Hybrids
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Never let it be said that Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov doesn't put his money where his mouth is. He plans to invest 150 million euros, or about $200 million, in a new company that will build the world's first production natural-gas series hybrid vehicle. The car will be called Yo, which is how you pronounce the letter "e" in Russian, and built by the new Russian automaking firm, to be called e-Auto. Rotary-vane engine Developed by several dozen Russian engineers, the Yo (known as the City Car when announced in late October) is a series hybrid. Its wheels are driven by two small...
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Who Buys Electric Cars: Greens, Geeks, or Gloaters?As any businessman will tell you, understanding your market is the key to selling your product. So as automakers worldwide ramp up electric car production ahead of a mass launch of plug-in vehicles they are seeking the answer to one very important question: What sort of person buys electric cars?...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Still Dead: Dodge Ram Hybrid Pickup, With Or Without Diesel
It's all very strange. Just last March, Chrysler definitively killed the Ram Hemi Hybrid pickup it had been developing for several years. RIP Hemi Hybrid. Now comes a mysterious post on fan site Allpar.com that proposes that the company's Ram 1500 pickup truck will offer a Cummins 5.0-liter...
John Voelcker -
2011 Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid Gets...A Tax Break
All kinds of green cars are eligible for tax breaks, but the 2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid could be one of the most expensive vehicles ever to get the IRS' nod of approval. The Cayenne S Hybrid earns its buyers up to $1,800 in federal tax credits, the automaker says, making it the first Porsche ever...
Martin Padgett -
Try Again: Honda's Big-Car Hybrid System Has Plug-In Ability
It wasn't even at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, where Honda only showed a video of the new plug-in hybrid platform it only discussed But details of the new powertrain point the way toward a range of future hybrid Honda models. It uses two separate motor-generators, as does Toyota's Hybrid Synergy...
John Voelcker -
2011 Honda Insight Adds New $18,950 Entry Model, Upgraded Features
While the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and Nissan LEAF have stolen most of the green-car limelight of late, and the Toyota Prius continues to be the go-to vehicle for those seeking reliable yet efficient transportation, Honda's Insight continues to plug along, with new upgrades to standard equipment and a...
Nelson Ireson -
It's a concern that comes up over and over: If I buy a hybrid car, won't I have to spend thousands of dollars to replace the battery pack in a few years? The answer is, No. Not only are automakers required to warranty the high-voltage battery packs in hybrid-electric vehicles for 8 years/100,000 miles or 10 years/150,000 miles, depending on state, but now we have data to show that those packs don't get replaced any more often than any other part. Older hybrids used as taxi cabs in cities like San Francisco have been retired with well over 300,000 miles on their battery packs, and no...
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Toyota To Service, Not Recall, Hybrid Cooling-Pump Components
Toyota plans to service approximately 650,000 of the more than 2 million Prius hybrids it has built to date, to correct a potential flaw in a cooling pump that could cause overheating. About 390,000 of the affected models are in the U.S. While the company hasn't yet released details on what it...
John Voelcker -
Gran Turismo Game Goes Green: Virtual Electric Cars
Depending on your demographic, the new PlayStation 3 Gran Turismo 5 (GT5) video game is either your single most essential purchase this year, or a completely baffling piece of technology that you'll probably never buy. Ironically, the same could be said for the current wave of electric cars we've...
Antony Ingram -
2010 LA Auto Show: Mitsubishi Plug-In Hybrid SUV For 2013
Mitsubishi rolled out the tiny "i" electric minicar (nee i-MiEV) during last week’s 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, confirming its eventual sale in the fall of 2011. But all-electric vehicles are just one avenue the Japanese automaker is investigating as it attempts to curb emissions and end the...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
GM Mild Hybrids: If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again
The 2011 Chevrolet Volt has gotten all the attention lately, including a narrow second-place finish in our GreenCarReports 2011 Best Car To Buy award, but General Motors also has a significant hybrid-electric vehicle program. While its full-size Two-Mode Hybrid trucks have had mixed success, the...
John Voelcker -
GreenCarReports Best Car To Buy 2011 Nominee: Lexus CT 200h
It's the nominee we know the least about, and in some ways the one we're most curious about. The 2011 Lexus CT 200h is a non-traditional car for Lexus, which has never before offered a compact hatchback. And after the underwhelming HS 250h sedan, it's one we didn't have high hopes for. That was...
