2011
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It’s now been well over a year since the first 2011 Nissan Leafs were delivered to customers in California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona. But after one year, how are early Nissan Leafs performing? Are their battery packs still healthy, or have they started to show signs of wear already? According to anecdotal evidence from popular Nissan Leaf Internet forum MyNissanLeaf, most -- if not all -- Leafs so far are being given a clean bill of health on their first annual service. That includes their 24 kilowatt-hour battery packs. As part of Nissan’s annual service schedule for the...
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Volt Hearings: Volt Is Safe, NHTSA "Acted Proportionally"
"Although we loaded the Volt with state-of-the-art safety features, we did not engineer the Volt to be a political punching bag. Sadly, that is what it's become." That's how General Motors CEO Dan Akerson described the furor surrounding the Chevrolet Volt battery fires. A pack demolished in NHTSA...
Antony Ingram -
Hyundai Hits Mileage Targets Early, Says Elantra 40-MPG Rating Accurate
South-Korean automaker Hyundai announced last week that it achieved a fleet-wide corporate average fuel economy of 36 mpg across its entire 2011 range. In doing so, Hyundai has essentially met U.S. 2016 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards set for cars and light-duty trucks four years...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Animation Shows Chevy Volt Crash Safety Updates: Video
An animation released by General Motors depicts the modifications to Chevy Volt that will be performed by dealers to strengthen the battery compartment.
Kurt Ernst -
Last Tesla Roadster Built By Lotus, All Eyes Toward Model S
All good things must come to an end, and it's the same with the first modern electric car, the already legendary Tesla Roadster. It's long been known that Lotus Cars would build only 2,600 Roadster "gliders" for California-based Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA]. The company then installs the lithium-ion...
John Voelcker -
Tsunami-Damaged Nissan Leafs Show Strength Of Battery Packs
When we wrote last year about the 2011 Nissan Leaf being waterboarded for your safety, little did we know an even sterner test was about to challenge the safety of Nissan's electric car. The devastating and tragic results of the March tsunami shook Japan to the core, and resulted in the country's...
Antony Ingram -
The venerable Jeep Grand Cherokee, one of the longest-running SUV brands on the market, will be coming to the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit as an all-electric car. But it isn’t heading to Detroit as an official release on the Chrysler stand. Instead, it will be there on the stand of Amp Electric Vehicles, the firm responsible for all-electric Chevrolet Equinox and all-electric Mercedes Benz ML conversions. According to AutoblogGreen, the latest conversion is a no-brainer for the small Cincinnati firm: its 2012 Mercedes ML conversion kits fits perfectly in the...
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Rinspeed Dock+Go Concept Adds Versatility To Smart Electric Drive
Rinspeed's latest concept would add both range and functionality to the Smart Electric Drive.
Kurt Ernst -
GM Said To Be Close To Design For Volt Battery Pack Modification
Engineers at General Motors are close to finalizing a set of design modifications to the Chevrolet Volt battery pack to prevent later fires in packs that have been severely damaged in accidents. The updates come in response to two fires in lithium-ion Volt battery packs that were compromised during...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Opens Reservations For Leaf Electric Cars In 7 More States
Believe it or not, December 12 will mark one year since Oliver Chalouhi of Redwood City, California became the first U.S. owner of a production 2011 Nissan Leaf. For some Nissan Leaf fans however, December 12 marks the additional year that they’ve waited to be able to buy the all-electric...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Tesla Roadster Owners Soon To Get iPhone App Thanks To Tech-Savvy Fans
Nearly every electric car on the market today comes with technology that enables you to remotely start its charging cycle, pre-cool the cabin, or check its state of charge using a smart phone or computer. But while owners of the $109,000 Tesla Roadster aren’t among those who had smart-phone...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Consumer Watchdog To EPA: Re-Test Hyundai Elantra Gas Mileage
The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog has called for the EPA to test whether the Hyundai Elantra lives up to its EPA gas-mileage ratings in real-world use; owners have complained that it doesn't.
