Auto Shows
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It's no secret that Porsche has a new found love affair with vehicle electrification, having unveiled its first hybrid model ever last year, the 2011 Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid, as well as teasing fans with high-performance hybrids such as the 911 GT3 R Hybrid and 918 Spyder. Porsche even unveiled an all-electric version of its Boxster sports car this week and confirmed that a production version will eventually be produced. That’s already quite a tally for a company focused on building sports cars but Porsche has even more electrified vehicle plans up its sleeve. The sports car company...
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Lexus Appeals To Tuner Scene With Project CT Hybrid Hot HatchLexus has gone to great lengths to emphasize the sportiness of its upcoming hybrid hatchback, the all-new 2011 Lexus CT 200h. After previewing an F-Sport endowed concept version of the car at last year’s Sydney Motor Show, Lexus has now used this week's 2011 Chicago Auto Show to present a...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
BMW Reveals All-Electric Vision ConnectedDrive ConceptBMW is going to great lengths to show that electric cars can look good as well as just being green, revealing today its new Vision ConnectedDrive zero-emission roadster concept ahead of its world debut next month at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. The automaker doesn’t go into detail as to what...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
World's Fastest (Or 2nd-Fastest?) Hybrid: Porsche 918 RSRPossibly the most rapturously received vehicle at last week's Detroit Auto Show was the Porsche 918 RSR coupe, a hybrid race car that isn't even street-legal. And it's about as far from the quintessential Toyota Prius hybrid as you could get. It doesn't use a battery pack at all, in fact, but the...
John Voelcker -
Five Questions: Peter Rawlinson, Tesla Motors Chief EngineerIf Tesla Motors had a single message to convey at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, it was this: We're a real car company. Rather than show a completed prototype of its Model S all-electric luxury sports sedan, scheduled to launch by the end of 2012, the company showed the car's shell. That allowed other...
John Voelcker -
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Electric Car Round-UpBetween the wreck of a Volvo and a $300k Mercedes supercar, the 2011 Detroit Auto show is giving the electric car fan plenty of variety, so if you're planning to visit the show between now and closing time on January 23, here are the electric vehicles you should make the time to see and the EV...
Antony Ingram -
Ford’s Volt and Leaf rival has been revealed, making its world debut last week at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and then reappearing again this week at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show. We are, of course, talking about the 2012 Ford Focus Electric, the Blue Oval’s first mass-produced electric car and possibly the pick of the bunch out of the Ford-GM-Nissan trio. Below is a video of the new model’s unveiling in Detroit this week, with Ford’s product chief Derrick Kuzak and chairman Bill Ford touting all of its benefits. The 2012 Focus Electric is set to go...
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Electric Car Crashes? Just As Safe As Any Other VolvoDespite thousands of automotive gasoline fires in the U.S. every year, we've pretty much normalized the risks of the highly explosive liquid that we use to fuel our cars. But for electric cars, there's a whole new set of potential fears. One may be driving through water--it's not like tossing a...
John Voelcker -
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Akio Toyoda Checks In On Tesla Model SWhat do you do when the president of the world's number-one global auto producer stops by your stand? Give him the tour around the car that you're planning to assemble in his former factory, of course. By chance we were hanging around the Tesla stand at the 2011 Detroit auto show when Akio Toyoda...
Bengt Halvorson -
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Toyota Prius C Compact Hybrid ConceptAs part of the family of four Toyota Prius hybrids that the carmaker unveiled at the today's Detroit Auto Show, it showed a concept for a new, compact Prius hatchback. Low, edgy, and relatively sleek for a highly aerodynamic Kamm-tailed car, the Prius C concept is actually Toyota's second concept...
John Voelcker -
2011 Detroit Auto Show: 2012 Toyota Prius V, Photo GalleryAuto show press conferences sometimes resemble mosh pits, but savvy photographers know how to get the best angles while protecting vulnerable body parts. Photographer Joe Nuxoll got most of these shots from the event where Toyota launched its 2012 Prius V multi-purpose vehicle (or, for those of us...
