Green Car News
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The Aptera saga continues with a new report coming from Gas 2.0 who cites countless sources within the company. Gas 2.0 is reporting that the companies financial problems, mismanagement, vehicle revisions, and employee unrest could truly unravel the entire company. According to the report, the troubles at Aptera stem from the hiring of Paul Wilbur, now CEO of Aptera. When Wilbur was hired, he brought along Laura Marion, now CFO for Aptera. Marian had previously worked for Delphi where she was caught up in an accounting fraud claim and was cited by the SEC. Marion paid $40,000 in...
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Choosing a Smart May Be Getting SmarterA Small Green Machine That Gets Greener With Electric Powertrain
Jonathan McGrew -
Jay Leno Debuts New 2012 Ford Focus EV Racer, Conferees Drive Old One
Attendees excitedly swarmed around a prototype of the all-electric 2012 Ford Focus EV at an October conference held on Microsoft's Redmond campus, outside Seattle, Washington. But a newer, nice, cooler, and much flashier prototype of the 2012 Focus EV made its debut a few weeks earlier in rather...
John Voelcker -
Brammo Enertia Goes Prime Time
Last Wednesday night, Brammo may have gotten the break through they have been searching for. NBC Nightly News aired a piece highlighting the electric motorcycle giving the company the national attention needed. The news centered around a new kind of biker gang in the Oregon area. This biker...
Eric Loveday -
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Most Fuel Efficient Full-Line Carmaker in the U.S.: Honda. Again.
Once again, Honda has the most fuel-efficient model range of the nine carmakers that sell a full lineup of vehicles in the U.S. Preliminary figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed Honda averaging 23.6 miles per gallon across its 2009 vehicles, closely trailed by Hyundai (23.4...
John Voelcker -
Additional sources are now confirming a story we brought you a few days back about the Nissan Leaf. According to the Detroit Bureau, an automotive industry site, a senior Nissan planner has confirmed stories about offering additional battery sizes later in the Leaf's product cycle. As the Detroit Bureau reports, "A senior Nissan planner tells TheDetroitBureau.com that the company eventually give BEV buyers the electric vehicle's equivalent of choosing engines, offering an array of different battery packs. That would allow a motorist to choose between a lower-range, lower-cost pack, or...
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More Hybrids On the Way From BMW, Including 1-Series
We've covered BMW's first two hybrid vehicles, just launched for the upcoming year: the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 "sports activity coupe", the world's most powerful hybrid, and the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7, the world's fastest hybrid sedan. Now a spy photo from the British magazine Autocar shows that...
John Voelcker -
Green Car Wash: Less Than One Glass of Water For a Whole Car?
It's Friday, so it's time to dig deep into the GreenCarReports.com random roundup box. Today we have just one item, and it comes with an intriguing question: Could you wash your car with just a single glass of water? That's the premise of a new product called Ecolo Green Car Wash, from a company in...
John Voelcker -
Toyota: No Plans To Sell $21K 2010 Prius I to Consumers
The 2010 Toyota Prius is in fairly short supply all over the world, and its U.S. sales are trouncing those of the 2010 Honda Insight, its competitor in the arena of dedicated hybrid hatchbacks. So perhaps it's not that surprising that Toyota doesn't feel the need to sell the lowest-spec 2010 Prius...
John Voelcker -
Peugeot Unveils BB1 EV on the Streets of London
The automaker Peugeot has not been high on the list of either electric or hybrid vehicles. Truth is, the company shows only a hint of interest in either category right now with a few concepts displayed here and there and a small offering of hybrid models. Their largest commitment involves...
Eric Loveday -
Toshiba Looking to Supply Lithium Titanate EV Batteries to 5 Automakers
Bring on the carmakers. Toshiba is looking to sign approximately five carmakers to deals for the companies newly released lithium batteries intended to provide motivation to EVs. According to a report in the Financial Times of London, the head of Toshiba said that the company will enter the EV...
