Green Car News
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You may not know it, but today marks the sixth annual National Dump the Pump Day. Ran as a collaboration between the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), National Dump the Pump Day is held to encourage commuters to leave their gas-guzzling cars at home and get to work using public transport instead. Some public transit systems are even offering free rides throughout the day to let people check out how mass transit has changed since the dark, depressing and frankly dangerous days of the 1980s. Of course, if...
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Should Electric Cars Mimic the Gasoline Driving Experience?You probably already know this, but electric cars and gasoline cars are completely different beasts. In fact, concepts we’ve become accustomed to in gasoline cars such as the creep and kick-down functions of an automatic gearbox are not natively present in a electrical drivetrain - and yet...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Mini E Driver Study: Some Caveats On Electric-Car Happy NewsThe recent study of Mini E drivers may need to be taken with a few grains of salt.
John Voelcker -
Should Detroit Dial Down The Doom & Gloom Over High-Mileage Rules?We've heard this script before. Some agency of the Federal Government proposes a new rule that will affect the design and performance of cars in some way, sometime in the future. Instinctively, reflexively, automatically, viscerally, the industry lashes out. Horror, catastrophe, misery, bankruptcy!...
John Voelcker -
Clipper Creek Unveils Smallest Electric Car Charging Station yetWell-established charging station manufacturer Clipper Creek has just unveiled what it claims is the smallest electric vehicle charging station currently available on the market. Costing $995 and weighing in at 7 pounds, the Clipper Creek LCS-25 unit looks like the portable 110V level 1charging...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
How To Send Hybrid Cars From Japan? Diesel-Hybrid Cargo Ship, Of CourseIn this day and age, when it comes to being green, looking at the end result is never enough. You have to take a life cycle approach to assessing how green something is, which in the case of cars, means looking at how they are manufactured and delivered to your driveway. Unfortunately, most cars...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Nissan has always been particular in who it choses to associate with its all-electric Leaf, but its latest superstar signing is quite literally a shining example of what it means to be a leader in the world of green cars. Enter Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds. The 34-year old star of Green Lantern - the big-screen interpretation of the classic DC Comics title which premieres on Friday, June 17 - is already a Nissan Leaf owner and has just been signed in a partnership with Nissan to promote its Innovation for Endurance fitness program. Part of Nissan’s ongoing sales push for the NIssan...
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Hey Leaf Owners! Afraid of Big Brother? There’s a Simple FixIn the modern world of smart grids, smart phones and even smart cars, the Internet can connect two seemingly unrelated objects together. Take Nissan’s 2011 Leaf. Thanks to a built-in wireless modem, the all-electric car can both receive and send data through Nissan’s Carwings portal...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
On Thursday, Why Not Dump The Pump?Thursday, June 16 marks the sixth annual “National Dump the Pump Day.” A collaboration between the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, Dump the Pump Day encourages commuters to hang up their car keys and give...
Kurt Ernst -
Should BMW Have Made the Mini E a Production Car? #YouTellUsBMW can’t be accused of rushing into the electric car market. After nearly two years of BMW Mini E testing and countless hours of feedback sessions from test participants, BMW is just about to start its second round of electric car testing with its 1-series based Active-E. But if you want to...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Want A 2011 Nissan Leaf? Get That Charging Station In First!If you're on the U.S. waiting list for a 2011 Nissan Leaf, we certainly hope you already have a charging station already installed in your garage. Bloomberg caught wind that some consumers are having their orders dropped temporarily until they install a plug-in charger at home and present the...
Kevin Lee -
Always Stay In The Bike Lane, Even When You Can't: VideoCops ticket a Manhattan bicyclist, but #fail to do the same for all the hurdles he captures in a YouTube viral video.
Kurt Ernst -
There’s no mistaking the fact that Nissan is rapidly increasing its production volumes for its 2011 Nissan Leaf in order to clear its order books and get 12,000 Leafs delivered in the U.S. by the end of 2011. You’d think that by the start of next year, a Nissan Leaf might be easy and quick to buy, right? Not necessarily so. Or rather, it may take a little longer than you’d hope. Why? It boils down to two different stories we’ve come across in the last 24 hours. Firstly, according to some would-be Leaf owners, the Japanese automaker is delaying the delivery of their...