John Voelcker -
Ford Shows They Aren’t Afraid Of Small Cars With 10 New Models At NAIASWith CES last week and the 2011 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) this week, there is a lot of news hitting the wire. In fact, a lot of news is coming out of one auto manufacturer in particular—Ford. Last week, AllSmallCars.com was right there with the breaking news of the 2012...
Jonathan McGrew -
At 50 miles per gallon, the 2011 Toyota Prius five-door hatchback is the most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S. But, says Toyota, its customers told the company they needed more room--for people, for stuff, for stretching out. So the quintessential Prius hybrid is becoming not just a vehicle but a family. Its first new member is the Prius V, which you can view as somewhere between a station wagon, a tall hatchback, and a minivan-without-sliding doors. Whatever you call it (Toyota just says the "V" means "versatility"), while the Prius V sits on the same platform as the hatchback and is...
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2011 Detroit Auto Show: Ford Focus, C-Max, Vertrek Photo GalleryFrom 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...
John Voelcker -
2012 BYD e6 Electric Crossover To Cost $35,000, 200-Mile RangeLater 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...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Volt Electric: North American Car of the YearIt'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...
John Voelcker -
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Ford C-Max Hybrid & Energi Plug-In ConceptsWhile Toyota dominates global hybrid production, Ford was the first company to launch a hybrid SUV: the Ford Escape Hybrid, in 2004. Now, Ford is pioneering another hybrid model: the small minivan, or as Europeans call it, the people carrier. Hybrid mini-minivan Between 10 and 10:30 am today at the...
John Voelcker -
2012 Mercedes-Benz S350 BlueTEC 4MATIC Making U.S. Debut In DetroitOur cousins across the Atlantic got the new diesel-powered S-Class in June of last year, which we reported on back then. Now, on the eve of the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz has announced that it will finally be bringing its fuel-efficient flagship sedan to U.S. soil. Set to debut at this...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
As you may have seen by now, the 2012 Ford Focus Electric was officially launched today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by Ford CEO Alan Mulally. At the very same time, another notable executive--Bill Ford--unveiled it in New York City. He covered the same production details that were presented at CES, but with a specific spin. You have to admit, it's not every day that the man whose name is on the nose introduces a car he calls "a game-changing technology" for the company's second century. Some notable points from a quick, and very crowded, inspection of the 2012 Focus...
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GM Enters Compact Luxury Segment With 2012 Buick VeranoWhile the styling of Buick’s new compact sedan has been known for some time now (a version of the car was unveiled last year in China as the Excelle GT), we finally get a look at the North American model, which will be making its official debut next week at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show. Set to...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Can Electric-Car Clubs And Shows Really Bring In Buyers?As an electric car enthusiast or recently-converted gearhead, you'll no doubt be aware of the huge variety of clubs out there for virtually any make and model or automotive scene you can think of. For many people, a thriving scene and great social network might be the difference between choosing...
Antony Ingram -
Video: Toyota Previews 2012 Prius MPV Ahead Of Detroit ShowThe 2011 Detroit Auto Show holds promise for Prius-lovers, with the first addition to the ubiquitous hybrid brand's family: an MPV, or multi-purpose vehicle. Americans may want to call it a wagon, or a hatchback, or something else, but whatever it's named, it's a longer, larger version of the...
Nelson Ireson -
Fisker To Skip Detroit Auto Show, 2011 Karma Next In GenevaFor next month's Detroit Auto Show, we're making our list and checking it twice. But it turns out that one notable name in green cars is giving the country's largest auto show a miss. Fisker Automotive confirmed to GreenCarReports yesterday that it won't be present at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show...
John Voelcker -
2011 Detroit Auto Show Preview: New 2012 Honda Civic ConceptNews from next month's 2011 Detroit Auto Show is coming in almost daily now. The latest announcement: Honda will present the world debut of a concept car that shows the styling direction of its next--and crucially important--Honda Civic. In reality, this means that the Honda Civic Concept shown in...
John Voelcker