Featured (was)
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Okay, let's get the schoolyard jokes about buying your female companion a motorised whirring gift for valentine's day. We know you have a much more sophisticated set of tates than that. But how do you buy your partner an exciting, fast, luxurious gift bound to get her blood pumping without resorting to thing you shouldn't discuss in public. If you happen to be Jens Krantholm the answer is pretty easy: buy her a 2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5. At 136 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Narvik Norway, Jens Krantholm has been the world’s most northerly Tesla Roadster driver for some time. But...
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Valentine's Day Idea: Wrap Your Car In Hearts And LoveSuppose your beloved walked into the garage this morning and found the car covered in pink hearts and declarations of love. That'd be a pretty impressive Valentine's Day gift, right? Well, start your planning for next year, 'cause this one will take more than a last-minute dash to the florist and...
John Voelcker -
Porsche Goes Electric with e-Boxster Test Mini FleetAsk most consumers to describe a Porsche and they’ll describe the classic Porsche Boxster: a rear-wheel drive, mid or rear-engined car designed for the driving enthusiast rather than the casual commuter. Large, noisy engines have always been a prerequisite. Until now. We heard last summer...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Toyota Recall Recap: Floormats, Sticky Pedals, AND User ErrorLet's recap. After 18 months, recalls totaling 9 million Toyota, Lexus, and Pontiac models, and investigations by Toyota, Congress, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) unit ... what have we learned? (1) A few accelerator pedals...
John Voelcker -
Could Your Electric Car Insurance Be Higher Than You Expect?Arranging insurance for your new car is always a stressful and unpleasant business. Often overlooked, it has a direct impact on your driving habits and your pocket book. But unlike gasoline cars, electric cars are not yet fully known by the insurance industry, causing some potential headaches for...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
BMW Reveals All-Electric Vision ConnectedDrive ConceptBMW is going to great lengths to show that electric cars can look good as well as just being green, revealing today its new Vision ConnectedDrive zero-emission roadster concept ahead of its world debut next month at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. The automaker doesn’t go into detail as to what...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
At six years old, the Volvo C30 has come of age. Popular in Europe as Volvo’s safety-conscious answer to the hot hatchback. With a range of engine options available, the four-seat hatchback represents Volvo’s lightest and smallest car. It comes as no surprise then that it is the model chosen by Volvo to be electrified in a three year test program involving 250 vehicles. Ahead of the start of the project, Volvo invited us to its headquarters in Gothenburg Sweden to get a sneak peak of its revolutionary vehicle. Basic Facts The 2012 Volvo C30 Electric features a front-wheel system...
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BREAKING Geneva Motor Show 2011: Nissan ESFLOW Concept Sneak PeakJust weeks ahead of the 2011 Nissan Motor Show, Nissan has released pictures and videos of its latest all-electric car: The 2011 ESFLOW concept, something we’d heard was in development a while ago. Built from the ground up from scratch, the all-electric two-seat sport coupe concept car...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Buick Regal With eAssist: 26 MPG City, 37 MPG Highway ExpectedThe rumors started last week, and they were largely true: Buick plans to offer a model of its Regal compact sports sedan with the eAssist mild-hybrid system. What we didn't have were the projected EPA mileage ratings (based on GM's internal tests). The company expects the 2012 Buick Regal with...
John Voelcker -
A Tale of Two Countries: How The U.S. and U.K. Sell The LEAFLike many customers in the U.S., our own Marty Padgett got to reserve his 2011 Nissan LEAF in April last year. And now, like so many of the expectant 20,000 who have signed up for a place in the queue to buy NIssan’s first mass-produced electric car, he’s been saddled with an...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
My Hummer Isn’t Electric? IRS Details False Tax Credit ClaimsDuring the first half of 2010, nearly 13,000 U.S. taxpayers wrongly claimed a staggering $33 million under the electric tax credit incentive scheme, a Treasury Department inspector general report has revealed. The credits, designed to encourage the uptake of plug-in hybrid and electric-only...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Three is a Magic Number: One Family Gets Volt, LEAF and PriusIf you’re in the market for an electric car one of the biggest decisions to make after you’ve decided to buy a plug-in vehicle is which one to choose. For one family in California, however the choice was far easier: Get one of each. And with good reason. Ten years ago marketing...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Although EPA gas-mileage ratings may or may not be achievable in real-world driving conditions, they're a good relative benchmark. They're also a very public encouragement to carmakers to make more fuel-efficient cars. Hyundai, whose new 2011 Elantra compact model is rated at 40 mpg highway for all sedan models (the Touring is a carryover from the previous generation), has now stepped up its challenge to other makers. Two months ago, the company began breaking out sales totals for every car it sold that got 40 mpg or better, starting with November sales figures. And it all but dared other...
