Hybrids

Say the word "hybrid" and then ask drivers, anywhere in the world, to name a car brand. They'll likely say "Toyota," a testimony to that brand's launch of the first Prius in 1997 and its tenacious pursuit of improvement in hybrid-electric powertrain technology since then. Today, Toyota announced it...

One by one, the luxury automakers are turning towards greener vehicles. First came Lexus, expanding its hybrid range with every model. Then BMW, with a hybrid here and there and a wider diesel range. Then there was Audi, which recently announced a plug-in hybrid A3 e-Tron. Now it's the turn of...

Toyota has now sold more than 1 million Prius hybrids in the U.S. over 12 years. Now their owners can get together to celebrate their cars, and all the fuel they didn't burn. For the first time ever, a national gathering of Prius owners is being held from June 14 through 16 in Riverside...

Mercedes-Benz in-house tuner AMG is best known for its thunderous, cacophonous V-8 gasoline engines. The brand's latest model is something of a departure, though. The 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA 45 AMG still offers ballistic performance, but uses only a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine--albeit...

There was a time when the average vehicle could be expected to go wrong on a fairly regular basis. That's not the case these days, and in general cars are more reliable than ever--even if repair costs are increasing. Well, they are for regular vehicles anyway, as a study by CarMD suggests the cost...

The last few weeks have made painful reading for fans of electric car startup Fisker Automotive. It seems fate has a few more nails to bang in to Fisker's coffin. Automotive News reports the company is now facing a federal lawsuit from 160 employees laid off on Friday, for breaking laws requiring...

Lexus sources have confirmed that the firm's upcoming compact luxury SUV will debut at next year's Geneva Auto Show. The new model is expected to carry the NX 300h tag, after that name was trademarked by Lexus back in November. NX fits the company's naming system and 300h implies the new vehicle...

You couldn't accuse Porsche of being predictable. After years of making endless rear-engined sports cars, the last decade or so has seen SUVs, diesels and hybrids all join the Porsche lineup. With the 918 Spyder supercar, plug-in hybrid will also appear. But plug-in technology will reach further...

Lexus recently sold the last example of its LFA supercar to a lucky buyer--leaving the Japanese luxury automaker without a high-performance flagship. That could change with the news Lexus intends to produce the LF-LC sports car, first seen as a concept vehicle at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show...

There was a point, when Toyota Prius and Honda Insights were rolling off dealer lots in their mere hundreds nationwide, that hybrids were easy to dismiss. Now, as sales leap 32 percent in the first two months of this year and market share sits around 4 percent, the humble hybrid has become a real...

The car you see here is Subaru's first production hybrid vehicle, the 2014 XV Crosstrek Hybrid. Launched today at the New York Auto Show, the hybrid crossover is set to hit dealerships in the fourth quarter 2013. Subaru has been careful to maintain the company's reputation for utility as well as...

With a raft of new diesel vehicles entering the market this year and next, the question arises: Who exactly will buy them? Based on the results of a survey to be released later this morning, Volkswagen of America suggests that some drivers of gasoline cars are likely to be open to the benefits of...

Offering a more luxurious take on the 2014 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid, Infiniti has officially unveiled the 2014 QX60 Hybrid crossover at the New York Auto Show. It's clear to see the Pathfinder's proportions in the new Infiniti, but that's where the visual similarities end. The QX60 is the latest...

The 2014 Nissan Pathfinder enters its second year as a seven-seat family crossover with a new model added: the first-ever Pathfinder Hybrid, a direct shot across the bows of the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. The 2014 Pathfinder is unchanged in style from the model introduced last year, with its rakish...

A brand new generation of the Toyota Highlander crossover made its debut at the 2013 New York Auto Show this morning, and with it came a new version of the popular Highlander Hybrid. The new Highlander is bigger and bolder than the model it replaces, now looking much more like a full-blown SUV than...

The New York Auto Show is almost upon us, and rather than the usual raft of green concept cars, it's the production vehicles we're most looking forward to this year. Several green models are set for unveiling, with everything from budget subcompacts, through diesel sedans, to more economical trucks...

A Toyota Prius is many things, but a convenient lawn mower isn't one of them. Useless, right? Luckily, it is now possible to buy a hybrid lawn mower, known as the Raven MPV-710. In many ways, a hybrid mower makes sense. After all, if you're making an effort to be green, you might as well try and...

The first internal pacemakers were developed in the 1950s. Heart patients were naturally skeptical: How does it run? Will the battery die? Can I be electrocuted? Just two decades later, the devices had become commonplace. The Six-Million Dollar Man went prime time, and humanity was making its first...

Every month we report on sales of plug-in electric cars, which tripled last year over the total in 2011. As virtually every analyst and commentator has pointed out, electric cars have done better in their early years than hybrids did in theirs. So how is it that Car and Driver, the well-known...

Electric car fans have long been skeptical of government plans to install noisemakers to alert pedestrians to a car's presence--and now automakers are pushing for a different rule. The NHTSA wants electric and hybrid vehicles to emit a noise at speeds of up to 18.6 mph, while automakers want it to...