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While Mercedes-Benz has focused its first green marketing efforts on the undeniably impressive 2010 Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid, it was joined by a second hybrid Benz that went on sale earlier this month after previewing in April at the New York Auto Show. The 2010 Mercedes-Benz ML450 Hybrid brings better fuel efficiency to its popular line of ML sport utility vehicles. With a Bluetec clean diesel version already in the lineup, the ML is one of the few vehicles in the U.S. to offer gasoline, hybrid, and diesel variants. Fuel efficiency over performance Mercedes-Benz uses its version of the...
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2011 Toyota Prius Station Wagon To Feature Lithium-Ion BatteryWe've known for a while that Toyota plans to introduce more Prius body styles to expand the reach of its most recognized and iconic hybrid car. Now, images of a possible 2011 Toyota Prius station wagon have hit the media. At least in Japan. Woody Thompson, proprietor of Woody's Car Site, points us...
John Voelcker -
BMW's Other Hybrid: 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7 SedanFor 2010, BMW is releasing two hybrid vehicles that are very different both in style and in their approach to using electric power to assist the gasoline engine. We've already covered the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 "sports activity coupe", which uses the Two-Mode Hybrid system jointly developed by...
John Voelcker -
CEO Group Goal: 75 Percent of U.S. Miles in Electric Cars By 2040Roadmaps aren't inherently sexy, unless you're lost and hungry. But when they demonstrate plausible visions for the future, they can be well worth reading. Today, a group of 13 CEOs and board chairmen from a broad range of companies announced that they've formed the not-for-profit Electrification...
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GM's Second Electric Car After Chevy Volt To Be Cadillac ConverjGeneral Motors will follow its 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car with a production version of the Cadillac Converj concept car revealed at this year's Detroit Auto Show. It's been an open question for a while now: What will be the next vehicle to use GM's Voltec series hybrid...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Announces Tour Dates, Cities for 2012 Leaf Electric CarDates and cities have been announced for the "Zero Emission Tour" that will introduce the 2012 Nissan Leaf hatchback electric car to potential buyers in the U.S. markets where it will first be sold. The car won't be sold nationwide for more than two years. Instead, it will be offered where Nissan...
John Voelcker -
Europeans have been slow to the game with hybrids, having bet most of their green strategy on highly efficient clean diesels. But they are increasingly hedging their bets, learning to work with electric motors and battery packs. In the sports-car world, aside from startups Fisker and Tesla, no European maker is doing more than Porsche. It plans a hybrid version of its Cayenne sport utility vehicle, a hybrid Panamera four-door sedan, and perhaps even a smaller SUV hybrid as well. Hybrid pioneer: Porsche And why not? The world's very first hybrid is widely acknowledged to be the Lohner-Porsche...
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Biden Blurts Out Fisker Nina Plug-In Hybrid Line: Sedan, Coupe, CrossoverThere's nothing like a little old-fashioned reporter shoe leather, especially when few other automotive media outlets bother to make the trip. Our colleague Gary Gastelu of Fox News traveled down to Delaware yesterday, to cover the official announcement of Fisker Automotive's $18 million purchase...
John Voelcker -
Greenest Car Company, Honda, Goes Greener Yet, Harder and FasterHonda has the highest average fleet mileage of any volume carmaker selling in the U.S. market today. And it's had that distinction for many years. But in the face of the car-market meltdown, oil prices that have risen from $30 to $80 a barrel within months, and growing global environmental...
John Voelcker -
Fisker Buying Delaware Plant To Build Midsize 2012 Plug-In HybridAt 10 am tomorrow morning, Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce that Fisker Automotive will buy the closed General Motors factory in Wilmington, Delaware, his home state. According to reports, company founder Henrik Fisker will join Delaware Governor Jack Markell and other dignitaries...
John Voelcker -
GreenCarReports: 2009 Tokyo Motor Show CoverageIt's a sad thing when an auto show loses its exhibitors, and this was a tough year for Tokyo. Foreign automakers shunned the show--unless you count England's Lotus--so the biannual event had pretty much only Japanese products on display. Despite the downsizing, green cars abounded, ranging from new...
John Voelcker -
Mitsubishi Evo To Go Plug-In Hybrid? World's Tuners Feel FaintWe can't help it. Once in a while, we like to toss in big honkin' performance cars, like the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. And even screaming smaller tuner sedans, like the 2010 Subaru STi WRC and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. But now comes news to rock the world: The next generation of the Mitsubishi...
