Chevrolet News
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General Motors has been stringing out its publicity for upcoming cars--for three years in the case of the electric 2011 Chevrolet Volt--given its recent, ummm, challenges. But now we've finally had a chance to drive its crucially important 2011 Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan, which will hit dealerships this summer. It's a far more important car to GM's fortunes than the few Volts the company will sell over the next few years. Our colleague Bengt Halvorson spent part of his weekend at a press event where, for the first time, we were able to get behind the wheel of a 2011 Cruze. We've been...
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2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid Drive Report: The Invisible Plug-In?One of the nice things about being part of a larger network is access to other sites' content. In this case, we're pleased to be able to point ACE readers toward a drive report of a prototype 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid from our sister site GreenCarReports.com. The 2012 Prius Plug-In will be...
John Voelcker -
Compact Astra Based Buick In the Works For the U.S.?Rumblings Of Another New Buick Seem To Have Some Merit
Jonathan McGrew -
Now We Know: 2011 Chevrolet Volt Will Get 50 MPG In Gas ModeIt's been one of the most-asked questions about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car: So what kind of gas mileage will it get? Despite confusion around Chevy's claim of 230 miles per gallon, what people wanted to know was simple: After the battery is depleted, when the car's...
John Voelcker -
2010 Denver Auto Show: GM Showcases 2011 Buick RegalNew Regal Shows Light At End Of the Tunnel For Buick
Jonathan McGrew -
How the 2011 Chevy Cruze Eco Stays Slim, Trim & High-MileageWe've written already about the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco high-mileage model launched at the New York Auto Show. Now we've had a chance to sit down with Gary Altman, GM's vehicle chief engineer for compact cars-North America, and find out exactly how they did it. In addition to predictable...
John Voelcker -
Last month was was a pretty great one for mainstream automakers planning to deliver plug-in vehicles. Publicity a-plenty, state and Federal grants announced, pricing revealed. The message from Detroit and Japan is clear: If you like it then you shoulda put a plug on it ... But with so many of the big guns launching plug-in vehicles, what hope do small EV and PHEV companies have in future months? Within a year, we'll be able to choose among some really impressive plug-in vehicles. Within five years, expect most major manufacturers to be offering some form of plug-in--all with excellent service...
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Green Car Roundup: Best & Worst of the 2010 New York Auto ShowWell, it's done. The public are streaming in, and the two media preview days of the 2010 New York Auto Show are over. It wasn't a hugely significant show, but clearly the apocalyptic meltdown that automakers were experiencing last year has lifted. Sales are starting to come back, slowly, and while...
John Voelcker -
First 2011 Chevrolet Volt Rolls Off the Line, But Not For SaleThe 2011 Chevrolet Volt took another step last week in its long and highly publicized gestation, with the first complete vehicle rolling off the production line at GM's Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant. On Wenesday, March 31, the first model of the mass-produced electric car built in North America...
John Voelcker -
2011 Nissan Leaf Priced: $40K in Japan, $33K for U.S. BuyersPricing for the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car, eagerly awaited for many months, has now been set for both Japanese and U.S. markets.
John Voelcker -
Chevrolet Introduce Additional Fuel Efficiency In Cruze EcoGM Claims You Can Have Hybrid Efficiency Without the Price
Jonathan McGrew -
2010 New York Auto Show Preview: 40-MPG 2011 Chevy Cruze EcoThe trend started in Europe, and now every car make seems to have a green sub-brand. For a while, Chevy used the "XFE" label, but its highest-mileage 2011 Chevrolet Cruze is to be called the Eco. The EPA hasn't released final gas-mileage figures, but Chevrolet expects the 2011 Cruze Eco to be rated...
John Voelcker -
GM Stays On the Leading Edge Of Personal Transportation
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Nissan Ups Ante With U.K. Factory For 2011 Leaf Electric CarNissan has upped the ante on its bid to become the world's leading electric-car maker, by announcing a third global factory for production of their 2011 Leaf electric car. The small northern U.K. city of Sunderland will become the third site across three continents to be tooled up to build the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Making EVs is Easy; Making GOOD EVs Is Hard, and CostlyWe're now well and truly on the road to plug-in vehicle nirvana, with the 2011 Nissan Leaf, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, and various other plug-in and electric vehicles due to hit the market within the next couple of years. But there now seem to be hundreds of car companies, enthusiastic business...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Green-Car Tip: Hybrid Vehicles Get Discounts, Incentives TooWhile the auto industry in general offers an average incentive of more than $1,000 off the sticker price of any new vehicle, many buyers somehow assume this doesn't apply to hybrids. Oh, but it does. You can get money off pretty much any hybrid out there at the moment, since gasoline prices are far...
John Voelcker -
GM Planning Engineless All-Electric Cars To Follow the VoltBob 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...
John Voelcker -
GM Plug-In Hybrid Program Underway, Vehicle Still UnconfirmedRecent spy shots posted by our sister site Motor Authority show that despite delays, General Motors is continuing to develop the plug-in version of its Two-Mode Hybrid system. While the system is being tested in a discontinued Saturn Vue crossover, it now seems likely to appear in a version of...
John Voelcker -
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 position with an unidentified battery startup in California. Volt as a startup The entire Volt project was "largely a startup" within the broader GM enterprise, said Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz. With the 2011 Volt extended-range electric car less than a year away from dealerships, Gray...
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Want A Micro-Turbine Plug-In Hybrid Supercar? Call VelozziOne of our favorite cars from the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show was the CMT-380 supercar concept from Capstone Turbine. To show off potential automotive uses for its C30 micro-turbine, it built an extended-range electric car using the turbine to add up to 500 miles to the 80-mile range of its...
John Voelcker -
To Boost Gas-Free Car Sales, Make $7,500 Tax Credit a RebateSpeakers throughout today's Electric Drive Transportation Association conference agree: Plug-in electric cars that use little or no gasoline are coming. It's no longer an "if", it's now a "when." To help boost early adoption of cars that run mostly or entirely on grid power, the Federal government...
John Voelcker -
EDTA Speeds Up Electric Car TimelineIn 2009, the plug-in vehicle market gained unprecedented federal support. In addition to President Obama's proclamation of 1,000,000 plug-in cars by 2015, several newcomer companies, including Tesla, Fisker, A123, and Johnson Controls-Saft, received multimillion dollar grants and/or loans to...
Martin Padgett -
GM To Build Its Own Electric Motors for Future HybridsGeneral Motors will become the first U.S. automaker to design and build its own electric motors for hybrid and electric cars, the company said today. While Toyota and Honda have long made their own motors, until now GM--along with Ford--has purchased them from third-party suppliers. GM views the...
John Voelcker -
GM Marketing Manager Behind Awful Volt Dance Is ReassignedYou heard it here first, folks. Maria Rohrer, the Chevrolet Volt marketing manager responsible for the remarkably awful "Volt Dance" at last month's Los Angeles Auto Show, has been reassigned. An internal General Motors memo last week said Rohrer would become director of Chevrolet truck...
John Voelcker