Car Sales
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How much would you be prepared to pay for an electric car with similar day-to-day capabilities to your existing vehicle? $40,000 perhaps? Maybe you'd shoot lower for a $30,000 sticker price. That's still too high for most customers, according to a new survey by Navigant Research (via Autoblog). In fact, a full 71 percent of the 1,084 consumers surveyed wanted their next car to cost under $25,000, while 41 percent of the total said they'd go no higher than $20,000. It suggests there's still something of a problem for electric vehicle manufacturers, the majority of whom produce cars above this...
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Electric Cars: Drivers Love 'Em, Want 'Em--But Butts In Seats Is the ChallengeIt's pretty clear that many car buyers are very interested in electric cars, and that they love them when they drive them. Electric cars have a handful of natural advantages that offset their higher purchase cost: They cost far less per mile than gasoline cars, and they're simply nicer to drive...
John Voelcker -
Battery Lessor For Electric Renault Zoe Can Halt Recharging RemotelyDigital Rights Management, or DRM, is either the scourge of the digital age or a necessary evil to ensure people who create content get paid for it--depending on who you believe. It's essentially a collection of technologies that determines how you can use digital content or technology after you've...
Antony Ingram -
Beijing Slashes Car Sales Quota By 40 Percent To Tackle Air PollutionBeijing will attempt to fight pollution by restricting new car sales.
Stephen Edelstein -
2015 Audi A3 Sedan Priced From $29,900Audi has announced pricing for its 2015 A3 Sedan, a new compact sedan entry into a market currently occupied by the Mercedes-Benz CLA. Not unsurprisingly, buyers will pay the same for the new A3 as they would for its Mercedes rival. At $29,900, the A3 sedan matches the CLA precisely at the entry...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Underground: Texas Franchise Rules Make Model S Owners Skirt The LawOver the last couple of years, Tesla Motors has fought legal and legislative battles in a number of states over proposed or current state laws that try to stymie its unique factory-direct sales and service model. In most cases--Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina, among others--Tesla has...
David Noland -
The 2014 Toyota Prius Liftback will cost the same as a 2013 model.
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2014 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid Price Cut By $2,000 To $4,600The 2014 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid is the latest of many plug-in cars to get a price cut.
Stephen Edelstein -
2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid Priced From $26,820Subaru's first production hybrid goes on sale later this year.
Stephen Edelstein -
U.K. Plug-In Electric Car Incentives: Why Haven't They Worked?Sales figures for plug-in cars in the U.S. crossed the 100,000 mark four months ago, but in the U.K., the government has announced that it will end plug-in car incentives. Some point to poor sales and an apathetic buying public. One trade organization claims existing grants of £5,000 ($8,100)...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
California Car Dealers Slam Tesla For Website Pricing TricksState and national auto-dealer groups have been battling Tesla Motors for four years now. The dealers want to stop Tesla from selling its electric cars directly to buyers, and are working to change state laws so Tesla will have to conduct all sales through independently-owned third parties--which...
John Voelcker -
Is $35,000 Or Less The Threshold Price For Volume Electric Cars?The recent $5,000 price cut for the 2014 Chevrolet Volt has dropped the range-extended electric car into a significant price bracket. That group is the "$35,000 and under" club--occupied by every plug-in car on sale right now except for the Tesla Model S and the Toyota RAV4 EV. It makes us wonder...
Antony Ingram -
Kia has released pricing details for the all-new Soul, set to go on sale in the fourth quarter. No really, despite appearances it's a new car--Kia just didn't want to play around too much with such a distinctive design. It hasn't played around too much with pricing either, starting at $15,495 (including the $795 mandatory destination fee) for a car in Base trim. That's only $295 more than you'll pay for the existing 2013 Soul in Base trim, including its own $800 destination fee. You still get a reasonable roster of equipment for your money, with privacy glass and hill-start assist, as well as...
