Green Car News

It sounds like simple economics, because it is: If the cost of running your car increases, you're going to either use it less--not an option for some--or find a cheaper option. February vehicle sales rose by 15.7 percent last month, and many of those were for more compact and fuel-efficient...

Potential Rolls-Royce customers know what they like, and know what they don't. Let's face it, they wouldn't be in the market for a Rolls-Royce if they'd not made plenty of "I like it" and "I don't like it" decisions in their lives. So when customers tell Rolls-Royce that the charging time and the...

We all understand what miles-per-gallon means for a gasoline car. And we can readily grasp the range in miles of an electric car. But when a car has both a gasoline engine and an electric motor, things can get complicated. The standard 2012 Toyota Prius is rated at 50 miles per gallon, and at best...

You may recognize the Jaguar C-X75 supercar from the 2010 Paris Auto Show, where it wowed the critics and public alike. You may also remember that the car was destined to be a plug-in, range-extended vehicle, the electric motors supplemented not by a regular gasoline engine, but by a series of...

Ford has been dropping hints since December about the Ford Transit van that will replace its ancient E-Series van, still referred to by many as the Econoline. Now the company has released a bit more information. The Ford Transit full-size van that will be introduced next year will use a 3.5-liter...

Several years ago, the U.S. auto industry worried that Chinese carmakers would use inexpensive cars to gain a foothold here, just as Japanese and Korean makers had done. That hasn't happened, for many reasons--one being that making cars good enough to sell here is remarkably hard. More recently...

Volkswagen has confirmed that an all-electric version of its Golf compact hatchback will go on sale in the U.S. late next year as a 2014 model. The president of Volkswagen of America, Jonathan Browning, gave the news to industry trade journal Automotive News (subscription required) during last...

Not everyone can afford to put the latest electric car on their driveway, but for only a few dollars you can get die-cast models of all the biggest electric car hits of the last few years. Whether for your kids or just the big kid inside you, show your support for the electric car cause by getting...

You may have noticed we feature the late Mazda RX-8 rather less often than the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car. Considering the final iteration of the four-seat, four-door sports car delivered just 23 mpg highway from its 1.3-liter Renesis rotary engine, it really wasn’t a green...

If you stop and think about it, electric drivetrains are actually very well suited to the rarified world of supercars. Some of the EV's normal negative points - expense, lack of range - are less of a problem in low-volume, low-usage supercars. Throw a high-performance electric motor in the mix, and...

When Indian automaker Tata launched the world’s cheapest small car, it gave thousands of people across India the chance to own a car of their own for the first time. While the cheaply-built Tata Nano might combine utilitarian construction, simple engineering and frugal motoring, Tata has come...

At last week’s 2012 Geneva Motor Show, Renault unveiled the production version of its 2013 Zoe Electric hatchback. The fourth all-electric car from the French automaker, the subcompact Zoe is quickly causing a stir in Europe thanks to its impressive specifications and low price. Renault has...

We like the extreme aerodynamic shape and exaggerated styling of the Toyota FT-Bh Concept unveiled at last week's Geneva Motor Show, though that's far from a common view. Now, it appears the subcompact FT-Bh will become a future Toyota model--one targeted for extremely high fuel economy. FT-Bh...

Certain parts of the media would have you believe that slow electric car sales indicate that no-one wants to drive electric cars. Not so, says all-electric car sharing service Car2Go, which has announced over 6,000 user registrations in its first 100 days. Founded last year by Daimler North America...

We missed it last week while we were covering all the new cars at the Geneva Motor Show, but Chrysler has officially stepped forward into the world of natural-gas vehicles. Its Ram truck brand announced that it would offer a bi-fuel version of its 2500 Heavy Duty pickup, to be known as the Ram 2500...

The news cycle can be a funny thing. We happen to have three stories today about concerns with plug-in cars: Consumer Reports' dead Fisker Karma test car, questions on the real-world range of the 2012 Tesla Model S at speed, and the so-far all-but-invisible 2012 Ford Focus Electric. We often get...

As automotive journalists, April 1 is the day we get to let our collective hair down and write stories about cars that sound plausible, but are purely fictitious. All in the spirit of April Fool’s day, of course. But sometimes our April Fool’s pranks get a little close to reality, as...

Toyota might be expanding its Prius line of hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars, but it hasn’t forgotten about hydrogen fuel cell technology. In fact, at this week’s Geneva Motor Show, the automaker has reiterated its commitment to fuel cell technology by promising it will produce tens of...

It's the first battery-electric car from a global automaker, a compact hatchback eagerly awaited for years and touted by some as a revolutionary vehicle that will change the way we drive forever. It's not the Nissan Leaf. It is, instead, the 2012 Ford Focus Electric, which earned a higher...

Gas prices are rising. This we know, and it's something we can do very little about. The increased cost of accessing crude oil, and political instability in oil-controlling nations putting a squeeze on supply, means the consumer has to foot the bill. But as gas prices climb towards the $4 per...