John Voelcker -
As we first reported more than a year ago, a beefier version of GM’s mild hybrid system, the kind that was on the previous Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, is coming next year. Set to debut on the 2012 Buick LaCrosse, GM’s new “eAssist” mild hybrid system is said to improve fuel economy by as much as 25 percent. In the case of the LaCrosse that means improvements as much as 6 mpg in the city and 7 mpg on the highway compared with the 2011 four-cylinder model. Final estimates are a claimed 25 mpg in the city and 37 mpg on the highway--impressive for a luxury sedan with seating...
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Small, Powerful Engines: Four-Cylinder Mercedes-Benz S-Class
We talk quite a lot about how global regulations aimed at improving fuel efficiency and reducing carbon emissions will lead to much smaller, more powerful engines. Latest case in point? Would you believe a four-cylinder Mercedes-Benz S-Class? Just to be clear, this is the big Benz. The one beloved...
John Voelcker -
First Video: 2012 Audi Q5 Hybrid Details
Audi has aggressively pushed its clean diesel models in the U.S., including the Audi Q7 TDI luxury sport-utility vehicle. But even the company that wins Le Mans Series races with its turbodiesel race cars is hedging its bets with hybrids. Today Audi released the first video of its upcoming 2012...
John Voelcker -
Kia Teases 2012 Forte Hybrid Concept at SEMA Custom Show
One of the joys of the huge, splashy, raucous SEMA show in Las Vegas is seeing what manufacturers toss up in the air to show off. Kia brought several customized cars, one of which falls into the green category: a propane-fueled mild hybrid version of its new, and well-received, Forte compact sedan...
John Voelcker -
Russian Billionaire Gets Gassy To Go Green: Prokhorov City Car
Russia. Onion domes, remnants of Communism, enormous natural-gas reserves, and a fierce love of Vodka. These elements have now somehow combined to convince Mikhail Prokhorov--reportedly Russia's wealthiest man, new owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, newly-minted publisher of the New...
Nelson Ireson -
EPA Proposes 10-to-20-Percent Gas Mileage Rise for Big Trucks
Well, now we know the numbers. And there are a lot of them. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation jointly proposed cutting greenhouse-gas emissions from medium and heavy duty trucks by 10 to 20 percent, starting in 2014 and extending through 2018. (The actual...
John Voelcker -
Electric cars may run clean. But how green is the battery? Hi, this is Steven Cherry for IEEE Spectrum's "This Week in Technology." With governments around the world investing heavily in electric and hybrid cars, the demand for the batteries that power these vehicles is on the rise. The United States alone has invested $2.4 billion to ramp up production, and the first wave of lithium-ion car batteries is just now hitting the market. By 2014, the U.S. could be making a half million batteries a year. Battery-powered cars emit fewer pollutants and greenhouse gases. That's the point. But some...
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2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Tax Credit: $1,300, One Month Only!
Like us, you may eagerly have been awaiting the arrival of the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. You may even be planning to buy one. One of the reasons may be the tax credit for purchase of a hybrid vehicle that you can claim when you file your taxes. The 2011 Sonata Hybrid will qualify you for a credit...
John Voelcker -
Five Reasons Why Voltgate Won’t Hurt Sales Of The 2011 Chevy Volt
When the proverbial waste-product hit the fan yesterday with the revelation that GM could possibly have “lied to us” about just how its 2011 Chevy Volt operated we sat back and waited for the dust to settle. After all, the tabloid reporting of some sites didn’t tell us anything we...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Video: So Is the 2011 Chevrolet Volt An Electric Car? A Hybrid?
It's all about the Volt today, for better and for worse. On the "worse" side is the tempest in a teapot that erupted today, ably dismantled by more thoughtful commentators, over whether General Motors had "lied" about the drivetrain of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. In brief, GM revealed today that the...
John Voelcker -
2011 Chevrolet Volt: First Impressions, Tech And Questions
If you follow AllCarsElectric with any regularity, you might just be familiar with a certain new Chevrolet known as the Volt. We've probably mentioned it at some point... Well, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt is now here and our partner site GreenCarReports has been putting the car through its paces at the...
Antony Ingram -
Toyota Sells Its Two-Millionth Prius Hybrid ... And Counting
We missed a milestone a couple of weeks ago: Toyota built and sold its two-millionth Prius hybrid earlier this month. The first-generation Prius, the world's first production hybrid-electric vehicle, was launched in Japan late in 1997. It stayed a low-volume car for several years, and wasn't...
John Voelcker
