Green Car News
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The big news in plug-in car sales for March was Tesla's statement that it delivered "more than 4,750" Model S electric cars from January through March. That news early Monday not only sent stock in Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] soaring, it also cued up an interesting three-way horse race. Those sales put the Model S on a par with the Volt, ahead of the Leaf, and add roughly another third or so to the total number of plug-in cars from established makers that were delivered for the quarter. Would Chevrolet manage to deliver more than 2,000 Volt range-extended electric cars to outsell the Model S?...
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2013 Smart Electric Drive: Drive Video From NY Auto Show
We didn't expect the fluorescent green, that's for sure. But it probably helped us on our half-hour drive around crowded midtown Manhattan in the new 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, the latest all-electric version of the little two-seat Smart car. With the lithium-ion battery pack in the sandwich...
John Voelcker -
How To Celebrate Earth Day? Utah Says: Oil, Gas & Mining!
Sometimes there comes an idea so audacious, so inspired, so downright jaw-dropping that it's worth covering even if it doesn't directly involve cars. You may know Earth Day is coming up on Monday, April 22. Localities and groups all over the country celebrate it. So, how has the Utah Department of...
John Voelcker -
100 Tesla Model S Cars Join Las Vegas Project 100 Sharing Scheme
Let's assume for a moment that you're interested in electric cars. (Not a far-fetched idea, since you're reading a blog called "Green Car Reports".) You're intrigued by the growing number of options in extended-range vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt, but most of all, you're interested in fully...
Richard Read -
Diesel Vs Small Turbo Gas Engines: Does Real-World MPG Matter?
As fuel efficiency standards tighten continuously between now and 2025, buyers will have more powertrain options to chose from. And many have suggested there's a battle coming among smaller gasoline engines, diesels, and hybrids. If so, we hope that buyers will do the research to look at the...
John Voelcker -
Oh, Tesla: Your 'Lease' Is Smart, But That Calculator Wasn't
Well, that didn't take long. Yesterday, just before 5 pm Eastern time, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] released details of its new "lease-like" financing product. The general consensus in the media (we read a lot of Tesla coverage here, folks) has been that it's smart for Tesla to offer financing for its...
John Voelcker -
Greyhound Lines Inc.'s buses are one of America's icons, serving over 3,700 destinations in the U.S, Canada and Mexico. The once-famous bare-metal livery may have disappeared in the last few decades, but over 25 million passengers still use the services every year--making improvements to the company's fleet a high priority. To this end, Greyhound's recent order for 220 new clean diesel buses--its biggest order in 20 years--should have a significant effect on the fleet's environmental impact. Two companies, Motor Coach Industries and Prevost of the Volvo Group, will supply the new buses...
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Big Mystery Unveiled: You Can Now 'Lease' 2013 Tesla Model S
And now we know: Tesla's Big Mystery Story, teased via more than one tweet from CEO Elon Musk, is this: You will soon be able to "lease" a brand-new 2013 Tesla Model S. That's a good thing (though not nearly as much fun as some of the ideas proposed under the Twitter hashtag #TeslaPredictions). But...
John Voelcker -
Clean Fuels In Beautiful Places: U.S. Parks Service Goes Even Greener
For those readers living in one of America's big cities, concrete jungles strewn across the North American landscape, it's easy to forget that hundreds of thousands of acres are set aside in some states as National Parks. Isolated from the bustle of busy cities they're idyllic spots, precious for...
Antony Ingram -
Nissan Leaf's Great-Grandfather: The Tama EV
You might think high gasoline prices are a problem now, but at least it's relatively easy to get hold of. The same couldn't be said in Japan after the end of World War II, when the country's gasoline supplies were limited under Allied occupation. Transport was still vital, which led Nissan and...
Antony Ingram -
Lotus Mobile: A Portable, Affordable Solar Charging Solution?
Given millions of years of adaptation to conditions, it's no surprise that nature is pretty good at doing what it does. Each leaf on a tree, and indeed the shape of a tree's canopy, is the work of refinements over millenia to capture the most sunlight possible to ensure the tree's growth. Why not...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Fiat 500E Drivers Latest To Get Use Of 'Free Car' Loaners
"But what if I want to drive across the country?" ask people who never drive across the country, when discussing the subject of an electric car's range. In a way, they do have a point. Unless you have time on your side, or a Tesla Model S and a string of Superchargers between yourself and your...
