minicar
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The Mitsubishi Mirage is selling better than certain hybrid models.
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2016 Chevrolet Spark EV To Be Sold At Retail In Canada
It may not have too many more years to live, but the Chevrolet Spark EV will be sold in some new markets starting with the 2016 model year: three Canadian provinces. While General Motors had offered the Spark EV for fleet purchase in parts of the country, it wasn't available to retail...
John Voelcker -
Third Recall For Fiat 500e: 5,600 Electric Cars To Be Checked For Software Fault
Roughly 5,600 Fiat 500e electric cars will be recalled by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to fix a potential software problem with the cars' Limp Home mode. In a notice issued Saturday, the company said that, "incompatible software between Electric Vehicle Control Unit and Battery Pack Control Module may...
John Voelcker -
Shell Project M Concept City Car: Huge Efficiency Gains Possible, Designer Gordon Murray Says
Famed car designer Gordon Murray will team up with former Honda engine specialist Osamu Goto and oil company Shell to develop a concept for "an ultra-compact, efficient car for city use based around the internal combustion engine." It's not intended for production. Instead, the project's ambitions...
John Voelcker -
2016 Smart ForTwo: First Drive Of European Version
The 2016 Smart ForTwo minicar will arrive at U.S. dealers this fall. When it does, it will be playing the redemption card every chance it gets. Smart was created to counter the increasing global trend toward urbanization. One way to make cities more manageable is a microcar that fit the needs of...
Matthew Askari -
2016 Chevrolet Spark Teaser Photo Previews New York Auto Show Debut
The 2016 Chevrolet Spark minicar will be unveiled April 2 in New York and Seoul.
Stephen Edelstein -
The little Mitsubishi i-MiEV is the smallest four-seat electric car sold in North America, and its sales have been commensurate with its size: low. Since it went on sale more than three years ago, sales have totaled less than 2,000 units--against 72,300 for the larger Nissan Leaf. DON'T MISS: 2014 Mitsubishi i-MiEV: $6,130 Price Cut, More Standard Features (Dec 2013) Nonetheless, the company is persevering with its battery-electric minicar, and deliveries of the 2016 Mitsubishi i-MiEV will start this month. The news comes via a report at InsideEVs, which Green Car Reports independently...
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2014 Mitsubishi Mirage Six-Month Update: Great MPG, Great Fun
It happens so quickly: They learn to crawl, and then walk, and before you know it, you're helping them do their first oil change in their first new car. A little more than six months ago, I contributed an article on my car shopping experiences with my daughter Priscilla. Those ended with her...
John Briggs -
Honda N-Truck Kei Concept: World's Tiniest Travel Trailer, Too Cute For Words
Sometimes there are cars that just make you grin. So how can you not love a tiny Japanese kei car, their minier-than-minicar class, converted into a pickup truck with its own matched travel trailer behind it? DON'T MISS: Japan's Government Clamps Down On Tiny Kei Cars, Fearing Irrelevance Kei cars...
John Voelcker -
2017 Chevrolet Spark: Photos Of Updated Minicar Leaked In Korea
The Chevrolet Spark minicar, among the smallest five-door hatchbacks sold in North America, has been an unexpected success for General Motors. The company has boosted imports a couple of times, and managed to sell almost 40,000 of them last year--and 34,000 the year before. Now, the first spy shots...
John Voelcker -
Driving Small Electric Cars: What It's Like In The Real World
Reader Jen Danzinger explains what it's really like to drive a very small battery-electric car year-round in the Midwest. In the years following my participation in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize, I have watched with keen interest as major car companies introduced electric vehicles into their...
John Voelcker -
2015 Chevrolet Spark EV To Go On Sale In Maryland This Spring
General Motors said today that it will begin selling its 2015 Chevrolet Spark EV in the state of Maryland this spring, the first East Coast state in which the electric minicar will be available. The Spark EV has a connection to the state: Both its 105-kilowatt (140-horsepower) electric motor and...
John Voelcker -
With a handful of new models coming this year, Toyota's "youth brand" Scion is clearing the decks. One of the casualties is its unsuccessful iQ minicar. The little car, often mistaken for the two-seat Smart ForTwo but actually a "3 + 1-seater" (at least technically), never met its sales goals. Last year, just 2,000 units were sold throughout the U.S. DON'T MISS: Now We Know: U.S. Buyers Don't Much Want Tiny Two-Seat Cars (Jan 2013) Now Bloomberg confirming that the Scion iQ will be dropped. The news service quotes Scion brand chief Doug Murtha as saying the iQ won’t be “staying in...
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How Big Is The 'Little' MINI Cooper Countryman? It's THAT Big
Size is relative, and what counts as a small car today would have been viewed as much larger 50 years ago. Nowhere is that more obvious than in the case of perhaps the definitive front-wheel-drive economy car, the British Mini. DON'T MISS: New 2015 MINI Cooper With Five Doors Confuses...Well...
John Voelcker -
2015 Mitsubishi Mirage Minicar Scores Well On Federal Crash Tests
The 2015 Mitsubishi Mirage earned four- and five-star ratings in government crash tests.
Stephen Edelstein -
BMW i3 REx: Road-Tripping With 72 Electric Miles, 1.9-Gallon Gas Tank
An owner takes his range-extended electric car on a 462-mile road trip.
Stephen Edelstein -
2015 BMW i3 Electric Car: Quick Charging, Seat Heaters Now Standard
The 2015 BMW i3 will get more standard features, BMW officials say.
Stephen Edelstein -
Cheapest Electric Car, Under $10K: Only For Tesla-Hating Car Dealers
A 2014 Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car can be had for under $10,000, but only after some complicated math.
Stephen Edelstein -
Mitusbishi i-MiEV electric cars will be recalled to address faulty brake pumps.
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One Million Chevrolet Spark Minicars Sold Globally Since 2009
The U.S. is the second-largest market for the Chevrolet Spark minicar.
Stephen Edelstein -
Italy's Crisp Carabinieri Get New Patrol Cars: Tiny Electric Minicars
The Mitsubishi i-MiEV joins Italy's Carabinieri.
Stephen Edelstein -
2014 MINI Cooper: Gas Mileage Review With 3-Cyl Engine + Manual
The 2014 MINI Cooper hardtop is the first entire, top-to-bottom redesign of the iconic British minicar. In its base form, with a new 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine and a six-speed manual gearbox, it runs a bit more than $20,000 and is rated at 34 mpg combined. But it's longer, wider...
John Voelcker -
Could Honda's Future 1.0-Liter Be World's Most Efficient Engine?
The last time Honda made a 1.0-liter gasoline engine, it broke new records for fuel efficiency. Found under the hood of the original Insight hybrid, it still has the highest gas mileage of any EPA-rated non-plugin. It also took International Engine of the Year in 2000, and won that competition's...
Antony Ingram -
Smart Electric Drive Ad: Where Winning Drag Races Really Counts
Whatever you think of the diminutive city cars produced by Daimler's Smart brand, the company certainly has a talent for marketing. The latest ad from Smart Canada has the same sort of self-deprecating humor that Volkswagen used for years when advertising its Beetle--another rear-engined small car...
Antony Ingram