Green Car News

  • 2012 Nissan Versa 1.6 SL, Bear Mountain, NY, May 2012

    Last month, we got a chance to drive the all-new 2012 Nissan Versa sedan, perhaps the largest "subcompact" we've ever been inside. We only had about 20 minutes with the car, but that was enough time to put together some quick impressions. The new Versa four-door sedan is rated at 30 mpg city, 38 mpg highway, for a combined EPA average rating of 33 mpg--at the top of the non-hybrid small car segment. We're not overly fond of the new, more rounded shape of the 2012 Versa, but that's a matter of taste. The curves extend inside to the dash, which has lots of soft shapes and rounded surfaces. For...

  • Mercedes-Benz Hydrogen Fuel-Cell vehicle
    Germany Expanding Hydrogen Network: Will U.S. Ever Follow?

    By 2015, Germany is expected to have 5,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles roaming the streets. That doesn't sound like a great number, particularly when battery-electric cars like the Nissan Leaf are already selling in far greater numbers. But it still presents a problem, as that number relies on a...

  • ECOtality Blink charging station for electric & plug-in cars
    800 Number On Blink Electric-Car Charging Stations? Useless, Don't Bother

    You'd think a company awarded $115 million by the Department of Energy to build electric-car charging stations would make them accessible to every single driver, wouldn't you? Apparently, you'd be wrong. At least, that is, in the case of Ecotality's Blink network. Any plug-in driver arriving at a...

  • 2013 Hyundai Elantra Coupe, Chicago Auto Show, Jan 2012
    2013 Hyundai Elantra Gives You A Choice: Sedan, Coupe, Hatch (But No Wagon)

    Americans won't buy hatchbacks, or so goes the hoary old conventional wisdom. That may no longer be true, as Ford found out, but most compact cars are still four-door sedans. With the 2013 launch of its Elantra GT hatchback and Elantra Coupe, however, Hyundai has expanded its compact line to offer...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf SL
    More Nissan Leaf Battery Loss, Nissan Doesn’t Blink

    Last week, Nissan gave an official response to the handful of Arizona drivers of its 2011 Leaf electric car that had experienced the first signs of battery capacity loss. A week on, with more reports from owners claiming a lost battery capacity bar and in two instances, two capacity bars, Nissan...

  • 2013 Chevrolet Cruze
    2013 Chevrolet Cruze Gets Safer, Keeps Your Hands On The Wheel

    Over the past few years we’ve seen an increasingly large number of compact and subcompact cars with hands free and voice-activated safety technology you’d normally find in premium and luxury brands. Now we can add the 2013 Chevrolet Cruze to that list. As TheCarConnection reports, the...

  • A123 Systems Employees Perform Quality Check on a Lithium-Ion Battery Pack  [source: A123 Systems]

    How expensive are electric car battery packs? It’s a topic of much discussion among electric car fans, and a closely guarded secret within the auto industry, but now an industry analyst has suggested that improved technology and economies of scale has lowed electric car battery pack costs to just $250 per kilowatt-hour of energy stored. Wolfgang Bernhart, partner at Rolan Berger Strategy Consultants, explained to EVupdate that battery prices are already much lower than previous predictions had indicated. In fact, Bernhart’s calculations show battery packs have already reached the...

  • 2012 Honda Civic EX
    2012 Honda Civic Vs 2012 Toyota Corolla: Compact Comparo

    Other cars may steal the headlines, but the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla have spent plenty of time in the best-sellers lists. That's because each offers a wide range of talents to a wide range of individuals and families. They may lack the excitement of other models, but if you want a safe...

  • 2013 Smart ForTwo Iceshine Special Edition
    2013: Smart ForTwo Iceshine Brings Exclusivity To Niche Market

    How do you make a niche market car with low sales figures more attractive to buyers? By releasing a limited-edition, of course. Enter Smart, Mercedes-Benz’s microcar devision, and its plans to follow its summer-themed Smart ForTwo Sharpred Special Edition with a winter-themed special edition...

  • Electric Nissan Leaf Limo
    2012 Nissan Leaf Limo Stretches Electric Car Reality (Video!)

    Last year we told you about a Missouri coachbuilder with the grand plan: turn a humble 2012 Nissan Leaf into a stretch limousine. Now, some ten months after we first brought you the story, we can bring you evidence that the Imperial Coach Builders of Springfield, MO made good its promise with what...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S
    2012 Tesla Model S: 'Opportunity Console' Details Revealed

    If you've ever climbed into a car and struggled to find a place to put that one item you like to carry around, then Tesla might have the solution for you. Tesla Motors has announced details of its 'Opportunity Console', a new concept for the console between the front seats that will allow owners to...

  • Fuel gauge
    Will Lower Summer Gas Prices Boost Car Travel For Vacations?

    The numbers came in this morning, and gas prices took a sharp drop, with the national average now at just $3.50 per gallon. And they're expected to stay relatively flat through the summer, barring any surprises and geopolitical actions. That $3.50 average is s a drop of 7 cents in the last week...