John Voelcker -
Despite the NHTSA inquiry into battery-pack fires following severe crash tests of the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car, the car's 5,000 or so owners to date seem to be unworried. Comments on Volt owner forums largely dismiss worries about any risk of fire during accidents, and many owners still seem ecstatically happy with their cars. So much so, in fact, that Consumer Reports says the Chevrolet Volt has the single highest rate of owner satisfaction of any new car this year. (And few if any apparently plan to accept the GM offer of a loaner car during the investigation--Corvette...
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Mugen CR-Z: Hybrid Honda Hot Rod Mixes MPG And MPH
Honda's aim with its CR-Z hybrid sports coupe was to inject a bit of much-needed excitement into a market that viewed traditional hybrids as a bit dull, a bit vanilla. Unfortunately for some, the CR-Z was neither a tire-burning machine nor a particularly parsimonious runabout. Maybe vanilla was the...
Antony Ingram -
GM Offers Loan Cars To Chevy Volt Customers While Crash Fires Are Investigated
A few weeks ago we told you about a 2011 Chevrolet Volt which had caught fire in a storage yard three weeks after it was subjected to an official National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash test. But after a second Chevrolet Volt caught fire at the NHTSA test labs last week following a...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
San Diego: Car2Go's Choice For First All-Electric Car Share Service
The City of San Diego has become the first city in North America to offer an all-electric car sharing network, thanks to Car2Go. A fleet of more than 300 all-electric Smart ForTwo Electric Drives were present at the November 18 launch event. A subsiduary of Daimler North America Corporation, the...
Antony Ingram -
Chevrolet Volt Ready To Go On Sale In China, Priced At $75K
General Motors has revealed the eight Chinese cities in which the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car will be sold. The Volt will go on sale in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Foshan towards the end of this year. However, with GM not keen to hand over some...
Antony Ingram -
2011 Audi Q7 TDI Clean-Diesel SUV: Quick Drive
We tend to prefer smaller cars here at Green Car Reports. Since far more than half of U.S. car journeys are made by a single occupant, smaller could often suffice--and cost less, and pollute less. But some buyers simply need larger vehicles--or at least want them--and seven-seat sport-utility...
John Voelcker -
The devastating earthquakes that hit Japan earlier this year may have severely affected the production of cars worldwide, but according to Nissan Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn, his primary concern was to get production of the Nissan Leaf back on track. According to an article published in The New York Times on Friday, Ghosn told the assembled guests at a Japan Society event in Manhattan that the all-electric car was top of his post-tsunami to-do list. Calling it Nissan’s “anti-crisis weapon”, Ghosn said the Nissan Leaf had the potential to help combat the company’s exposure...
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Lexus GS To Get Second, Lower Power Hybrid Model For Europe?
If the Lexus CT200h wasn't evidence enough that the Japanese luxury car maker sees downsizing as an important brand strategy, then plans for a new small hybrid engine in the GS sedan could be further proof. The smaller hybrid would join the 2013 Lexus GS 450h hybrid that was revealed at the 2011...
Antony Ingram -
One Year, One Talk-Show Host, 11,000 Miles, And No Gasoline
Talk-show host Jay Leno might own everything from vintage Model T Fords through to large-engined, gas-guzzling supercars, but it turns out his daily driver is the 2011 Chevrolet Volt he purchased last year. And in that time, Leno says, he hasn’t visited a gas-station once. Since collecting...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Little Love For Nissan Leaf In Luxury-Conscious Hong Kong
If you thought the Nissan Leaf was a hard sell in the expanses of North America, then you may be surprised to learn it's doing far less well in one of its natural habitats. Cities are where electric cars often make the most sense, but the fashion and luxury-conscious buyers in smog-ridden Hong Kong...
Antony Ingram -
Fire Marshal Says NC Garage Fire Started Away From Chevy Volt: Exclusive
The fire marshal investigating a Mooresville, NC, fire that engulfed a 2011 Chevrolet Volt electric car has concluded preliminarily that the car was not the source of the fire.
John Voelcker -
Third Fire Consumes A Chevy Volt Electric Car: Perspective
Neither GM nor the NHTSA has been able to replicate a fire that occurred in a wrecked Chevrolet Volt three weeks after it was demolished in an NHTSA crash test.
John Voelcker