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The Jay Leno Show Has New Life, And The Ford Focus Electric Does TooThere’s something terribly fickle about the bright lights and flashy sets of the TV talk-show genre. But while Jay Leno’s chat show on NBC may have failed to receive positive viewing figures the bright orange 2009 Ford Focus electric prototype used in the show has just found a new home...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Volvo’s Upcoming Plug-in Vehicles: What do YOU Want to Know?Let’s be honest: Volvo isn’t the first company that comes to mind when thinking of electric vehicles. In fact, until the display of a crashed C30 Electric at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show earlier this year we’ve seen very little from Volvo’s plug-in fleet except a few...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Virginia Utility Tests Cheap Rates for Electric Car OwnersDominion Virginia Power announced yesterday that is waiting for Virginia State Corporation Commission approval to offer two electricity tariffs exclusively to electric vehicle owners in a bid to encourage customers to make the switch to electric cars. As we’ve discovered before, more and more...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Which Is Selling Better: 2011 Chevy Volt Or 2011 Nissan Leaf?The first business day of every month is when automakers release sales data for the previous month. Today, we got January's sales figures, which are an improvement over last January's. But the question that we keep hearing is: Which sells better, the 2011 Nissan Leaf or the 2011 Chevrolet Volt?...
John Voelcker -
2012 Ford Focus Electric Won’t Charge as Fast as Nissan LEAFOne of the biggest drawbacks to electric car ownership today is the time it takes to recharge the car when the batteries are depleted. So it comes as no surprise that the time it takes a car to charge from empty is a big selling point. A few weeks ago, Ford seemingly pulled ahead of its rivals...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
If you haven’t seen the 2012 Ford Focus, then what I am about to say is going to come as a bit of a surprise. The 2012 Ford Focus is probably the best compact car that Ford has produced yet. Ford has taken style, performance and technology to new levels in the c-segment and has done so with a global design. You might be asking yourself how much Ford paid me to write nice things about the 2012 Ford Focus, but the truth is they didn’t. The 2012 Ford Focus is a completely new car with a completely new attitude—one that feels sporty, fresh and comfortable. It is enough to make...
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Buyer Beware: 'Fake' Electric Car Charging Stations?You’ve ordered your electric car and like many, you’ve been put off by the seemingly extortionate quote given to install a level 2 electric charging station at your home. As we’ve discussed before, sourcing your own Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) can save you hundreds of...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Will Winter Storms Spell Disaster for Your Electric Car?Is it really all doom and gloom for electric car owners when winter weather comes, and will electric car owners be stranded in the snow as many columnists have suggested? That's the suggestion we've seen time and time again over the weekend as another band of heavy winter storms is poised to hit...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Will Toyota Cut Prius Prices To Keep Hybrid Sales High?Hybrid sales in the U.S. have flattened over the last couple of years, but they're going great guns in Japan. Now, an analyst suggests that the great popularity of the Prius in its home market may lead Toyota to cut the price there to keep its sales high. The Toyota Prius has been the best-selling...
John Voelcker -
Chelsea Sexton Slams Bias On Both Sides Over Electric-Car Range (Guest Post)by Chelsea Sexton Slanted, anti-EV reporting is hardly a new thing, and I suspect we're in for a lot more of it in 2011 as plug-in vehicles hit showrooms. But the recent BBC "Mini Adventure," a 484-mile journey from London to Edinburgh in a Mini E, has caught fire like nothing I've seen in a while...
John Voelcker -
Volvo V60 Plug-In Hybrid Wagon Coming At Geneva Motor ShowWhile working energetically on its C30 DRIVe Electric battery-electric vehicle, Swedish carmaker Volvo has also been developing green powertrains for its larger vehicles for several years. Now, it's ready to unveil the first of these, a plug-in hybrid version of its V60 station wagon, a model not...
John Voelcker