eAssist
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The eAssist mild hybrid system is dead, long live the eAssist mild hybrid system? With continually rising corporate average fuel economy levels required through 2025, General Motors will test a third generation of its eAssist mild-hybrid system during the current model year. This time, though, they're not sedans and small SUVs. They're full-size pickup trucks, some of the highest-volume and most profitable vehicles GM sells. DON'T MISS: Pickup Truck Fuel Economy For 2016: Diesels Take Top Three Spots A few hundred 2016 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks will be offered with the...
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GM To Fall Short Of 500,000 Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Goal For 2017
General Motors says it won't achieve a previously-set goal for hybrid and electric-car sales.
Stephen Edelstein -
2015 Chevrolet Impala Gets Start-Stop, But Hybrid 'Eco' Gone
New information on updates for 2015 to the Chevrolet Impala full-size sedan range note that a start-stop system will be fitted to the four-cylinder model as standard equipment. So the 2015 Chevy Impala LS model with the base 196-horsepower 2.5-liter four-cylinder will now switch off its engine when...
John Voelcker -
2014 Chevy Malibu Gas Mileage: Making Eco Mild Hybrid Irrelevant, Again?
The 2014 Chevrolet Malibu gets a new base engine, and with it come new, higher fuel-efficiency ratings from the EPA. But does the improved gas mileage mean the Malibu Eco model no longer has a reason to exist? For the new model year, Chevy made a large number of changes to the year-old vehicle...
John Voelcker -
Buick eAssist, Chevy Eco Hybrid Recall For Control Module Check
General Motors announced today that it will recall more than 38,000 Buick and Chevrolet sedans fitted with its eAssist mild-hybrid system, to check for a possibly defective electronic component. The vehicles, from both the 2012 and 2013 model years, are the Buick LaCrosse and Buick Regal sedans...
John Voelcker -
2014 Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain To Get eAssist Hybrid System
Starting with its rollout in the 2012 Buick Lacrosse, GM has steadily added its eAssist mild-hybrid system to an expanding roster of vehicles. Next year, it will be offered as an option on the 2014 Chevrolet Equinox and the 2014 GMC Terrain, which will be the first crossover utility vehicles to...
John Voelcker -
General Motors has narrowed its portfolio of future technologies, and will focus on plug-in and electric vehicles over the coming years. The company will build on the success of its Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car, an area where it leads its competitors, while downplaying more traditional full hybrid technologies. GM Product Chief Mary Barra said in a videoconference yesterday that GM will "make educated bets on which technologies hold the most potential for creating values for our customers and our company." The company will continue with its mild-hybrid eAssist system, which...
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New 2014 Chevrolet Impala Eco Model To Join Cruze, Malibu
Buick has placed a major bet on its eAssist mild hybrid system, offering it as standard equipment on base versions of the 2012 Lacrosse and, more recently, the 2013 Regal as well. Now Chevrolet is planning to spread that same system--which the Bowtie Brand uses on the 2013 Chevy Malibu Eco on sale...
John Voelcker -
2013 Buick Regal Gets eAssist Mild Hybrid As Base Engine To Boost MPG
The eAssist system may have entered production less than a year ago, but General Motors is clearly making a big bet on the mild hybrid system to help its Buick brand meet rising fuel economy regulations. First offered on the base 2.4-liter engine in the 2012 Buick Lacrosse, the eAssist system was...
John Voelcker -
Chevrolet Code 130R & Tru 140S Concept Small Cars: Detroit Auto Show
Chevrolet has continued its trend towards fuel-efficient small cars today with the unveiling of two new concept cars at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. The two cars -- a four-seat, rear-wheel drive coupe called the Code 130R, and a four-seat, three-door, four-seat coupe hatchback called the Tru 140S --...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Buick Lacrosse With eAssist: Mild Hybrid Weekend Drive
We drove the prototype, and liked it. Now we've driven the real thing. We still like it. In this case, "it" is the 2012 Buick Lacrosse with eAssist, the only four-cylinder model that Buick offers in its Lacrosse large luxury sedan. While large Buicks aren't known for their gas mileage, this one is...
John Voelcker -
2013 Chevy Malibu Eco Starts At $26,000, Rated 38 MPG Highway
Chevy's Malibu Eco mild hybrid will deliver near-hybrid highway fuel economy from a starting price of $26,000.
