Green Car News
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To increase gas mileage, carmakers can use smaller engines that produce the same power from less fuel. But they can also work to recapture part of the 70 percent of fuel's energy content that internal combustion engines waste in producing heat, noise, and momentum that has to be halted via braking. Hybrid-electric systems that use regenerative braking and excess engine power to charge a high-voltage battery pack--think Toyota Prius--are one way to recapture wasted energy. New focus on heat energy But another method that's gaining attention is to recover lost heat energy, as in the...
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Lesson Learned As Salinas Sues Bankrupt Electric Car Maker?It's a sad fact of business that many start-up companies fail within the first few years of trading. Electric car fans are quite used to this and even the most promising new companies can struggle. One such company is Green Vehicles, an electric start-up that folded back in July. Green Vehicles had...
Antony Ingram -
Bentley Examines Plug-in Hybrids, Diesels - But W-12 Here To StayBentley might be better known for its fast, powerful, luxury cars typically owned by celebrities, sports stars and business moguls -- but that doesn’t mean it can’t be environmentally responsible too. That’s the message being given by company CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer as the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Toyota Sets New Electric Car Lap Record At Nürburgring NordschleifeToyota has just announced that it has just set a new electric car lap record on the 12.93 mile Nürburgring Nodschleife race track in Germany, beating the previous record by a full 1 minute and 13 seconds. Built by Toyota and based on a Radical sportscar, the all-electric two-seat race car set...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Scientists Discover Microbes That Turn Newspaper Into BiofuelTulane University researchers have discovered a strain of bacteria capable of producing butanol directly from cellulose, which could help pave the way towards using trash to produce biofuel.
Kurt Ernst -
New Gas-Mileage Window Stickers: DoT Head Ray LaHood Explains Them For You (Video)Starting with the 2013 model year, you will see a new and more informative gas-mileage sticker on the window of new cars for sale. There are several changes, both graphic and informational, that are meant to provide consumers with more information so they can make more informed choices among...
John Voelcker -
Four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon and five-time champ Jimmie Johnson might earn their living in gas-guzzling V8 Chevy Impalas, but on the roads it's a different story. In contrast to the champions' high-octane lifestyles, on a day off you're more likely to see them cruising around silently in a brace of 2011 Chevrolet Volts. Cynical marketing perhaps, but both champs seem to enjoy their daily drivers. Johnson describes the range-extended electric car as "A cool car... it's an efficient car, and it works". Jimmie's fans don't just approach him for autographs either, with many...
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Buying A Used Toyota Prius? Here’s What You Need To KnowThe venerable Toyota Prius hybrid is generally accepted as the car which changed consumer’s attitude toward hybrid-electric drivetrains. While the Prius wasn’t the very first hybrid to be sold in the U.S. (the original Honda Insight beat it by a few months), it has proven by far the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Ford Focus Titanium: First Drive ReviewOverall, we liked the 2012 Ford Focus Titanium edition a lot, though its $27K price tag startled us, the gas mileage was a little lower than expected, and the MyFordTouch system did not seem ready for primetime to us.
John Voelcker -
Ford Explorer, Edge: When To Opt For EcoBoost Four, When To SkipIt's taken a long time to arrive, but Ford's fuel-efficient 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine is now available as an option on both the 2012 Ford Explorer and the 2012 Ford Edge crossover utility. It's the first time any Ford Explorer has been offered with a four in the model's 22-year...
John Voelcker -
2011 Kia Optima Hybrid On Economy Drive, 69 MPG So Far...We've learned to take official EPA gas-mileage ratings with a pinch of salt in the past. They're useful for comparing model to model, but not always representative of the figures real people out in the real world will achieve. That's not to say that the EPA's fuel efficiency numbers can't be...
Antony Ingram -
Faster Electric-Car Charging Gets Smaller, And That’s BetterIf you’ve got a 2011 Nissan Leaf SL you probably ordered it with the included $700 rapid charging port, capable of recharging its 24 kilowatt-hour battery pack to 80 percent full in a little under 30 minutes using an off-board rapid charger. But direct-current rapid charging stations using...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
The 84th Academy Awards -- otherwise known as The Oscars -- might be many months away, but we’re probably going to see a stretched Nissan Leaf acting as red-carpet transport. Or at least, that’s what we think might be happening after a limousine company has confirmed that it has been asked to create what it says will be the world’s first purely electric limousine Imperial Coach Builders of Springfield, Missouri announced on Friday that it would be building the stretched Leaf after it received an order from an un-named transportation service. The Japanese electric hatchback...
