Green Car News
-
Fiat has never hidden the fact that its 500e electric car had been developed primarily for compliance reasons, thus there was little surprise when it was announced that sales would be limited to the state of California, at least, initially. It looks like Fiat may have reason to speed up plans to offer the 500e in other states, however, as news that the car is already sold out for the year has emerged. The information was revealed by Fiat’s U.S. chief, Jason Stoicevich, who spoke recently with Ward’s Auto. Unfortunately, Stoicevich didn’t mention whether he was talking about...
-
2014 Infiniti Q50 Hybrid Priced From $44,855Anyone in the market for a fuel-efficient sedan with sporty dynamics and a bit of luxury now has a new option: the 2014 Infiniti Q50 Hybrid. The Q50 is essentially Infiniti’s replacement for the G37, and it goes on sale this July with a starting price of $37,605, including a $905 destination...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Drayson Racing Sets New Lightweight Electric-Car Speed Record: 204 MPHIt's been a good week for electric vehicles in motor sport. At the weekend, Audi's R18 e-tron, a diesel-electric hybrid race car, took victory at the Le Mans 24-hour race. Also at Le Mans, Nissan unveiled its 2014 competitor for the race, the ZEOD RC electric prototype. And on Tuesday, reports the...
Antony Ingram -
Lead-Carbon Batteries The Next Step For 'Micro Hybrid' Vehicles?There's a fairly good chance that, over the next decade or so, an increasing proportion of cars will use micro and mild hybrid technology. That means sourcing batteries with good energy density, lifespan and potential for recycling will become ever more important--and a battery consortium aims to...
Antony Ingram -
Nissan Unveils ZEOD Electric Race Car Prototype At Le MansThe 24 Heures du Mans endurance race, held at Circuit de la Sarthe in France, is the world's most famous endurance car race. It's also a hotbed of automotive technology development. So while Audi's dominance and the sad loss of competitor Allan Simonsen in the weekend's race dominated the on-track...
Antony Ingram -
Less-Polluting Clean Diesel Trucks Now 28 Percent Of All Diesels On the RoadEver seen the Steven Spielberg film, Duel? The film, its plot about an unseen trucker terrorizing a hapless motorist, no doubt conjures a few preconceptions about truckers and the smoke-spewing beasts they command. Truckers aren't as scary these days, nor do their chariots pump huge smokey stacks...
Antony Ingram -
The U.S. Supreme Court has been slow to rule on many of the biggest cases on this year's docket. Maybe that's because some of the justices are prone to procrastination, or maybe, like seasoned TV scriptwriters, they're just playing America like a violin, getting us all worked up for a rousing finale. This week, however, we've entered the homestretch, and key decisions are finally beginning to roll out. One of those arrived yesterday, when the Supreme Court announced that it would not hear appeals from trade groups opposed to E15 gasoline. That was a disappointment to many automakers, fuel...
-
Prototype Natural-Gas Vehicles Use Gasoline As Range ExtenderTo date, natural-gas vehicles have come with significant compromises. The high-pressure tanks that hold enough compressed natural gas to run 200 miles or more take up many cubic feet of space in the trunk, load bay, or pickup bed. But what if you could design a vehicle that had just enough natural...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Strikes Deal To Open Superchargers At Five High-End MallsTesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] and CBL & Associates Properties Inc. have struck a deal to put Tesla's fast-charging technology at five malls across the U.S. Five Supercharger points stations will appear at CBL-owned malls at Gulf Coast Town Center in Fort Myers, FL; The Pavilion at Port Orange in...
Antony Ingram -
Greenhouse Gases & Where They Really Come From: InfographicWe love data. And we love simple but informative graphic presentations of complex data even more. Which leads us to today's infographic, a presentation of the sources and activities that produce greenhouse gases as a result of human activity. Inspired by an earlier similar graphic from 2005, the...
John Voelcker -
Nismo Offers To 'Chip' Your Leaf Electric Car For Better PerformanceNice vehicle though the 2013 Nissan Leaf is, it's just a little... tame, for some people. Those people may be intrigued to know that in Japan at least, there's an option to give it a little more performance. We've covered the Nissan Leaf tuned by NISMO (for NISsan MOtorsport) previously, but the...
Antony Ingram -
Audi e-Tron Quattro Diesel Hybrid Race Car Wins Le Mans 24 Hours RaceAudi has continued its dominant run at the world's most famous endurance race, winning the Le Mans 24 Hours on Sunday. The team's twelfth Le Mans victory is also the second for its hybrid race car, the R18 e-tron quattro. France's Loic Duval, Scotland's Allan McNish and Dane Tom Kristensen took the...
