Green Car News

It's often said that diesel cars are in their element at highway speeds, ticking over at low, constant revs, while hybrids are best-suited to cities--where the internal combustion engine can shut off regularly, saving gas. You might wonder then why so few carmakers have mixed the best of both...

When it comes to service costs and fuel, everyone knows that electric cars are far cheaper to run than gasoline cars. Even with a plug-in car, however, you still have to pay your local utility company for the electricity used to charge it. Like gas prices, electricity prices are on a steady, upward...

If you've been considering the purchase of a 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas, now might be the time to sign on the dotted line. Honda, in conjunction with Clean Energy, is offering a $3,000 fuel card for the purchase of natural gas at any of Clean Energy's natural gas filling stations. When natural...

There’s no denying that electric cars have lots of torque from standstill, meaning they can out-accelerate most cars in the stop-light derby to 30 mph. But what happens beyond that? Could a car like the 2012 Tesla [NASDAQ:TSLA] Model S Performance beat the sporty, race-bred 2013 BMW M5 in a...

After testing the 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, we were given the opportunity to try out another of Smart's electric vehicles. Unlike the city car however, this vehicle has only half the number of seats, and half the numer of wheels. It's also, technically speaking, a hybrid--using an electric...

With the first 2013 Nissan Leaf electric car expected to roll out of the Smyrna, Tennessee, plant in mid-December, many rumors have been flying about what changes the updated Leaf will have. Now we have the first spy shots showing some of the modifications Nissan has made to create a new, less...

Ask owners to give you a list of fears associated with their electric cars, and a few charging concerns are bound to be on the list. Usually, they include not finding somewhere to charge, or that a charging station isn’t accessible for some reason. Now a new one can be added to the list: not...

It's autumn, which means that new 2013 cars are now showing up in dealerships all across the country. With gas prices high and new fuel-economy standards in effect, automakers are rolling out new green cars of every type. Here's our selective list of the important new green models you'll be able to...

It's hard to miss a Mercedes-Benz compact hatchback when it's wrapped in a shiny blue-chrome finish. That was the attention-grabbing color the luxury German maker used at the recent Paris Auto Show to distinguish its two electric models, the 2014 SLS AMG Electric Drive all-electric supercar and the...

For 12 years, the Toyota Prius hybrid stood alone in the growing lineup of Toyota vehicles. Then, for 2012, the Prius model became a whole family of cars--four of them, in fact. So which of the new Prius family members is doing the best so far, and which kid is lagging and might benefit from some...

Cars might be getting lighter and ever more efficient in an attempt to reduce emissions and improve gas mileage, but according to Allstate insurance, there’s one factor which affects gas mileage which is heading the wrong way: occupant weight. According to the insurance firm, the rising tide...

How much does it cost to charge your electric car? Do you know? That might initially sound like a simple enough question to answer, but in some homes--especially ones signed up to time of use electricity metering--it’s often far from straightforward to find an answer. Now a new smartphone app...

New battery charge estimation algorithms developed by engineers at the University of California (UC), San Diego, are on the verge of vastly improve the capabilities of current lithium-ion batteries. The changes center around improving charging times, potentially allowing for batteries that charge...

In the world of high gas prices and tough gas mileage standards, even exotic supercar manufacturers are having to think about ways to make their cars leaner, meaner, and greener. Which is why one exhibit on the Ferrari stand at the 2012 Paris Auto Show--the carbon fibre tub which will form the...

Plug-in electric car sales are growing in the U.S., with the Chevy Volt in particular going from strength to strength. The 2012 Nissan Leaf, however, is not doing so well. Despite being one of the earliest electric cars on the market, it's been outsold three to two this year by the Toyota Prius...

Smart's third-generation Electric Drive model might look similar to the car it replaces, but it's a very different vehicle under the skin. To discover just how different, our latest drive in the new electric Smart let us compare with our experiences from the previous model--and the differences are...

Ethanol is often touted as being the future fuel of internal combustion vehicles, as it can be more easily--and more locally--produced than regular gasoline, while producing lower greenhouse gas emissions. That makes it a further step towards energy independence, but does it make it the fuel of the...

One big advantage of electric cars is reduced maintenance. With no internal combustion engine, there is no oil to change, no exhaust system, no transmission, no myriad of moving parts to break or wear out, and no air or fuel filters to clog up. With regenerative braking, brake pads last virtually...

Over the past few years, more automakers than ever have started to promote something called active shutter grille vents. Essentially a way to boost fuel economy at higher speeds, active grill shutters are now being used by GM, Ford, and Chrysler--among others--to give gas mileage boosts to their...

Ever since a handful of Nissan Leaf owners in Arizona noticed that their cars had started to suffer from premature battery aging, Nissan has been criticized for its apparent lack of transparency on the subject. Just over a week ago, Nissan announced it had asked electric car advocate Chelsea Sexton...