Car Sales

If you thought the Nissan Leaf was a hard sell in the expanses of North America, then you may be surprised to learn it's doing far less well in one of its natural habitats. Cities are where electric cars often make the most sense, but the fashion and luxury-conscious buyers in smog-ridden Hong Kong...

This year has been particularly difficult for the auto industry -- with some types of car suffering more than others. And although there’s an unrelenting drive towards greener, more fuel efficient cars with better gas mileage, sales of hybrid cars haven’t been as great as perhaps they...

Year-end sales figures are looming ever closer, and the critics of the GM bailout and all thing electric-drive are already drafting wrapup stories about how the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car has been a sales disaster. So Chevy has taken off the gloves. The company said it would allow...

No sooner has Tesla announced a new "gallery" in the heart of oil country, than the Palo Alto-based electric car company has now revealed plans for three more retail stores in North America. The stores are part of the preparation for the upcoming 2012 Tesla Model S sedan that's due to go on sale...

Only a handful of 2012 Ford Focus Electrics are likely to be sold by the end of calendar 2011.

In April this year, Honda unveiled what it hoped would be the next generation of car to bear the Honda Civic badge. The ninth major revision of the Civic in its 38-year life, Honda promised better gas mileage, better performance and its all-new Eco-Assist technology to help drivers drive as...

In the last nine months, we’ve seen over 10,000 plug-in cars sold in the U.S. alone, with Nissan taking the lion’s share of new plug-in car sales with its 2011/12 Nissan Leaf. Mass-produced electric cars still very much a niche market, so anyone buying one can be legitimately thought of...

It's conventional wisdom that more electric cars will be sold in California than in any other state. Some estimates say Californians will buy more plug-in cars than the next five states combined. But California has roughly 25 million vehicles on its roads, so while the absolute numbers are high, it...

It's that time of month again. Car sales reports spewed forth from the High Gear Media teletypes yesterday (September sales were up), and analysis stories followed. On the electric-car front, Nissan sold 1,031 Leaf battery-electric vehicles and Chevy shifted 723 Volts. While that's an improvement...

Over the years automakers have used a huge array of techniques to entice members of the public to become test drivers in their electric car test programs. Often however, high lease fees combined with the requirement that lesses give back the prototype or limited run electric car at the end of the...

The LA Times published a story over the weekend about a pilot program that the city of Los Angeles is set to begin, involving the dynamic pricing of parking spaces. By April of next year, in a 4.5-square-mile area that is frequented by 500 000 workers and shoppers daily, the price of a parking...

How many vehicles are there on Earth? We'd ask you to guess, except the headline above gives away the answer. According to industry trade journal Ward's, which added up both reported vehicle registrations and historical trends, the total crossed 1 billion sometime last year. The vehicles include...

According to a recent research article by CNW Marketing Research, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt isn’t as cool as it once was. As reported by USA Today, the research firm claims that interest in Chevrolet’s plug-in hybrid electric car is at an all-time low. CNW blames the car’s high...

Once upon a time, people who bought (or built) electric vehicles were often science-minded, forward-thinking, eco-conscious drivers who sometimes had a hippie past. Times have changed. Today, there are several motivations for buying a car that plugs into the electric grid to recharge its battery...

Only one engine will be offered on the 2012 Scion iQ at launch, a 1.3-liter four-cylinder gasoline unit rated at 90 horsepower and matched to a continuously variable transmission (CVT).

Sales of plug-in electric cars continued their slow climb in June. The 2011 Nissan Leaf racked up its best U.S. sales number ever while the 2011 Chevrolet Volt sales held steady, as the company had warned they would. Following a May total of 1,142 sales--the first time more than 1,000 Leafs had...

While Nissan killed the Altima Hybrid, its sole U.S. hybrid vehicle, for 2012, the company has made a number of important upgrades to its Leaf battery electric car. For 2012, the Nissan Leaf will include as standard heated front and rear seats, plus heated steering wheel and outside mirrors...

The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic is Chevy's first re-entry into the subcompact market in many years. Now, prices for the new Sonic and its various options are out, with the 2012 Sonic starting at $14,995 including delivery. That price applies to the standard Sonic four-door sedan with a 1.8-liter "Ecotec...

Sometime early last week, someone somewhere in the U.S. bought a hybrid car. And while we may never know exactly who that person was, the car was the 2-millionth hybrid-electric vehicle sold here since the very first Honda Insight went on sale in late 1999. Industry trade journal Ward's Auto...

For its second year of production, the 2012 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car will come down $1,000 in price and be offered with several new features and two new colors. The list price of the 2012 Volt, including an $850 destination fee, is $39,995. That compares to $41,000 for the 2011...