2011

From the moment Ford CEO Alan Mulally drove onstage in a 2012 Ford Focus ST, the first of half a dozen new compact Ford models, it was all about small cars. There were small fast cars (that Focus ST) and small gasoline cars (the four-door Focus sedan and five-door Focus hatchback). There was the...

Just a few days after unveiling the 2012 Ford Focus Electric at the 2011 Consumer Electrics Show in Las Vegas, Ford has expanded its green fleet for 2012/13 with yet another plug in vehicle: The C-MAX Energi Plug-in Hybrid From the specifications and the way Ford is talking about its new vehicles...

Later today at the Detroit Auto Show, Chinese carmaker BYD will take the wraps off a new incarnation of the e6 crossover it's shown twice before. This time, however, it comes with an upgraded interior, a more powerful drive motor, and a price: $35,000 before incentives. The company hopes to offer...

111 miles from a full charge. That's the impressive figure attained by not one but two MyNissanLeaf forum members, leafme and Randy on their first journey home having picked up their respective LEAFs from Fontana Nissan in California. Tackling the highways heading South to San Diego their only...

It's been quite a year for the 2011 Chevy Volt, GM's range-extended electric car that went on sale last month. It garnered a slew of awards from various car magazines and other auto media, and now it's capped the year by winning the prestigious North American Car of the Year award. Voted on by...

Soon you will be able to do away with those pesky charging cables for all your portable devices when driving as Powermat, a pioneer in wireless charging technology, is developing new technology that will essentially turn your car into a charging port for your mobile phone, MP3 player or handheld...

General Motors announced today that it has licensed lithium-ion battery technology developed at Argonne National Laboratories, the research institution that's funded largely by the U.S. Department of Energy. The agreement allows GM to use the technology throughout its supply chain, and covers a...

In a move that shows off the latest push among automakers to bring cars to the digital age, Airbiquity and Hitachi Automotive Systems showcased a connected services technology system for electric vehicles at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today. The system, which is debuting in...

The Holidays are over, the New Year celebrated, which means it’s the time of year when the auto-world descends on Detroit for the North American International Motor Show. Held over the coming two weeks, it will showcase the very latest in automotive design, innovation and technology. Last...

Much of 2010 was spent learning more and more details about Chevrolet's exciting new range-extended electric car, the Volt. Towards the end of the year our colleagues at GreenCarReports finally got to drive the vehicle, and more recently the first owners have taken delivery. So what do owners...

Cadillac isn’t known for producing small cars, but that may be changing for the brand that was once called the “Standard of the World.” The Cadillac CTS coupe is a foray into a new market for Cadillac. That isn’t to say that the company hasn’t ever produced coupes...

If the idea of measuring the efficiency of an electric car, which burns no gasoline, in miles per gallon still irks you, spare a thought for our green car expert John Voelcker who goes to some length in this previous article to try and explain why the EPA deems it fit to do so. While that previous...

Buying an electric car today is hardly cheap. With lithium-ion battery prices at around $450 per kilowatt-hour of storage, the 24 kilowatt-hour battery pack found in the 2011 Nissan LEAF weighs in at a jaw-dropping $10,800, and that's before complex battery management electronics are added. That...

Ever since the early 1980s, Japan has led the world of technology and digital entertainment. In 2010, thanks to cars like the 2011 Mitsubishi i and 2011 Nissan LEAF it also adopted electric cars as a viable private transport solution. But the ultra-fast charging technology which made both cars...

Back in July 2009, two Japanese automakers launched electric cars within weeks of each other. (And neither one was Nissan.) One was Mitsubishi, which put its i-MiEV five-door hatchback microcar on sale after several years of consumer tests. That car is now the best-selling electric car in the...

Here we are down to the last two months of our count down to the New Year! The last two months have been full of holidays—they have also been full of automotive news as we ramp up to the Detroit Auto Show in January. News for November and December included the Mitsubishi i-MiEV reaching 5000...

As we get closer to our current articles we though we would combine the last couple of articles as we make our way to New Years—the east coast sooner than others in the U.S. September and October saw articles on the New IBE Concept in Paris, a report on the L.A. Harbor reducing tolls for...

Here we are at mid-2010 already! As we roll through the months counting down to the beginning of 2011 it is interesting to review what was happening during 2010. June was a month that saw AllSmallCars.com participating in the Rocky Mountain Driving Experience, which included driving the 2010...

Being that it is almost New Year’s Eve, it seems appropriate to look back at the news, reviews and opinions that have shaped the automotive industry during 2010. Think of it as our ten-article count down to the New Year. So make sure you check out all ten installments where we here at...

Recently we talked about the 2011 Acura TSX Wagon and it got us thinking about the other wagons on the market. As mentioned in our previous article, the one that seems to dominate the near luxury segment is the Audi A4 Avant. That said, there is another German near luxury wagon that you should...