Green Car News

It might not be going on sale to U.S. consumers, but the BYD e6 will eventually appear in the U.S. in commercial fleets--perhaps to a taxi stand near you. Taxi duties seem to be the e6's true calling, and it's already operating in China in just such a role. Now it's going on duty in Hong Kong too...

Owners of electric cars and plug-in hybrids enjoy plenty of benefits: tax breaks, lower fuel costs, and the satisfaction that comes from driving a low- or zero-emission vehicle, to name a few. In California, owners also enjoy easier commutes: they can apply for special stickers that allow them to...

Yesterday we reported that two companies, VL Automotive and China's Wanxiang Group, had put in a bid for struggling automaker Fisker Automotive. It's now become clear just how little the ailing plug-in carmaker is worth to investors and buyers, with Reuters revealing the VL and Wanxiang bid...

You learn something new every day: Cholesterol, a little like bacteria, comes in body "good" and "bad" forms. All those low-cholesterol spread adverts have been lying to us! What's more worrying is that good cholesterol can change into bad cholesterol, and it could be car exhaust fumes that make it...

Ah, politics. Yesterday, Tesla paid off the balance of its U.S. government loan, using proceeds from its $1 billion-plus offering of stock and warrants last week, as CEO Elon Musk had said Monday it would in a tweet. The amount settled yesterday was $451.8 million, following installments paid by...

One of the biggest hurdles for the proliferation of electric cars has been their high relative cost. While that is to be expected with any new technology, electric cars have received a lot of flak for being just too pricey for the market. That’s starting to change, however, especially now...

It's ironic that one of the best characteristics of modern diesels is also their downfall, for many owners. New diesels are so refined, and some owners so unused to filling with diesel, that they accidentally fill their cars with gasoline--resulting in a breakdown. To help prevent this, Volkswagen...

We've been thinking a lot about natural-gas fueled vehicles, for reasons that will become clear in due course. Writing about green cars can occasionally be awkward, because there are different audiences for diesels versus hybrids, for plug-in electric cars, and for other types of alternative fuels...

The U.S. is sitting on top of a fuel goldmine, it seems. Not shale gas or crude oil, but fresh water and suitable land to produce 25 billion gallons of algae-based biofuel--a month's worth of the country's fuel needs each year. The discovery comes from the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific...

Lexus has announced a coupe version of its compact luxury sedan, the IS, will go on sale in 2014. The company hasn't confirmed whether a hybrid version will be made, though with the latest IS inspired by last year's LF-CC concept, itself a hybrid, such a thing is likely. The coupe is expected to...

Previously unknown brand VL Automotive surprised Detroit Auto Show goers earlier this year by unveiling the Destino--a V-8-powered luxury sedan based heavily on the Fisker Karma. Now, with Fisker Automotive circling the abyss, Bob Lutz-backed VL is reported to have bid for the ailing luxury...

It may be that short sellers and naysayers aren't the only ones a bit surprised these days at the positive press received by electric-car maker Tesla. Yesterday, Germany luxury-car maker Audi issued a rather unusual press release in which it pointed out that it sells more cars than Tesla Motors...

The belief that electric cars must somehow perform badly in crashes is slowly being eroded, with many well-known examples scoring well in crash tests around the world. The 2013 Ford Fusion Energi, the plug-in hybrid variant of Ford's midsize offering, is the latest to join that list, with a top...

Today marks my first anniversary driving a Better Place Renault Fluence ZE battery-electric car. So it seemed appropriate to summarize my experience to date with the Better Place service, which has had some challenges but is still very much in operation. I paid around $45,000 upfront for my car and...

It's been a few years since Infiniti confirmed it was working on a luxury sedan based on the Nissan Leaf, but little extra information has emerged since then. Autocar reports the firm is still working on such a vehicle--it's just waiting for inductive charging technology to become commonplace...

Many states offer discounts, rebates, and other incentives for the purchase of infrastructure improvements that encourage electric-car ownership. Washington is one such state, providing tax breaks on charging stations and similar EV-related devices. Unfortunately, Home Depot sales associates...

Making a battery for an electric car is more like assembling microelectronics than the kind of auto-plant scenes we think of, involving huge steel stamping presses and battalions of automated welding robots. Last month, in addition to driving a 2013 Nissan Leaf through the Tennessee countryside, we...

Toyota is one of few automakers still using nickel-metal hydride batteries in its hybrid vehicles, but that could change for its next generation vehicles. Reuters reports that the company aims to boost production of more common lithium-ion technology by six times for its future products. Toyota has...

Tesla's Model S might be making all the headlines, but there's a smaller, more accessible electric car with equally high expectations placed upon it. That electric car is the Renault Zoe, sold only in Europe and tasked with making electric cars a usable proposition for the masses. And to a small...

For a long time, the Toyota Prius was the only game in town for high fuel-efficiency vehicles. Starting with the 2004 model, it really came to define the public image of a hybrid car. Now, though, as hybrids and plug-in cars are slowly growing their share of the market, Prius sales have fallen--not...