Featured (was)

The hybrid graveyard is growing. BMW and Mercedes-Benz, the German luxury makers that teamed up to adapt GM's Two-Mode Hybrid to high-end luxury vehicles, have both canceled both the hybrid vehicles that used the system for 2012, after no more than three model years. Pricey and low-production We...

Though about half the new cars sold in Europe are diesels, the technology has never had much traction in the United States, partly because much stricter U.S. clean air regulations made it virtually untenable. But several years ago Daimler and Volkswagen introduced cars powered by clean diesel...

With the dust settling on press days at the Frankfurt Auto Show, we can take a breath, think about what we saw, and start to sort out our impressions. One very clear message: German carmakers are taking electric cars seriously. Finally. Both Audi and BMW unveiled electric-car concepts that are...

Toyota has just launched the production version of its 2012 Prius Plug-In Hybrid at the Green Drive Expo held in Richmond, California. Toyota will most likely launch the production version of its 2012 Prius Plug-In Hybrid at this year's Los Angeles Auto Show, to be held in mid-November. Just this...

The Chevrolet Volt is now here, on sale in most states, and ready to plug in--and to answer all your questions about what it is, how it drives, how to buy it and how to wade through all its new technology, there's only one solution. Here, you'll find High Gear Media's comprehensive coverage of the...

Mercedes-Benz is betting the time is right for a new range of compact and subcompact vehicles in the U.S. market. Expect to see the first of these, the B-Class wagon, in 2013.

The 2012 Fisker Karma extended range electric car (plug-in hybrid) may have been sold on its sexy good looks, and sporty performance -- but now the luxury sedan has a more practical sibling -- the Fisker Surf. Unveiled today at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, the 2013 Fisker Surf is a crossover wagon...

Audi has just unveiled its all-electric A2 Concept vehicle at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. Placed somewhere between its two-seat electric Urban Concept which we saw yesterday and its A3 hatchback, the four-seat concept is a direct competitor to BMW’s much-anticipated 2014 i3 electric car...

The 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show officially opens to the press tomorrow, but already the private parties and launch events have started. Sunday night, Audi officially unveiled its pair of two-seat electric concept cars, known jointly as the Urban Concept vehicles. One is a coupe, with a hatch over the...

For a few years now, hybrid sales have been stalled at 2 to 3 percent of the U.S. market. But for the first seven months of this year, the total is at the low end of the scale: Hybrids represented 2.06 percent of sales from January through August, and just 1.98 percent of sales in August alone. The...

Over a varied road test of more than 600 miles, including Manhattan traffic and upstate New York two-lane roads, we were surprised and pleased to get more than 27 mpg in our 2011 Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid sport-utility vehicle. It's fast, handles superbly, and is a pleasant place to spend...

We thought the 2011 Geneva Motor Show was one of the best ever for electric cars and green vehicles, but the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, starting in less than a week, is shaping up to be even better. We'll be covering the show in-depth next week, but in the meantime we've rounded up all the electric...

California's electric-car advocates are often "true believers," and they can be single-minded in the pursuit of what they believe is right. But the nuts-and-bolts experience they've gained during the state's 15 years of electric-car use can be invaluable--which is why policy-makers and car...

For 2012, Honda is planning to revise the Insight hatchback to address several of the criticisms levied against its smallest four-seat hybrid. Now, it's released a few details of the revised 2012 Insight before it officially unveils the updated model at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which opens...

Two weeks ago, we heard a rumor that German automaker Volkswagen was planning on unveiling an all-electric single-seat urban car at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. A few days later, we were offered a chance to be among the very first to get a glimpse of Volkswagen’s ultra-compact urban concept...

Today Ford unveiled the Evos Concept Car that will be at the center of its display at next month's 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. The bright-red concept is a sports coupe that the company says shows off an evolution of its global "kinetic design" language. It will also preview research into new ways for...

Overall, we liked the 2012 Ford Focus Titanium edition a lot, though its $27K price tag startled us, the gas mileage was a little lower than expected, and the MyFordTouch system did not seem ready for primetime to us.

It's taken a long time to arrive, but Ford's fuel-efficient 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine is now available as an option on both the 2012 Ford Explorer and the 2012 Ford Edge crossover utility. It's the first time any Ford Explorer has been offered with a four in the model's 22-year...

Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car startup Tesla Motors, sometimes says things that later prove not to be quite true. In that, he's like many entrepreneurs, who spend a portion of their time persuading the unconvinced and painting pictures of the rosy future, despite inconvenient facts that may...

The City of Chicago has put so much time and money into supporting electric cars that Nissan has decided to reward Illinois by moving forward the planned Chicago launch of its Leaf electric hatchback to this Fall. In February this year, Gov. Quinn of Illinois signed a bill investing $1 million in...