Green Car News

MINIs aren't really Mini any more, but modern safety, comfort and equipment standards mean we'll never have a car quite as small as the original Mini ever again. That, and relentless niche-filling from parent company BMW means the car must be hugely profitable--something the classic car never...

May was a great month for Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales, as it was in the United States--where sales of 3,117 Nissan Leafs represented the second-highest monthly sales ever for any car that plugs in. On the Canadian side of the border, our tracking showed the nation's electric-car fleet...

California, Texas, and Florida are the top three states for hybrid and diesel sales, a new study says.

Ford, Nissan, and Tesla make headlines today.

Tesla Motors held its annual shareholder meeting yesterday afternoon, and as always, a few nuggets of news emerged from CEO Elon Musk. You can read a complete transcript here, but here are some quick bullet points on items that struck us as newsworthy: Tesla electric cars have now covered 344...

Plug-in hybrids will clearly be all the rage among carmakers for the next couple of years. While the number of high-volume battery-electric vehicles today can be counted on one hand--BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S--virtually every global automaker now has plug-in hybrids planned for launch...

Light weight will soon be big business at Ford. The company's F-150 truck, going aluminum for the first time with the 2015 model, sheds 700 lbs over its predecessor, thanks to its new construction. Ford sells over half a million F-Series every year--big business indeed. This technology and other...

The guerilla warfare between auto dealers and Tesla Motors continues, with the latest skirmish happening tomorrow in New Jersey. Perhaps war analogies are overstating the case, but certainly Tesla has had to fight in numerous states for the right to sell its cars directly to buyers through the...

There's a price war going on at the bottom of the Canadian car market. At one side, Nissan's new Micra--a small car long sold in the European and Japanese markets, but now invading the North American continent--albeit available only in Canada. On the other, the Mitsubishi Mirage. This is available...

Parking is one of those maneuvers that we all screw up now and then, no matter how experienced we are at driving. And there's nothing worse than having an audience just as you're trying to squeeze into a space. Even professional athletes can't experience that much pressure, surely? But what if your...

The all-new, third-generation 2014 MINI Cooper three-door hatchback--now called "Hardtop" by MINI--sports a longer nose, a new 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine, and an interior that at last cleans up some of the disastrous ergonomics of the previous cars. Specifically, the round display in the...

This summer, buyers will have the option of two electric cars that on the surface, offer very similar attributes. Both are from Germany, for a start. Each has a very similar price tag. Each offers four doors and a liftback-style luggage area. Those cars are the 2014 BMW i3 and the 2014...

Many people approach car shopping in the U.S. looking for the largest, most luxurious vehicle they can afford, from the best brand possible. Still, at least a handful of shoppers are more focused on basic transportation--and a vehicle they know they can afford. My daughter Priscilla falls into the...

LNG or CNG? If that just looks like a jumble of letters to you, we're talking about liquefied natural gas and compressed natural gas--and so is the trucking industry. Natural gas has, to a degree, been overlooked in the passenger vehicle industry while companies look towards electrification (in...

Studies show the U.S. electric-car fleet is growing, and maturing.

The new 2015 Subaru Legacy is a stealth car: Other drivers may not pay it much attention, but it's sneaking up on the high-volume vehicles in the ultra-competitive mid-size sedan segment. The latest Legacy, redesigned and re-equipped for 2015, is the most competitive Subaru sedan yet--and it also...

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce new regulations to cut the carbon emissions of more than 600 existing coal-fired electric power plants. And many analysts suggest that this regulation--which will likely spark a major political battle--will be the most...

There are times when being first to the market with something just isn't enough. Take the Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car. It may have launched as long ago as July 2009 in Japan, but worldwide sales have been just a fraction that of Nissan's Leaf--and in the U.S, total sales are still in the low...

How do you make the world's cheapest new car more appealing? Make it more expensive. Sounds crazy, but that's the strategy Indian automaker Tata is using with its new Nano Twist. And there's a very good reason for that. The Nano entered India's market to much fanfare. It was billed as the "one lakh...

Battery-electric, or fuel-cell? Japanese automakers are divided on the subject--Nissan and Mitsubishi brought electric cars to the market early, but Toyota and Honda have dragged their feet, concentrating instead on developing fuel-cell vehicles. The Japanese government is now on their side, as the...