Detroit Auto Show

  • 2012 Audi A6 live photos. Photo by Joe Nuxoll.

    Audi loves clean diesels, but the German automaker certainly hasn't stacked its entire deck with them. In addition to the upcoming 2012 Audi Q5 Hybrid and the brand's e-Tron electric sports cars in the pipeline, it's now taking hybrids and electric cars seriously, too. And one of Audi's best options for green-conscious U.S. luxury shoppers might end up being the 2012 A6 Hybrid. The front-wheel-drive, not quattro, sedan will combine the brand's ubiquitous—but efficient and responsive—direct-injected and turbocharged 2.0-liter TFSI four-cylinder engine with a strong electric motor...

  • Ed Begley, Jr. Ford Electric Vehicles Informercial
    Ed Begley, Jr. Launches Ford’s Electric Car War On Chevrolet, Nissan (VIDEO)

    Choosing a spokesperson for a new brand is pretty tough, especially if someone else has already had a go at selling what you’re trying to. NIssan chose world-champion cyclist Lance Armstrong to be their public face on early Nissan LEAF commercials. It appears Ford has chosen American actor...

  • 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5
    2011 Detroit Auto Show: Tesla Celebrates 1500 Roadsters Sold

    Tesla celebrated the start of the 2011 Detroit Auto Show today by announcing that it had now sold over 1,500 of its iconic electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster. It was November 18, 2006 when we were first shown the sexy two-door car that very few believed could be as good as the then unknown...

  • Toyota Prius C Concept launch press conference, 2011 Detroit Auto Show
    2011 Detroit Auto Show: Toyota Prius C Compact Hybrid Concept

    As part of the family of four Toyota Prius hybrids that the carmaker unveiled at the today's Detroit Auto Show, it showed a concept for a new, compact Prius hatchback. Low, edgy, and relatively sleek for a highly aerodynamic Kamm-tailed car, the Prius C concept is actually Toyota's second concept...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius V launch press conference, 2011 Detroit Auto Show
    2011 Detroit Auto Show: 2012 Toyota Prius V, Photo Gallery

    Auto show press conferences sometimes resemble mosh pits, but savvy photographers know how to get the best angles while protecting vulnerable body parts. Photographer Joe Nuxoll got most of these shots from the event where Toyota launched its 2012 Prius V multi-purpose vehicle (or, for those of us...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius V
    2011 Detroit Auto Show: 2012 Toyota Prius V, Wagon / Minivan

    At 50 miles per gallon, the 2011 Toyota Prius five-door hatchback is the most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S. But, says Toyota, its customers told the company they needed more room--for people, for stuff, for stretching out. So the quintessential Prius hybrid is becoming not just a vehicle but...

  • Ford C-Max Energi, first revealed at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show

    Just a few days after unveiling the 2012 Ford Focus Electric at the 2011 Consumer Electrics Show in Las Vegas, Ford has expanded its green fleet for 2012/13 with yet another plug in vehicle: The C-MAX Energi Plug-in Hybrid From the specifications and the way Ford is talking about its new vehicles, one thing is clear: Ford has both the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and the 2011 Nissan LEAF in its sights. Revealed to a packed audience earlier at the 2011 Detroit auto show, the five seat multi-activity vehicle is the new generation of an already popular European Ford Vehicle. With the same integrated...

  • Ford C-Max Hybrid, first revealed at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show
    2011 Detroit Auto Show: Ford C-Max Hybrid & Energi Plug-In Concepts

    While Toyota dominates global hybrid production, Ford was the first company to launch a hybrid SUV: the Ford Escape Hybrid, in 2004. Now, Ford is pioneering another hybrid model: the small minivan, or as Europeans call it, the people carrier. Hybrid mini-minivan Between 10 and 10:30 am today at the...

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric
    Coming Soon to Best Buy: Electric Car Home Charging Stations

    Until recently, getting Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) installed in your home required you to go directly to the manufacturers of the equipment, or buy direct from your electric car dealer. But in a deal announced today at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, Ford and Best Buy announced...

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric
    2012 Ford Focus Electric Unveiled by CEO at CES

    Earlier this week Ford hinted on the social media network site Facebook that it had plans to unveil an all-electric car at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. From the shots it released, we guessed the announcement would include an all-electric Focus. As suspected, Ford CEO Allan...

  • Tesla Model S Sedan
    2011 Detroit Auto Show: Electric Car Preview

    The Holidays are over, the New Year celebrated, which means it’s the time of year when the auto-world descends on Detroit for the North American International Motor Show. Held over the coming two weeks, it will showcase the very latest in automotive design, innovation and technology. Last...

  • 2012 Buick Verano
    GM Enters Compact Luxury Segment With 2012 Buick Verano

    While the styling of Buick’s new compact sedan has been known for some time now (a version of the car was unveiled last year in China as the Excelle GT), we finally get a look at the North American model, which will be making its official debut next week at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show. Set to...

