Pickup Trucks

The 2013 Detroit Auto Show is fast approaching, and details of new models are bombarding us from all angles. Among the more interesting vehicles set to hit the show floor come from Via Motors. The Bob Lutz-backed Via Motors produces plug-in trucks, based on GM vehicle chassis. Taking inspiration...

GM's full-size hybrid pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid and GMC Sierra Hybrid, for much of the time they've been on sale, have offered the highest gas mileage of any full-size truck on the U.S. market. Yet these hybrid pickups, which were introduced for the 2009 model year, have been...

Even big pickup trucks will get significantly higher gas mileage in years to come, and the new 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and 2014 GMC Sierra will be no exception. This morning, General Motors [NYSE:GM] unveiled major revisions to its pair of full-size pickups. The many updates and improvements...

Usually Ford and GM follow the same playbook for their pickup trucks. But in pursuit of higher fuel economy goals, the two may diverge in years to come. While Ford is fitting more fuel-efficient EcoBoost turbocharged V-6 engines to its pickup trucks, it has no plans to offer any pickup smaller than...

"We can't provide you with any information related to future product technologies or timing." That's the standard response from carmakers--in this case, from Kevin Kelly, GM's Manager, Electric Vehicle and Hybrid Communications--when asked a question they'd rather not address. Our question was...

It’s no secret that Los Angeles has some of the worst air pollution of any city in the U.S., especially around its ports, where long lines of trucks wait idling to fill up with cargo from docking ships. But a new project from German electronics company Siemens could see that change forever...

If you want a green truck at the moment, your options are limited. By their nature, trucks require large engines, and large engines use a lot of fuel. Until electric and range-extended trucks become a realistic proposition, your best option is either hybrid, or alternative fuels--such as GM's...

The New York Auto Show, now open to the public, occupies two floors of the Javits Convention Center, and organizers this year were strict about relegating trucks to the basement. Chrysler was allowed only a single truck or crossover in its entire main-floor display. So it chose the 2013 Ram 1500...

While some people buy them for image and others for show, there are still drivers out there for whom a pickup is the only vehicle that serves their varied needs. Sure, they aren't the greenest of vehicles but if you're a business owner with a family, or need that extra towing capacity, you're...

We missed it last week while we were covering all the new cars at the Geneva Motor Show, but Chrysler has officially stepped forward into the world of natural-gas vehicles. Its Ram truck brand announced that it would offer a bi-fuel version of its 2500 Heavy Duty pickup, to be known as the Ram 2500...

Automakers have long known there's a double standard for gas mileage. Cars have to meet higher goals, trucks have less stringent requirements. And the larger the vehicle, the lower the average fuel economy it has to deliver. The proposed fuel economy standards for 2017 through 2025 vehicles...

This is a perfectly serious question. A basic 2012 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 full-size pickup truck starts around $23,000, and the rear-wheel drive XFE model is rated by the EPA at 18 mpg combined. The Silverado Hybrid model, a 1500 twin-cab, starts at around $40,000, and the RWD model is rated at...

So far, the range of electric vehicles offered for general sale has been fairly limited - most carmakers have been selling their technology in standard family cars, or city cars. In terms of efficiency, those vehicles are actually relatively good. Why not try and make improvements in the generally...

Nissan might be about to celebrate the end of one year selling its all-electric Leaf, but it isn’t just making passenger vehicles green: It’s electrifying its whole fleet. That was the message Nissan sent out last week when it unveiled a range of all-electric commercial plug-in vehicles...

The Mahindra TR20 and TR40 compact diesel pickups were supposed to launch in the U.S. in 2008, then 2010, then 2011. With EPA approval set to expire at the end of 2011, the future of the compact diesel pickup on these shores looks bleak.

Electric vehicles of various sorts are just now showing up in dealer showrooms. But that leaves a quarter of a billion gasoline vehicles running around U.S. roads. What to do to clean them up? Various entities have proposed to retrofit existing vehicles with various types of electric powertrains...

MPGs matter, it turns out, even to pickup buyers. Or, perhaps especially to pickup truck buyers. Just four months after Ford added an EcoBoost engine option to its top-selling F-150 pickup truck, the company reports that fully 35 percent of the 2011 model's sales are fitted with either that...

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...

Car assembly will never be the cleanest of processes, despite the efforts of people like Gordon Murray whose i-Stream production method for his T25 and T27 microcars is said to reduce the energy of car production by as much as 80 percent. Still, some companies do make the effort to bring down the...

Well, now we know the numbers. And there are a lot of them. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation jointly proposed cutting greenhouse-gas emissions from medium and heavy duty trucks by 10 to 20 percent, starting in 2014 and extending through 2018. (The actual...