Hybrids

It may have just three seats, look like something from a science-fiction movie and have a forward-hinging front door, but the Gordon-Murray T27 Electric Car has just won the 2011 Future Car Challenge. Held the day before the vintage vehicle run open to pre-1906 cars that has taken place between...

Subaru might be better known for its world-rally-inspired gas-guzzling Impreza WRX and STI, but the Japanese automaker is just about to jump on the green bandwagon with an all-new hybrid wagon concept due to be unveiled later this month at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show. At the moment, we’ve only...

How times change. Startup Bright Automotive announced last week that, once the company completes its funding, its advanced plug-in hybrid Idea delivery van would be assembled under contract by AM General. That's the outfit that built the Humvee and Hummer, and spawned the now-defunct HUMMER brand...

Electric cars and hybrid vehicles may still lag a little behind traditional gasoline cars when it comes to sales figures, but their impact is wider-reaching than you might think. Even if you're yet to go electric or drive a hybrid, there's a fair chance that the vehicle you're driving owes some of...

The latest disaster to hit Asia this year may have centered on Thailand rather than Japan, but Japanese automaker Toyota has announced that production volumes of its 2012 Toyota Prius hybrid will be directly impacted as its supply chains suffer the effect of the worst floods to hit Thailand for 50...

If you're relying on state tax breaks to get you behind the wheel of a brand new hybrid, we have one piece of advice: Do it soon. Several states have already cut their rebate schemes and a bunch more are about to follow down the same path, which is soon to make hybrid vehicles a more expensive...

Mitsubishi has already hit the headlines today after it announced an update to its engine technology to improve fuel economy across its range, but now U.K.-based Autocar says Mitsubishi Boss Osamu Masuko has confirmed that the next Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution will be powered by a diesel-electric...

If you're in the market for a new car and your top priority is fuel efficiency, what do you buy? With so much to choose from now including gasoline, diesel, natural gas and electric cars on the market as well as a range-extended electric vehicle and hybrids galore, the options are bewildering. If...

Sergio Marchionne, the head of the Chrysler Group and Fiat Motors, has never been a fan of hybrid electric or pure electric vehicles. But in a recent interview with autonews.com, the boss of both car firms said that the only way Chrysler will reach fuel economy goals set in place by the Obama...

Remember The Purloined Letter, the classic Edgar Allen Poe story where a letter is hidden by storing it in plain sight? General Motors may not have realized it, but the industry trade journal Automotive News seems to have published a previously unannounced piece of its future model plans--right out...

Although the Honda Insight was eagerly awaited before it launched as a 2010 model, the little hybrid hatchback has never come remotely close to its sales goals. But the company isn't giving up, and the new 2012 Honda Insight features revised front styling, a nicer interior, and improved gas mileage...

At the 2011 Geneva Motor Show back in March we learned an interesting bit of information about the 2011 Chevrolet Volt's European cousin, the Opel Ampera. Unlike the Volt, the Ampera is to be equipped with a "battery saving" mode, whereby the driver can hold back the electric mode for when they...

In the automotive industry, leaks about an upcoming product normally fall into two categories: genuine mess-ups, or a purposeful, pr-driven leak designed to give a new car extra attention. But we the latest leak from Japan -- an entire Toyota Aqua Hybrid sales brochure -- falls squarely in the...

The magazine Consumer Reports is deeply trusted by many car buyers for its analysis of auto reliability, so when it pans a car, automakers sit up and listen carefully to its criticisms. We suspect Hyundai Motors America is sitting bolt upright about now, because in its November issue, the...

BMW today announced the sixth generation of its quintessential 3-Series, the compact sport sedan that is its highest volume seller and the face of BMW globally. Along with the return of four-cylinder engines in 3-Series cars for the U.S., this latest and greenest generation adds a new model: the...

Many California drivers silently cheered on July 1, when the yellow stickers on 85,000 hybrid cars expired--meaning their drivers were no longer allowed to travel solo in the carpool lane. According to a new study released Monday at the University of California-Berkeley, though the loss of the...

Although Nissan has taken its Altima Hybrid off the market for 2012, the model is likely to live on. The latest evidence: Nissan today unveiled in Japan a new generation of its Xtronic continuously-variable transmission (CVT) and a new hybrid system designed for front-wheel drive vehicles. So far...

The mild-hybrid system that General Motors calls eAssist (on the 2012 Buick Lacrosse and Regal models) will also appear on the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco version. But now it appears that the system will spread further across GM's product lines, with a report on GMInsideNews that it will appear on...

The Ford Escape Hybrid was not only the first U.S.-built hybrid electric vehicle, it was also the first hybrid sport-utility vehicle--or crossover, if you prefer. It's had a good run, starting in the fall of 2004 and continuing through the 2012 model year. As of the end of September, Ford has sold...

It’s no secret that the state of California is home to some of the most congested roads in the country -- but it is also home to some of the greenest drivers according to a recent study by academics of the Transport Research Institute at the University of Michigan. Reported by The Los Angeles...