Industry
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For decades, Asian small cars have been considered the best of the bunch in the U.S. market. Toyota Corollas, Honda Civics, and various models from Nissan--and more recently, Hyundai--sell hundreds of thousands each year against what was until quite recently anemic competition from U.S. makers. With the launch of the 2010 Ford Fiesta subcompact and the new 2011 Ford Focus, however, European designs are being built and sold in the U.S. Both those cars have been well-reviewed, and the new Focus is selling better than the outdated model it replaced. Europe to lead development Now Toyota has...
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Fisker Automotive Lands Former Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda
Fisker Automotive has appointed former Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda to dual roles on its Board of Directors.
Kurt Ernst -
Chevy Volt Electric Car, Age 1: Can It Survive Toddler Years?
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...
John Voelcker -
GM, BMW Partner To Boost Fuel Efficiency: Report
GM and BMW are said to be working on an agreement to share fuel-saving technologies. GM would benefit from BMW's gas and diesel engine design, while BMW would gain access to GM's series hybrid designs.
Kurt Ernst -
IKEA Latest To Announce Electric Car Charging Points At Stores
Furniture and homewares giant IKEA has joined a grown list of retail firms announcing plans to install electric car charging points at their stores across the nation. Just this week we reported about Walgreens announcing plans for 800 charging points, and before that we saw Cracker Barrel and Best...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Walgreens Promises To Install 800 EV Chargers At Its Stores
Cracker Barrel did it at all its Tennessee stores, and Best Buy is doing it at stores all around the country. Now pharmaceuticals giant Walgreens is getting in on the action as well. If you hadn’t guessed, we’re talking about installing electric car charging stations, a trend that's...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
While most major automakers are working on new battery-powered electric cars and plug-in hybrids, some are still investigating the benefits of more advanced fuel cell vehicles that use a hydrogen fuel cell stack to convert hydrogen into usable electric power. One of the leaders in this field is Mercedes-Benz, which we reported earlier this month was forming a partnership with German gas and engineering firm Linde to build a total of 20 hydrogen fueling stations in Germany as part of a trial spanning the next three years. Additionally, Mercedes’ parent company Daimler also announced...
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Honda Commits To 30 Percent CO2 Reduction By 2020
In its latest Environmental Annual Report 2011 Honda has committed to reducing the CO2 emissions of its global product portfolio, including everything from jets to cars and motorbikes and even power generators, by 30 percent compared to 2000’s levels by the year 2020. At the same time, the...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
How To Send Hybrid Cars From Japan? Diesel-Hybrid Cargo Ship, Of Course
In this day and age, when it comes to being green, looking at the end result is never enough. You have to take a life cycle approach to assessing how green something is, which in the case of cars, means looking at how they are manufactured and delivered to your driveway. Unfortunately, most cars...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2012 Chevrolet Impala Improves Police Fleet Gas Mileage By 3 MPG
As we reported earlier this year, gas mileage is increasingly becoming a concern for not only individuals but corporations and government agencies as well, including most police forces. While the federal government is looking to improve the gas mileage of its fleets by switching to smaller cars and...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Mercedes-Benz Buddies Up To Build More Hydrogen Fuel Stations
There was a time when hydrogen powered cars were all the rage in green car circles. They either came with advanced fuel cell electric drivetrains, the most notable being the Honda FCX Clarity and more recent Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell, two models which regular customers could actually lease, or...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Elon Musk Says Tesla Won't Be Sold, But Elon Musk Is Wrong
In a sign of its continuing need for capital--and the good performance thus far of its stock--Tesla Motors said today it would sell 5.3 million more shares of common stock. At the same time, according to the announcement, Tesla CEO Elon Musk plans to buy an additional 1.5 million shares of the...