Kurt Ernst -
Remember The Purloined Letter, the classic Edgar Allen Poe story where a letter is hidden by storing it in plain sight? General Motors may not have realized it, but the industry trade journal Automotive News seems to have published a previously unannounced piece of its future model plans--right out in the open. The vehicle is a hybrid-electric version of the Buick Verano, the compact luxury sedan that's just now hitting dealerships. The hybrid Verano won't arrive, mind you, until 2015. At least, that's what it says on an Automotive News graphic spread, "Suppliers to the 2012 Buick Verano,"...
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High-Mileage Chevy Equinox, GMC Terrain To Get Eco eAssist System For 2014?
The mild-hybrid system that General Motors calls eAssist (on the 2012 Buick Lacrosse and Regal models) will also appear on the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco version. But now it appears that the system will spread further across GM's product lines, with a report on GMInsideNews that it will appear on...
John Voelcker -
2012 Buick Lacrosse eAssist: TV Ad Sells MPGs, Avoids H-Word (Video)
The 2012 Buick Lacrosse with eAssist is now beginning to roll into dealerships across the country, and we've been curious to see how GM would market the car. On our preview drive this spring of a prototype Lacrosse with eAssist, we noticed that the dreaded H-word (hybrid) had been virtually...
John Voelcker -
2012 Buick Regal With eAssist Mild Hybrid Priced At $29,530
Buick announced today that it would offer the eAssist mild-hybrid technology on its mid-size 2012 Regal sedan as a $2,000 option over the base 2.4-liter model. That brings the price of the 2012 Buick Regal with eAssist to $29,530, including a mandatory $860 destination charge. The EPA rates the...
John Voelcker -
2012 Buick Lacrosse eAssist 37-MPG Sedan Priced At $30,820 (With Destination)
Buick announced today that it would price the four-cylinder version of its 2012 Lacrosse large sedan at $29,960. That sneaks the advertised price neatly under the $30,000 mark, although a mandatory $860 destination charge means buyers will see a sticker of at least $30,820 before they start adding...
John Voelcker -
2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco: Video Tour At New York Auto Show
First came the news that the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu would have only four-cylinder engines, following the path set by the 2011 Hyundai Sonata and other midsize entries. Then came the official unveiling of the line at last week's New York Auto Show, complete with projected gas mileage numbers. The...
John Voelcker -
Today at the New York auto show, General Motors pulled the wraps off what it says is Chevrolet's first global mid-size sedan, the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. And while the Malibu is a completely new car, with significant upgrades in safety and technology features, the true draw for those interested in making a green, informed, responsible choice is the new 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco. Along with the redesigned exterior that all 2013 Malibu models will receive, the Eco model will get various aerodynamic enhancements—including electronically controlled air shutters, like in the 2011 Chevrolet...
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Suzuki Kizashi EcoCharge Concept Hybrid: 2011 NY Auto Show
Suzuki has had a rough time of it lately, with its only new product being the well-received but still low-volume Kizashi sports sedan, halfway between a compact and a midsize car. But for this week's 2011 New York Auto Show, they're display a couple of Kizashi concepts that point toward what the...
John Voelcker -
FIRST DRIVE: 2012 Buick Lacrosse 37-MPG eAssist Prototype
To date, Buick and "fuel economy" haven't often been used in the same sentence. But the 2012 Buick LaCrosse, the brand's largest surviving car, will offer one engine option that's projected to deliver 25 mpg city, 37 mpg highway. That's not bad for a midsize near-luxury sedan (though 1 mpg lower on...
John Voelcker -
What's Good For GM Is...Good For The Environment?
We asked last year if the new GM would be a cleantech play. It’s looking more and more like that’s the case. Yesterday, the company announced it would be rolling out a hybrid technology system called eAssist in the Buick Regal 2012 that will boost fuel economy by 25 percent. The system...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
Chicago Auto Show Preview: 2012 Buick Regal With eAssist Option
Buick plans to add its eAssist mild-hybrid system to the 2012 Regal sedan as an option, making the Regal its second model to offer the mileage-increasing system. According to trade publication Ward's Auto, Buick will introduce the option at the Chicago Auto Show next week. Last November, General...
John Voelcker -
Chevy's Got the Volt; Will Cadillac Be GM's Hybrid Leader?
Among car buyers, none of the four surviving General Motors brands are really associated with hybrid vehicles. Now that customer deliveries have started for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car, GM's other brands will need some green cred too. What's the future of GM's Two-Mode...
John Voelcker