Green Car News

Ford Motor Company just submitted a business plan to Congress which is to explain the rationale for it getting a government loan. The plan includes the first information about the automakers plan to go electric. Per Ford: Ford provided initial details of an accelerated vehicle electrification plan...

Think taking the bus is eco-friendly? You're right, but it's certainly not because traditional diesel buses are fuel efficient. The average bus carries 40 people or more, which takes 40 CO2 spewing cars off the streets. Unfortunately the bus only gets three miles per diesel gallon, with its...

Rumors are flying that the popular all-electric MINI E may well spawn a group of electric BMWs, first a 5 or 7 series (the larger platform would be a better fit with the bulky, heavy lithium-ion battery packs), then perhaps a 3 series and a small SUV. There hasn't been an official media...

The small 2-seat variety of electric car remains a favored configuration.  The diminutive Smart car has undergone electrification in prototypes, and currently a fleet of 100 electric Smarts are in European test fleets.  These use older technology nickel sodium batteries. Lithium-ion battery...

Volkswagen has just introduced a new variant of its TwinDrive Plugin-in Hybrid Golf, which is based on the new Golf 6 platform. It is basically a refresh of the prior concept that had based on the at-the-time current Golf 5 platform. The car is propelled by a parallel hybrid drivetrain that...

Sam's Club has expanded their repertoire beyond seven pound cans of Nacho cheese to electric super cars; and why not? It might be the only store where you can get a vending machine and fifteen dozen eggs in one stop. There's just one problem with the electric super car bit: it doesn't exist yet...

According to yesterday's Washington Post, all those Priuses Toyota has been selling aren't making them much money. Rumor has it that those touted hybrid SUVs General Motors has been parading aren't turning profits either. What about the Chevy Volt? In June, GM Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz, said that the...

  Shrek is going green(er). Universal Studios announced today that they will replace their fleet of 300 gas powered golf carts with solar-electric hybrid models. Sarasota, Florida based Cruise Car, Inc. will supply the hybrids, which will have range of 50 miles on a full charge. The vehicles will...

By offering a set of tax, financing, and convenience incentives, the government of Portugal announced Saturday that it will partner with Renault and Nissan to ensure that at least 20% of its public fleet vehicle purchases be zero-emissions vehicles by the year 2011. The centerpiece of the plan is...

Fisker announced Friday that they've chosen GM's turbocharged 2.0 liter, 4-cylinder Ecotec engine to extend the range of their plug-in hybrid performance sedan. The Fisker Karma has an electric-only range of 50 miles. After that, the Ecotec will kick in to generate more electricity. This is the...

Ford has just announced pricing on its 2010 Fusion Hybrid which is expected to go on sale in 2009. The vehicle uses a 155 hp 2.5 L engine running on the Atkinson Cycle and married to a parallel electric motor capable of propelling the car at speeds up to 47 mph. It also features a SmartGuage unique...

For decades, California has been a hot-bed of environmental innovation. So it's not surprising that state and local government there has partnered with A Better Place, a privately-funded Silicon Valley company that will plan and install a $1 billion infrastructure, focused around the San Francisco...

The Renault-Nissan Alliance strikes again. This time it's an agreement with Monaco to expand and improve their existing charging networks for electric vehicles. Additional incentives will be provided to consumers and businesses to encourage the purchase of EVs and educational programs will be...

Hyundai Sonata Remember that South Korean automaker with a reputation for producing the cheapest econoboxes ever? These were the people who brought us the deplorable "Excel" in the early 90s . That was Hyundai then. This is Hyundai now. This is the company that channeled the Lexus RX with the...

The Nissan Renault Alliance has entered into yet another public-private partnership for the advancement of sustainable mobility. Today the company announced an agreement with the state of Oregon to supply zero-emissions vehicles (ZEVs). Nissan will work with Oregon and Portland General Electric to...

BMWs Mini has been discussing the launch of a new street-legal electric car that will be launched in North America in Jaury 2009. It is basically a retrofitted MINI that has an electric motor and drivetrain supplied by A/C propulsion. It will house a 35 kwh lithium-ion battery that will replace the...

Chevy announced pricing for the 2009 Silverado Two-Mode Hybrid pickup today. The 2WD model starts at $38,995 plus a $975 destination charge and gets 21 mpg in the city and 22 mpg on the highway. The 4WD model will get 20 mpg city and highway and likely add about $3,000 to the price. "For customers...

The Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported Friday that Toyota will postpone US production of the Prius. Toyota has not confirmed the report, but has asserted that all future products are being reviewed. The Prius is currently made exclusively in Japan and the 2010 model goes on display at the Detroit...

Remember when ethanol was going to save us all from our dependence on foreign oil and help us clean up our dirty carbon footprint, too? Those were the days...before food prices skyrocketed because many midwest farmers stopped growing corn for food, and focused on the much more profitable...

 Dodge EV        Chrysler ENVI president, Lou Rhodes, believes a good product can save Chrysler. By the looks of these drag races (middle of the page) in Pasadena, he might be right. After committing to having 100 EV and range-extended vehicles on the road for testing by next year, Rhodes...