Plug-In Hybrids

A record 582 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids were sold in Canada last month, two months after Chevy delivered a then-record 483 Volts in September. The achievement is even more impressive considering Canadian car sales dropped by 15 percent between the two months, as the industry enters its slow...

Looking back at last week's Los Angeles auto show media days, one new vehicle sucked up a disproportionate amount of attention and airtime. That would be the new 2018 Jeep Wrangler, a once-in-a-decade redesign of the iconic off-roader that's the linchpin of the Jeep brand image worldwide. While the...

Chevy didn't quite pull it off in November, but it could well happen this month in a burst of end-of-year sales. In this case, "it" would be selling 3,000 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars in a single month: the delivery total reported last month was 2,987. That brings year-to-date Bolt EV sales to...

The Vespa scooter is undeniably an icon on European streets. For 70 years, Vespas have buzzed about roadways, but the buzz will soon give way to an all-but-silent hum in the company's latest scooter. Earlier this month at the Milan Motorcycle Show, Vespa announced its first all-electric scooter...

Its customers and employees know, but the rest of the world may not quite have realized that Porsche will soon sell six separate plug-in hybrid models. They span three different vehicles—the Porsche Panamera large sedan, the Panamera Sport Turismo shooting brake, and the Cayenne sport utility...

The current fleet of delivery trucks used by the United States Postal Service have stood the test of time, but their high maintenance costs mean it's time to retire the iconic boxy vehicles. The USPS began soliciting bids in 2016 and five finalists now remain in the running: they are...

China's announcement in early September that it planned to set a date to end sales of new vehicles with combustion engines should have rocked the global auto industry. The world's largest car market, at roughly 30 million vehicles a year, will at some point permit only zero-emission vehicles to be...

Compared to the U.S. sales of, say, full-size pickup trucks, the monthly reports on deliveries of plug-in hybrid and battery-electric cars contain some fairly low numbers. The Ford F-Series routinely sells 80,000 a month or more, while the most any plug-in car has ever sold in the U.S. is about...

In recent years, Ford Motor Company's plans for putting more plug-in electric cars on the road have been, shall we say, murky. GM has the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, sales of its Chevy Bolt EV 238-mile electric car have risen every month, and it plans a pair of all-electric SUVs by...

The 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid will start at a recommended price of $34,290 including delivery, making it the least expensive plug-in hybrid sedan on the market this year. Honda says it will go on sale December 1, and it will be offered at all Honda dealers in the U.S. That means that for...

The Ford C-Max, launched as a 2013 model, never really served the purpose its maker intended. The tall five-door compact hatchback was intended to be Ford's counter to the successful Toyota Prius hybrid line, more stylish and comfortable inside with almost the same fuel-economy rating. Its owners'...

Hyundai is known in the auto industry as an aggressive and very capable competitor, and the world's largest makers watch it closely and take it very seriously. The company didn't introduce its first hybrid car in the U.S. until 2011 and, frankly, that year's hybrid Sonata sedan wasn't very good...

The dominant duo of the Chevy Volt and Bolt EV continued their winning ways in the Canadian market for new plug-in electric cars during October. Chevrolet sold 424 Volts to start the fourth quarter, down slightly from 483 in September. The vehicle’s 3,431 sales through October all but tied...

Chevy did it again. More specifically, GM delivered 2,781 Chevrolet Bolt EVs to buyers during October, a new high for its 238-mile electric car, and the highest reported sales of any plug-in electric vehicle last month. That brings the total number of Bolt EVs sold in 11 months to 17,083 (plus an...

Over seven years of plug-in electric cars and 20 years of hybrids, the pickup truck sector remains largely untouched. GM sold hybrid Chevrolet and GMC pickups for a few years, and Ford plans an F-150 hybrid in 2020. A startup company now called Workhorse (nee AMP) noticed that white space and made...

Not every car buyer can afford a brand-new vehicle, which often makes gently used vehicles an appealing alternative. But while cars that plug in take only a small share of new-vehicle purchases today—about 1 percent—they apparently move quite fast off dealer lots once they're used. In...

When consumers think of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid cars, most likely conjure thoughts of Tesla, or perhaps Nissan with its Leaf and Chevrolet with its Volt and Bolt EV. However, none of those three brands managed to sell 10,000 plug-in cars during the month of September. That sales honor...

Polestar, formerly Volvo's in-house tuning division, was recently separated from the Swedish brand; Volvo plans to turn it into a standalone brand. Polestar announced plans to build electric and electrified performance cars in the near future, and the brand revealed its first attempt with what it...

Following the debut of the smaller Land Rover Range Rover Sport P400e plug-in hybrid, the luxury SUV maker revealed its larger sibling: the 2019 Land Rover Range Rover P400e. The Land Rover Range Rover P400e plug-in hybrid is the larger of the two, but the SUV boasts an identical electrified...

At the end of September, Toyota and Mazda announced they would form a joint venture with parts maker Denso to design, test, and build components for a shared electric-car platform. Earlier interviews with Mazda indicate that the small Japanese maker will create its first all-electric model for...