John Voelcker -
A little over two months ago Nissan made the announcement that its upmarket Infiniti division would become the title automotive sponsor of the championship-leading Formula 1 team Red Bull Racing. To even the least knowledgeable motorsport fan here at GreenCarReports, the benefits of the deal for the Japanese automaker are obvious. However, it appears the benefits are not only flowing to Nissan and its Infiniti brand. Red Bull Racing also stands to gain considerably from the deal, and we’re not only talking about sponsorship dollars here. The race cars in the 2011 Formula 1 season are...
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Bosch Predicts Diesel Sales To Reach 10 Percent Of U.S. Market By 2015
Diesel models may account for more than half of all new car sales in Europe but in the U.S. their numbers still hover around just 3 percent of the market. This in part because of a national memory of the noisy and polluting diesels of three decades ago, and in part because diesel fuel and engines...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
China Rigs Electric-Car Incentives Against Chevy Volt, Foreign Cars
Here in the U.S. the government, both at the federal and state level, offers an array of incentives for eco friendly vehicles such as clean diesels, plug-in hybrids and electric cars. However, the U.S. isn’t the only major automotive market with such incentive programs in place. Over in China...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Tougher Gas Mileage Laws Hit Third World Too: CAFE For India
There’s a common argument that the Western world is hurt by tougher environmental standards being imposed by governments on both sides of the Atlantic, while third world nations, some of the biggest polluters due to the sheer size of their populations, get off relatively scot free. While one...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Car-Sharing Services Like Zipcar Grow, But Is It Viable Business?
With fuel prices going the way they are, and it getting harder and harder to find a parking spot in most congested cities these days, the increasing popularity of car-sharing schemes is hardly surprising. In fact, the industry is getting so popular that individuals and automakers alike are getting...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Federal Government Saving Gas With Higher-MPG Vehicles Too
You may recall a few weeks back we reported on police forces all around the nation downsizing their vehicle fleets from big and brawny V-8 sedans to a new-generation of V-6 sedans and SUVs. Turns out the federal government is following suit, switching its vehicle fleet from mostly full-size cars to...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
The Toyota Prius is the best-selling hybrid vehicle of all time and recently passed three million sales globally and a million in the U.S., over more than a decade. And when fuel prices rise, so has demand for the Prius and other high-mileage vehicles. So then, why hasn't it for the Honda Insight? Ever since its introduction more than two years ago, the Insight hasn't been able to find the same traction in the green-car market. Numbers count While the Insight has a shape that's nearly as distinctive as that of the Prius, fuel economy might be one of the key reasons: While the Prius comes with...
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Why Silicon Valley Won't Be Detroit For Green Carmakers
We don’t hear “death of Detroit” stories as often now as we did a year ago. When GM and Chrysler plunged into bankruptcy and the entire U.S. industry laid off tens of thousands of workers in one year, the effects on an already battered Detroit region were dire. And they led to a...
John Voelcker -
Ferrari Shows Biggest CO2 Cut Amongst Supercar Brands, But Is There More To The Numbers?
Governments around the world are bowing to public pressure to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases their respective countries produce, and more often than not, the first sector they look at is the auto industry. Here in the U.S. the government has imposed a tough 34.1 mpg fleet-wide fuel economy...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Ford Boosting Mileage With Lightweight Construction Inspired By Chocolate Bar
Tightening fuel efficiency and emissions regulations all around the world are pushing automakers to find any way they can to make their cars greener, downsizing engines, reducing internal friction and improving aerodynamics. Another area, and one of the most beneficial as it not only improves fuel...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Want To Beat High Gas Prices? Public Transit: Winner
There’s no doubt consumers will be faced with higher gas prices going into the future, and alternatives, like diesel powered cars and hybrids, all have their respective shortcomings. We recently looked at why mainstream automakers refuse to launch more diesel models in the U.S. and, just...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
New Study Looks At Illusive Break-Even Costs For Hybrids
With fuel prices continuing to edge higher, the cost benefit of fuel saving hybrid and diesel vehicles are now more important than ever. We recently looked at why mainstream automakers in the U.S. refuse to launch more fuel efficient diesel models locally, and now we have details of a new study...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran