2012

Finding out about battery defects was something of a nightmare before Christmas for luxury automaker Fisker, who suddenly had to deal with news that its Karma might be liable to catch fire. Fisker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have now officially announced a recall...

Toyota's Camry has long dominated the family car sector, and that doesn't look set to change any time soon. The February issue of product testing organization Consumer Reports carries tests of three different 2012 Camry models, including the important and extensively-updated hybrid model. All three...

Natural gas has forever been a "nearly" fuel. While offering several advantages over gasoline or diesel, such as low cost of refueling, HOV-lane stickers in California and cleaner running, the disadvantages are even greater. One of those has been the availability of natural gas, limiting its...

Less than three weeks hence, the 2012 Toyota Prius C--the first compact hybrid hatchback from Toyota's expanding Prius line--will be officially introduced for the U.S. market at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. It was first unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show early this month, under the model name Aqua...

Take a quick look at photograph of the line up of brightly colored race cars, complete with sponsor decals, crash-helmet-wearing drivers, and it looks like just another car race. But take your time, and you see something strange about the line of patiently-waiting race cars at the Fuji Speedway...

What holiday gift do you give Fisker Automotive, the company responsible for the world’s first plug-in hybrid sports coupe? A Matchbox 2012 Fisker Karma perhaps? But a public suggestion that the battery packs inside the $106,000+ Fisker Karma luxury plug-in hybrid are at risk of a coolant...

Few things seem to set off a certain part of the political spectrum like the Chevrolet Volt, the extended-range electric car from General Motors. It's been on sale exactly one year, so we think it's rather too early to deem the Volt a success or a failure, though that hasn't stopped its critics...

Just before Nissan officially launched the all-electric Leaf hatchback, it came out with a dizzying list of simulated range predictions based on all kinds of road and weather conditions. According to Nissan’s own computer-simulated calculations, the car’s 24 kilowatt-hour battery pack...

Recently named by Gizmodo as the second most viral person on the Internet (ahead of Ashton Kutcher!), Matt Drudge is the go-to guy for headlines guaranteed to feed red meat to the right-hand side of the U.S. political spectrum. And he hates electric cars. Boy, does that man hate anything with a...

The car won't reach Tesla Stores until at least next fall, but Tesla Motors has just released pricing and options for the various trim levels and models of its 2012 Model S all-electric sport sedan. Unlike various other plug-in cars, the base prices of the 2012 Tesla Model S have not risen. They...

Look back a year, and you’ll probably remember the hype surrounding the first 2011 Nissan Leafs and 2011 Chevrolet Volts to be delivered to retail customers in the U.S. For the 350 or so lucky Volt and 10 Leaf owners, it meant they were among the pioneers: the first people to own one of a new...

Just can't wait for a 2012 Fisker Karma, the first examples of which are now finally arriving at dealers? Well, you can always turn to eBay, that massive online repository for all things of all kinds. The auction site currently carries a listing for a 2012 Fisker Karma, one of two the seller says...

Price increases be damned, the 2012 Fisker Karma is finally here, and first examples are about to arrive in customers' driveways. Earlier in the week we posted our video driving impressions of the new four-door extended-range electric car from startup Fisker Automotive. Now it's time to expand on...

Since the Nissan Leaf first launched a year ago, we’ve seen leaf enthusiasts produce a whole range of unofficial modifications for the all-electric hatchback, ranging from the extremely useful to the downright bizarre. We’re not sure which category a propane-powered gas-turbine range...

One year ago today, the very first 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car was delivered to a retail buyer, in Denville, New Jersey. The Volt was intended not only to be the first production plug-in electric car from General Motors--erasing memories of the ill-fated EV1--but to serve as a...

In Hollywood films and TV shows, good cops often have to hand in their badge and gun when they’re accused of something terrible. Luckily, in the real world, that doesn’t happen so much. Not to cops, and not to cop cars. Enter the New York Police Department, which has just confirmed that...

With the 2012 Fisker Karma now, finally, arriving in volume at dealerships, Fisker Automotive should finally begin to record some retail sales this month. Still, we're not sure that raising your prices right as your first customers return to their dealers to take delivery is particularly gracious...

It might be cute, get great gas mileage and ooze the same kind of retro charm as cars like the 2012 VW Beetle and the 2012 MINI Clubman, but the 2012 Fiat 500 has scored just three stars for crash safety by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). While the little two-door Fiat...

How do you mark the first year of sales of an electric car? You sing Happy Birthday to it, of course. At least, that’s what Nissan North America chose to do to mark the one year anniversary of the Nissan Leaf electric car being sold in the U.S. But it wasn’t people or polar bears...

After what feels like forever, the 2012 Fisker Karma electric car is finally about to go on sale. Last month, we showed you how to order a Fisker Karma. Now, we've been able to slide behind the wheel of a new 2012 Fisker Karma EcoSport to bring you some quick first-drive impressions of the car's...