Green Car News

If there's one form of personal transport better for tackling a crowded city than the electric car, it's an electric bike. Whether pedal bike, scooter or motorcycle, nothing scythes through traffic quite like it. But just as electric automakers are beginning to explore what's possible when not held...

We'd not normally advise getting information directly from Wikipedia, but its opening line on the sport of drifting is as good as any other definition you'll find: "Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels, while...

2013 is an exciting time for diesel fans, with three particularly significant models all arriving this year. The Chevrolet Cruze Diesel, Mazda Mazda6 Sky-D and Jeep Grand Cherokee Ecodiesel will all be on the radar of customers looking to mix performance with economy, and all will aim to replicate...

Take one very small Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric minicar with a flower decal on the side. Fold in three severe Belgian elderly ladies with disapproving looks. Incorporate one blatantly obvious occurrence of plumber butt in public. Then add one young motorcycle police officer to the resulting mix...

Want proof of how topsy-turvy the electric car industry is? Just look at the last few months: We've seen Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] turning a profit, Coda Automotive filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Fisker Automotive laying motionless, the industry ready to read the last rites. And then there's...

Back in February, the folks at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington hosted a TEDx conference. One of the event's speakers was Ron Johnston-Rodriguez. Johnstron-Rodriguez founded Plug In North Central Washington. That sounds as if it might be a regional chapter of Plug In America, but its...

Ford's hybrid sales have been on a roll this year, with two new models for 2013 now in showrooms across the country. The company sold almost 30,000 Ford and Lincoln hybrids from January through April, just about triple the number in its best comparable previous period, which was 2011. That led some...

Nobody really wants to crash, but if you're unfortunate enough to do so it's nice to know your chances of escaping injury are better than most. That's the case with the 2013 Nissan Leaf, which has picked up a "Top Safety Pick" rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). While the...

The Toyota Prius has come a long way since hitting the market over a decade ago. Back then, at the turn of the 21st century, it was no more than a fuel efficient but ultimately unappealing curio, bought only by a select few. Fast-track to 2012 and it was one of the world's highest-selling cars...

Wow. Chalk up another huge accolade for the Tesla Model S electric car: Consumer Reports has awarded it 99 out of 100 points, and said it's the best car the magazine has tested since 2007. In fact, the magazine's descriptions of the luxury sport sedan brim with adjectives. The Tesla Model S "is...

BYD, a company struggling to sell its e6 electric crossover in its home market, has decided it won't be sold at all to private customers in the U.S. Instead, says the ChinaEV blog, the e6 will be a fleet-only vehicle in the U.S, as the company instead concentrates on its electric bus sales in North...

New for 2013, the Toyota Avalon has been radically restyled to give Toyota's largest four-door sedan fresher, more aggressive lines. To our surprise, the big sedan turned heads in traffic, with a number of people turning to look at it--most likely to try to figure out what it was. But it's the gas...

Love or hate Tesla Motors (NSDQ:TSLA) and its CEO Elon Musk, it's hard to deny that he's ahead of the curve when it comes to developing new cars. So when Musk says self-driving or autonomous technology is the next logical step in the evolution of the car, you take notice. According to Bloomberg...

As a vehicle fuel, natural gas holds considerable promise but faces a number of challenges. Overcoming those challenges is the goal of recent funding granted by the U.S. Department of Energy for a handful of research projects. Among them are the challenges of incorporating high-pressure natural gas...

Most Canadians will remember last month for the introduction of the country's new $5 and $10 bills, which arrived just in time for the playoff-hockey betting season. Canadian electric vehicle enthusiasts may remember April 2013, on the other hand, as the month the Toyota Prius Plug-in fell into...

Drivers of the Tesla Model S are generally pretty happy with their cars, but as with any new product there are always a few ways it could be improved. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is one of few companies that can execute those improvements without you having to lift a finger, as software updates can be...

Not all plug-in electric cars rely on battery power alone; some also have gasoline engines as backups, for longer range or more power. Last year, we identified six plug-in hybrid vehicles on sale during 2013. This year, the list gains three new entries (from BMW, Cadillac, and Mitsubishi) and loses...

Volkswagen has made large strides in most areas with the 2015 Golf, but largest of all is the car's weight reduction. Some models are over 200 pounds lighter than their equivalent in the current Golf range, thanks to clever use of stronger steel, lighter components and other weight-saving measures...

We've all seen those 'FAIL' pictures that turn up on the internet with startling regularity--tastelessly placed adverts in newspapers, security cameras facing blank walls, products with overly suggestive graphics... you know the deal. Welcome to the latest in a long line of fails, spotted by of BMW...

Tomorrow at 5 pm Eastern, Tesla will hold what may be its most eagerly awaited conference call to date. The Silicon Valley startup automaker will discuss its first-quarter financial results--which will give the first clue to its financial viability as an operating automaker. But Tesla Motors...