Green Car News

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf stickers

    The 2011 New York Auto Show is full of concepts, the newest production cars available to consumers and awards. One of the coveted awards during the New York Auto Show is the World Car of the Year. Cars in the running included the BMW 5-Series and Audi A8, but the prevailing winner was the eco-friendly, zero emission Nissan LEAF. This is another in a line of important awards for Nissan including the 2011 European Car of the Year award. Whenever a car is given an award the first thing people normally want to know is why—or rather what was better about it than the other competitors. The...

  • 2011 Scion FR-S Concept
    2011 New York Auto Show: Scion Debuts FR-S Concept Sports Car

    This past week at the 2011 New York Auto Show Scion debuted their next sports coupe intended for the U.S. market. The Scion FR-S is being developed in conjunction with Subaru and is slated to rollout for sale in mid 2012. Think of this as a body by Toyota, Engine by Subaru deal with the celebrated...

  • 'Revenge of the Electric Car' premiere: Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk on red carpet
    Elon Musk, Bob Lutz On Red Carpet At 'Revenge of Electric Car' Premiere

    Every movie has to have a premiere, and every premiere has to have a red carpet. When the red carpet is on a Manhattan sidewalk, with plenty of passers-by stopping to gawk, and many of the celebs are arriving in electric cars, things get a little more complicated. Still, last night's premiere of...

  • 'Revenge of the Electric Car' movie: Elon Musk and Bob Lutz
    Review: 'Revenge Of The Electric Car' Optimistic, Accurate, Lacks A Villain

    From Michael Moore's Roger And Me in 1989 to Chris Paine's 2006 Who Killed The Electric Car?, there's no shortage of documentaries that portray auto-industry executives as incompetent, bumbling, short-sighted, arrogant fools. So it may be a surprise that merely five years later, two global...

  • 2011 Hyundai Elantra
    Sales Of Small Cars Boost Average Gas Mileage For 2011 So Far

    During the first quarter of 2011, small car sales accounted for 19.4 percent of all vehicles sold. That is a sudden increase in popularity--up 2.8 percent from the last quarter of 2010--and it helped propel the average fuel economy of vehicles sold in the U.S. during January, February, and March to...

  • Long-Distance Electric Car Trips by Night
    Range Anxiety or Stupidity? Pushing an Electric Car to its Limits

    Yesterday we told you about our generally hassle-free, two-day, 520 mile round trip in a 2011 Nissan Leaf. Thanks to a succession of available rapid charging stations, a little measured driving and a few strategic detours we were able to arrive at both destination and start point without little...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt

    No one knows the ins and outs of electric-car usage like the early adopters, especially those who've already taken delivery of a 2011 Nissan Leaf or a 2011 Chevrolet Volt. (Or both.) So when a thread on required parking permits to recharge electric cars erupted in our recent article on the opening of a new public charging station in Palo Alto, California, we turned to noted electric-car advocate Chelsea Sexton to help us sort it out. In January 2003, she explains, "California passed an ordinance to prevent gasoline cars from parking in spots with electric-car chargers." "To make electric cars...

  • 2011 Hyundai Elantra, Grant's Tomb, New York City
    Five Things We Don't Like On The 2011 Hyundai Elantra (Video)

    Finally, here's our last video in the series we did on the new 2011 Hyundai Elantra. Since we tested that car a few weeks ago, the compact segment has only heated up. There's a new 2012 Honda Civic, an entirely redesigned all-wheel-drive 2012 Subaru Impreza, and the highly competitive 2011 Chevy...

  • BMW EVolve iPhone App
    Are You Electric Car Ready? BMW’s New App Helps You Decide

    You may recall earlier this year we wrote about an iPhone app designed to help prospective electric car buyers figure out just how big a battery pack their new electric car should have. Allowing full customization of technical parameters such as drag coefficient and vehicle weight, iEV was also a...

  • GM EV1 Anti-Crush Protests,  Screenshot, Who Killed The Electric Car?
    'Who Killed The Electric Car?' Sequel Premieres Tonight (Video)

    It's taken as gospel by many of the people who have seen it since its 2006 release, and there's no denying its influence. "Who Killed the Electric?" seemingly stung General Motors enough that the company unveiled the Chevrolet Volt concept in 2007 and then, startled by its popularity, decided to...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf does 520 Miles in 2 days
    2011 Nissan Leaf, 520 Miles, 2 Days: Here's How

    We all know electric cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf were designed to satisfy the daily driving needs of 90% of the population. For most cars, that translates to a life in or near a large metropolis, where daily commutes are between 10 and 40 miles. But with rapid charging capable of fast-charging...

  • Suzuki EcoCharge Concept live photos
    Suzuki EcoCharge Concept Hybrid: 2011 NY Auto Show Live Photos

    While the Kizashi Apex Concept shown at Suzuki's New York auto show stand showed off the brand's motorsports and motorcycle heritage, the Kizashi EcoCharge Concept here shows the direction for the hybrid version of the Kizashi that Suzuki has confirmed is under development. Pop the hood, and the...