Antony Ingram -
Maybe there's a future for battery leasing among U.S. electric-car buyers after all. Nissan had considered leasing battery packs separately before launching its 2011 Leaf, but ended up choosing to sell or lease the entire car. So the 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive is the first car in the country which offers buyers the ability to purchase the car outright--or to lease the battery pack. According to InsideEVs, which spoke to Smart general manager Mark Webster two weeks ago, 90 percent of the first month's owners opted for the company's "Battery Assurance Plus" program. Specifically, 53 of...
-
Is Buying A Fiat 500e Electric Car 'Environmentally Sexy'?We liked the 2013 Fiat 500e electric car, a lot. It may be the best of the low-volume compliance cars, in fact--though the 2014 Chevy Spark EV and 2013 Honda Fit EV are pretty great too. We're less sure how we feel about the ad campaign Fiat is using to pitch the car, under the tagline...
John Voelcker -
If College Kids Can Get 1000 MPG, Why Can't You?Many green car enthusiasts love a hypermiling challenge. They'll eagerly drive in the slow lane, forego air-conditioning, and take different routes to and from work to make the most of downhill traffic, just to boost fuel economy by a couple of miles per gallon. But as hard as those folks try...
Richard Read -
2014 Pickup Truck Gas Mileage: Ford Vs Chevy Vs Ram, Who's Best?The U.S. will save a lot more gasoline by improving the fuel efficiency of gas-guzzling high-volume pickup trucks than it will swapping out Toyota Corollas for Prius hybrids. That's mathematical fact. Now, finally, the makers of the three most popular pickup truck lines sold in the U.S. are...
John Voelcker -
Electric Car: Lease Or Buy?You're considering a plug-in electric car. Should you lease or buy? It's a question that all new-car shoppers face--but for electric cars, there are some special considerations. Each financing option has its pros and cons, so we've outlined the reasons you might opt for each alternative. LEASING...
John Voelcker -
OK, NYC Taxis Can Be Hybrids After All, City SaysPolitics in New York City are a tough, bruising game. Pit a billionaire Mayor with a desire to make the city work better and cut carbon emissions against the entrenched interests of taxi owners, and you get an ongoing battle. The latest skirmish is a concession by the NYC Taxi and Limousine...
John Voelcker -
European electric car fans will soon get to enjoy the Tesla Model S as much as their American counterparts, when the car is launched in Europe this summer. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has spent some of the last year preparing service and repair centers in Europe, but the company's sales network is also expanding before the car hits European shores. Wards Auto reports Tesla is adding dealers in London, Brussels and Amsterdam, covering a dozen cities across the continent. Service centers will also spring up in Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Vienna and Hamburg. Perhaps not surprisingly, Tesla is...
-
First 2014 Chevy Spark EV Sold: Why We Chose This Electric CarSo how did Rick and Christine Prell and their two teenage sons become the first family in the U.S. to buy a 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV? Turns out it was at least partly luck. The family needed a third car for Alex, their 16-year-old son who is about to turn 17, to drive to school. Alex, a car...
John Voelcker -
New York Auto Dealers Try To Make Registering Tesla Stores Illegal: BREAKINGWell, this is a new tactic we haven't seen before in the fight between franchised auto dealers and Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley electric-car startup. A pair of bills in the New York State Legislature, backed by New York state auto dealers, would make it illegal to license or renew licenses for...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Shows 90-Second Battery Swapping For Model S, Details Rollout PlansAs predicted last month, and tweeted and teased by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla Motors showed off battery swapping for its Model S electric car at a press event last night. Held at Tesla's design studio in Hawthorne, California, the demonstration itself was simple: A Tesla Model S drove onto the stage and...
John Voelcker -
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Perfection? 1966 Volvo Nears 3 Million MilesOne of the more familiar perceptions of green vehicles is that the energy they require to build outweighs any benefits they may have in use. The reality couldn't be more different, but there's still plenty to be said for getting the most out of the car you have, and extending its usable life. Some...
Antony Ingram -
Nissan To Offer Leaf Battery Replacement Plan: $100 A MonthTo allay fears about loss of capacity in its Leaf electric-car battery packs, Nissan announced today that it would offer what amounts to a battery leasing program after the pack goes out of warranty. The cost of ensuring minimum capacity will be $100 a month. The company now warranties the Leaf...
John Voelcker