Hybrids

Alan Taub, 54, is currently Executive Director in charge of Research & Development at General Motors. He joined GM R+D as executive director in 2001, and on October 1, he will replace Larry Burns as the company's Vice President of R+D. GreenCarReports.com interviewed Dr. Taub directly after his...

Who knew? Turns out Americans just needed a little nudge to visit their car dealers, but the promise of an extra $3,500 or more in incentives was enough to push car buyers over the hump and get them to trade in their clunkers. And how. As we reported Friday on our sister site TheCarConnection.com...

Like many European brands that rely on diesels, BMW has been late to the party in introducing electric-drive cars. That's a risky strategy for North America, where it has had to add incentives on diesels and try to tie them to the Cash-for-Clunkers program. Now it's making up for lost time, not...

A lot has changed since a group of forward thinking Canadians set up shop at SEMA in 2006 to raise money for the electric super car of the future. First off, their company's former moniker, Fuel Vapor Technologies, has been appropriately revised to Future Vehicle Technologies. Secondly, the...

Once more, it's the end of the month, when we celebrate by recapping our most popular posts. For July, we completely turned over our most popular posts from June ... and, our VW diesel fanboys have returned! This month, the most popular posts seem to have been the quirkiest. They're actually kinda...

Near where we spend our weekends, in the hilly terrain of upstate New York, there are three Subaru dealers. For several years, the largest one has paired strong-selling Subarus with the Suzuki lineup of all-wheel-drive entries and small, relatively green cars. When we got the word about the...

If there was an award for the "Most Badass Hybrid Debut In 2010," the new BMW X6 ActiveHybrid would win. BMW won't call it a sport utility vehicle, and for good reason. There's not much utility left in it. Oh, but there's plenty of sport. The so-called "sports activity coupe," was spotted near the...

Often we get our best topics for posts from AllAboutPrius.com readers. Yesterday, Steven Ileras sent us a note asking about the status of the mysterious Prius I trim level. When we ran down the 2010 Toyota Prius equipment levels and packages (numbered II, III, IV and V) right after introduction, it...

It's one thing to put a car on display. Fisker has been there and done that. Now, they'll put their prototype to the test on the racetrack. As part of the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races, the Fisker Karma will complete two laps around the 11-turn Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The Karma will...

The 2010 Lexus HS250h is an interesting beast. We've covered it quite a lot because, among other interesting traits, it pioneers a new market segment: the dedicated luxury hybrid sedan. We did an initial Drive Report and then, more recently, a full review, and now Lexus has completed the last piece...

Less than a week ago, we told you that hybrid drivers are more likely to get into accidents than non-hybrid drivers. Today, one Connecticut woman has become a mildly amusing example of this puzzling statistic. State police have identified the driver of a Toyota Prius who ran into a utility pole in...

From our first Drive Report to our recent full review, we've covered the 2010 Lexus HS250h quite a lot here at AllAboutPrius.com. Now the other shoe has dropped: Lexus has released the pricing. And, surprise, surprise, the 2010 HS250h slots very neatly just above the highest-spec model of the 2010...

Honda can never be accused of producing gas guzzlers. There's not an engine bigger than a 3.7 liter six cylinder in their stables. Japan's number two automaker had recently considered building a V8 for their luxury Acura division to compete with the likes of Lexus, Infiniti, and every other luxury...

Awhile back, we speculated that Toyota's new, smaller-than-Prius hybrid would be based on the Auris Hybrid compact hatchback sold in Europe. We were wrong; in fact, the US will get a hybrid version of the already-high-mileage Toyota Yaris subcompact instead. But the Auris Hybrid is moving along...

There's been a fair amount of grumbling about so-called "Prius perks," including parking spaces set aside for hybrid vehicles at Ikea, Whole Foods, and other retailers. In fact, the spaces--although designated "hybrid"--are more properly allocated to any alternative-fuel vehicle. That includes...

There's nothing the media love more than a nice juicy auto problem. Imagine that your car's headlamps failed, and replacing them cost you THOUSANDS. OF. DOLLARS  !!! Well, that's the premise of a late June story in AdAge, which discussed a potential problem with the optional xenon high-intensity...

In a press release issued earlier today, American lithium-ion battery maker, Ener1, announced that their products would be tested in two Volvo V70 plug-in hybrid wagons this fall in Europe. The tests are in preparation for Volvo's plans to launch a production plug-in vehicle in 2012. Volvo is...

Last summer, with $4/gallon gasoline, you couldn't find a Toyota Prius on dealer lots anywhere. Early this year, in the depths of the economic doldrums, US dealers could hardly give away the high-mileage hybrids. Now, once again, the Tsutsumi factory in Japan is cranking out hybrids as fast as it...

While the 2010 Honda Insight has gotten a lot of attention lately, it's far from Honda's only hybrid. Now the company has announced that it will put two more hybrid-electric vehicles on sale in Japan next year: the 2011 Honda CR-Z and the 2011 Honda Fit Hybrid. Honda had previously announced both...

The people of Japan love their hybrids and the Lexus HS 250h is no exception. The Nikkei reports that Toyota has already taken 1,500 pre-orders in Japan for its upcoming luxury hybrid. This exceeds the automaker's expectations three times over. Not to be outdone, the overwhelmingly popular third...