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Elio 3-Wheeler Is Small And Clever, But Do Its Financials Work Out?For such a small car, the Elio three-wheeled vehicle certainly has a big following. It might not meet everyone's idea of what constitutes a great car, but for those looking to reduce their driving costs or their impact on the environment, a small, inexpensive, resource-light three-wheeled vehicle...
Antony Ingram -
New 2014 Toyota Corolla L Base Model To Start At $17,610Toyota has announced pricing for the 2014 Corolla Range, with an entry point of $17,610 for the Corolla L. Available in L, LE, S and LE Eco trim lines, Corolla pricing runs from the sub-$18K of the L to $22,110 for a top-end S Plus. This model features a, six-speed manual transmission, 17-inch...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Mitsubishi Mirage: $12,995 For 40 MPG MinicarThe specification list and gas mileage for the 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage read more like a car from the 1980s--but it's coming to market with a distinctly 2013 price tag. A five-door, light weight and aerodynamically efficient hatchback, the Mirage straddles the minicar and subcompact markets, but its...
Antony Ingram -
2013 Smart Electric Drive Coupe Lease Price Lowered To $139The prices just keep falling on plug-in electric cars. The latest to announce a new, lower lease price is Smart, which cut the monthly cost of a three-year lease on its 2013 ForTwo Electric Drive Coupe from $199 to just $139. That's not the lowest single electric-car lease we're aware of in the...
John Voelcker -
2013 Tesla Model S: New Options, Packages, And PricesIt's still fairly early days for the Tesla Model S, and while the car is finding fans across the globe, it's still seeing various updates and option packages that early buyers didn't have access to. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has recently announced a new line of option packages and pricing for...
Antony Ingram -
Want an indication of just how quickly gas mileage is improving? Consider the 2011 BMW 335d. BMW's last diesel 3-Series model achieved a respectable 36 mpg on the highway and an unimpressive 23 mpg city, for a combined 27 mpg figure. The 2014 BMW 328d's gas mileage figures have just been revealed on the EPA's fueleconomy.gov website (via Autoblog), and it's as much as 10 mpg better over every metric--recording 32 mpg city and an excellent 45 mpg highway, for a combined 37 mpg rating. That's better even than the current diesel economy champ, Volkswagen's 2013 Passat TDI. The Passat is rated at...
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Prices For Used Hybrids, Small Cars Drop As New Car Sales BoomAs you've probably discovered when hunting in the classified adverts for a used fuel-efficient vehicle, the latest batch of hybrids and small cars holds its value quite well. With high gas prices and limited supply, that's not much of a surprise. But the situation is getting better, and it's thanks...
Antony Ingram -
100,000 Electric Cars Sold By Nissan, Renault...And CountingAs more electric cars hit the roads it's only natural a few milestones will fall here and there--and the latest is for the Franco-Japanese duo Renault-Nissan. The companies have now sold over 100,000 electric vehicles between them--the milestone car a Nissan Leaf, sold to American grad student...
Antony Ingram -
2014 BMW i3 Finally Priced in U.S: $42,275 Pre-IncentivesWith just a week to go before the production version of BMW's i3 electric car is revealed, the German automaker has announced pricing for the car. The 2014 BMW i3 has a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price of $41,350, before BMW's $925 destination fee--for a starting price of $42,275. That's also...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Ford Focus Electric Gets $4,000 Price Cut To Boost SalesFord might have ignored the 2014 Focus Electric when it updated its range for the 2014 model year, but one aspect has finally changed: The price. That has now dropped by $4,000, to a starting MSRP of $35,200, down from $39,200. The change hasn't yet been reflected on Ford's website--which shows the...
Antony Ingram -
Nissan To Add Electric-Car Fast Charging At More Than 100 DealersWhile Nissan Leaf owners in Europe have enjoyed fast charging at Nissan dealerships for some time, the scheme has been slow to make its way to America. That's set to change soon, as Nissan announces the installation of 100 DC quick chargers at dealerships across the U.S. before April 1 next year...
Antony Ingram