Green Car News

President Barack Obama may not achieve his goal of 1 million plug-in electric cars on U.S. roads by the end of 2015. But his administration continues to try to green the U.S. vehicle fleet. The latest salvo: The government's General Services Agency plans to add an additional 10,000 hybrid vehicles...

The Volvo C30 Electric car might not be on general sale to the public, but that doesn't mean the Swedish automaker isn't serious about its compact electric car. Its test fleet in Sweden allows the company to fully evaluate electric vehicles before it brings one to market in full production guise...

It should be fairly obvious, but apparently it isn't: Plug-in electric cars are not going to sweep the marketplace overnight. Their sales will grow slowly and steadily from a low base. U.S. plug-in sales in 2012 tripled over the previous year, and most projections are that they'll double again this...

Fisker Automotive CEO Tony Posawatz didn't attend yesterday's House committee hearing on the company's loan from the U.S. Department of Energy. He's out desperately seeking saviors to avert bankruptcy for the struggling startup electric-car maker, but he still may have had the better day. The title...

There are many reasons for wanting to wean ourselves off oil, but environmental issues and measuring out dwindling resources are two fairly significant ones. The trouble is, oil is incredibly convenient. It's energy dense and in cars, we can replenish it in minutes. So how do you take those...

China might be one of the biggest car markets on the planet, but for makers of electric and hybrid vehicles, it's a tough one to crack. The same cannot be said for electric bicycles, though. The country's love of bicycles is well-publicized, but the market penetration of electric bikes still...

The Toyota ME.WE isn't your typical Toyota concept car. In fact, were it not for the word Toyota appearing at the top of this page, you might have assumed the quirky little electric car was from another maker entirely. Toyota's concepts are often a lot more edgy and futuristic looking, like its...

It may not be fast, it may not be pretty, but the Nissan Versa Sedan has one overriding virtue--it's cheap. That continues for the 2014 model year, as pricing remains unchanged from the 2013 Versa Sedan. A standard Versa S starts at $11,990--plus a $750 destination and handling fee--making it the...

The 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV has been a long time coming, but it's almost here. This morning, Chevy announced that its only battery-electric car will have a range of 82 miles and be rated at a combined 119 MPGe efficiency. MPGe, or miles-per-gallon-equivalent, is a measure of the distance a car can...

Natural gas passenger cars have never really taken off in the U.S. like some thought they might. While the fuel is hugely popular in countries like Brazil, gasoline has always reigned supreme in North America. Or diesel, if you're a long-haul trucker--though that could be about to change. Natural...

You may have read about the latest Buick Riviera concept car, which was unveiled last Saturday at the Shanghai Auto Show. Perhaps you also noticed that it uses a new and innovative plug-in hybrid powertrain that includes wireless battery charging. In the words of GM's own press release: The new...

The fortunes of the two highest-profile electric-car startups couldn't be diverging more starkly today. Yesterday, Fisker Automotive failed to make a payment of $10 million on the $192 million of low-interest loan funds it received from the U.S. Department of Energy. And tomorrow company executives...

McDonald's corporate colors may be red and yellow, but the fast food chain is much greener than you might imagine. For a start, it runs delivery trucks worldwide on biodiesel made from its own waste oil. It has also installed over thirty electric car charging points at restaurants around the...

One or two locations appear time and time again when it comes to electric or hybrid vehicle sales. If you didn't think California was up there, then you've not been paying much attention. Oregon too--in Portland, the Nissan Leaf actually outsold other Nissan models last month. And of course Lima...

Most advocates and industry analysts expect lithium-ion batteries to dominate electric-car energy storage for the rest of this decade. But is Silicon Valley startup carmaker Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] planning to add a new type of battery to increase the range of its electric cars? The high-end 2013...

We've already asked whether the Tesla Model S sells more units than the equivalent BMW, Audi or Mercedes--and now Nissan is outselling regular vehicles with its Leaf. Not Corollas or Ford Focus countrywide, of course--but apparently every other Nissan vehicle in March, in Portland, Oregon. With...

As China becomes a larger player on the world car market, shows like that in Shanghai this week will become bigger and more important each year. Toyota has already spotted the importance of the Shanghai Auto Show, launching two new green concepts. The first of these is the uniquely-named Yundong...

While the number of plug-in electric cars built in the U.S. is steadily increasing, the lithium-ion cells in their batteries have mostly come from overseas. But this turns out to be the year that cell production largely moves onshore as well. The 2013 Nissan Leaf, now coming off the assembly line...

Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne isn't known for his love of electric vehicles. We really rate the company's first offering, the 2014 Fiat 500e electric car, but Sergio himself doesn't--speaking at the Society of Automotive Engineers 2013 World Congress, he reiterated that the company is losing...

From the ashes of an old gas station flies the phoenix of electric charging for all. If you excuse the confused metaphor, that's essentially the idea behind an electric car charging plaza proposal in Encinitas, California. San Diego-based Evoasis wants to build the new plaza on the corner of Vulcan...