Green Car News
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If you are a fan of the Nissan 370Z then you have probably been following the developments of the Toyota FT-86 concept car from Toyota. At the Geneva Motor Show this year Toyota introduced an update to the FT-86 concept—aptly called the FT-86 II. The FT-86 II is supposed to represent a more production friendly version of the concept, which if you are a fan of the original will account for the design changes. The changes to the original concept were made to make the car safer; for example, the windshield pillar was redesigned in order to reduce the sensation of tunnel vision. Other...
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Green Car Parade Kicks Off Countdown to 2011 Denver Auto ShowSmall cars are our business here at AllSmallCars.com and we love an event that features small cars—especially when a lot of press and consumers are around. Today marked the 4th Annual Green Car Parade in Denver, Colo., where dealers from around the state bring their greenest cars to be a part...
Jonathan McGrew -
2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco: Real MPG Savings Or Lots of Hype?Have you been to the pump lately? I had to go fill up today and was greeted by $3.50 gasoline prices. That is easily up a dollar from where they were in the Rocky Mountain region last year at this same time. Of course, as I watched the dollars click by I started to think maybe I should get a more...
Jonathan McGrew -
Jaguar To Make a Come Back With Small C-Segment Luxury Sedan?If you are a Jaguar fan then the X-type is no stranger. Jaguar tried to introduce the car about a decade ago to compete with the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class—basically the entry-level luxury segment. The car was nice to look at from the inside out and a bargain with all-wheel drive...
Jonathan McGrew -
2011 Chevrolet Volt: Quick Drive ImpressionsThe 2011 Geneva Motor Show has come and gone and was a real treat for electric car fans. Not only could you get close to cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf and smart fortwo electric drive, but some were even available to test. One of the cars attracting a lot of attention was the 2011 Chevrolet Volt...
Antony Ingram -
Electric Cars To Help 2050 Europe Goal Of Zero-Emissions CitiesWhen looked at in pure dollars and cents, there are many cases in which electric cars don't yet provide a payback. But other forces will boost their chances of adoption beyond pure payback. And government regulations are one of those forces. On Monday, the European Commission will issue a road map...
John Voelcker -
Better Place, the ambitious program that's launching its electric-car service in Israel, opened its first battery-swap station there on Wednesday. At an event marking the opening, CEO Shai Agassi said the company would be profitable within two years of starting to provide mobility services to its customers in Israel and Denmark. Transport by the mile The ambitious multimillion-dollar startup wants to sell electric transportation by the mile, contracting with registered users to provide a certain number of miles each month in an electric car that it provides. The model is similar to the way...
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Video: Toyota Prius Cranks Up The Crazy With Two Record-Breaking DaysSpring has sprung for the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In. The highly anticipated hybrid recently began making the rounds with critics, so it's not surprising that Toyota chose the end of this month to tout the Prius brand by hosting a live, two-day event in which four Prii will be put through a number...
Richard Read -
VIDEO: 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco, High Gas-Mileage FeaturesWith gas prices top of mind for many drivers, the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco model seems perfectly timed. The model with a six-speed manual gearbox is EPA-rated at 28 mpg city, 42 mpg highway, for a combined 33 mpg. On our recent road test over a long weekend, we beat that slightly, getting 34.2 mpg...
John Voelcker -
Kia Doubles Down On Smaller Engines, Plans Soul ConvertibleKia has some major plans in the pipeline, with the introduction of new hybrid models, a brand new Rio hatchback and range of downsized engines combining turbocharging and direct fuel injection technologies. And, with every new model introduction, Kia has been downsizing its engines--without any...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In: DrivenWhen the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid goes on sale about this time next year, it will be the first mass-production vehicle from Toyota that plugs in. Yet, despite that, the Plug-In feels more like a value-added version of the Prius than a model that will be itself iconic or radically new. It's...
Bengt Halvorson -
FAIL: U.K. Meter Maid Tickets Electric Car While it ChargedPolice traffic and parking control officers have an important job: they help keep traffic flowing in major cities and also ensure that cars are parked legally and safely. But local authorities in the U.K. city of Coventry are under fire after one of its parking enforcement officers ticketed an...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Would you pay more than two grand a month to drive an electric Volvo? Apparently, the automaker thinks that there are at least a few people or businesses that will. Volvo Cars Special Vehicles president Lennart Stegland said that Volvo plans to offer the C30 Electric for lease—at a price of 1,500 euros (more than $2,100) per month. While pricing hasn't yet been finalized, the executive provided the figure at an event near Indianapolis, where EnerDel will assemble the C30 Electric's battery pack. This past November, our John Voelcker spent 20 minutes behind the wheel of what was then...