  • 2012 Mercedes-Benz S 350 BlueTEC 4Matic, road test, June 2012

    If your daily driving resembles a New York City cabbie's--lots of stop and go--you should get a hybrid for best fuel efficiency. But if it's closer to that of a traveling farm salesman--steady speeds on Interstate highways and wide-open state roads for hours--you'll likely be better off with a diesel. That's our conclusion after a remarkable eight-day, 1,800-mile journey in a 2012 Mercedes-Benz S 350 BlueTEC 4Matic. It's the new diesel version of the largest and most prestigious Mercedes-Benz luxury sedan. We first drove the car last October, and our early impressions left us wanting to test...

  • A123 lithium-ion cells
    Battery Maker A123 Systems Says It’s Not The Next ‘Solyndra’

    Despite unveiling what it says will be a revolutionary new vehicle battery last week, Massachusetts-based firm A123 Systems is fighting skepticism that it will become the “next Solyndra,” the California solar company that went bankrupt in August 2011 after receiving a $550 million loan...

  • Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer celebrate their second straight Le Mans win - Anne Proffit photo
    Audi's Hybrid Race Car Wins Famous Le Mans 24-Hour Endurance Race

    Audi has taken an historic first victory for a hybrid vehicle at the Le Mans 24-Hour race, held at Circuit de la Sarthe in northern France. On the 80th running of the famous race, Audi took its 11th victory with the Audi R18 e-tron quattro, an all-wheel drive, hybrid race car showcasing the best of...

  • 2012 Nissan Leaf
    Think The 2012 Nissan Leaf Is Too Expensive? Australians Pay $52K

    One of the most frequent criticisms we hear of electric and plug-in hybrid cars is that they’re just too expensive. Take the 2012 Nissan Leaf, for example. Before government and state incentives, a base-level Leaf SV will set you back $35,200. Live in the right area however, and incentives...

  • 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport SE
    2012 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport: Quick Drive

    On paper, the 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport sounds like the ideal compact crossover solution for those on a limited budget. It’s small in size, coming in at over a foot shorter than the standard Mitsubishi Outlander, which shaves some 700 pounds off the crossover’s curb weight. Power...

  • Steve Marsh's 2011 Nissan Leaf: 11 Months, 36,000 Miles
    Nissan Sticks With 20K Leafs In U.S. By End Of (Fiscal) Year

    Electric-car sales are actually doing better than sales of hybrid-electric vehicles were at the same stage of their launch, though you'd never know it from much of the media. But the prevalent "electric-car-sales-are-disastrous" meme has caused carmakers to couch their predictions much more...

  • 2012 Renault Twizy

    When we first heard that French automaker Renault was producing a tiny, two-seat electric car with a top speed of 52mph called the Twizy, we have to admit to laughing. A lot. But after driving a production Renault Twizy in Ibiza earlier this year, our impression of the plucky go-kart changed. Could it, we wondered, be used as a second or third car in a busy family? Or is it nothing more than a fun plaything? To find out, we borrowed a 2012 Renault Twizy for a long weekend, doing everything from ferrying kids around to the weekly shop. Friday: rain, rain, rain As the delivery driver was...

  • 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
    Mitsubishi Teases Outlander Plug-In Hybrid Coming This Fall

    Mitsubishi is only the second global volume carmaker to sell a plug-in electric car in the U.S., but battery electric minicars like its 2012 'i' won't be a high-volume segment any time soon--if ever. The company sells far more Outlander crossover utilities than 'i' electric cars, so the launch of...

  • Charging Cable and Socket
    Your Guide To Charging Station Rage, And How To Avoid It

    A few weeks ago while borrowing a 2012 Ford Focus Electric, Forbes writer Todd Woody experienced what he described as Electric Car Road Rage: fear and anger associated with unsuccessfully trying to charge an electric car. It happened while he was at a cafe in downtown Berkeley, California, when the...

  • 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT, Chicago Auto Show, Feb 2012
    2013 Hyundai Elantra Coupe, GT: 40MPG Highway, Less Than $20k

    Earlier this year at the Chicago Auto Show, Hyundai announced the expansion of its highly-popular Elantra line by announcing two new models for 2013. Now we know that both cars -- the 2013 Elantra Coupe and 2013 Elantra GT Five-door hatchback -- will go on sale for less than $20,000. Powered by the...

  • 2013 Chevrolet Volt
    Will Buick Launch A Volt Version Called Electra?

    Sometimes online news sites can build complete stories--almost entirely hypothetical--around a single factoid. This is one of those stories. The factoid is that General Motors registered its intent to use the name Electra on a product in the category of "Motor land vehicles, namely, automobiles...

  • Mazda/Lola LMP2 car at Le Mans - Courtesy Mazda
    Mazda To Supply SkyActiv-D Diesels For 2013 Le Mans Teams

    If you’re not directly involved with the high-octane world of 24-hour endurance racing, it’s easy to forget that races like last weekend’s 24 Heures Du Mans take months -- even years -- to prepare for. On Saturday, Mazda reminded us of just that fact by announcing its intention to...

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