Green Car News

Kei-jidosha, or 'Kei cars' are one of our favorite "forbidden fruits" here at Green Car Reports. Strict tax, insurance and parking regulations in Japan result in vehicles designed to set dimensions and engine sizes. So specific are they to Japanese roads and market conditions, they're rarely sold...

Honda's 2014 Accord Plug-In Hybrid has become the first vehicle to meet California's latest new emissions standard. The plug-in Accord's per-mile output of only 20 milligrams of smog-forming emissions allows it to meet the California Air Resources Board's new SULEV20 standards. SULEV20, or "Super...

Generally, we'd advise that hitting a pedestrian with your car is something to best avoid. However, if worst came to worst, it'd be nice to know their chances of survival are as high as possible. That's the idea behind the latest unique creation from Japan, a soft, air-filled cusion car, hitting...

Nissan is becoming the first manufacturer to offer limited warranty on battery capacity loss, when it implements a new warranty in Spring 2013. Announced via the MyNissanLeaf.com forums, Nissan executive vice president, Andy Palmer, has confirmed that Nissan is to offer an updated New Electric...

Electric vehicles are as different when crashed as they are when moving, and that difference has led to changes in procedure for first responders to accident scenes. Police, fire and other services now receive training in order to deal with high-voltage systems in crashed electric and hybrid...

Android and iPhone users can now find any electric vehicle charging station in the country, thanks to a new app from ChargePoint. The ChargePoint EV app doesn't just let drivers locate ChargePoint's own stations, but those from other providers, too. Compatible with all Android and iOS smartphones...

It isn't just Hyundai and Kia in deep water over misleading MPG claims--now Ford is the subject of a lawsuit over the MPG of its hybrid models. The federal lawsuit concerns the fuel economy of its most recent hybrid models, the C-Max Hybrid and Fusion Hybrid. Filed on December 7, the lawsuit says...

On the list of reasons to dislike electric cars, arguments about electricity grids being unable to cope with demand are often fairly near the top. You'll have heard it before: The concept that, as everyone drives home after work and plugs in their electric vehicle, electricity grids fail under the...

According to the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) Study published this month in The Lancet, high blood pressure, tobacco smoke, and alcohol abuse are the world's most dangerous risk factors for disease. Among the other top-ten items on that grim list, we also find...

If you live in Washington State, the cost of driving an electric car is set to go up in February next year. Not by a lot, it has to be said--but in an effort to get electric car owners to pay their share for the upkeep of roads and bridges, Washington electric car drivers will start paying an...

Electric vehicle startups come and go, but it's harder to ignore one fronted by "father of the Chevy Volt" Bob Lutz. That startup is Via Motors, producer of electric trucks, and it's set to unveil three new full-size electric vehicles at the Detroit Auto Show in January. Diversifying from mere work...

The 2013 Tesla Model S comes with one feature no other electric car can match: free quick-charging at an expanding network of Supercharger stations, usable only by Tesla owners. Following its October launch between the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, the network now includes a station along...

In olden days, new models for the following year came out in September. Now, they're all over the calendar. The latest example is the 2014 Mazda Mazda6 sedan, of which several hundred already sit in Mazda showrooms across the country. Its highly efficient 184-hp SkyActiv 2.5-liter four-cylinder...

It's quite easy to forget that cars have been using batteries for years before hybrids and electric vehicles arrived. The humble lead-acid battery, the planet's most recycled product, has been starting engines and providing power for car electrics ever since such a thing was required. Now, battery...

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Elon soon would be there. The Green Car Reporters were sat at the desk, Reading through comments and some were grotesque...

You can't trust reindeer these days. Must be that celebrity status. With Christmas days away and Santa's lazy hoofed helpers sunning themselves in Hawaii on a last-minute travel deal, it's taken Lexus to come up with a solution for those vital Christmas deliveries. Last year, Ford provided the...

Sometimes the glass is half empty, sometimes it's half full. For the future of electric cars, count Bob Lutz on the half-full side--most likely containing a very nice Scotch. Lutz is not only the former GM product development czar, but the man who pushed through the Chevrolet Volt range-extended...

Luxury automaker Lexus has hit a major milestone in hybrid sales: Half a million units. Since the company's first hybrid, the Lexus RX 400h hit the roads in 2005, over 506,000 have followed. And it's the RX hybrid which is still the best-selling line, making up over half of Lexus's total hybrid...

Electric car availability is low in some Canadian provinces, but as that changes, some companies have already begun to set up charging networks. As with the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, electric cars are expected to be most prevalent in larger cities, such as Toronto, Montreal and...

Choked by smog, the city of Hong Kong has finally cried "enough!" Despite setting clean air targets, the city's smog problems have been increasing every year, and authorities have finally brought in measures to ban the highest-polluting vehicles. According to Bloomberg (via Treehugger), that...