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Almost a year ago, we called Bentley's much-touted biofuels strategy "bogus," in an alliterative headline to a piece that was much forwarded around the green-car world. Now we've had a chat with the very reasonable and polite David Reuter, Bentley's head of PR and communications. We still think...

BMW has now produced two electric cars: the two-seat Mini E, of which 600 examples are on test in the U.S., Europe, and U.K., and the new ActiveE Concept unveiled at last month's Detroit Auto Show, which will be similarly tested starting next year. But these are just preludes. The company will...

Ford will introduce two electric vehicles, both scheduled for release next year.  Ford's expectations for these vehicles, the Focus BEV and the Transit Connect EV, are high and they anticipate strong sales for both offerings.  Along with the Fusion Hybrid, the company's decision to offer...

Mercedes-Benz rarely creates concept cars just for fun. Whether they're the "Vision" models that show up at the Frankurt Motor Show every other year, or lesser concepts for other shows, they always hold clues to what's coming down the pike with a three-pointed star. For the 2010 Geneva Motor Show...

Sometimes Twitter is pretty wonderful. Amidst all the fluff and links and LOLs, some real gems can land. We honestly don't recall who first alerted us to an article about Chinese electric-car maker BYD from Caixin Online, but we thank you. It's an excellent article, and highly worth reading top to...

Teaser images are an amazing method taken by automakers to get interest and discussion rolling.  From just a small glimpse of a vehicle, discussion, speculation, and arguments pursue and the company has successfully generated the hype that they were looking to create.  Something as simple as this...

When automakers and the Obama White House announced agreement on a single national standard for emissions and fuel economy last May, the entire auto industry heaved a huge sigh of relief. The issue was settled, at least until 2016. Yesterday, however, the state of Texas filed suit in the U.S. Court...

Last week, Volkswagen unveiled the all-new 2011 Touareg sport utility vehicle, including its first-ever hybrid-electric powertrain. It has new and crisper styling that updates what had become a somewhat outmoded SUV. Volkswagen sold about half a million of the first-generation Touareg, launched in...

You have to give Audi credit. When they decide to do something, they go all in. It was just last fall that they showed off the e-Tron, their electric supercar based on the R8 sports coupe. Now, we learn that there will be a range of e-Trons offered, though in small numbers. As we noted last week...

Despite the appealing 2010 Milan Hybrid, the Mercury brand hardly springs to mind when you think "green car". In fact, it hardly springs to mind, period; Ford's upmarket brand has languished for years with little product and even less attention. Now that's going to change. Ford confirmed yesterday...

 The Nissan Leaf is perhaps the most anticipated electric vehicle ever.  Nissan's approach and promise of providing a reasonably priced, five seat EV for the masses has drawn considerable attention.  The vehicle's expected performance numbers are well within standards of typical expectations for...

Recently we posted findings on this site from a report posted by the National Research Council.  The reports were met with great criticism for many reasons including obvious faults in calculating the future costs of lithium-ion battery.  The NRC reports stated excessively high costs for li-ion...

When Mazda launched its 2011 Mazda2 subcompact hatchback at last year's Los Angeles Auto Show, many journalists noted that the doors were locked--and the windows were tinted so no one could see inside. Why? Because Mazda hadn't finished work on the interior. Well, now it's February, and they're...

The Chicago Auto Show is traditionally all about trucks, and in this slow year it's pretty light on green cars. A welcome exception comes from Korean maker Kia, who just unveiled their Ray plug-in hybrid concept car. The Ray points the way toward a stylish compact four-door sedan that's both...

Everything you need to know about the recalls affecting the 2010 Toyota Prius, and the 2004-2009 Prius too

GM has officially set the launch date for the Chevy Volt.  GM listed November 1, 2010 as the Volt's Job 1 date, making the launch of the Volt imminent and the date of release finally official. There has been considerable speculation as to when the Volt will actually become available to the...

It's long been known that Ford's first electric car would actually be a truck. Now, we have all the details of the 2011 Ford Transit Connect Electric, an all-electric conversion of the Transit Connect commercial van that offers a range of up to 80 miles on a full charge. The 2011 Transit Connect...

So what exactly IS a "green car"? At both the Los Angeles Auto Show and Detroit Auto Show, you could find the word "green" all over the place. LA has been pitching itself for years as the greenest auto show, with fewer muscle cars and more hybrids, clean diesels, and so forth than any other U.S...

Many reviewers lauded the new, third generation 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid when it launched last spring--but wondered why it didn't use a lithium-ion battery, rather than 15-year-old nickel-metal-hydride technology. Now we learn that the 2010 Prius was indeed supposed to have a new, more energy-dense...

The annual Electric Drive Transportation Association meeting held in conjunction with the Washington Auto Show is one of the largest events on American soil for electric vehicles.  The EDTA conference is a place where automakers, battery developers, suppliers, industry experts, and journalists...