Plug-In Hybrids

With some automakers already offering fully-electric cars, do plug-in hybrids matter? #YouTellUs

By now, you may well have seen short video clips of crudely animated people talking in monotonous tones, with more than occasional mispronunciations and odd rhythms. They're Xtranormal animations, created by feeding your dialogue into a website that animates them based on the author's choices of...

According to a report from gigaom earlier this week, the electric auto industry will soon be producing battery packs at a rate far greater than the number of electric cars being built. Caused in part by a slower uptake of electric cars by consumers than was initially hoped, the article warned that...

Ask most people to name a classic cop car and they’ll probably mention the iconic Ford Crown Victoria or perhaps the 1974 Dodge Monaco turned Bluesmobile in the classic film The Blues Brothers. We’ve even seen more unlikely cars like the Dodge Challenger and Lamborghini Gallardo take on...

Swedish carmaker Volvo now operates a test fleet of all-electric C30 hatchbacks, and it's also rolling out another experimental car, a V60 wagon with a diesel engine driving the front wheels, and an electric motor powering the rear. The two cars are now spawning a second generation of test...

When is a 2011 Chevrolet Volt not a plug-in hybrid? When it covers 2,500 miles between fill-ups. That’s how far Maryland resident Jeff Parmet has driven in his 2011 Chevrolet Volt in the past six months. In fact, he’s just visited the gas pump for the first time since buying the car...

Although its much-delayed first model, the 2011 Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan, hasn't quite reached dealers yet, Fisker Automotive is powering ahead. The company announced today that it would post job listings for what will be roughly 120 positions at its Wilmington, Delaware, assembly...

After several months of using a 2011 Chevy Volt and a 2011 Nissan Leaf as our sole family transport, we have a better understanding of both cars than we did in March, when I first wrote about how they compared. First to arrive at our West Sacramento home was a beautiful crystal red 2011 Volt. We...

Despite media attempts to conjure a "sales battle" between the 2011 Chevy Volt and the 2011 Nissan Leaf, both companies are selling every car they can manage to get into the showrooms. Now Chevrolet has released its first look at who is actually buying its Volt range-extended electric cars. The...

The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid isn’t set to go on sale until early next year, but we already know quite a lot about the car. This is mostly thanks to the fleet of Prius Plug-In Hybrid prototypes running around the country, an early version of which we drove back in 2010. However, some...

In recent years at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race there is an event called the Le Mans vers le Futur that takes place before the actual race in which a number of vehicles showcasing future automotive technology takes to the famous Circuit de la Sarthe for a couple of demonstration laps...

Want to buy a Chevrolet Volt but missed out on getting a 2011 model? Don’t worry. Next year’s car will offer more options and a lower sticker price, Chevrolet revealed today. Unlike Nissan, which was forced to raise the price of its 2011 Nissan Leaf in Europe shortly before it went on...

Ever since we told you all about the 2012 Volvo V60 Plug-in Hyrbid Station Wagon after we were invited to Volvo’s Swedish headquarters to get a sneak peak before its 2011 Geneva Motor Show debut, most of you have been telling us one thing. You wanted it to be available in the U.S. Someone at...

Toyota has managed to make its Prius family iconic, instantly identified by its unique silhouettes and body styles, and almost synonymous with 'hybrid'; and this past year, GM's Chevrolet Volt, as well as the Nissan Leaf have gone on sale with distinct shapes calling them as among the greenest...

The upcoming Ford two-row C-Max Hybrid and plug-in C-Max Energi hybrid are still on track, but today Ford says it's canning the planned seven-seat, gas-powered C-Max minivan from its future product plan. The three-row C-Max would have been Ford's first minivan on sale in North America since the...

A few weeks ago we were invited to the Challenge Bibendum - an auto-industry event devoted to fuel economy and green vehicles - in order to drive the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid Station Wagon. We’ve already shared our own first drive report with you, but now it’s time to share our video...

When a major automaker cancels an innovative plug-in hybrid vehicle program, that's big news. If it's General Motors, that goes double, given the politics that continue to swirl around GM's bankruptcy and the U.S. government's ongoing ownership of part of the company. So it was news when...

Well, now we know a little more about why the Cadillac SRX Plug-In Hybrid project was killed by its development team at General Motors. The culprit, according to GMInsideNews, was the lithium-ion battery pack. More specifically, it wasn't providing the efficiency gains that would have been needed...

Much attention and too little perspective has been focused on the monthly sales reports for the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, the first mass-market plug-in electric cars. But electric-car fans still eagerly await the always-imminent arrival of another production car with a plug, the 2011 Fisker Karma...

It doesn’t take a scientist to figure out that the 2011 Chevrolet Volt is in high demand right now--despite its May sales numbers, which are behind those of the 2011 Nissan Leaf. But despite General Motors’ planned increase in production, buying the plug-in hybrid is a little more...