Detroit
-
It remains unclear whether Tesla will survive as an independent company, given that it's had exactly two profitable quarters in its 12-plus years of existence. And yet, last week, Tesla briefly passed General Motors to become the most valuable U.S. automaker by market capitalization. It had passed Ford last week, and long ago surpassed the value of troubled Fiat Chrysler. DON'T MISS: Why Tesla's Elon Musk Must Sell 6 Million Electric Cars To Make History This fact has been endlessly perplexing both to some types of investors and to the Detroit-based auto companies and much of the media that...
-
Elon Musk's Hyperloop idea: 'real, happening' says CTO of 1 of 3 companies vying to build it
One of three companies looking to build a full-scale Hyperloop is recruiting engineers.
Stephen Edelstein -
UPDATE: VW Diesel-Cheating Lawsuits To Be Heard In California, Not Detroit
Volkswagen wants to consolidate customer lawsuits into a class action, and face it in Detroit.
Stephen Edelstein -
Ford HQ To Have Michigan's Largest Solar Array, 30 Charging Stations Included
Ford will install a solar canopy over parking spaces at its Michigan headquarters.
Stephen Edelstein -
Mother-Daughter Team Installs Battery Packs In Chevy Volt Electric Cars
A mother and daughter work side by side to install Chevy Volt battery packs at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant.
Stephen Edelstein -
GM Is Serious About Electric Cars, Despite Grumbling By Advocates
Sometimes memories are short. Electric-car advocates often forget that it took seven years from the first Toyota Prius hybrid, launched in Japan in 1997, until sales of the second-generation Prius started to grow in global markets. Now, General Motors appears to be the subject of suspicion and...
John Voelcker -
New jobs and plant updates by carmakers often get little attention outside the towns involved, but sometimes they telegraph information about future models. The Detroit News said Saturday that GM is expected to announce it will update its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, spending $450 million and adding 1,400 new jobs. In this case, the car involved is an updated or redesigned Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car, which will likely launch for model year 2016. MORE: 2016 Chevrolet Volt To Launch Next Year: What We Know So Far The news, attributed to four "sources familiar with the...
-
Shock, Surprise: Startup Detroit Electric Won't Build In Detroit After All
In the world of startup electric car automakers, things don't always go to plan. With the best will in the world, release dates get pushed back, prices go up and initial promises fade away as if they were never made. It may not come as much of a surprise then to learn that Detroit Electric, a small...
Antony Ingram -
Which City Has The Worst Fuel Economy For All Its Used Cars?
See where you shouldn't go if you want a fuel-efficient used car.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla: As Disruptive To U.S. Car Market As Toyota, Nissan Were?
In its decade of existence, electric-car startup Tesla has accomplished many things the auto industry didn't think it could do. But could Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] be as disruptive to the existing industry as were Toyota and Nissan, the two largest Japanese car importers during the Sixties...
John Voelcker -
Carsharing Expands So Much It Even Arrives In Downtown Detroit
Detroit has plenty of problems to work on these days, but that doesn't mean life can't go on as normal for its residents. That even extends to introducing the car-sharing schemes found in other big American cities to Downtown Detroit, as popular service Zipcar is doing. According to The Detroit...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Model S Already A Future Classic? Auto Library Thinks So
Put a group of auto enthusiasts in a room, ply them with suitable amounts of alcohol, and soon conversation will turn to 'future classics'. The term refers to a modern car which gains the kind of respect and appeal of a classic vehicle in its lifetime, guaranteeing it a similar status many years in...
Antony Ingram -
There’s something special about the Volkswagen Beetle -- or VW Bug to use its more colloquial name -- that makes us think of a car that is inherently friendly to the planet. And that’s something which Volkswagen has played on with the its Volkswagen all-electric e-Bugster concept car, unveiled at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. Although the e-Bugster is unmistakably a VW Beetle, it sits a little lower than its gasoline siblings thanks to a sporty coupe hardtop, shallow windows and a chopped roofline. The result is a more sporty looking car that -- if you squint enough -- looks a...