Antony Ingram -
There was a point, when Toyota Prius and Honda Insights were rolling off dealer lots in their mere hundreds nationwide, that hybrids were easy to dismiss. Now, as sales leap 32 percent in the first two months of this year and market share sits around 4 percent, the humble hybrid has become a real player--and it's set to grow even further by the end of this decade. According to the Los Angeles Times (via Autoblog Green), analysts say hybrid sales could make up 8 percent of the market by 2020. Sales jumped almost a third in the first two months of this year, compared with the first two months...
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2013 Nissan Leaf Electric Car: Updates, Video At NY Auto Show
Later today, we'll find out how many 2013 Nissan Leafs the company delivered last month. March was the first month that Nissan's electric car reached dealerships in volume from the Tennessee production line where all U.S. Leafs are now assembled, using lithium-ion cells from a plant right next...
John Voelcker -
2014 Infiniti QX60 Hybrid: Video From New York Auto Show
The second of two large seven-seat hybrid crossovers at this year's New York Auto Show, the 2014 Infiniti QX60 Hybrid is the glamorpuss of the pair. Known for the first year of its existence as the Infiniti JX, and now redubbed QX60 in a complete shakeup of the model names for Infiniti's high-end...
John Voelcker -
Could Carmakers Sell More Electric Cars With Green Energy Included?
In our experience, owners of electric vehicles are also rather keen on green energy. Where appropriate, many fit solar panels to supply some of their energy needs, and others use green energy tariffs and similar. As it turns out, marrying the two is a good way of enticing people into electric...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid: Video From New York Auto Show
Last week's New York Auto Show had a number of green vehicles, but there were relatively few new production models there that truly qualified as green. So a new hybrid model of Nissan's seven-seat crossover Pathfinder comes as close as we can get. It's likely to be considered by a number of...
John Voelcker -
Mitsubishi Looks Into Separate Japanese Plug-In Battery Fires
Prepare yourselves everyone--more electric cars have caught fire. This time, Japanese automaker Mitsubishi has reported two battery fire incidents in Japan, related to two of its plug-in products--the Mitsubishi i electric car, and Outlander plug-in hybrid crossover. A press release from Mitsubishi...
Antony Ingram -
The ranks of dedicated electric cars--those designed from scratch as plug-in vehicles--are thin. Come December, a fourth entry, the 2014 BMW i3, will join the three currently on the market (the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, and Tesla Model S). BMW officials confirmed last Thursday that the first i3 models would go on sale in the U.S. very late this year. The initial batch of i3 models will all be fitted with the ReX range-extending two-cylinder engine, an option on the battery-electric BMW. BMW executives also confirmed that the i3 will not be as powerful when operating on its ReX...
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$55,000 Kit To Build Electric Camaro Offered By GM
Home-converting a car to electric power would be so easy were it not for all those inconvenient drivetrain parts you have to remove. It's like carmakers didn't think of what people might want to do with their cars--engine, gearbox, exhaust, filters, fuel tanks--they're all just lumps of metal...
Antony Ingram -
Formerly Hybrid-Hating NYC Cab Owners Slam Taxi Of Tomorrow...Because It's Not Hybrid (Yet)
New York cabbies love their hybrid taxis--they're far more efficient than previous taxi designs, and proving incredibly reliable too. But those hybrids are under threat from Nissan's NV200 'Taxi of Tomorrow'--van-turned-cab which won a contest to provide New York City with virtually all of its...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Model S Electric-Car Deliveries For Q1: 4,750-Plus, Says Company
When the news is good, you want to get it out there. Last night, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] released a statement saying that it had delivered more than 4,750 Model S cars from January 1 through March 31 of this year. The statement came before the first quarter of 2013 had even technically ended...
John Voelcker -
Happy Easter From The Zero-Emission Easter Bunny
The picture kind of says it all, don't you think? This is a 2011 Nissan Leaf owned by the Stith family, as dressed up for last year's Easter Parade in Campbell, California. Being a zero-emission vehicle, the Leaf makes an extra-friendly Easter Bunny, since it's quiet and emits no exhaust. As Paul...
John Voelcker -
Is Fisker Automotive About To Declare Bankruptcy?
Storm clouds continue to gather over troubled luxury electric-car startup Fisker Automotive. We reported on Thursday that Fisker had put its entire U.S. staff on a "temporary" furlough to conserve cash. Later that day, a Wall Street Journal article reported on what may be the logical next step...
John Voelcker