Green Car News

  • 2014 Volkswagen Golf (European spec)

    Media days at the New York International Auto Show start a week from today, and there's a big slate of green cars coming this year. This year's show will offer everything from vehicles heading into production that you'll find in showrooms in a few months to concepts that have little chance of being built in their current form. Here's our roundup of what's new, what's novel, and--most of all-what's green at next week's New York Auto Show. PRODUCTION CARS In addition to the cars below, we suspect we may also see one or more of the following vehicles show up at the New York event: 2014 BMW 528d...

  • 2013 Nissan Leaf
    2013 Nissan Leaf Real-World Range: Is It Any Higher?

    it might not have been the number people were hoping for, but at 75 miles, an extra two miles of EPA range for the 2013 Nissan Leaf still represents an improvement. Even more so considering the EPA's electric car testing procedure for 2013 averages results from 100 percent and 80 percent charges...

  • Lotus Safe & Sound noisemaker
    Automakers: Delay, Rewrite 'Quiet Car' Rule For 2014 Hybrid, Electric Cars

    Electric car fans have long been skeptical of government plans to install noisemakers to alert pedestrians to a car's presence--and now automakers are pushing for a different rule. The NHTSA wants electric and hybrid vehicles to emit a noise at speeds of up to 18.6 mph, while automakers want it to...

  • Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrids charging in San Francisco garage [photo: Robert Olson]
    Charging Etiquette Fail: Why Electric-Car Owners Resent Plug-In Hybrids

    With almost 100,000 plug-in electric cars on U.S. roads now, congestion at charging stations is starting to crop up. And that has brought to light an issue of electric-car charging etiquette that may prove challenging: Should battery-electric cars get precedence over plug-in hybrids? The question...

  • 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid
    2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid: New York Auto Show Preview

    Next week at the New York Auto Show, the 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid will be unveiled. It's the first-ever production hybrid vehicle from the small Japanese maker of sturdy all-wheel drive cars and crossovers. Subaru announced the debut of the 2014 XV Crosstrek Hybrid in a press release this...

  • Boeing 787 Dreamliner
    Boeing 787 Battery Safety Updates: What Changes Were Made?

    People take air safety pretty seriously, so when smoke filled the cabin of a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft a few months back, the entire fleet was quickly grounded. It turned out to be an issue with the aircraft's lithium-ion batteries, used to power some secondary functions reducing load on...

  • 2012 Volkswagen Passat TDI Six-Month Road Test

    A few weeks back, we looked at the numbers showing diesel sales in the U.S. increasing, just as hybrids are becoming more popular in Europe. That's a shift from current preferences, which sees more than half of European car sales fitted with diesel engines, but more hybrids sold in the U.S. than anywhere else. Those norms are unlikely to change in the near future, but there are some signs that diesel may now be at the peak of its popularity in Europe. A host of regulatory and technical factors may lead to a slow decline in diesel sales in Europe--the only real stronghold for diesel passenger...

  • Gas pump
    Demand For Gas Falls, Gas Prices Rise: Blame Ethanol (And Congress)

    For fans of fuel efficiency, the New York Times has good news and bad news. The good news is: drivers in the U.S. are using less gas these days. The bad news is: that's driving up the cost of gas. To anyone who's taken Econ 101, that probably seems counter-intuitive -- mostly because it is. To...

  • Detroit Electric all-electric two-seat sports car teaser photo, March 2013
    All-Electric Sports Car Coming Next Month From Detroit Startup?

    Tesla did it, Mercedes-Benz is doing it, so why can't a Detroit company do it too? In this case, "it" is building a pricey, limited-production, two-seat all-electric sports car. Detroit Electric, a famous name adopted by a five-year-old startup in the Motor City, will reveal its plans next month...

  • Audi Urban Future: Project New York -- visions of five up-and-coming New York architects
    Vehicles In 2050: No Petroleum Required, DoE Says

    It's both exciting and frustrating living in the current automotive age. Exciting, because we're truly seeing an eclectic mix of powertrain technologies being developed, the fruits of which we're increasingly able to drive. And frustrating, because there's still no surefire way of knowing what...

  • 2014 Jeep Cherokee: frame capture from off-roading video
    2014 Jeep Cherokee: New Off-Road Video Of Downsized Crossover

    Eight days from now, the 2014 Jeep Cherokee 4x4 crossover will be unveiled to the world at the New York Auto Show's media preview days. Jeep released the first photos and details of the 2014 Cherokee three weeks ago, and now it's served up a video to whet our appetites further. The video is meant...

  • 2013 Chevrolet Volt, Catskill Mountains, Oct 2012
    Plug-in Electric Car Sales in Canada For February 2013

    Americans and Canadians alike returned to work this week after a festive St. Patrick's Day. For sales of plug-in electric vehicles in Canada, the (idiomatic, good) luck of the Irish arrived for one U.S. automaker. General Motors sold 51 Chevrolet Volts in Canada in February, up slightly from its...

