Green Car News
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Just how popular are hybrid cars? 40 percent more in 2012 than in 2011, according to the latest study from Experian Automotive. In fact, a little more than that--40.9 percent to be precise, with overall market share increasing from 2.2 percent to 3.1 percent in a single year. It's a stark indication of the hybrid car's relentless transformation from eco-themed curiosity to mainstream car choice. It also reflects just how well the average hybrid assimilates into an owner's life, requiring no day-to-day compromise while it goes about saving them money on gas. Toyota has been particularly adept...
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Earth Day Giveaway: Free ChargePoint Cards For Electric-Car ChargingIt's Earth Day today, and if you're intending to roll it out a little, Earth Week all this week. To coincide with a week where we're all encouraged to do just a little more to consider the environment, charging station network ChargePoint is giving away free charging cards for simply filling in a...
Antony Ingram -
CA Bill To Cut Sales-Tax, License Fees On Electric, Alt-Fuel CarsToday, electric cars and other vehicles that run on alternative fuels simply cost more. That's a fact. Now a new bill introduced in the California Assembly aims to trim a bit more off the costs of buying and registering these cars by reducing their assessed value. The brainchild of Assemblyman Al...
John Voelcker -
Electric Cars Are Fast: First-Ever U.S. Speeding TicketSpeeding is big business. There's no money to be made from it as an individual of course, unless you subscribe to the theory "time is money". But the U.S. Census Bureau estimates 100,000 Americans are ticketed for speeding every day, at an average cost of $150 per ticket--$5.5 billion a year in...
Antony Ingram -
Gas-Mileage Rules To Add $3,000 Or More To Car Prices By 2025?You most likely know by now that fuel efficiency is slated to double in new vehicles by 2025. What you may not know is how much that will cost you when you buy a new car in future years. Thousands of real dollars The EPA has long estimated that a new vehicle will cost about $3,000 more in real...
John Voelcker -
BYD To Build Only Electric Cars, End Production Of Gasoline Cars?Chinese automaker BYD, or 'Build Your Dreams', could be on the verge of abandoning convenionally-fueled car production in favor of electric vehicles. Already known for electric vehicles like the e6 crossover, BYD is aiming for a "re-birth" plan to counter a recent slump in sales. Reuters reports...
Antony Ingram -
For Honda and Acura fans it's been far too long since the companies made something truly exciting for driving enthusiasts. That should change when the new Acura NSX supercar arrives, following its debut fanfare at the Detroit Auto Show last year. Acura hasn't yet revealed a release date for the NSX, nor full specifications on its hybrid drivetrain--but buyers in the UK can now put down a deposit to reserve their place in the line. While the NSX is on its way to production, it'll take a brave customer to put their name down on the list having seen only concept models. Particularly so as...
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AWD Tesla Model S Coming Soon? (Warning: Pure Speculation)With the delay of its Model X crossover until "late in 2014," it may look as if Tesla's product pipeline is running dry. But we suspect the Silicon Valley startup electric-car company will offer a few new variants on its sole product, the Model S luxury sport sedan. And an obvious next step for...
John Voelcker -
Volkswagen CrossBlue Coupe Concept: Plug-In Hybrid At Shanghai Auto ShowVolkswagen has hinted at the direction of its future SUVs--and their powertrains--by unveiling the CrossBlue Coupe Concept at the Shanghai Auto Show. As is increasingly common these days, the CrossBlue is Coupe in spirit more than it is in construction, the five-door liftback body distinctly more...
Antony Ingram -
Can An 'Ultralight Adventure Vehicle' Be An Electric Bicycle?Got some money to burn and in need of a hobby? Perhaps some sort of adventure sport, but nothing too crazy--off-road bikes, perhaps? Not just any off-road bike though. It has to be electric, for a start. What about one of Outrider's electric recumbent bikes? Yes indeed--there is now such a thing as...
Antony Ingram -
CA Air Board Head To Carmakers On ZEV Rules: Back Off, BoysCalifornia is the largest single market for new vehicles in the United States: more than 1.5 million vehicles are sold each year. So when state officials speak, the auto industry has to listen. On Tuesday, Mary Nichols spoke. She heads the powerful California Air Resources Board, which has legal...