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Endurance Racing Sans Gasoline: Biodiesel Runs At NurburgringThe VLN is a race series held in Germany each year where the cars speed around the grueling Nurburgring-Nordschleife, a track often nicknamed the ‘Green Hell’ because it’s surrounded by pristine green hills but is also one of the toughest and most intensive of its kind anywhere in...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
General Motors Invests in Electric Bus Firm With Rapid Charger TechYou’d think that General Motors already had a pretty impressive grasp of the electric vehicle market with its 2011 Chevrolet Volt, but the automaker announced today that its investment arm was providing part of the capital in a joint $30 million venture investment in a company that makes...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Why Ford Would Be Crazy To Kill The Escape Hybrid: Real AWDFord has made lots of changes to its model lineup of late, some of them remarkably quickly. Now comes word that the new Ford Escape compact crossover for 2013 may not include the Escape Hybrid model it has sold since 2004. We think that would be a terrible shame, because it takes off the market a...
John Voelcker -
All-New 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid To Get 47-48 City MPG: ReportThe all-new, entirely redesigned 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid sedan may be rated by the EPA as high as 47 or 48 mpg on the city cycle, according to reports on a website that follows Ford news. The redesigned Ford Fusion sedan will be largely identical to the next Ford Mondeo sedan for Europe under the...
John Voelcker -
Many Ways For Volvo To Go Green And Save Gas, Says CEOVolvo likes to think of itself as a conscientious car company. "Why are we different?" asked Stefan Jacoby, Volvo's German CEO. "We are Swedish; we come from a human-centric company. We do things because they have a purpose for people." Safety, yes, but also green Those things used to revolve...
John Voelcker -
We’re less than a week away from Father’s Day - the annual celebration of what our Fathers mean to us - and sometimes an excuse for presents, trips and surprises. If your Father is an electric vehicle fan but you haven’t yet got him a present don’t worry: here’s just five of our top electric-car themed gifts you could get him. Who Killed The Electric Car? We couldn’t do any top five electric car gift lists without including the perennial video of choice among electric car enthusiasts Focusing on the crushing of electric cars from GM, Ford, Toyota, Nissan...
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Audi e-tron Spyder Diesel Plug-In Hybrid Turns Up At Le MansIn recent years at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race there is an event called the Le Mans vers le Futur that takes place before the actual race in which a number of vehicles showcasing future automotive technology takes to the famous Circuit de la Sarthe for a couple of demonstration laps...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2012 Nissan Leaf Gets Ready for Winter, Gets More HeatingThe 2011 Nissan Leaf may have been the first all-electric mass-produced electric car from a major automaker to hit the roads, but in the first few months following its launch Nissan came under a lot of criticism for not having a more sophisticated thermally managed battery pack inside the Leaf. Now...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
What Would You Give Up For Higher Gas Mileage? Cash? Features? Safety?It happens every time. Gas prices go up sharply, and new car buyers suddenly decide that gas mileage is important--and shop accordingly. With gas around $4 a gallon in many parts of the country, what would you trade for higher miles per gallon? Would you pay more? Would you buy a smaller car than...
John Voelcker -
2012 Chevy Volt Price Cut To $39,995, Options, Colors ExpandedFor its second year of production, the 2012 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car will come down $1,000 in price and be offered with several new features and two new colors. The list price of the 2012 Volt, including an $850 destination fee, is $39,995. That compares to $41,000 for the 2011...
John Voelcker -
BREAKING: Chevrolet 2012 Volt $1,005 Cheaper, More OptionsWant to buy a Chevrolet Volt but missed out on getting a 2011 model? Don’t worry. Next year’s car will offer more options and a lower sticker price, Chevrolet revealed today. Unlike Nissan, which was forced to raise the price of its 2011 Nissan Leaf in Europe shortly before it went on...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield