Batteries

Much mystery surrounded the electric versions of the Fiat 500 that have appeared at auto shows over the last year. Now, Chrysler has cleared up a bit of the confusion: It will build an electric Fiat 500 for the U.S. market, with a powertrain developed by engineers at its Michigan headquarters, at a...

The nice thing about buying advanced-technology cars is that many of them, at one point or another, come with financial incentives meant to encourage fuel efficiency. Even if the car in question is a 2010 Tesla Roadster, the $109,000 two-seat all-electric convertible that blasts from 0 to 60 mph in...

Bob Lutz, the retiring eminence grise of General Motors, is known for pithiness and plain speaking. Yesterday, he tossed off a nugget of news: GM is working on a range of pure electric cars, without range-extending engines, that will follow the 2011 Chevrolet Volt--most likely a few years hence...

Yesterday we covered the new green production cars at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, now underway in snowy Switzerland. Today, we get to cover the cooler, sexier side of the show: concept cars! So, here's our roundup of notable green and advanced-technology concept cars at Geneva. Audi A1 e-tron...

We've already seen two hybrids from BMW: the 2010 ActiveHybrid X6 "sport activity vehicle" and 2010 ActiveHybrid 7 full-size sedan. Now BMW's third hybrid model, which it has hinted at for several months, will be unveiled next week at the Geneva Motor Show. As a show car, its full name is the BMW...

A key member of the small team brought together four years ago to create the 2011 Chevrolet Volt electric car is unexpectedly leaving General Motors. Denise Gray, director of global battery systems engineering at General Motors, will leave the company on Friday, March 5, to take an unspecified...

Despite remaining all but invisible to the automotive press, startup carmaker Fisker Automotive is moving steadily toward a late-fall launch for its 2011 Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan. The latest news item is that chief marketing officer Marti Eulberg has hired advertising agency...

It's long been known that Ford's first electric car would actually be a truck. Now, we have all the details of the 2011 Ford Transit Connect Electric, an all-electric conversion of the Transit Connect commercial van that offers a range of up to 80 miles on a full charge. The 2011 Transit Connect...

Many reviewers lauded the new, third generation 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid when it launched last spring--but wondered why it didn't use a lithium-ion battery, rather than 15-year-old nickel-metal-hydride technology. Now we learn that the 2010 Prius was indeed supposed to have a new, more energy-dense...

The striking BMW Vision EfficientDynamics hybrid concept was unquestionably the star concept of September's Frankfurt Motor Show. It proved, once again, that when German carmakers turn their minds toward a new goal--in this case, a sports car with breathtaking fuel efficiency--they can produce...

"Born From Jets" may be the slogan of recently-saved-from-death Swedish Saab, but one day it may prove more appropriate for British carmaker Jaguar. The company has been awarded funding from the U.K. government to develop a small jet turbine as a range extender for a future hybrid luxury car. Its...

Ford was the first U.S. automaker to offer a hybrid, introducing the Ford Escape Hybrid crossover in 2004. It recently expanded its portfolio with the well-received 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. More recently, the company has announced plans for limited numbers of plug-in hybrids, as well as electric...

It's always good to be suspicious when an automaker sends out a press release saying customers are "delighted" with its products. In the case of the Mini E, BMW offered data to back up the claim. At the Washington Auto Show today, BMW released early results from a study of 57 customers who leased...

Ford has built hundreds of thousands of hybrids since 2004, but unlike Toyota, it hasn't staked its future on the pricey technology that mates an electric motor to a combustion engine. Ford's CEO Alan Mulally says that's because hybrids will face continuing competition from increasingly more...

Cleaning up a few odds and ends from last week's 2010 Detroit Auto Show brings us to General Motors' future product plans for plug-in hybrids. In the crush of reporters asking questions (known as the "scrum") after a GM announcement, a few more nuggets came to light. GM showed its striking and...

Last Friday, startup plug-in hybrid maker Fisker Automotive announced it had raised another $115 million in funds from private backers, including lithium-ion cell supplier A123 Systems and legendary venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Buried in the press release was a...

We somehow omitted one hybrid concept until now in our 2010 Detroit Auto Show coverage; it's the Hyundai Blue-Will four-door sports sedan, which is unusual in both name and looks. Some loved it, some loathed it, but we're as interested in its plug-in hybrid powertrain as in the rather nervous...

Nearing the end of our 2010 Detroit Auto Show coverage brings us to a vehicle that got a lot of media attention, though it's unclear when it will actually arrive in the U.S. That's the BYD e6 electric crossover, which could become the first Chinese vehicle sold in the U.S. The crisply styled...

Last weekend, we finally got the chance to drive the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. By and large, we liked it; see our full First Drive report for more details. Riding shotgun was Andrew Farah, the chief engineer for the 2011 Volt. During our ride and after, we asked him five questions--just as we did Volt...

Ford was on a roll at this year's Detroit Auto Show. It launched its new 2011 Ford Focus compact sedan and hatchback, which got rave reviews, and its 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid won North American Car of the Year. The company added a late-breaking press conference on Monday to make a further...