John Voelcker -
2014 Mitsubishi Mirage: EPA Gas Mileage For Manual Car RevealedThe 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage is due to arrive in U.S. dealers this fall, but until now we've only known the EPA gas mileage of the CVT automatic variant. At 37 mpg city, 44 highway and 40 mpg combined it's one of the most efficient subcompacts on the market, and thanks to Mitsubishi Canada announcing...
Antony Ingram -
We've heard it all before--new battery technologies appear, set to revolutionize the way we use electric products. The story is the same for new microbatteries developed at the University of Illinois, but the researchers there are making even bigger claims than most. Imagine a battery so small it could feature in a credit card-sized cellphone, charge in mere seconds, with enough power to jump-start a car. Now imagine it scaled up for use in an electric vehicle. All the above scenarios are a possibility with the new microbattery technology, and the researchers say it finally brings batteries...
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California To Have Up To 70 Hydrogen Fueling Stations By 2016?Our planet may have only gained 27 hydrogen filling stations in 2012, but California is hoping to have nearly 70 of its own in total by 2016. So says the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which provides a list of government-funded hydrogen stations in California on its website. Around third of...
Antony Ingram -
Is Fisker The Most Tragic VC-Backed Debacle In Recent History?In January 2005, legendary car designer Henrik Fisker founded a company to bring innovative new thinking to the automobile industry. Between that date and today, Fisker Automotive would create perhaps the most beautiful car ever made, raise almost $1.4 billion dollars from investors as diverse as...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
2014 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel Rated At 46 MPG HighwayThe 2014 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel will be something of a highway star when it goes on sale, with an EPA-estimated rating of 46 mpg highway. That's better than previous estimates of around 42 mpg, and if other diesels on the market today are anything to go by, some owners may find themselves beating...
Antony Ingram -
Will Tesla Try For Federal Rule Permitting Non-Dealer Stores?Several thousand Tesla owners have now purchased their cars by ordering and paying for them online after visiting a Tesla Store showroom. No franchised dealers are involved. That's a model that Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] feels is crucial to getting its electric cars into the mainstream. State and...
John Voelcker -
Who Will Drive BMW i3 Electric Cars? Waify Metrosexuals, According To AdAlthough its arrival is still months away, we already know a lot about the all-electric BMW i3. We have a good idea of its range (with and without the optional range-extender), we've hypothesized about its sticker price, and a few lucky journalists have even gotten to drive around in it. But...
Richard Read -
When we first drove the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid in the fall of 2010, it was a pre-production car and--frankly--it wasn't very smooth. The 2011 Sonata Hybrid production car was better, but far from the standards of the best hybrids. Now the Korean carmaker has taken another crack at the car, with numerous updates and modifications to the 2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. And after a 60-mile drive out of New York City and up into the rolling hills of tony Westchester County, we can report that the first hybrid from the aggressive Asian carmaker is definitely a better car. Its drivetrain is smoother...
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Electric Car Sales In Europe: Most Going To Rental Fleets?Europe has been the source of some excitement over electric cars in recent months, as several new models have all hit the market in quick succession. The third-generation Smart Electric Drive arrived at the end of last year, and the last few months have seen the new Renault Zoe and 2013 Nissan Leaf...
Antony Ingram -
5 Million Toyota Hybrids Sold, Near 2 Million Of Them In U.S.Say the word "hybrid" and then ask drivers, anywhere in the world, to name a car brand. They'll likely say "Toyota," a testimony to that brand's launch of the first Prius in 1997 and its tenacious pursuit of improvement in hybrid-electric powertrain technology since then. Today, Toyota announced it...
John Voelcker -
Does Tesla Already Outsell Audi, BMW, Lexus & Mercedes-Benz?The established German luxury brands--Mercedes-Benz and BMW--have sold cars in the U.S. for decades. So how could Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] possibly be beating them at their own game? The answer lies in how you define sales: It appears that the Tesla Model S electric sport sedan is outselling both...
John Voelcker -
Protean Launches Production In-Wheel Electric MotorThe benefits for dedicating an electric motor to each wheel of a vehicle were clear to see in Drive's recent video of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive. Make those motors in-wheel units, and in theory you get even more benefits. It's a design that in-wheel motor company Protean has been...
Antony Ingram -
GM Now Building Chevy Spark EV Electric-Car Motors In MarylandEighteen months ago, GM announced that it would build the electric motor for its upcoming Chevrolet Spark EV electric car in the U.S. Now, that motor is officially in production at the company's Baltimore Operations plant in White Marsh, Maryland--along with the associated final-drive...
John Voelcker