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FIRST DRIVE: 2012 Buick Lacrosse 37-MPG eAssist PrototypeTo date, Buick and "fuel economy" haven't often been used in the same sentence. But the 2012 Buick LaCrosse, the brand's largest surviving car, will offer one engine option that's projected to deliver 25 mpg city, 37 mpg highway. That's not bad for a midsize near-luxury sedan (though 1 mpg lower on...
John Voelcker -
Tesla CEO: Super-capacitors Trump Electric Car Batteries.What has a small Canadian low-speed vehicle firm and Tesla CEO Elon Musk got in common? Supercapacitors. Just like Zenn and the troubled EEstor supercapacitor firm, Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks that batteries are so last century. Talking at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco on Wednesday this week...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Five Tips to Save You Money on Home Electric Car ChargingWe all know that once purchased, electric cars are much cheaper to run than their gasoline counterparts, but how do you make sure you’re not paying more than you need to for the privilege of charging up at home? We’ve given it some thought and come up with five top tips to help you pay...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In: By The Numbers, Would It Work For You?Over six days of driving—limited to around-town trips—we put about 103 miles on a fleet-test Toyota Prius Plug-In, averaging 90.8 miles per gallon. In that time, we gave the Prius Plug-In five full charges and two partial ones, and according to the trip computer, we covered 77.7 miles...
Bengt Halvorson -
High-MPG 2012 Ford Fiesta: More Style With New Customization PacksTo keep interest in its 40 mpg capable Fiesta bubbling along into the 2012 model year, Ford is introducing a trio of new customization packs for both the exterior and cabin of the already stylish minicar. The new packs should prove popular as around 40 percent of buyers of the 2011 model have opted...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
General Motors has been keen to point out that its 2011 Chevrolet Volt is a truly environmentally responsible and highly recyclable vehicle. As it turns out even we didn’t quite understand Chevrolet when it told us that most of its plug-in hybrid could be recycled at the end of a car’s life. We assumed the plastics, metals and even delicate battery components would be broken down into constituent parts and sent for remanufacture. Turns out we were wrong. You see, used Chevrolet Volt battery cases can become the latest bijou homes: for ducks and owls. As part of an outreach and...
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Earthquake Update: Nissan to Resume Vehicle Production “While Supplies Last”A little under two weeks ago Japan was hit by one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded. Measuring in at 9.0 on the richter scale and causing a devastating tsunami which killed tens of thousands and lay waste to hundreds of miles of coastline, Japan is still in an advance state of emergency. Yet...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Leave Your 2011 Chevy Volt On Overnight? Not Much Bad HappensYou don't start the engine in a 2011 Chevrolet Volt. Instead, you "power up" the car by pressing a button with the universal computer power symbol on it. Once the Volt has gone through its bootup routine, complete with tones and chimes, the button glows blue and you're ready to roll on electric...
John Voelcker -
Little Lotus Range-Extending Engine For Electric Cars Proves PopularMost car buyers haven't even heard the term "range extender" yet. But over time, expect it to become more familiar, as electric cars like the 2011 Chevrolet Volt introduce the concept of a gasoline engine that turns a generator to produce electricity to power the vehicle. Tiny, powerful, efficient...
John Voelcker -
BMW: The Newest 'Ultimate Car-Sharing Machine'? Maybe SoonOh, those wacky Germans and their car-sharing schemes. BMW said yesterday that it would launch a pilot car-sharing program, first in Munich and then in Berlin, starting next month. The cooperative venture with Sixt AG will be called DriveNow. BMW says DriveNow will be the "first-ever car-sharing...
John Voelcker -
Range or Signal Anxiety? Ford and AT&T Team Up on Electric CarsFord has just announced that it has chosen telecoms giant AT&T to provide wireless connectivity to its new range of electric and plug-in cars, enabling drivers of its 2012 Ford Focus electric car to remotely interact with their car via an Internet portal or their smart phone. Just like owners...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield