2011
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If you're on the U.S. waiting list for a 2011 Nissan Leaf, we certainly hope you already have a charging station already installed in your garage. Bloomberg caught wind that some consumers are having their orders dropped temporarily until they install a plug-in charger at home and present the paperwork to prove it. This will apparently exacerbate the already long wait times to get the new Nissan Leaf, which we named the GreenCarReports Best Car To Buy last year. Marc Fishman of Burbank, California, has had his order delayed every month for the last four months. “My delivery date kept...
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Endurance Racing Sans Gasoline: Biodiesel Runs At Nurburgring
The VLN is a race series held in Germany each year where the cars speed around the grueling Nurburgring-Nordschleife, a track often nicknamed the ‘Green Hell’ because it’s surrounded by pristine green hills but is also one of the toughest and most intensive of its kind anywhere in...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Why Ford Would Be Crazy To Kill The Escape Hybrid: Real AWD
Ford has made lots of changes to its model lineup of late, some of them remarkably quickly. Now comes word that the new Ford Escape compact crossover for 2013 may not include the Escape Hybrid model it has sold since 2004. We think that would be a terrible shame, because it takes off the market a...
John Voelcker -
All-New 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid To Get 47-48 City MPG: Report
The all-new, entirely redesigned 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid sedan may be rated by the EPA as high as 47 or 48 mpg on the city cycle, according to reports on a website that follows Ford news. The redesigned Ford Fusion sedan will be largely identical to the next Ford Mondeo sedan for Europe under the...
John Voelcker -
Five Top Electric Car Themed Gifts for Fathers' Day
We’re less than a week away from Father’s Day - the annual celebration of what our Fathers mean to us - and sometimes an excuse for presents, trips and surprises. If your Father is an electric vehicle fan but you haven’t yet got him a present don’t worry: here’s just...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
What Would You Give Up For Higher Gas Mileage? Cash? Features? Safety?
It happens every time. Gas prices go up sharply, and new car buyers suddenly decide that gas mileage is important--and shop accordingly. With gas around $4 a gallon in many parts of the country, what would you trade for higher miles per gallon? Would you pay more? Would you buy a smaller car than...
John Voelcker -
We know that the Mini lineup will expand into several sizes, Now an executive at BMW (which owns the iconic British brand) has said there may be as many as 10 different Mini models in future. The Mini lineup for 2011 already includes four models: There's the Mini Cooper three-door hatchback and convertible, the Clubman wagon, and the new Countryman all-wheel-drive crossover utility vehicle. Two-seaters next Coming up next are new two-seater Minis, in both Coupe and Roadster models. Last week, Mini released "factory spy shots" of a lightly camouflaged Mini Coupe under testing. It will go on...
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Honda CR-Z Racer To Kick Its Tail At Le Mans
It seems like green cars hitting the race track is a trend this year, and now a 2011 Honda CR-Z Racer will make the rounds at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. Of course, it won't go head-to-head with the turbocharged V-12 gas guzzlers. Instead it will be part of a special...
Kevin Lee -
2011 TT Zero: MotoCzysz Team Takes First, Second Places
This year’s TT Zero - annual all-electric version of the iconic Isle of Man TT Motorcycle Race, has been won by British motorcyclist Michael Rutter on his MotoCzysz E1PC. Delayed by 24 hours due to heavy rain, the motorcycle race took place on the Isle of Man, and included riders from Europe...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
An Even Minier MINI: Tiny 3-Cylinder Carbon-Fiber Car In 2014
If you, like us, think the modern-day MINIs are simply getting too big to be called a mini, then never fear as the automaker is reportedly set to launch its smallest model yet. MINI showed off a new concept car the recent 2011 Geneva Motor Show called the Rocketman, which is probably the closest...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2012 Volvo C30 Electric: 250 Available In Europe This Fall
If you're one of our European readers who's had his or her sights set on leasing a Volvo C30 Electric, we have good news and bad news. First the good news: Volvo has announced plans to start producing the C30 Electric for European customers this fall. The bad news? The company is only making 250 of...
Richard Read -
Why Buy Electric Cars? Iraq Vet Says: For National Security
Most Nissan Leaf owners are passionate about their electric cars, especially the earliest ones who've already taken delivery. But not all of them have served three tours of military duty, including service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tim Goodrich was posted to Afghanistan as an avionics technician...
John Voelcker -
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) - the state department charged with reducing air pollution and improving the quality of air that Californians breathe - has announced that the California state electric vehicle rebate program will soon run out of money, meaning that electric car buyers may have to wait for more funding to be released before they get their rebate. Worse still, increased demand in the program means that while CARB is proposing to triple the funding allocation for rebates for the next fiscal year it is also planning to halve the maximum rebate available for each car...
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Want to Take Your Electric Car Skiing? Now You Can (Video)
Forgive us for saying so, but most electric car owners live in urban or suburban areas, using their cars to get themselves and their family to work or school, or perhaps running errands throughout the day. Most days, the car will end the day with charge to spare. But what if you could use your...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
More Sites Install Solar Carports For Electric-Car Charging
It's the green ideal: Charging an electric car or plug-in hybrid using electricity generated purely from the sun. But it's not fiction; a handful of large, multi-space solar carports are popping up in areas as diverse as Silicon Valley, New York City, Detroit, and Tennessee. The latest one...
Kevin Lee -
Roving Recharge Truck from Nissan to Aid Dead Electric Cars
Japanese electric car owners in eastern Prefecture of Kanagawa can now drive easy without the fear of being stranded with a flat battery pack thanks to a new pilot project being run between Nissan Japan and the Japan Automobile Federation - the Japanese equivalent of the AAA. Stranded owners of...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
What Really Killed The Cadillac SRX Plug-In? It's Complicated
When a major automaker cancels an innovative plug-in hybrid vehicle program, that's big news. If it's General Motors, that goes double, given the politics that continue to swirl around GM's bankruptcy and the U.S. government's ongoing ownership of part of the company. So it was news when...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevy Volt Gets Five Stars For Overall Safety From NHTSA
Well, log another notch in the bedpost: One more safety myth--that electric cars will be more dangerous than regular ones in a crash--has now been slain. Five weeks ago, the Insurance Industry for Highway Safety (IIHS) gave top ratings for crash safety to both the 2011 Nissan Leaf and the 2011...
John Voelcker -
Unlike other compact cars, the gas-mileage story for the 2011 Hyundai Elantra is simple. There's a single engine, a choice of two transmissions--six-speed automatic or six-speed manual--and any Elantra you order will have the same EPA-rated gas mileage. The figures are 29 mpg city, 40 mpg highway, for a combined 33 mpg rating. Hyundai makes a big deal out of the Elantra's 40-mpg highway rating, by pointing out that you don't have to special-order a specific model or trim level to get that rating. VIDEO: 2011 Hyundai Elantra: Two-Minute Road Test Review VIDEO: Five Things We Like About The...
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Nissan Takes On Le Mans With Nismo RC Electric Race Car
Ask most electric vehicle fans to name an electric car best suited to the race track and the chance are the super sexy Tesla Roadster will get mentioned long before the 2011 Nissan Leaf. But a few months ago NIssan’s motorsport division unveiled its own electric racing car concept based on...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
780 Miles in a 2011 Nissan Leaf in One Day? Yes, But... (Video)
We love hearing about the weird and whacky things some electric vehicle enthusiasts and early adopters are doing with their cars, but the latest in a long-line of Nissan Leaf-based tests has left us feeling a little perplexed. 24 hours, one car In a recent YouTube video, a team of intrepid Dutch...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Ford's Gas Mileage Goals Spawn 3-Cylinder Engine, New Hybrids
Smaller, more efficient engines that equal the power of larger, lazier ones are how automakers all over the world plan to raise fuel economy. Today Ford [NYSE:F] doubled down on engineering as the best way to boost gas mileage, with announcements about three separate technologies it plans to use in...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Volt Ultimate Guide
You told us that you enjoyed our 2011 Nissan Leaf: Ultimate Reference Guide so much that we’re back again with AllCarElectric’s ultimate guide to the 2011 Nissan Leaf’s closest rival, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. Below is our list of must-read articles on Chevrolet’s...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2011 Fisker Karma Plug-In Hybrid: Sales Now To Start In July
Much attention and too little perspective has been focused on the monthly sales reports for the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, the first mass-market plug-in electric cars. But electric-car fans still eagerly await the always-imminent arrival of another production car with a plug, the 2011 Fisker Karma...
John Voelcker