Green Car News

The upcoming 2014 BMW i3 electric car is generating a lot of quiet excitement--especially for its optional "ReX" range extender, a tiny two-cylinder engine that fits under the rear deck to power a generator. The i3 will be only the third high-volume dedicated battery electric car on the market...

It's taken a while for carmakers to begin fitting stop/start systems to U.S. vehicles, such systems' benefits not really advertised to consumers in a car's EPA numbers. In the real world though, many manufacturers say the systems can save you significant amounts of fuel--particularly if you...

The Renault Zoe is quietly winding its way toward French electric car-enthusiasts, and Renault has launched a new video that shows off some the pint-sized ride's high-tech features.

One of the prices we pay for discovering new, daily life-enhancing technologies, is occasionally inventing something that turns out to be less than ideal from an environmental perspective. That was true of air conditioning, the refrigerants contained chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. Often known under...

Now that Tesla appears to be delivering hundreds of its Model S electric sport sedan each week, public attention inevitably turns to its future. Specifically, the next vehicle it plans to launch, the Model X all-electric crossover utility vehicle--which will offer optional all-wheel drive. But...

A turbocharged four-cylinder version of the next generation of the Ford Mustang, due for the 2015 model year, has been widely reported around the web--but it had been assumed it would be for non-U.S. consumption. That has changed. In fact, it appears that the U.S. may very well get the engine, if a...

It's no secret that Nissan hasn't sold as many battery electric cars over the last two years as it had planned. The company just sold its 50,000th Nissan Leaf last month, but it had hoped to sell up to twice that number between the start of production in late 2010 and the end of last year. Now the...

Automaker Honda used to be the darling of Consumer Reports, with its models perpetually scoring better than average in CR testing. The 2012 Honda Civic dampened the publication’s enthusiasm for the Honda brand; it was the first Honda Civic we can recall that wasn’t recommended by CR...

Like a lot of news from Tesla, this came in the form of a tweet by CEO Elon Musk on Friday morning. It read, in its entirety, "Minnesota auto dealers tried to pass legislation to block Tesla stores. Bill was just defeated in Senate. Thanks MN!" And indeed, a Minnesota Senate committee voted down...

One of the next major growth areas for automakers in the premium arena is the subcompact crossover segment, which currently has only a few players and is experiencing strong growth. The segment is especially popular in emerging markets where buyers enjoy the benefits of traditional SUVs, such as...

Nothing like a lime green 34-year-old diesel car to wake you up the morning after you spring forward, is there? Two weeks ago, we wrote about the near-pristine 54,000-mile 1979 Oldsmobile 98 Coupe that popped up for sale on the delightful and quirky Bring A Trailer site. Now, BaT has published an...

The images have made for grim viewing even if you don't live within the frame: Pictures and details emerging from China earlier this year showed smog on levels not previously recorded. Streets were choked and people were strongly advised to stay indoors, and avoid any sort of activity that might...

Electric delivery vans are a relatively unexplored area of the market, yet they make a surprising amount of sense. In many cases, a delivery vehicle will cover relatively modest daily mileage, from depot to various drop-offs and back again--spending much of that time standing still, when being...

There's a popular rumor going around that Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of Tony Stark, the man behind the mask in Iron Man, is based on Tesla founder Elon Musk. In fact, Musk himself made a cameo in an early scene in Iron Man 2, and a Tesla Roadster appeared in Stark's garage in the first film...

Cars of the future--especially those from the past--always exert a powerful pull on our imaginations. They range from the outlandish (no wheels) to the bizarre (extreme styling exercises) to the jaw-dropping (powered by tiny nuclear powerplants). While the Fifties and Sixties may have been the...

What a difference a few years makes. Startup electric-car maker Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] said it will repay its $465 million in low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy five years earlier than originally scheduled. The news came yesterday in the company's annual report. Sourcing Tesla...

Kia has announced details of its updated Optima Hybrid, new for the 2013 model year. Just about every aspect of the car has been improved, resulting in a car that now offers greater fuel efficiency, improved space, better performance and a higher standard of equipment. Central to the changes are...

Rightly or wrongly, many potential electric car owners are a little put off by the fear of occasionally running out of electricity before their destination--a condition termed "range anxiety". In reality, it's something that existing electric car owners grow out of, once they're used to their...

Fuel cells aren't the only way to use hydrogen as a fuel in vehicles--burning it works too. That's exactly what Aston Martin will be doing at the Nurburgring 24-hour race later this year, when it fields a hydrogen-fueled version of its Rapide luxury sedan. According to our sister site Motor...

Electric-car charging stations are being added to more and more public parking lots, curbsides, corporate garages, and a host of other locations. But as any electric-car driver can tell you, many of them are operated by specific networks. They often require drivers to have set up an account...