Plug-In Hybrids

"Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model," or P1, was the first car designed by Ferdinand Porsche.

Starting in 2018, all new taxis in London will need to be capable of running as zero-emission vehicles--a policy recently announced by Mayor Boris Johnson. That's quite a promise, and a significant engineering push will be needed to make it happen. But already, several manufacturers are working on...

Ford's sales of its two Energi plug-in hybrid models climbed steadily throughout 2013, and now it appears the company will add a third model to the Energi family for 2015. If rumors are correct, the 2015 Ford Focus Energi will add a plug-in hybrid model to the existing gasoline and battery-electric...

While Mercedes-Benz and other German luxury automakers (Audi, especially) are betting on diesel powertrains on a larger scale in helping to make their lineups more fuel-efficient, they're starting to concede that to some luxury shoppers, plug-in hybrids are seen as a 'greener'...

Incentives help drive the purchase of plug-in electric cars, which remain unfamiliar and expensive to many first-time buyers. But a recent article on The Street may have caused some confusion over which incentives will be granted to BMW's first electric car, the i3, when it goes on sale this...

The Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid has generated a fair bit of attention, as the only plug-in hybrid sport utility vehicle thus far that will be offered for sale in the U.S. But potential buyers will have to wait a little longer, it turns out, due to high demand in other parts of the world and...

Solar power has proven itself better for static charging than it has for on-vehicle use, even if Australia's Solar Challenge race has shown solar cars to be possible under certain, very specific conditions. The trouble is, electric cars draw too much power and take up too small an area for solar...

Most modern concept cars are lightly glitzed-up versions of the cars we'll see on the streets in subsequent years, but every so often an automaker develops a concept simply to show off its future technology. That's certainly the case with the Audi Sport Quattro Laserlight plug-in hybrid concept...

Launching early next year, the 2015 BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports coupe is the second stage in BMW's i-car program, dedicated to vehicles with electric drivetrains. While it isn't a full battery-electric vehicle (or range-extended EV) like the i3 city car, electric power is still an important part...

BMW's plug-in hybrid i8 sports car is set to be one of the most exciting cars of 2014, but it'll also be one of the most technologically advanced. As well as the use of a new 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine, its part-electric drivetrain and unique styling, it'll also be the world's...

Cars running on gasoline have been with us for almost 140 years, and diesels for almost 80 years. More than 1 billion vehicles on the planet use those fuels today. So the view that liquid hydrocarbon fuels are on their way out requires taking a rather long view. Now we have one estimate of a...

We didn't expect the Volkswagen XL1 to be as much fun to drive as it is. Which makes it doubly a shame that Volkswagen won't be selling its radically efficient, two-seat, plug-in diesel hybrid XL1 model in North America. At a price of € 111,000 (roughly $153,000), the 250 XL1 cars that...

Three years ago yesterday, the first retail buyer of a brand-new Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car was handed his keys in Denville, New Jersey. Just three days earlier, the first Nissan Leaf buyer had received his battery-electric car in a large ceremony at San Francisco's City Hall...

Want to drive a Chinese car--and a plug-in hybrid at that? There are none offered for sale in the U.S. or Canada yet, but if you happen to be on vacation in Costa Rica--or living there--you'll have a much better chance. The BYD Qin plug-in hybrid, unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in April 2012...

As the year winds toward a close, U.S. car sales are at their highest levels in years. And modern plug-in electric cars will set a new sales record too. With one month left, November deliveries of cars with plugs looked like they'll hold steady with last month's--but as the final numbers came in...

Volkswagen has used the Tokyo Motor Show to launch the latest member of its plug-in family, the Twin Up minicar. Based on the regular Up sold in Europe, the Twin Up ditches the usual one-liter three-cylinder gasoline engine for something considerably more advanced--the diesel plug-in drivetrain...

Car enthusiasts will get a real treat over the next few weeks as both the Tokyo Motor Show and Los Angeles Auto Show release scores of new models into the wild. We've already brought you our preview of the Japanese show so now it's time to unearth all the LA launches. Here, tiny kei cars and fuel...

The 2013 Tokyo Motor Show is almost upon us. And while the Los Angeles Auto Show might hold more relevance for the U.S. market, Tokyo's offerings can never be discounted entirely. Weird and wonderful some may seem but many feature the kind of technology we'll soon be seeing in our road cars. And of...

The choice of fuel-efficient crossovers is rather limited right now. There's a Lexus RX, the diesel Audi Q5, and we're waiting on Mitsubishi's Outlander plug-in hybrid... but that's about it. Volkswagen will preview one more at the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show, in the form of an updated CrossBlue...

Mitsubishi's relatively low U.S. sales reflect the theory that its best models aren't to be found in its volume range; this is a company offering its best in more niche-market products. That means sporty Evolution models to appease performance fans, gas-sipping models like the Mirage and the firm's...