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Audi Reveals More Urban Concept Pics Ahead Of Frankfurt ShowIt seems that Audi just can't contain itself with its latest concept cars, the two-seater Urban Concepts. Three weeks ago some spy videos trickled onto the internet showing the camoflaged electric car being driven around in the center of Berlin. The very next day Audi revealed its first sketches of...
Antony Ingram -
How Much More Does It Cost To Repair A Crashed Chevy Volt?The 2011 Chevy Volt is a remarkably complex automobile, so crash damage is likely to cost more to repair than with a conventional automobile. This difference in price, however, is likely less than you think.
Kurt Ernst -
Libyan Rebels Find Even Bad Men (Qaddafi) Love Electric CarsLet’s face it: If you ask Joe Public to describe the personal attributes of your average electric car owner, you'd probably get a description of a left-leaning, affluent and well-educated individual on the east or west coast of the U.S. A less-polite individual may even chose to add a few...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Can 'Trailer Tails' Save A Semi 6 Percent Of Its Diesel Fuel?One of the best ways to save a lot of fuel is to improve the efficiency of the lowest-mileage vehicles on the roads. Those include semis, which often get no more than 2 or 3 miles per gallon of diesel fuel. Their huge diesel engines must put out massive torque to tow one, two, or even three...
John Voelcker -
2013 Lexus GS 450h Hybrid: LED Headlamps, Possible Plug-In LaterWhile Lexus unveiled its all-new 2013 GS 350 sports sedan at the recent Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, it showed off only the gasoline GS 350 model. Details of the future hybrid version, the 2013 Lexus GS 450h, remain under cover until the company launches the car officially at next month's...
John Voelcker -
Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car startup Tesla Motors, sometimes says things that later prove not to be quite true. In that, he's like many entrepreneurs, who spend a portion of their time persuading the unconvinced and painting pictures of the rosy future, despite inconvenient facts that may contradict that vision of the future. And in the case of the 2012 Tesla Model S all-electric sports sedan, which Tesla says it will launch before the end of next year, skeptics abound. One of the most prominent may be Dan Neil, the Pulitzer Prize-winning automotive journalist who now writes about cars for...
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Chicago Will Get Nissan Leaf Early Because It Loves Electric CarsThe City of Chicago has put so much time and money into supporting electric cars that Nissan has decided to reward Illinois by moving forward the planned Chicago launch of its Leaf electric hatchback to this Fall. In February this year, Gov. Quinn of Illinois signed a bill investing $1 million in...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Aussie Hypermiling Couple Hit 64mpg In 2011 Chevy Cruze EcoYou might remember a few weeks ago we brought you news of Australian couple John and Helen Taylor. Rather than enjoying the usual trappings of tourism, the Taylors wanted to break their own 48-U.S.-state hypermiling record, previously set in a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI at 67 mpg over 9,505 miles...
Antony Ingram -
FIA Officially Calls For Entrants In Electric Formula E Race SeriesIt’s official: the largest FIA is creating a racing series devoted to the electric car. Called the Formula E, the series will launch in 2013 and is expected to attract attention from all around the world. Interested racing teams have until the 14th October to register their interest in...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Hertz, Marriott Bring Electric Cars And Hotels Together In San FranciscoPopular airport rental car firm Hertz has been working alongside Hotel chain Marriott for 30 years to unite weary travelers with a set of wheels while they’re away from home -- but now visitors to San Francisco can opt to rent an electric car from the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
GM's LG Electric-Car Deal Goals: Cheaper, Faster, Less RiskyGeneral Motors has been on a roll with electric-car news of late. It said it would build the well-received Converj concept car as the Cadillac ELR; it cut a deal with A123 Systems to buy lithium-ion cells for a future (unspecified) electric car; and, just this morning, GM announced it would jointly...
John Voelcker