Plug-In Hybrids

While the Nissan Leaf is gaining momentum, the Chevrolet Volt remains in the driver's seat for March in plug-in electric-car sales for Canada. The Chevy Volt returned to triple-figure sales in Canada for the tenth time in March, tallying 105 sales from coast to coast. That figure was up slightly...

Hybrid technology is no longer the preserve of fuel-sipping family cars. In recent years, we've seen it used on SUVs and large luxury sedans too. And more recently still, the latest breed of supercars has driven down the hybrid route. One such supercar is Porsche's 918 Spyder, driven by Motor...

March was another good month for U.S. sales of the Nissan Leaf, the best-selling electric car in the world. In fact, March was a good month for several plug-in electric cars, with monthly sales up for many models, and new monthly records for a few. Roughly 9,000 electric cars were sold in March...

Why do we work so hard? Because hard work means "anything is possible"--and maybe you'll get a nice pool and a fancy car out of it. At least, that's the answer if Cadillac's "Poolside" ad for its ELR range-extended electric luxury coupe was to be believed. MUST SEE: Tesla Model S To Get Titanium...

One advantage to plug-in electric cars is that they can operate with no carbon footprint if the electricity used to recharge them is generated from renewable sources. Burning liquid fuels, on the other hand, will always generate carbon emissions. Now Audi is offering a way for German buyers of its...

Audi, in its search for alternatives to conventional propulsion, has finally nailed its colors to a mast--and that mast is plug-in hybrids. In addition to the A3 Sportback e-tron later this year and plans for a plug-in hybrid version of the A4, the German automaker could develop plug-in hybrid...

Give Felix Kramer credit for thinking big. Twelve years ago, he and others founded CalCars, a group dedicated to promoting plug-in hybrid vehicles with large battery packs--and built the world's first plug-in Prius hybrid. Now he and coauthor Gil Friend have published an audacious proposal to buy...

In theory, electric power is perfect for Rolls-Royce. What better source of propulsion than a quiet electric motor, for a company that strives for ultimate refinement? In practice though, Rolls-Royce customers weren't keen on the range and charging limitations of the 102EX concept the company...

The 2015 BMW i8 is one of this year's most eagerly-anticipated cars, but there's not long to wait now as the first examples begin to roll from the production line. The German automaker has also confirmed final specification details for the European market, including its official performance and...

The green car scene has never had more variety than it does today. You could, if you wanted to, walk into a dealership today and buy regular gasoline and diesel cars, natural gas vehicles, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric vehicles and soon, hydrogen cars. And there are plenty more on the horizon...

Analysts worried that winter weather would put a crimp in U.S. new-car sales last month, but one electric car racked up record February sales: the Nissan Leaf. Leaf sales of 1,425 cars in February were a record for the month, more than double the 2013 total of 653 February sales (the numbers for...

Some say that launching an electric car in today's market is still something of a risk. Launching four of them then, as French automaker Renault has done, could be considered suicidal. But Nissan's French partner has forged ahead nevertheless, and it now intends to add a plug-in hybrid model to its...

Within two or three months, there will be more than 200,000 plug-in electric cars on U.S. roads--and we're learning more about who buys them, and why. California's Center for Sustainable Energy released a new report this month that depicts the owners of different models having different reasons for...

When it comes to selling green cars, showing buyers that they're saving money can more important than showing them that they're saving the planet.

With awareness of the 2014 BMW i3 battery-electric car starting to rise--it will arrive at dealers in late April or early May--it's sometimes easy to forget that BMW has a second plug-in car following close behind. And unlike the i3, whose looks are controversial, there's very little debate over...

Volkswagen has released full details of its all-new Golf GTE, a plug-in hybrid model making its debut at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show. The German automaker has chosen the sporty GTE moniker as a way of tying the model into its GTI and GTD gasoline and diesel sports hatchbacks, but as the 'E'...

If lithium-ion batteries are "the heart of Fisker," according to new owner Wanxiang, then what does it say is "the soul of Fisker"? That would be the VL Destino, a version of the Fisker Karma range-extended electric luxury sedan with no batteries, electric motors, or plugs at all. MORE: Who's Still...

Where are you hedging your bets when it comes to the future of automobile propulsion? Maybe you're sticking with hybrids. Maybe you've already gone all the way to an electric car, or are rolling around in a range-extended Chevrolet Volt. For some, the latest version of the Toyota Prius with plug-in...

Electric cars may be suffering from the January blues, but if one analyst is correct that lull in sales won't last very long. Ben Scott, an analyst for IHS Automotive, predicts that global production of plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles will rise by 67 percent this year. According to...

In the first month of 2014, sales of the two most popular plug-in electric cars were lower than they've been in many months. Sales levels likely fell victim both to the predictable winter slowdown in electric-car sales (which we saw in 2012 and 2013 too) and to particularly bad weather last month...