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In some ways, urban parcel delivery is the ideal duty cycle for electric trucks. Daily routes are usually under 100 miles, and all trucks return to a central location at night--ideal for recharging. Federal Express, which has a large fleet of green and alternative vehicles, is now putting its first...

Sure, hybrids and electric cars are great, but they sell in small numbers. The way most cars will meet newer, more aggressive fuel-economy rules is by making engines smaller and more efficient. Case in point: the 2010 Buick LaCrosse, a midsize sedan now offered with a 2.4-liter direct-injected...

Automotive journalists aren't known for putting their money where their mouth is. Lots of us talk about loving the planet, owning the environmental mantle, and yet somehow we all drive MINI Coopers and Mazda MX-5 Miata roadsters. Not me. I think I just signed up to buy a 2011 Nissan Leaf. The...

Well, 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...

The 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...

At the 2010 New York Auto Show today, Mazda announced that its 2011 Mazda2 subcompact would carry a low starting price of $13,980 when it arrives at dealers. Not only that, but the first cars will show up in showrooms in late July, several months earlier than originally planned. Like the Fiesta but...

One year ago, Scion previewed its iQ mini-car, the smallest model yet from a brand known for its small, quirky cars. Today it revealed the production version of the 10-foot-long 2011 Scion iQ. The little "three-plus-one-seater" will go on sale between January and March next year, powered by a...

Pricing for the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car, eagerly awaited for many months, has now been set for both Japanese and U.S. markets.

In the face of continuing suggestions that random electronic interference may be causing unintended acceleration in the Toyota Prius and other vehicles, the U.S. Department of Transportation has asked for independent studies on the topic from two scientific organizations. Despite multiple recalls...

While our colleague Nelson Ireson was driving the (very un-green) 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG in Mexico this week, he heard an interesting item that's much more along our lines. It is: Mercedes-Benz plans to sell only hybrid models of the S-Class in the U.S. when the next generation car arrives...

Looks like secretive startup V-Vehicle Co. won't be joining Ford, Nissan, Tesla, and Fisker in getting government guarantees for low-interest loans to invest in advanced vehicle technology. Yesterday the U.S. Department of Energy turned down a $321.1 million loan application by V-Vehicle (VVC)...

What does personal transportation look like in a new century, when more than 60 percent of the world's citizens live in cities and the number of vehicles on the globe could rise to 2 billion? Would future urbanites accept the idea of moving around in pod-shaped electric two-seaters with only two...

More issues are surfacing in regards to the runaway Prius story from last week involving momentary celebrity James Sikes, whose runaway incident in a 2008 Toyota Prius made headlines for days. Last week, Jalopnik reported on the financial troubles of Sikes, who filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The...

The big green car news from Chrysler yesterday was its announcement that it would build an electric version of the Fiat 500 mini-car for the U.S. market. Win one, lose one, perhaps. The company also dropped a death notice: It has ended development of its Ram Two-Mode Hybrid pickup truck, scheduled...

Much mystery surrounded the electric versions of the Fiat 500 that have appeared at auto shows over the last year. Now, Chrysler has cleared up a bit of the confusion: It will build an electric Fiat 500 for the U.S. market, with a powertrain developed by engineers at its Michigan headquarters, at a...

We thought we should provide a short update on two highly publicized so-called "runaway Toyota Prius" cases, one in San Diego and one in Harrison, New York. The reputed phenomenon of "sudden acceleration" has been debated at least since a 1986 controversy around the Audi 5000 model. But the two...

Few automotive engineers believe in so-called "sudden acceleration". But until recently, there's been no way to determine what a driver what doing when he (or she) swears that he was pressing the brake pedal with all his strength even as the car accelerated. Now, that's changed. Federal...

Our reader Javier M writes: I'm 99 percent convinced I want a Prius. However, there is one question: Does the "Prius V Model" come with a regular sunroof standard (within the $28,875 price)? I want to purchase the "basic" Prius V, but I do not wish to get any major upgrades (no navigation, etc)...

Nissan 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...

As the lithium-ion battery market continues to expand, it becomes one of the few industries reporting job growth during the economic downturn.  recently, Compact Power, a subsidiary of LG Chem, announced plans to hire additional workers as demand has outstripped current supply and is expected to...