-
Chevrolet Code 130R & Tru 140S Concept Small Cars: Detroit Auto Show
Chevrolet has continued its trend towards fuel-efficient small cars today with the unveiling of two new concept cars at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. The two cars -- a four-seat, rear-wheel drive coupe called the Code 130R, and a four-seat, three-door, four-seat coupe hatchback called the Tru 140S --...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Volvo XC 60 Plug-in Hybrid Concept Heads To 2012 Detroit Auto Show
Volvo might have already started production on its first plug-in hybrid wagon -- the 2012 V60 Diesel Plug-in Hybrid -- but as we’ve told you before, the Swedish automaker doesn’t think the U.S. is ready for a diesel plug-in hybrid yet. But at next week’s 2012 Detroit Auto Show...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
GM Makes 2012 Volt Production Line Tweaks, Delays 2nd Shift
Earlier this year, General Motors announced that it would start a second shift at its Detroit-Hamtramck factory some time towards the end of 2011 to meet its production goals for the 2012 Chevrolet Volt. But on Friday the company announced that it was shelving plans to introduce a second shift...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
1914 Detroit Electric: Pretty Spry For A Century Old (Video)
For decades, old electric cars--those built from the 1890s to 1930 or so, when the last remnants of the industry died out--were nothing more than oddities. Tall, imposing, mostly resembling closed horse carriages, they were stately but sidelined reminders of an entirely vanished way of propulsion...
John Voelcker -
Should Detroit Dial Down The Doom & Gloom Over High-Mileage Rules?
We've heard this script before. Some agency of the Federal Government proposes a new rule that will affect the design and performance of cars in some way, sometime in the future. Instinctively, reflexively, automatically, viscerally, the industry lashes out. Horror, catastrophe, misery, bankruptcy!...
John Voelcker -
Smaller, more efficient engines that equal the power of larger, lazier ones are how automakers all over the world plan to raise fuel economy. Today Ford [NYSE:F] doubled down on engineering as the best way to boost gas mileage, with announcements about three separate technologies it plans to use in U.S. market vehicles. It not only said it would design and build an eight-speed automatic transmission, its first, but will also bring assembly of its hybrid transmission system in house. That system had previously been built in Japan. First-ever three And perhaps most significantly, it will build...
-
Why Silicon Valley Won't Be Detroit For Green Carmakers
We don’t hear “death of Detroit” stories as often now as we did a year ago. When GM and Chrysler plunged into bankruptcy and the entire U.S. industry laid off tens of thousands of workers in one year, the effects on an already battered Detroit region were dire. And they led to a...
John Voelcker -
Ed Begley, Jr. Launches Ford’s Electric Car War On Chevrolet, Nissan (VIDEO)
Choosing a spokesperson for a new brand is pretty tough, especially if someone else has already had a go at selling what you’re trying to. NIssan chose world-champion cyclist Lance Armstrong to be their public face on early Nissan LEAF commercials. It appears Ford has chosen American actor...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2011 Detroit Auto Show: Ford In Love With Electric Cars
Just a few days after unveiling the 2012 Ford Focus Electric at the 2011 Consumer Electrics Show in Las Vegas, Ford has expanded its green fleet for 2012/13 with yet another plug in vehicle: The C-MAX Energi Plug-in Hybrid From the specifications and the way Ford is talking about its new vehicles...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Even In Motor City, Charging Electric Cars Will Be Cheap
Buyers of electric vehicles can already benefit from several different tax credits, both from the federal government as well as their own respective state authorities (in some cases), but now they stand to benefit on their power bills as well. Detroit Edison, an electricity utility based in...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Detroit Dinosaur Thinks Kilowatts Are a Buzzkill, World Laughs
As any parent will tell you, progress takes time. Evolution often takes a much longer time yet. So rather than pounding our head on the wall when we read idiotic editorials, perhaps we should take a deep breath and calmly reflect that those who can't adapt to change will eventually die out. What...
John Voelcker