2011

If General Motors' EV1 had featured in the Disney Pixar animated film Cars, we can't imagine it would have been the happiest of characters. It might well have spent a little time complaining about its friends all being crushed back in 1999, and who could blame it? And four years ago it might have...

We love looking back to see what's been popular over the course of a full year. And 2010 was definitely chock-full of green car news. Our 10 most popular posts this year are a little less random than last year's most popular, which featured Muslims and ethanol, urine, hybrid Ferraris, and our...

Ten years ago the concept of social media was in its infancy. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s geeky founder, wasn’t even at university and the best chance you had of playing at being a farmer was to head down to your local city farm. So what happens when you combine the always-connected...

Let’s face it: the end of the holiday season is financially tough. After spending what may seem like a small fortune on gifts for your family and friends the last thing you want to do is spend money on a costly electric charging point for your plug-in car. Of course, it is technically...

California has always been kind to drivers of alternative fuelled vehicles with special privileges in High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, reduced parking and even additional purchase tax credits. However, the $5,000 Californian state rebate for those purchasing electric vehicles may soon run out...

Why are many European carmakers now planning to build electric vehicles? Because many European cities are widely expected to ban high-emissions vehicles from their city cores over the next decade--perhaps even vehicles with any emissions at all. Now, Paris may be the first city to experiment with...

At one time station wagons were the family vehicle for Americans. In fact, the station wagon became a part of Americana. Then came the introduction of the minivan and later the sport utility vehicle, fondly referred to as a SUV. The shift started in the ‘80s and the SUV craze took hold in the...

There is no doubt that the folks driving Kia today have a sense of humor. There is also no doubt that they have an agenda to get noticed by consumers and go head to head with their Japanese competition—not to mention competition from the American contingent like Ford. That said, performance...

The 2012 Mercedes Benz SLK has been in the news quite regularly as of late between the spy shots of the Magic Sky Control Roof and the actual press release for the new technology. The 2012 Mercedes Benz SLK has actually been spied for quite some time now with some of the earliest photos hitting the...

The 2011 Fisker Karma is still on track to reach U.S. dealers in March or April, according to the company. But there's one new piece of info: The price of the extended-range electric sports sedan has gone up. Again. Originally announced in 2008 at a price of $80,000, the Karma fairly quickly went...

Whilst the U.S. and Europe get the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and 2012 Opel and Vauxhall Ampera, it seems all the full battery-electric vehicles are going to the Far East, and they're keeping fairly quiet about it. A few months back we revealed GM's plans to test an electric version of the Chevrolet Cruze...

Never one to miss the opportunity for a pithy quote, petrolhead extraordinaire Jay Leno has come up trumps again whilst taking delivery of his new 2011 Chevrolet Volt. "Electricity is like sex. People lie about it," quipped Leno, referring to how owners are occasionally inclined to add a few more...

As 2010 draws to a close, we now have shipments of the 2011 Nissan LEAF and the 2011 Chevy Volt to customers around the United States. With the advent of these vehicles, is there still a business case for Better Place? To refresh your memory, Better Place is the venture between Shai Agassi and...

Since the EPA reported their official figures on the equivalent mile per gallon for the Nissan LEAF there has been a lot of discussion on its range. To recap, the EPA rated the driving range on the LEAF at 73 miles on a single full charge. To say that is a little disappointing considering the...

Last week at one of the first 2011 Nissan Leaf deliveries we spoke briefly with Mark Perry, Nissan's director of product planning and strategy, about the Leaf's driving range, and whether the recently released EPA driving range of 73 miles—the range that will be printed on every U.S. window...

We can’t think of many times when an automaker suddenly doubles the number of seats in a car without making the car bigger. But that’s just what the Norwegian car maker Think has done with its diminutive city car. Originally designed as a 2 seat city car, the all-electric A segment car...

In one particularly hilarious scene in the TV show Weeds, Mary-Louise Parker’s soccer mom/drug dealer character inspires a scary drug lord to buy several Toyota Priuses after he successfully carries out a drive-by shooting while riding in hers. The selling point? The quietness of the hybrid...

It is no secret that Hyundai is trying to go up market with their car offerings. The 2011 Hyundai Sonata gives customers offerings that are perceived to be higher-end offerings like reverse-camera, heated seats, navigation and Bluetooth to name a few. In fact, the Sonata has even made the Car and...

We know. You’ve put the deposit down, agonized over the charge station installation and felt a pang of jealousy when you discovered your 2011 Nissan LEAF won’t arrive for another four months. But while all hopes that Santa is bringing that new electric car may be lost you can at least...

The 2011 Nissan Leaf, at first glance, looks a whole lot simpler to service than conventional gasoline cars; there's no flammable liquid in the tank, no motor oil, no complicated multi-speed transmission either. That said, some dealers are probably feeling a little daunted by the idea of taking a...