  • BYD e6 electric crossover, Electric Avenue, 2010 Detroit Auto Show

    Now that the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevy Volt have reached showrooms--a handful of them, anyhow--a new crop of electric vehicles will launch into the market for 2011. One of those may be the e6 all-electric crossover built by Chinese manufacturer BYD. Famed financier Warren Buffet was so intrigued by the upstart battery maker-turned-auto manufacturer that he bought 10 percent of the company two years ago, instantly catapulting it into the harsh glare of global coverage. Since then, the company has made and broken a string of deadlines for when it would launch its e6 into the U.S. market...

  • 2011 Fisker Karma plug-in sports sedan at Fisker Santa Monica, July 2010, from WebRidesTV
    Fisker Dealer: Karma Plug-In Sedan Deliveries Start March or April

    We've written before about the schedule for the 2011 Fisker Karma, which (like many other electric cars) has slipped a bit since the car was first unveiled. Now Fisker's newest dealer, located in none other than LA's epicenter of green consciousness--namely Santa Monica, California--says that the...

  • Undisguised 2011 Chevrolet Aveo, SB-Meridien photo digitally altered with permission by AveoForum
    2011 Chevrolet Aveo Shown Sans Disguise; Thanks, Photoshop!

    Some auto writers (not us, truly) have been known to sneer at car forum sites. But we try to monitor the forums regularly, 'cause sometimes you see the darnedest things. Take, for example, this photo of a 2011 Chevrolet Aveo in undisguised form, minus the usual spy-shot camouflage. It comes from...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Will Nissan Have a Smaller Electric Car For Sale After the Leaf?

    Rumors are flying that Nissan is preparing a subcompact electric vehicle to compete directly with cars like the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, and it may even be made in China. The rumors are unconfirmed: word of mouth from inside a partner company of Nissan. But given the number of pre-launch reservations for...

  • 2011 Audi A1 and Justin Timberlake on LA photo shoot
    Audi's Green Onslaught: A3 Sedan, A8 Hybrid, e-Tron Tesla-Fighter

    It's going to take Audi a long time to live down its U.S. chief's infamous quote that anyone who buys a Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle is an "idiot." But after sticking to diesel for a long time as its sole green strategy, Audi is now storming ahead into smaller, hybrid, and...

  • Literally a golf cart: EV Electric eZone Tropic, Electric Avenue, 2010 Detroit Auto Show
    January's Most Popular Green Car Posts: 2012 Ford Focus, Electric Ave

    With the start of the new year, we're back to our end-of-month rundowns on the top five most popular green car posts of the last 30 days. For January, the top two came from our comprehensive coverage of the 2010 Detroit Auto Show. We have just one carryover this month from the year's Top Ten Most...

  • 2010 Chevrolet Equinox LT

    Cleaning up a few odds and ends from last week's 2010 Detroit Auto Show brings us to General Motors' future product plans for plug-in hybrids. In the crush of reporters asking questions (known as the "scrum") after a GM announcement, a few more nuggets came to light. GM showed its striking and well-received Cadillac XTS Platinum concept car with a 3.6-liter, 350-horsepower direct-injection V-6 engine and a plug-in hybrid system that uses wall current to recharge its 8-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack in about five hours. The production version of the Cadillac XTS full-size luxury sedan...

  • Hyundai Blue-Will Concept, 2010 Detroit Auto Show
    2010 Detroit Auto Show: Hyundai Blue-Will Plug-In Hybrid Concept

    We somehow omitted one hybrid concept until now in our 2010 Detroit Auto Show coverage; it's the Hyundai Blue-Will four-door sports sedan, which is unusual in both name and looks. Some loved it, some loathed it, but we're as interested in its plug-in hybrid powertrain as in the rather nervous...

  • Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, at Ford plant announcement
    2010 Detroit Auto Show: Ford To Bring Hybrid Batteries Back Home

    Ford was on a roll at this year's Detroit Auto Show. It launched its new 2011 Ford Focus compact sedan and hatchback, which got rave reviews, and its 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid won North American Car of the Year. The company added a late-breaking press conference on Monday to make a further...

  • Literally a golf cart: EV Electric eZone Tropic, Electric Avenue, 2010 Detroit Auto Show
    2010 Detroit Auto Show: The Confusing Wrongness of Electric Avenue

    Only four electric vehicles really matter at the Detroit Auto Show: the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the 2012 Nissan Leaf, and the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid, plus the current 2010 Tesla Roadster. They're on sale, or destined for volume production. The rest fall into two categories:  low-volume...

  • Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept
    2010 Detroit Auto Show: Cadillac XTS Concept Revives GM's Plug-In Hybrid Hopes

    Say "luxury hybrid," and very few people think of Cadillac. Sure, the Escalade Hybrid large luxury sport-utility vehicle has been around for a few years, but Cadillac has no hybrid sedans. That may be about to change, if the Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept unveiled this morning at the Detroit Auto...

  • 2011 Honda CR-Z
    2010 Detroit Auto Show: Full Details on the 2011 Honda CR-Z Hybrid

    The 2010 Honda CR-Z hybrid is the first compact hybrid to go for a sporty edge.

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