Green Car News

Ten years ago, hatchbacks were viewed by most Americans as ‘econoboxes’ designed to offer cheap, cheerful motoring. As a consequence, Toyota catered to that need with its no-frills Matrix compact hatch, while the rest of the world was given the Toyota Auris, a more sophisticated compact...

Perenially struggling electric automaker Think is once again seeing out another unsuccessful chapter in its life as the final few cars are completed at its Indiana plant. Originally formed in Norway in 1991, Think has been around longer than several other dedicated electric car companies--but it's...

Finally, after several years of teaser images, videos, clips, auto show appearances and more, there are finally production examples of the 2012 Tesla Model S driving around on the streets Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has been working tirelessly to put the Model S on the market, and CEO Elon Musk even...

After being flayed for not achieving its 2011 sales goal for the Chevy Volt, you might think General Motors would shy away from further volume predictions for its innovative range-extended electric car. Not so. CEO Dan Akerson said in late June that the company thought it would sell 35,000 to...

In hybrid and electric cars, regenerative braking systems are used to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy under braking, slowing the car down and improving gas mileage or all-electric range. But Nissan’s latest iteration of the Japanese-market Serena minivan uses regenerative...

In coming years, every car company will make every vehicle it builds greener--meaning more fuel-efficient--courtesy of increasingly stringent gas mileage and carbon emissions rules around the world. That applies not only to smaller, simpler cars, but also large, heavy, fast, luxurious, and...

Infiniti's Emerg-E range-extended supercar has been seen at so many events now it's hard to believe that it's only now making its first appearance in North America. On display at the 62nd annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, a celebration of all things automotive, Infiniti will be hoping the...

It took a while, but we've finally had a chance to spend time with the smallest plug-in electric car sold in the U.S. The 2012 Mitsubishi i (also known as the i-MiEV) is a battery electric minicar roughly the size of a Mini Cooper. The little hatchback has four doors, four usable seats, and a lot...

Let's face it: political discourse in the U.S. isn't very pretty. It's generally a matter of two large parties -- each backed by an army of fundraisers, copywriters, and statisticians -- shouting at each other in front of sympathetic audiences. Over the past couple of decades, the situation seems...

For a week each year, speed freaks from across the globe descend on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, for a chance at walking away with a land speed record. All sorts of vehicles show up, but predictably, being green isn't always on the minds of the competitors. Still, there are other ways of...

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, has quite a lot on his mind these days. Among his tasks: making sure production of the 2012 Tesla Model S electric sport sedan ramps up quickly enough, while maintaining superb quality, to let Tesla build 5,000 units before the end of the year. But Musk still...

We're seeing an increasing number of gearheads getting into electric cars, and it's not really surprising. With impressive performance, plenty of torque and by simply allowing us to drive more without incurring the expense of fossil fuels, there's a lot for even traditional car fans to like. That...

As far as many people are concerned, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has done the hard bit already. They've started a company from scratch. Built and sold a sports car. Developed a new model. Put it into production. Started selling it to an adoring crowd. No vaporware to see here, folks. However, even...

Talk to any independent auto-repair mechanic, and you'll learn that the single most important item that keeps a shop in business is brakes. But hybrids and electric cars use their friction brakes far less aggressively than regular cars. That's because when the driver presses the pedal, some or all...

Several years ago, you could get a Federal tax credit for buying a hybrid-electric vehicle. That program has ended. Several manufacturers--Toyota, Honda, and Ford among them--reached their cap of 60,000 hybrids sold, and now hybrids represent 2 to 3 percent of the U.S. market without Federal...

We’ve said it many times before, building an auto company from scratch is extremely hard, and expensive. That’s probably why only two major plug-in car startups have made it to the point of building and selling cars globally: Tesla and Fisker. In order to continue, both firms are...

Have you ever wondered whether you're paying over the odds for a car, compared to your neighbors in other states? We all know that prices differ abroad, but there can sometimes be hundreds of dollars between a car in one state, and the price people pay in another. We decided to investigate the...

Despite a cautious rollout of its plug-in car program and low sales of its 2012 Ford Focus Electric, Ford has reiterated details of its investment in plug-in cars. According to Ford’s official release, it has now earmarked $135 million to double its battery testing facilities, triple plug-in...

Yesterday, the U.S. EPA had planned to release final rules on new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations requiring automakers to achieve average fuel economies of 54.5 mpg by 2025. But continued opposition and bitter disagreements has lead the current administration to delay the ruling...

The 2013 Nissan Leaf that will go on sale in January will be a slightly different car from the 2011 and 2012 models sold in the U.S. so far. We already know the electric car will offer leather seats and a 6.6-kilowatt charger as options, along with a more efficient heating system. Now a report from...