Featured (was)
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If you’re a parent you’ll know how eager companies are to convince your kids how important their product is. Be it the latest toy, a new film release or even a holiday location, advertising companies know that pester power is one of the most effective ways to get a parent to make a purchase. If it works for toys then why not for cars? Normally automakers keep clear of aiming cars at kids for one obvious reason: they can’t drive. But Nissan has bucked the trend with a kid-centric mini website devoted to the 2011 LEAF. A flash-based animation, the mini site is arranged into...
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First 2011 Nissan Leaf To Be Delivered To Customer on Dec 11Just days after Nissan confirmed that customer deliveries of the 2011 Leaf would commence in Japan on December 20, Nissan USA has confirmed that the very first customer vehicle will be delivered in a few days’ time, on December 11. The delivery will be to an unnamed Northern Californian...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Do GM's Ampera Plans Forecast the Next Generation of Volts?We don't hear much about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt's half-brother, the Opel/Vauxhall Ampera, here in the States. But in the U.K., the president of GM Europe laid out that group's plans for future generations of Ampera--and they're significant for what they say about upcoming models in an expanding...
John Voelcker -
Hertz To Launch Electric-Car Rentals in NYC, Add Smart To FleetAs it gears up to offer electric cars in selected rental fleets across the country, Hertz has dribbled out details of how its Global EV program will actually work. Today we learn that New York City will be the first region to receive the electric and plug-in hybrid rental cars, with rentals to...
John Voelcker -
2010 Los Angeles Auto Show: 2012 Fiat 500 Minicar UnveiledThe launch of the 2012 Fiat 500 at the Los Angeles Auto Show wasn't only the first new model from Chrysler's partnership with Italian automaker Fiat. It also added a new and attractive model to a category of cars that have always been an afterthought in the U.S. market: minicars, those even smaller...
John Voelcker -
Hyundai Drops The Gloves, Will Call Out Sales of 40-MPG CarsJust a month ago, we suggested that 40 miles per gallon is the new bragging threshold for subcompact and even compact cars. Now, Hyundai has dropped the gloves (or thrown down the gauntlet) with a clever marketing campaign to contrast it with other makers: It will start breaking out the sales of...
John Voelcker -
He’s the Pontiff to over 1.6 billion people worldwide. But until now, His Holiness The Pope has attended appointments in his fleet of heavily modified and heavily armored Mercedes SUVs. But the Vatican told the press earlier to day that His Holiness was keen to partake of the pleasures of electric motoring. Nick-named the “green pope” by many in the Vatican City, Pope Benedict XVI is no stranger to environmental issues. In 2008 the Vatican installed solar panels on its roof as well as a solar cooling unit for its main cafeteria a year later. In keeping with a long tradition...
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2010 LA Auto Show: Volvo C30 DRIVe Electric First Drive ReportOne of the great things about auto shows is the chance for journalists to drive prototype cars, especially at the Los Angeles Auto Show, known for its green-car test drives. We got a chance to spend 20 minutes behind the wheel of the Volvo C30 DRIVe Electric car, with Volvo's Lennart Stegland in...
John Voelcker -
Electric Cars Can’t Handle Cold Weather? Myth BustedWe’re big fans of Mythbusters here at AllCarsElectric and love busting some of our own myths. So we decided to test a myth we hear time and time again: electric cars can’t go very far in the Winter when in-cabin electric heating zaps the power from the battery pack. We put on our...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Toyota To Service, Not Recall, Hybrid Cooling-Pump ComponentsToyota plans to service approximately 650,000 of the more than 2 million Prius hybrids it has built to date, to correct a potential flaw in a cooling pump that could cause overheating. About 390,000 of the affected models are in the U.S. While the company hasn't yet released details on what it...
John Voelcker -
Why the 2011 Chevrolet Volt EPA Rating Sends Mixed MessagesIf like us, you were waiting with baited breath for the official EPA rating for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt you’ll have heard that the day before Thanksgiving Chevrolet announced the official figures were back for its first plug-in range-extended electric car. But unlike the 2011 Nissan...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2010 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid Prototype: Drive ReportThe main thing to understand about the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid is that it's not an "electric car" as many people use the term. Yes, it plugs in to any electric socket to recharge the 5.2-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. And, yes, its Hybrid Synergy Drive system uses electric torque...
