Green Car News

Just weeks ahead of the 2011 Nissan Motor Show, Nissan has released pictures and videos of its latest all-electric car: The 2011 ESFLOW concept, something we’d heard was in development a while ago. Built from the ground up from scratch, the all-electric two-seat sport coupe concept car...

Last year we saw the return of the Buick Regal, but it surprised reviewers and consumers alike. The Regal revealed itself as being on par with cars like the Acura TSX, Nissan Maxima and Ford Focus. Maybe it was the European design or the power combined with class competitive fuel economy that made...

It's long been known that purchase rebates--buy a car, get a check--are a more effective incentive for purchase of any kind of car than an income-tax credit, which may take a year or more to affect the buyer's cash position. But the current tax credits for purchase of plug-in cars, up to $7,500 for...

Writing about green cars can be a challenge. On the one hand, this site attracts many new-car buyers who want to learn more about more fuel-efficient alternatives to what they're driving now. Consider the Ford Explorer driver who bought a Honda Fit because it was really all he needed. But on the...

Anyone who's stored a car in a rural area has heard stories of the chaos wreaked by nesting squirrels. Engine compartments stuffed with leaves, twigs, nuts, and even entire furry families can cause overheating and sometimes fires. But now a new peril has come to light against which electric-car...

EV fans the world over have been getting excited about the prospect of Toyota's upcoming electric RAV4 model. The original RAV4 EV is still celebrated by its owners and EV enthusiasts alike - and commands impressive prices when examples come up for sale. Launched with a fanfare at last November's...

The rumors started last week, and they were largely true: Buick plans to offer a model of its Regal compact sports sedan with the eAssist mild-hybrid system. What we didn't have were the projected EPA mileage ratings (based on GM's internal tests). The company expects the 2012 Buick Regal with...

Like many customers in the U.S., our own Marty Padgett got to reserve his 2011 Nissan LEAF in April last year. And now, like so many of the expectant 20,000 who have signed up for a place in the queue to buy NIssan’s first mass-produced electric car, he’s been saddled with an...

The word "propaganda" can mean many things to many people. Today, we're using it in the sense of "a form of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community," as Wikipedia neatly puts it. The busy public-relations team at General Motors is now putting out roughly a video every week on...

Think "hybrid" and what comes to mind? Small or midsize, sometimes odd-driving Toyotas? There's now actually a raft of low-volume hybrid luxury and sports sedans from such makers as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus, and now Infiniti. The 2012 Infiniti M35h Hybrid was officially unveiled at last fall's...

Now that the 2011 Chevy Volt is on sale, car buyers can experience electric vehicles with range-extending engines in everyday driving. And the Volt is just the start. In the future, range extenders to generate electric power will move beyond the Volt's standard car engine to purpose-built designs...

A few months ago we asked the question, what exactly do you have to service on a 2011 Nissan LEAF? After all, the LEAF doesn't even contain many of the items that require regular attention on a regular car, such as oil changes, spark plugs, filters, transmission fluid and muffler parts. Brakes...

Mitsubishi was one of the first major automakers to announce plans for a mass-produced electric car and even had a working prototype out testing as far back as 2008 in the form of the first generation i-MiEV. Since then the i-MiEV has gone through a series of redesigns until finally being launched...

The Super Bowl has historically had a lot of automotive industry ads and this year is no exception. Maybe it is the millions of viewers at one time or the tradition of actually watching the ads as opposed to running to the kitchen for a snack. This year Super Bowl XLV had ads from many...

Diesel cars in America have a reputation for being smelly, slow and loud…mostly this was perpetuated by the late ‘70s and ‘80s Mercedes diesels. The stereotype isn’t wrong, the diesels of the past put out a lot of soot and you tended to need ear plugs to drive them long...

We got our first hints that Tesla was planning several new models after the Model S electric sedan following the release of some official slides in the company’s IPO presentation last June. Soon after Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that one of these new models, an electric SUV dubbed the Model...

Last week AllSmallCars.com ventured out to L.A. to spend some time with the 2012 Ford Focus. To say that the car was good is probably a bit of an understatement, but we know no everyone will be a fan. Something most of us can agree on is that the all-new 2012 Ford Focus is steps above its...

Here’s a task for you. Think of the most unusual thing you’re likely to see in a Tesla dealership. Whichever strange and bizarre places your imagination took you, (no, we don’t want to know) we’re pretty sure it didn’t take you to the Munich Tesla Showroom earlier this...

During the first half of 2010, nearly 13,000 U.S. taxpayers wrongly claimed a staggering $33 million under the electric tax credit incentive scheme, a Treasury Department inspector general report has revealed. The credits, designed to encourage the uptake of plug-in hybrid and electric-only...

We've all heard the stories about people who hang onto their cars for decades. Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 is one; he's got more than 2.6 million miles on it now, after buying it new for $4,150. Then there's Rachel Veitch, who at 91 has logged 562,000 miles--and had no fewer than 18 batteries and...