John Voelcker -
[REVISED UPDATE, October 23: For awhile, it seemed too good to be true. The full text of Colorado House bill 09-1331, "An Act Concerning Incentives For Efficient Motor Vehicles," turns out to include a cap of $6,000 on the tax credit available for any low-emission car. The all-important phrase, "not to exceed six thousand dollars," can be found on page 7 of the 26-page act. The cap can also be found in a chart from the Colorado Governor's office within an explanatory page on Motor Vehicle Incentives. It applies, however, to the 2010 and 2011 tax years--not to the current year. Which means...
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2010 Fusion Hybrid Takes Credit For 73-Percent Ford Hybrid Sales RiseWith record unemployment numbers and an active global recession, it's not news that vehicle sales have been lousy, falling by more than one-third from the record levels of a few years ago. But at least one maker's green cars are doing better than ever: Ford's U.S. sales of its hybrid-electric...
John Voelcker -
Electric Mini E Launched In UK--With Steering Wheel on Wrong SideMini has been on a roll this year, with a new Coupe concept to celebrate its 50th birthday and the much-publicized U.S. release of 200 Mini E electric conversions. Now, 40 Britons will be able to drive the electric Mini E as well, 20 of them members of the public chosen from more than 500...
John Voelcker -
Preview: 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6We've known for a while that BMW would launch its first hybrid this year, and now we know when: The 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 will reach dealers this December. We'll be driving the hybrid X6 in a couple of weeks, but meanwhile, here's our advance preview of BMW's hybrid-electric sport-activity...
John Voelcker -
Infiniti Confirms 2012 M35 Hybrid Sedan, Its FirstWhile Nissan goes full-bore into electric cars, including projected sales of 20,000 of its 2012 Nissan Leaf, the company's Infiniti luxury marque has neither electric cars nor hybrids in its 2010 lineup. But that will change next year, when it launches the redesigned 2011 Infiniti M luxury sedan...
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Preview: 2012 Volkswagen Touareg HybridOur editor Marty Padgett is spending the day with Volkswagen, driving new models, learning about advanced technologies, and quizzing executives. Here's his preview of VW's upcoming Touareg Hybrid sport utility vehicle. Volkswagen will launch a hybrid electric model of its Touareg sport utility...
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We've written before about some of the misconceptions around high-mileage and electric cars, among them that they're essentially glorified golf carts. Now the test engineers for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt have taken their extended-range electric vehicle up the twisty 19-mile road to the top of Pike's Peak, a grueling test used by automakers to ensure their cars will hold up under the most extreme circumstances. Visitors to the 14,110-foot Pike's Peak often see camouflaged test vehicles towing heavy trailers up the road to the summit, or parked with their noses flush to a stone wall, idling...
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Will 20,000 U.S. Buyers Order 2012 Nissan Leafs Within A Year?The 2012 Nissan Leaf hatchback, the first all-electric car from a major manufacturer to be offered in the U.S. since GM's late lamented EV1 two-seater a decade ago, won't go on sale nationally for more than two years. Nonetheless, Nissan is hoping to accumulate 20,000 U.S. advance orders for the...
John Voelcker -
Most Popular Posts for September: Prius Drag Races, Who Knew?We're back on schedule with our favorite end-of-month activity, logging the most popular posts of the last month-or-so on AllAboutPrius.com. Autumn is here (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere), and we've got a fresh crop of favorites. We only held over two of August's most popular posts...
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Driving Electric To Cost No More Than Using Gas, Says Better PlaceDriving a mile on electricity always costs less than using gasoline for the same mile. Now Better Place, the consortium wiring Israel with electric-car recharging stations and battery quick-swap facilities, has upped the ante: They claim their electric cars will cost $4,500 to $7,500 less than...
John Voelcker -
Final Aptera 2e Styling Leaked, We Drive the Electric 3-WheelerTo green-car fans, the idea of an ultra-aerodynamic electric two-seater sounds pretty familiar, right? Think the late, lamented EV1 from General Motors, subject of the controversial documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? But for more than 4,000 people who've put down deposits on the 2011 Aptera...
John Voelcker -
Fisker Joins Tesla In Getting Government Cash For Hybrid Luxury SedanThe U.S. Department of Energy yesterday approved a $529 million low-interest loan to Fisker Automotive, which will start building its 2010 Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan later this year. Customer deliveries will start next May. In June, Tesla Motors received a $465 million loan for...
John Voelcker