Green Car News

It's an exciting time for diesel fans in the U.S, with automakers finally waking up to that section of the market that longs for great highway MPG and lots of torque. Most people already know the benefits of modern diesels, but there are a few general things that people may have missed. So in the...

Stories about new or proposed taxes on electric cars are generally viewed as negative, even punitive, by plug-in vehicle advocates. Now, there's one that likely shouldn't cause all that much ruckus: Colorado is about to levy a $50 annual fee on any car that plugs into the wall to recharge its...

Not all hybrids are created equal. In fact, several different types are sold throughout the automotive industry, all offering varying economical benefits and priced at varying levels. Technology and innovation firm Johnson Controls Inc. suggests there's room for even more, and the next big thing in...

The 2012 Fisker Karma is one of the most striking vehicles on the road today. It's also on its way to becoming an orphan. With just 2,000 or so made, the low, sleek four-door luxury sport sedan and its range-extended electric drivetrain haven't been produced for 10 months. Some dealers have...

For its second model year, Acura has added new features to the ILX compact sedan, which serves as its entry-level vehicle. The 2014 Acura ILX will go on sale tomorrow at dealers for Honda's luxury brand, but an announcement of new features and upgrades thus far applies only to the two...

Remember Elio Motors? If you're one of their 17,000 or so Facebook fans it'll be hard to forget, as the company's little green three-wheeled vehicle will be a regular fixture on your timeline. As The Detroit News reports, Elio has just released a new prototype of the tiny gasoline-powered vehicle...

The Better Place electric-car system has not had a good run of news lately. But despite little attention, it has managed to boost the sales rate in Israel for its cars, along with subscriptions to its battery-switching service. Deliveries for all of 2012 were 518 cars. Roughly the first 100 were...

You won't have been able to feel it, but on Friday the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit a milestone amount. For the first time in recorded history, CO2 levels averaged 400 parts per million (ppm), or 0.04 percent, at a monitoring station on Mauna Loa, Hawaii. And, say scientists, it's...

Electric-car maker Tesla is on a roll--its first quarter was profitable, its stock price is soaring, and Consumer Reports gave its Model S a rave review. That has led many writers to compare the company to Apple Inc. [NSDQ:AAPL]. Now one analyst has taken it further: In a Bloomberg column, Chamath...

After our quick drive of a 2013 Nissan Leaf before the New York Auto Show in late March, we were finally able to spend some extended time with the updated electric car outside Nashville. Our initial impressions remain the same: The Leaf is a perfectly normal, competent compact five-door hatchback...

Your mileage may vary. We've heard it for years, we all know it's true, and yet we put our trust in the EPA's fuel-efficiency ratings as a guide to what kind of gas mileage a car will really get. Now, two cars--the 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid and the 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid--have brought the failings of...

Early last month we reported on a couple of separate fire incidents that cast a shadow over Mitsubishi's two electric vehicles, the i-MiEV minicar and the Outlander Plug-In Hybrid. As the latest in a string of battery fire incidents from various manufacturers, it was a problem Mitsubishi wanted to...

If there's one form of personal transport better for tackling a crowded city than the electric car, it's an electric bike. Whether pedal bike, scooter or motorcycle, nothing scythes through traffic quite like it. But just as electric automakers are beginning to explore what's possible when not held...

We'd not normally advise getting information directly from Wikipedia, but its opening line on the sport of drifting is as good as any other definition you'll find: "Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels, while...

2013 is an exciting time for diesel fans, with three particularly significant models all arriving this year. The Chevrolet Cruze Diesel, Mazda Mazda6 Sky-D and Jeep Grand Cherokee Ecodiesel will all be on the radar of customers looking to mix performance with economy, and all will aim to replicate...

Want proof of how topsy-turvy the electric car industry is? Just look at the last few months: We've seen Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] turning a profit, Coda Automotive filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Fisker Automotive laying motionless, the industry ready to read the last rites. And then there's...

While Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is on a roll--with a rave review from Consumer Reports and a profitable quarter--other startup automakers aren't faring so well. And now another small car company that received low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy is in trouble and has halted...

Back in February, the folks at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington hosted a TEDx conference. One of the event's speakers was Ron Johnston-Rodriguez. Johnstron-Rodriguez founded Plug In North Central Washington. That sounds as if it might be a regional chapter of Plug In America, but its...

Ford's hybrid sales have been on a roll this year, with two new models for 2013 now in showrooms across the country. The company sold almost 30,000 Ford and Lincoln hybrids from January through April, just about triple the number in its best comparable previous period, which was 2011. That led some...

Nobody really wants to crash, but if you're unfortunate enough to do so it's nice to know your chances of escaping injury are better than most. That's the case with the 2013 Nissan Leaf, which has picked up a "Top Safety Pick" rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). While the...