at the world's most famous endurance race, winning the Le Mans 24 Hours on Sunday. The team's twelfth Le Mans victory is also the second for its hybrid race car, the R18 e-tron quattro. France's Loic Duval, Scotland's Allan McNish and Dane Tom Kristensen took the...

Maybe there's a future for battery leasing among U.S. electric-car buyers after all. Nissan had considered leasing battery packs separately before launching its 2011 Leaf, but ended up choosing to sell or lease the entire car. So the 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive is the first car in the country...

We liked the 2013 Fiat 500e electric car, a lot. It may be the best of the low-volume compliance cars, in fact--though the 2014 Chevy Spark EV and 2013 Honda Fit EV are pretty great too. We're less sure how we feel about the ad campaign Fiat is using to pitch the car, under the tagline...

Many green car enthusiasts love a hypermiling challenge. They'll eagerly drive in the slow lane, forego air-conditioning, and take different routes to and from work to make the most of downhill traffic, just to boost fuel economy by a couple of miles per gallon. But as hard as those folks try...

The U.S. will save a lot more gasoline by improving the fuel efficiency of gas-guzzling high-volume pickup trucks than it will swapping out Toyota Corollas for Prius hybrids. That's mathematical fact. Now, finally, the makers of the three most popular pickup truck lines sold in the U.S. are...

Politics in New York City are a tough, bruising game. Pit a billionaire Mayor with a desire to make the city work better and cut carbon emissions against the entrenched interests of taxi owners, and you get an ongoing battle. The latest skirmish is a concession by the NYC Taxi and Limousine...

European electric car fans will soon get to enjoy the Tesla Model S as much as their American counterparts, when the car is launched in Europe this summer. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has spent some of the last year preparing service and repair centers in Europe, but the company's sales network is...

So how did Rick and Christine Prell and their two teenage sons become the first family in the U.S. to buy a 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV? Turns out it was at least partly luck. The family needed a third car for Alex, their 16-year-old son who is about to turn 17, to drive to school. Alex, a car...

Well, this is a new tactic we haven't seen before in the fight between franchised auto dealers and Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley electric-car startup. A pair of bills in the New York State Legislature, backed by New York state auto dealers, would make it illegal to license or renew licenses for...

As predicted last month, and tweeted and teased by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla Motors showed off battery swapping for its Model S electric car at a press event last night. Held at Tesla's design studio in Hawthorne, California, the demonstration itself was simple: A Tesla Model S drove onto the stage and...

To allay fears about loss of capacity in its Leaf electric-car battery packs, Nissan announced today that it would offer what amounts to a battery leasing program after the pack goes out of warranty. The cost of ensuring minimum capacity will be $100 a month. The company now warranties the Leaf...

There's more to making a car green than just the car itself. Ideally, the whole process of making the car should be as environmentally-friendly as possible too. Ford is doing just that, having cut global carbon dioxide emissions at its plants by over a third since 2000. CO2 emissions have dropped...

Add one more battery-electric vehicle to the list of electric cars for sale in California (if not the rest of the U.S.). The 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV is now available for purchase or lease at several dealerships in northern and southern California, as well as a few in Oregon. About a hundred of the...

If you want to know why road-going electric vehicles aren't powered by solar panels mounted on the roof, here's your answer. Technically it's feasible, but you'd have to do without amenities, comfort, performance, or indeed a vehicle which doesn't look like an asymmetric air hockey table. The air...

The 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid, a mid-size sedan that competes with hybrid models of the Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima, and Toyota Camry, will go on sale in October, its maker said today. 47 mpg combined With a more powerful electric motor than its competitors, the 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid...

Noticed engines getting smaller recently? You're not alone. "Downsizing", as it's called, involves using a smaller engine to do the work of a larger alternative--usually through turbocharging--while enjoying the fuel efficiency benefits associated with its size. Engineering firm Ricardo thinks this...

Last year, we reported on a scheme aimed at helping Colorado car owners get their dirtiest vehicles off the road. The Clear the Air Foundation and ReForest Colorado aimed to plant a tree for every polluting old vehicle donated--cleaning up the air in more ways than one. The scheme is now doing...

China is fast becoming an air quality disaster zone. On several occasions over the past six months, smog levels in major cities have reached hazardous levels, requiring fast action and dramatic changes from policymakers. The latest can be found in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of the...

Hybrids and plug-in electric cars probably get more press than they deserve, given how small their numbers are in the vehicle fleet. The U.S. has roughly 250 million vehicles on the roads, of which less than 2 percent are hybrids and plug-ins of all kinds. Nonetheless, both technologies are...

Tired of plugging in your Nissan Leaf or Chevrolet Volt electric car to recharge every night? Yearn for the simplicity of simply parking over a charging pad and walking away? Bosch Automotive Service Solutions feels your pain. The service arm of the German auto-parts maker is now offering a...