  • 2014 Volkswagen XL1, 2013 Geneva Motor Show

    As the Geneva Motor Show finally closes its doors to the public, many will go home lusting after the LaFerrari or McLaren's P1 hypercars. For others though, the show's indisputed star was the production Volkswagen XL1--as thoroughly engineered to be economical as the others are to be fast. While VW hasn't yet revealed pricing for the ultra-frugal XL1, it's expected to be high. Happily, we may still see some of its technology in more affordable models. Autocar reveals the XL1's powertrain engineering is to be scaled up for future plug-in hybrid cars, on the Volkswagen Group's MQB platform...

  • Fast Charging 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Why One-Third Of Electric-Car Buyers Might Not Buy Another

    Electric-car owners tend to be enthusiastic evangelists for the good points of driving on grid power. At least, the ones we hear from usually are. But there's another group of plug-in electric car owners who aren't quite as enthusiastic. In fact, up to one-third of electric-car buyers in Japan say...

  • Mahindra e2o electric car
    Mahindra E2O Electric Minicar Launches In India, Nee Reva NXR

    The car you see in the images above has actually been in the making for several years, and for drivers in India it's one of the more significant vehicles released this year. It's called the Mahindra e2o, and you may recognise its previous name, the Reva NXR. The Reva name is already big in electric...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid
    Discounts Soar On Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrids--In New York

    Live in the New York area? If you do, you're perfectly placed to get some hefty discounts on Toyota's Prius Plug-In right now. In fact, you're in the right place to get a discount on several green models at the moment, including the regular Prius, as well as Ford C-Max and Fusion hybrids. According...

  • 1931 Studebaker commemorating U.S. Route 66 in Arizona (via user Finetooth on Wikimedia)
    Oh, By The Way? The Era Of The Private Car Is Over

    As a reader of this blog -- a blog about cars -- chances are good that you own a car yourself. That's not unusual: today, many Americans depend on automobiles to get to work, to run errands, to see friends and loved ones. But as Emily Badger at The Atlantic points out, tomorrow will likely be a...

  • Fisker Atlantic Design Prototype  -  2012 New York Auto Show
    Fisker Bid By Geely Deemed 'Too Risky' Due To U.S. Government Loans

    While Henrik Fisker's departure from the company he founded has dominated the headlines of late, Fisker Automotive itself still has other problems to deal with. Top of the list is finding a buyer to help fund its future, and up until now, two Chinese companies--Dongfeng Motor Group Co. and Zhejiang...

  • Fuel gauge

    A few recent, high-profile cases have brought fuel economy testing procedure into question. When Kia and Hyundai are being sued for inaccuracies in reported EPA figures and Ford hybrid drivers are missing out on official numbers by 20 percent, suggesting the designs of some vehicles may enable them to pass tests without that efficiency making it all the way to the road. Still, it could be worse--you could be European, where some carmakers are really cheating the tests. The Guardian (via Autoblog Green), says that some carmakers are over-inflating tires, taping up gaps and adjusting brakes for...

  • 2013 Chevrolet Volt  -  Driven, December 2012
    2016 Chevrolet Volt To Get Three-Cylinder Range Extender: Report

    Range-extended electric cars are a great idea, mixing clean electric running for the majority of drivers' commutes, with an extra few hundred miles of gasoline running for those longer trips. As we alluded to last week though, the engine isn't always perfectly optimized for its task, often a...

  • 2013 Tesla Model S electric sport sedan [photo by owner David Noland]
    Life With 2013 Tesla Model S: 'Vampire' Thirst For Electricity At Night?

    A couple of weeks ago, shortly after I took delivery of my 2013 Tesla Model S, I noticed that my home electric meter seemed to be running a bit faster than normal. I keep a close eye on my meter, but that seemed odd. After all, the long-awaited new luxury sport sedan delivered to my house in...

  • Henrik Fisker
    Why Fisker Left Fisker: Would Have Been 'Wrong To Stay'

    The news that Henrik Fisker had left Fisker Automotive came on Wednesday, leaving electric-car advocates and Fisker Karma fans wondering just what had happened. Fisker himself cited "major disagreements" over the company's "business strategy." A statement released within hours by Fisker Automotive...

  • ChargePoint electric-car charging station at Nest Labs, Palo Alto, CA
    Nest: Where One Electric-Car Charger Grew To Three

    While we're nearing 100,000 plug-in electric cars on U.S. roads, they're not evenly distributed--and the largest group of them is in California. This has led to occasional congestion at charging stations, and now it turns out that happens at workplaces too. Venture-funded startup Nest Labs, a media...

  • 2013 Renault Zoe electric car (European model) at 2012 Paris Auto Show
    Renault Zoe Electric Car Road-Test Video: No Translation Needed

    What the Nissan Leaf is in the U.S.--the highest-volume battery electric vehicle on the market--the Renault Zoe hopes to be in Europe. French carmaker Renault has a wide-ranging alliance with Nissan that includes electric cars. Together, the two carmakers have delivered more than 70,000 electric...

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