Hybrids

One of our favorite cars from the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show was the CMT-380 supercar concept from Capstone Turbine. To show off potential automotive uses for its C30 micro-turbine, it built an extended-range electric car using the turbine to add up to 500 miles to the 80-mile range of its...

Before either car launched, the 2010 Toyota Prius and 2010 Honda Insight were viewed as natural rivals. Would the third generation of Toyota's definitive hybrid be threatened by Honda's "least expensive hybrid", which too offered five doors and good gas mileage? What a difference a year makes...

The U.S. government isn't the only one that gives grants and loans to help automakers develop advanced-technology vehicles. The U.K. government's Technology Strategy Board does it as well, for companies that build cars there. Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, collaborating with Lotus Engineering...

UPDATE: The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a formal inquiry into the brakes of the 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid. It has now received 124 complaints of faulty brakes, out of roughly 37,000 of the cars sold to date in the U.S. Toyota said it would cooperate fully with the...

Things are moving fast in the land of Toyota safety issues and recalls. Yesterday, we told you that the 2010 Toyota Prius was being investigated for braking problems in Japan. Today, Toyota has admitted that most 2010 Prius models (those built between the start of production last spring and late...

Citing allegations of braking loss or slippage, Japan's Ministry of Transportation ordered Toyota to launch an investigation into possible brake problems in the new 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid. That car, currently in short supply globally and also the best-selling car in Japan, is the subject of 14...

With the start of the new year, we're back to our end-of-month rundowns on the top five most popular green car posts of the last 30 days. For January, the top two came from our comprehensive coverage of the 2010 Detroit Auto Show. We have just one carryover this month from the year's Top Ten Most...

So much has happened around the Toyota and Lexus accelerator safety recalls over the last week that it's hard to keep it all straight. So we're taking our first stab at it by sorting out the impact of the recall on the many hybrids offered by Toyota and Lexus. The full scope of the latest recall...

"Born From Jets" may be the slogan of recently-saved-from-death Swedish Saab, but one day it may prove more appropriate for British carmaker Jaguar. The company has been awarded funding from the U.K. government to develop a small jet turbine as a range extender for a future hybrid luxury car. Its...

As widely reported yesterday, Toyota has suspended sales of 8 models due to a faulty accelerator pedal mechanism. The defective part apparently causes the pedal to stick, resulting in unintended acceleration and loss of control of the vehicle. So what does a Chicagoland Toyota dealership do when...

Speakers throughout today's Electric Drive Transportation Association conference agree: Plug-in electric cars that use little or no gasoline are coming. It's no longer an "if", it's now a "when." To help boost early adoption of cars that run mostly or entirely on grid power, the Federal government...

General Motors will become the first U.S. automaker to design and build its own electric motors for hybrid and electric cars, the company said today. While Toyota and Honda have long made their own motors, until now GM--along with Ford--has purchased them from third-party suppliers. GM views the...

From Garbage Trucks to Sports Cars, Hydraulics Are Making Progress

BMW is expected to unveil its third hybrid model at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show this March. It will be a mild-hybrid version of the all-new 2011 BMW 5-Series sedan line it has just unveiled, which will go on sale in June. The ActiveHybrid 5 will follow in the footsteps of the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid...

Cleaning up a few odds and ends from last week's 2010 Detroit Auto Show brings us to General Motors' future product plans for plug-in hybrids. In the crush of reporters asking questions (known as the "scrum") after a GM announcement, a few more nuggets came to light. GM showed its striking and...

Last Friday, startup plug-in hybrid maker Fisker Automotive announced it had raised another $115 million in funds from private backers, including lithium-ion cell supplier A123 Systems and legendary venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Buried in the press release was a...

We somehow omitted one hybrid concept until now in our 2010 Detroit Auto Show coverage; it's the Hyundai Blue-Will four-door sports sedan, which is unusual in both name and looks. Some loved it, some loathed it, but we're as interested in its plug-in hybrid powertrain as in the rather nervous...

The Japanese auto show known as the Tokyo Auto Salon is full of as many customized cars--and just as much weirdness--as its domestic counterpart, the massive SEMA show in Las Vegas. And just as it did at SEMA, with its Aerius and Aemulus customized Prius concepts, Toyota brought a factory custom to...

Auto shows have always been the forum for unveiling the wildest, wackiest, most over-the-top drool-worthy vehicles. The shows have been more subdued over the past two years of economic turmoil, but this year, the folks at Revenge delivered something to smile about. The Revenge Verde takes its...

Last weekend, we finally got the chance to drive the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. By and large, we liked it; see our full First Drive report for more details. Riding shotgun was Andrew Farah, the chief engineer for the 2011 Volt. During our ride and after, we asked him five questions--just as we did Volt...