2010
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As BMW bring to an end the first round of BMW Mini E lease schemes in the U.K, drivers in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Boston and Connecticut can look forward to signing up to help BMW test its ActiveE, two years before its MegaCity EV hits the market. Based on a 2010 BMW 1-series chassis, the 450 ActiveE will feature a range of 100 miles, room for four passengers and the same sporty performance the BMW Mini E demonstrated. But unlike the Mini E, the BMW ActiveE will keep the BMW tradition of rear-wheel drive cars alive with a rear-mounted motor capable of...
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Dodge Caliber Gets Suspension Upgrades for 2011
The Dodge Caliber is one of those cars that are more about substance than about style. It is no secret that the Caliber won’t win any style contests, but what it doesn’t have in looks it tries to make up for in functionality. One of those functional upgrades for 2011 includes the...
Jonathan McGrew -
Jaguar Tests Flywheel Hybrid System Just Like Racing Porsche
Since Ford sold Jaguar Land Rover to Indian carmaker Tata in TK, the luxury maker has stepped out a bit. Their green efforts have taken down several interesting technology paths that seem unlikely had they stayed underneath the Blue Oval of Dearborn. The latest to surface is a demonstration vehicle...
John Voelcker -
Saab's First Electric Car Unveiled: Saab 9-3 ePower EV
Saab have had a rough time of late. Mismanagement and poor guidance under General Motors led to an uncompetitive product line and when GM pulled the plug, Saab momentarily disappeared from the scene. Luckily though, Dutch supercar manufacturer Spyker stepped in and the company is due for...
Antony Ingram -
More Hyundai EVs: Korean Maker To Show Electric SUV In 2011
Not a week after Hyundai announced its plans to launch the i10-based BlueOn electric subcompact in 2012, the South Korean manufacturer has announced its plans to launch another all-electric vehicle by the end of 2011. The new EV is said to be based on a small cross utility vehicle (CUV) that...
Antony Ingram -
Smart ForTwo Diesel Drive Report: Does U.S. Get The Wrong Smart?
You'd be hard pressed to call us fans of the 2010 Smart ForTwo here at GreenCarReports. The tiny two-seater is a novel idea unfortunately let down in execution. Whilst the car is spacious despite its exterior appearance and we can't fault equipment levels and quality, some mechanical aspects let...
Antony Ingram -
The overall carbon footprint of a vehicle is more than 90 percent composed of the fuel used to move it around, but manufacturing plays a role too. Many automakers are quietly working to include more renewable materials into a product that's largely made of metal, plastic, and glass. The latest example comes from Ford, which reinforces plastic storage bins and door panels with wheat straw--made from the wheat-plant biomass you see waving in the air when you drive past the Midwest's prevalent wheat fields. The research leading to the new material was jointly funded by the Canadian government's...
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Hyundai Blueon Sets Path For Next Nissan Leaf Competitor
Hyundai is one of the fastest up and coming brands in the world and it is one that has been steadily continuing to make profits over the past couple years. The company has also had some great hits with the all-new for 2010 Hyundai Sonata and the Hyundai Genesis Sedan and Coupe. While rumors still...
Jonathan McGrew -
So What's Your Favorite (Green, Please) Ford Of All Time?
If you're a Twitter user, you may have noticed that carmakers are starting to tweet big-time. And it's not just regurgitated marketing propaganda either. The @Ford account just tweeted the following, which intrigued us: @Ford: In 1953, Ford produced its 40-millionth U.S.-built vehicle. We're still...
John Voelcker -
1,400 Smarts Turn Up for U.K. Smartfest Car Show
Whilst the U.S. might not be warming to the 'Smart car' quite the way owners Daimler might have hoped, the same can't be said for the car's reception in Europe. 2010 marks the tenth anniversary of the Smart in the United Kingdom, and to celebrate, the marque hosted 'Smartfest' at Mercedes-Benz...
Antony Ingram -
A Look At What's Cooking At Argonne National Laboratory
A couple of weeks back, I received an invite to visit Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Chicago. The lab spends a fair amount of time on transportation research--up to 10 percent of what the lab does revolves around transportation--as it looks towards the future of fuels used to power the...
Tim Healey -
New Versus Old: Dodge Challenger Comparison
The Challenger was first introduced to the Dodge product line in 1970 as a sister car to the Plymouth Barracuda and as competition to the Mercury Cougar and Pontiac Firebird. Notice how I said the Cougar and Firebird; yes, the Challenger was supposed to be bigger and more luxurious in order to...
