Green Car News

This is a momentous year for electric car fans: the 99th anniversary of Washington, D.C.'s historic Electric Sociability Run of 1914. To commemorate that event, enthusiasts are planning a similar rally this Memorial Day weekend. Many, if not most folks in America are familiar with today's electric...

The Chevrolet Spark, the smallest Chevy sold in the U.S., will get some mechanical changes next year, according to Christi Landy, the brand's small-car marketing director. The 2014 Chevrolet Spark, which will go on sale late this year, will offer a continuously-variable transmission (CVT) in place...

It was always going to happen: Several states around the U.S. have realized they can charge electric car owners a tax to make up for the fact they don't pay any gas tax. Unfortunately, several states have also lumbered electric cars with an unfairly high tax--but is New Jersey's proposed per-mile...

Sales of plug-in electric cars in April continued at roughly the same pace as in March, with sales likely totaling about 7,500 cars. Last year's first- and third-place plug-ins, the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, are now pacing each other in sales. Their year-to-date totals are separated by less than...

Coda Automotive has become the latest casualty of the cut-throat electric car industry, today filing for bankruptcy. The company will dissolve the carmaking business and instead put its efforts into Coda Energy, a stationary battery storage business it started in 2011. According to The Detroit...

We've talked about the longevity of hybrid cars on several occasions before, usually when some myth about batteries dying at ridiculously short intervals comes up. But just how much faith would you put in a high-mileage hybrid? Enough to part with your cash for an ex-NYC Ford Escape Hybrid taxi?...

Aston Martin has achieved its target of completing a racing lap around one of the world's toughest tracks--on hydrogen fuel. The hydrogen-powered Aston Martin Rapide S made its debut at a four-hour ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup VLN series race, at the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in...

The 2013 Dodge Dart has gotten off to a slow start in the market, but it's a vitally important car for Chrysler. The first vehicle based on shared underpinnings from its parent Fiat, the Dart has to show Chrysler can build competitive cars--and, even more important, top-quality small cars that...

You might think that installing a charging station for plug-in electric cars shouldn't be that complicated. It's essentially an electric appliance. But in the city of Watertown, New York, City Attorney Robert J. Slye recently determined that installing charging stations in a municipal parking lot...

There is, at the moment, only one production diesel plug-in hybrid car on sale, and it's currently only sold in Europe. That car is the Volvo V60 Plug-In Hybrid, combining the long-distance touring ability and economy of a diesel powertrain with the short-distance cleanliness and inexpense of...

The Ford Escape is one of the most popular compact crossovers on the market today, and its all-new 2013 model goes head-to-head with the Honda CRV and Toyota RAV4. Both of those vehicles were redesigned in 2012 or 2013, so crossover competition is now fierce. We spent six days with a pale green...

We always love seeing how electric cars are made. There's something fascinating about watching a car go right from the metal presses to rolling out of the factory. In recent years we've brought you videos of such a process for several electric cars, and now it's the turn of the 2013 Nissan Leaf at...

The 54.5 mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards set for 2025 have caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth from some quarters, but automakers haven't been among them. The automakers have been quite supportive in fact--perhaps knowing all along what a new analysis has discovered: That...

Suppose you took a Chinese-made compact sedan, converted it to a battery-electric vehicle, and sold it in the U.S. market. Does that story line sound familiar? If so, you may be thinking of Coda Automotive, the now-all-but-defunct maker of the 2012 Coda Sedan. Coda flashed into our minds on reading...

Electric cars might have plenty of environmental benefits over their combustion cousins, carmakers are finding that angle a hard one to benefit from. In fact, it's much more likely modern electric cars will be sold on the back of plain, simple cost savings, says Bloomberg. It presents an unusual...

Volkswagen chairman Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn covered virtually every area of green technology in his talk at the recent Vienna Motor Symposium. Plug-in cars, natural gas vehicles, diesels and a new ten-speed dual-clutch transmission were all discussed, pointing to a bright future for...

On Friday, Tesla held a media call to reveal another in the series of announcements touted in tweets by CEO Elon Musk. This time, the news covered enhancements to the warranty and service experience on its Tesla Model S electric luxury sport sedan. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is now delivering several...

Chevrolet's diminutive Spark EV will be the first car in the U.S. to offer the new SAE Combo charger for DC fast charging. Other electric cars have touted such a system, including the Fiat 500e and upcoming BMW i3 electric car, but the Spark will be the first production car available with the...

If you follow Formula One racing, you'll have heard of KERS, or Kinetic Energy Recovery System. There are several techologies being used, but among them is flywheel KERS, using a spinning flywheel to capture energy which can then be used at a later time. Volvo has been trialing such a system for...

Most of us, sadly, can't afford a brand new Tesla Model S electric sedan. Even less so, a Tesla Model S with the latest metal-air battery technology, hinted for use in the company's future products. But fret not, dear reader: There is another way to get your hands on metal-air battery technology...