  • John Duncan takes delivery of one of the first 2011 Nissan LEAF EVs, near Portland OR, 12/15/2010

    Over the past year we’ve seen the 2011 Nissan Leaf win plenty of awards, including the accolade of European Car of The Year and even GreenCarReports’ Best Car to Buy 2011. But while its main competitor, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, may have more awards to its name than Nissan’s first attempt at an all-electric mass-produced family hatchback, the Leaf has nabbed the title of the 2011 World Car of The Year. No Volt The eagle-eyed reader will note that the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, despite beating the Leaf in sales figures every month since its launch, wasn’t even on the list of...

  • 2012 Mitsubishi "i" electric car, powered by MiEV, launch event at 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show
    Mitsubishi Prices 2012 'i' Electric Car At $27,990 Before Tax Breaks

    Driving electric just got cheaper, as Mitsubishi announced that its 2012 'i' electric car would be priced at just $27,990 before incentives when deliveries begin in California next January. That makes the 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' the least expensive plug-in car on sale in the U.S. market. It qualifies...

  • Scenes from dedication of electric-car charging station at Creekside Inn, Palo Alto, CA
    Google, DOE Electric Car Charging Station Map Growing Rapidly

    One of the challenges facing electric car owners wanting to venture further than the range their electric cars can provide on a single charge is where to find either an outlet or a purpose-built electric vehicle charging station to replenish their car’s battery pack. Until recently there was...

  • 2012 Porsche Panamera S Hybrid launch, New York Auto Show, April 2011
    2012 Porsche Panamera S Hybrid: 2011 New York Auto Show Live Photos

    We first saw it at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show but this time it’s making its North American debut, where else but at this week’s 2011 New York Auto Show. We’re talking about, of course, the 2012 Porsche Panamera S Hybrid, which was put up on display next to a new high-performance...

  • 2011 Honda Insight
    Will Surging Gas Prices Save The Honda Insight?

    The Toyota Prius is the best-selling hybrid vehicle of all time and recently passed three million sales globally and a million in the U.S., over more than a decade. And when fuel prices rise, so has demand for the Prius and other high-mileage vehicles. So then, why hasn't it for the Honda Insight?...

  • Mercedes-Benz Concept A-Class, at new Mercedes-Benz Manhattan showroom, April 2011
    2011 New York Auto Show: A-Class Mercedes Showcased in the Big Apple

    If you are an avid Merc person, the A-Class Mercedes-Benz is nothing new to you. What would be new is the ability to buy one in the U.S. That need might be increased when you see the new A-Class design. The car debuted for the world recently at the Shanghai Auto Show and it is a beauty. When it...

  • Hyundai BLUE-WILL Hybrid

    Two more 40-mpg cars will arrive from Hyundai in the “next couple of years.” This comes from an executive interview conducted by Inside Line at the 2011 New York Auto Show. What is even more interesting is that one of those 40-mpg cars that Hyundai has confirmed will be moving to production is the Prius competitor—a car that we believe will be based on the Blue-Will Concept shown at the 2009 Seoul Auto Show. The second car to reach 40 or more mpg the executives from Hyundai declined to reveal. If you are having trouble remembering back to 2009 and are unsure of the Blue-Will...

  • 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco
    2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco Gets 38 MPG: Live Photos, Preview

    Today at the New York auto show, General Motors pulled the wraps off what it says is Chevrolet's first global mid-size sedan, the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. And while the Malibu is a completely new car, with significant upgrades in safety and technology features, the true draw for those interested in...

  • BMW ActiveE electric car, at BMW Manhattan media event, April 2011
    BMW Exec Trashes Electric Cars, Tax Credits at Launch of ActiveE

    In the rulebook of product promotion, remembering to not say horrible things about your product has to be number one. It’s a shame BMW North America President and CEO Jim O’Donnell seems to have forgotten that fact while taking part in a public event. Speaking on Monday at an event in...

  • Porsche's re-created 1900 Semper Vivus hybrid drives across the floor at media event, April 2011
    2012 Porsche Panamera S Hybrid With 111-Year-Old Ancestor (VIDEO)

    Did you hear? Last night, Porsche showed a series hybrid vehicle (analagous to the Chevy Volt) with a radically different design from any of its latest line of hybrids. Its pair of 1.7-liter single-cylinder engines powers a generator that flows electric power to a pair of front wheel motors, each...

  • 2012 Nissan Leaf Nismo RC Concept, New York Auto Show, April 2011
    Nissan Leaf Nismo RC Concept: New York Auto Show Live Photos

    Blue light bathed the concept car in the corner before Nissan launched its 2012 Versa sedan at the 2011 New York Auto Show today. The images were so striking we thought we'd bring you a photo gallery of Nissan's electric race-car concept, just so you can see it from all angles, looking like nothing...

  • Coulomb Technologies ChargePoint
    Earth Day: Coulomb Offers Free Electric Car Charging Passes

    If you’re an electric car owner living within the many hundreds of publicly available electric vehicle charging stations installed by Coulomb Technologies then you may be interested in what the infrastructure company has planned to celebrate Earth Day 2011. As part of the celebrations...

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