Jonathan McGrew -
Hagerty published the following in April of 2003. So far I haven’t found an update, but this is still interesting. The study was conducted from 1999 to 2002. Hagerty Protection Network named the following models to its Top 10 Stolen Collector Vehicles list for 2003: 1. Chevrolet Corvette (1966-1982) 13.3 percent 2. Ford Mustang (1964-1969) 6.5 percent 3. Chevrolet Impala (1958-1967) 5.6 percent 4. Chevrolet Camaro (1968, 1969) 4.7 percent 5. Harley Davidson motorcycles (1941-1974) 4.4 percent 6. Chevrolet Nova (1963-1972) 3.6 percent 7. Chevrolet Chevelle (1966-1973) 2.7 percent 8...
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Lithium-Ion Supply Delays Arrival Of Volkswagen Blue-E-Motion
Electric cars are coming; in fact, it seems like most major manufacturers either has a vehicle coming to market soon or has one in plan. Volkswagen is one of the manufacturers that have a car that is pretty much ready to go to market. However, according Car and Drive, the Golf...
Jonathan McGrew -
Global Toyota Prius Hybrid Sales Level Off As Incentives End
Talk about up-again, down-again. It was just a year ago when a global shortages of 2010 Toyota Prius models kept supplies tight all over the world. Now, they may start to pile up on dealer lots again. Last summer, the company had just launched the all-new 2010 Prius, the third generation of the...
John Voelcker -
U.S. Army Goes Electric With Smart-Grid Enabled EVs
The U.S. military is hardly the first place you'd look to find an electric vehicle, but Canadian firm Rapid Electric Vehicles has just received a four-vehicle order from the U.S. Army for a test fleet of all-electric vehicles. The vehicles will be tested by the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
More Smart ForTwo Trouble: Owners Least Likely To Buy Another
As regular readers know, we've never been big fans of the Smart ForTwo minicar. It's not that we dislike small two-seaters; in fact, we think they're cool (unlike most U.S. car buyers, we should add). No, our problems with the Smart stem from its unpleasant driving quality--the slamming shifts from...
John Voelcker -
At 307 MPH, Ohio-Built Electric Racer Is Anything But Slow
Land speed records have long been a integral part of motor racing, but for many years electric vehicles have been viewed as slow and cumbersome. With a 0-60 mph time of less than four seconds, the 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport certainly puts the myth of slow vehicles to bed, but just how fast can an...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
The electric motor is a great invention, but it's entirely limited by the power that the battery can feed to it, and that power is limited by the amount of energy the battery can store. Battery technology is in constant development behind the scenes, though, and the latest to emerge in research at Washington State University promises to be the most powerful non-nuclear energy storage ever. We're used to Nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH), Lithium-Nickel (Li-Ni) batteries, and Lithium-ion (Li-Ion), as you'd find in cars such as the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt. Now meet the Xenon...
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Toyota Prius To Make Noise During Electric Running, in Japan
In another step toward making silent electric cars less so, Toyota Prius hybrids sold in Japan are to be offered with an optional system that broadcasts a "humming" noise outside the car whenever it operates solely on electricity. The system is Toyota's response to the fears of blind people that...
John Voelcker -
40 Percent Of U.S. Adults Want To Test Drive An EV
In news that will no doubt be music to the ears of any manufacturer planning to sell an electric vehicle, new research by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) finds that two fifths of US adults are interested in test driving an EV. The study reveals that consumers are interested in the...
Antony Ingram -
Ouch! Honda Yanks Civic Hybrid AND Insight Off Sale In Canada
[UPDATE: Honda Canada later clarified to Autoblog Green that it was not removing the cars from sale, but merely selling down available stocks, and that it would order more units from Japan when and if customer sales actually depleted its supplies of either model.] As early as last year's U.S. sales...
John Voelcker -
Around The World In 80 Days... On Renewable Electricity
Electric vehicles might not be the first mode of transport you'd think of to drive around the world, but that's what the five teams taking part in the Zero Race have just set off to achieve. Starting from the Swiss capital city Geneva, the teams will cover 30,000 kilometers (18,650 miles) on their...
Antony Ingram -
Fuel Economy In the Sky: Whose Jets Get the Most Mileage?
It's Friday, so we're straying slightly afield from covering cars. In this case, we're turning our green lens toward jetliners to look at fuel economy in the sky. Anyone who travels on a jet more than once has likely more than doubled their non-flying carbon footprint, and there are unlikely to be...
John Voelcker