Eric Loveday -
Daimler AG reported today that production of the second generation Smart ForTwo Electric Drive (ED) has begun at their plant in Hambach, France. The ForTwo employs modern lithium-ion batteries to store power for the car's electric drivetrain. The new car builds on the first generation vehicle, which endured real world testing at the hands of 100 London drivers starting in 2007. This time, 1,000 of the second generation EV's will be tested under real driving conditions in cities throughout Europe and the United States. The feedback from that program will be used to refine the final...
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Ultra-Luxe Mini Planned With Rolls-Royce Trim, Bespoke Features
As European manufacturers get more serious about cutting emissions and attacking climate change, some very interesting small, fuel-efficient cars are starting to emerge. The latest news from Europe is that apparently there will be an ultra-luxury version of the Mini Cooper, to be trimmed out at the...
John Voelcker -
2010 Toyota Prius I Equipment Level: Not Available Any Time Soon
Remember that $21,000, very basic 2010 Prius? Toyota has now confirmed it has neither current plans nor a schedule for selling the lowest-level model of the 2010 Toyota Prius, known as the Prius I, to consumers. In fact, it doesn't even have a timeframe for "continued, regular fleet sales of Prius...
John Voelcker -
Daimler To Produce 3rd Gen Citaro Fuel Cell Hybrid Transit Bus, Uses Stacked Modules and Li-Ion Batteries
If any one company seems to hold an edge in fuel cell powered vehicles, that company has to be Daimler. Though GM has expertise in the field, as does Honda, Daimler has several generations of working fuel cell powered vehicles in daily use around the globe. Recently, the company introduced its...
Eric Loveday -
Aptera Founders Not Fired, One Takes Extended Leave, Other Focusing on Own Start Up Company
Recently we reported on the internal shake up going on over at Aptera. Previously, we had followed the story of other sources stating that both co-founders of the company had been released. However, Popular Mechanics is now reporting a much different story. According to the Popular Mechanics...
Eric Loveday -
U.S. and China Announce Joint Electric Vehicles Initiative
President Obama and Chinese President, Hu Jintao, couldn't agree on everything when they met on Monday. In a town hall meeting, Obama pressed the Chinese to relax stringent government controls on their citizens' Internet usage. A Chinese blogger later claimed that a transcript of the meeting was...
Robert Scardino -
Today we were in Michigan to learn quite a lot about the 2011 Ford Fiesta--absolutely none of which we're allowed to share with you today. (Soon, soon!) Yesterday, though, Ford's George Pipas presented data to journalists in New York that shows what Ford thinks about the future of small vehicles. The bottom line: By 2013, he said, small vehicles will grow to be the largest single segment of the U.S. market. 21 percent to 31 percent in a decade Specifically, Pipas said, they'll grow from 31 percent last year (2008) to 36 percent of total sales in 2013. That compares to a mere 21 perent in...
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If Texans Don't Want 2010 Smart ForTwos, Will They Rent 'Em?
Several months ago, we previewed Car2Go, the car-sharing program planned in Austin, Texas, featuring Smart ForTwo mini-cars. Now a pilot program with 200 Smarts has launched for the 13,000 employees of the city of Austin. It's the first U.S. version of a scheme that started in March in Ulm...
John Voelcker -
First All-Electric Aptera 2e Pushed Back to 2010
Co-founders Fambro and Anthony step aside from day-to-day operations
Jason Hendler -
LoJack for Hybrids?
At one time or another, especially if you live in Detroit (or anywhere in southern California), you will have your car stolen. It happened to me twice in five weeks when I lived in a gorgeous river-front apartment in downtown Detroit during the early 1990's. Both times, the car was never recovered...
Jennifer Knightstep -
Th!nk picks Indiana for U.S. factory
In a wise and strategic move, Th!nk, the Norwegian EV producer, has selected a site in Indiana for US production. The source of this information, Charles Gassenheimer, Chairman and CEO of Ener1, Inc., further states that the exact location and other details about this site will be announced in a...
Jason Hendler -
Top Reasons Why Nissan Believes Battery Leasing is Advantageous to Leaf Buyers
Nissan's marketing tour of the Nissan Leaf kicked off in Los Angeles. The tour, which will bring the Leaf to 22 cities in advance of its release date late next year, is a marketing campaign put on by the company to help determine interest and buying mindset. Nissan expects to sell only 10,000 to...
Eric Loveday