John Voelcker -
For many years, Honda was routinely awarded the title of greenest carmaker in the U.S. market. But its most recent green cars have stumbled, and a dark-horse competitor is rising fast toward taking the coveted title, conferred every few years by the Union of Concerned Scientists. It's not Nissan, which launched the 2011 Leaf battery electric car that won our GreenCarReports 2011 Best Car To Buy award. It's not GM, with its much-lauded 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car. It's not even Toyota, which sells the uber-hybrid Prius and has built roughly two-thirds of all the...
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2011 Nissan Leaf Electric Car Named Car of the Year in EuropeThe 2011 Nissan Leaf all-electric car has been designated as Europe's 2011 Car of the Year, according to reports in Autocar and other media outlets. While the Leaf won our GreenCarReports 2011 Best Car To Buy award, the bulk of similar U.S. awards went instead to the 2011 Chevrolet Volt...
John Voelcker -
Did We Err On The Leaf, Or Is GM Volt Boosterism Bashing It?Last week at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, we announced that the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car was the winner of the GreenCarReports 2011 Best Car To Buy award. That same week, a flurry of other media outlets almost uniformly gave their "car of year" awards to the 2011 Chevrolet Volt...
John Voelcker -
Geeks Get Fitted For Electric Cars Via Google GFleetLet’s face it: Google loves its green cars. Its also home to some of the best tech-savvy engineers in the world. Engineers who love their tech and love to innovate. So what better way to put a new electric car through its paces than make it part of Google’s GFleet - a pool of cars the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Everybody Hertz Sometimes: CODA Lifts Mood With Rental ContractYou have to feel a little sorry for CODA automotive. A few months ago the Santa Monica firm was striding towards a December launch of its 2011 Sedan. Then as a prequel to announcing its first all-electric car would be delayed by nearly 9 months its Senior VP of Sales and Marketing left, closely...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2010 LA Auto Show: 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' Electric MinicarIt was the first electric car sold in volume anywhere in the world, starting more than a year ago, and now the 2012 Mitsubishi "i" is officially coming to the U.S. market. The U.S. version was unveiled on Thursday at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, though Mitsubishi provided few new details on how...
John Voelcker -
There's a lot we don't know about the 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV that Japan's largest automaker is prototyping with Silicon Valley startup Tesla Motors. That includes the battery pack size, traction motor power, and stated range--although 100 miles is the goal, according to Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, who presided over yesterday's press announcement. Battery packs under the floor But now we know a little more about such basics as the component location. This photo gallery shows that the battery pack is split into two portions, one under the front seats and one under the rear...
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2010 LA Auto Show: 2012 Honda Fit Electric Car, World DebutThis afternoon, Honda unveiled its plans for an all-electric version of the Honda Fit subcompact hatchback to be launched globally in 2012. The announcement came at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. The announcement represented a full circle of sorts, since Los Angeles was the home of many of the 300...
John Voelcker -
2011 Nissan Leaf: GreenCarReports Best Car To Buy 2011It’s been a long time coming. More than 80 years, in fact, since viable electric cars were offered to U.S. car buyers. Now, finally, at long last, it’s happened. The 2011 Nissan Leaf is the first practical, five-seat electric car—a full plug-in, running solely off grid...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Leaf Winner of Green Car Reports’ Best Green Car To Buy In 2011One week after our sister site GreenCarReports announced the contenders for the 2011 Best Car To Buy Green award, the judges have crowned an all-electric car the winner. Beating the other nominees, including the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2011 Honda CR-Z, 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and 2011 Lexus CT200h...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Electrification Coalition Shares Plans to Electrify U.S. FleetsA year ago, the Electrification Coalition, a group dedicated to reducing the dependence of the U.S. on oil, growing an electric vehicle infrastructure and uptake in the process released the Electrification Roadmap. Intended as a policy framework to assist the adoption of electric vehicles by...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
GM Resurrects Mild Hybrid System For 2012 Buick LaCrosseAs we first reported more than a year ago, a beefier version of GM’s mild hybrid system, the kind that was on the previous Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, is coming next year. Set to debut on the 2012 Buick LaCrosse, GM’s new “eAssist” mild hybrid system is said to improve fuel...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran