Sedans

  • 2011 Mercedes-Benz E300 Bluetec Hybrid

    Earlier today, we ran down our list of new green production cars at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, where press days are now underway. There's one more we might have added to the list: the 2012 Mercedes-Benz E300 Bluetec Hybrid. At the show today, Mercedes-Benz confirmed that the car "has already successfully entered everyday testing and is scheduled for market launch next year." Daimler chairman Dieter Zesche had confirmed the launch in January, so it's not breaking news. Handful of diesel hybrids Still, it's a fascinating car, the company's first-ever blend of its Bluetec clean-diesel system...

  • Fisker Karma aluminum spaceframe
    Geneva Motor Show Preview: 2011 Fisker Karma Space Frame

    While no journalist has yet driven a 2011 Fisker Karma with just nine months left before launch, the company will show the plug-in extended-range electric luxury sports sedan's aluminum space frame at this week's Geneva Motor Show. Designed to distribute elements of the car's plug-in hybrid...

  • 2009 Fisker Karma
    2011 Fisker Karma Plug-In Moves Invisibly Toward Launch, Ad Agency Hired

    Despite remaining all but invisible to the automotive press, startup carmaker Fisker Automotive is moving steadily toward a late-fall launch for its 2011 Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan. The latest news item is that chief marketing officer Marti Eulberg has hired advertising agency...

  • 2011 Hyundai Sonata
    2010 New York Auto Show Preview: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

    Right now, if you want a midsize sedan that's also a hybrid, you have exactly two choices: the 2010 Toyota Camry Hybrid, or the new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. That's about to change. Six weeks hence, at the 2010 New York Auto Show, Hyundai will take the wraps off its 2011 Sonata Hybrid. The...

  • 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup Street Edition
    Green Racer: 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup Street Edition

    Racing and fuel efficiency have often been considered at odds with each other, but green racing does exist, somewhat below the radar. One of the more accessible competitions is the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup series, now starting its third season. Like the old SCCA Showroom Stock categories, the TDI...

  • 2011 Audi A1 and Justin Timberlake on LA photo shoot
    Audi's Green Onslaught: A3 Sedan, A8 Hybrid, e-Tron Tesla-Fighter

    It's going to take Audi a long time to live down its U.S. chief's infamous quote that anyone who buys a Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle is an "idiot." But after sticking to diesel for a long time as its sole green strategy, Audi is now storming ahead into smaller, hybrid, and...

  • Tesla Roadster with CA Clean Air Vehicle sticker  --  flickr user jurvetson

    Whenever we're asked whether electric-car startup Tesla Motors will make it, we respond with our own question: What's the last carmaker started from scratch in the U.S. by entrepreneurs that's still with us, and when did it launch? The answer is Chrysler, and the year was 1924. In other words, starting a car company is a tough, tough challenge. And it takes a whole lot of cash. No Roadsters after 2011 The question of Tesla's survival cropped up again on Friday, when the Wired Autopia blog revealed that the company doesn't plan to sell its Tesla Roadster after 2011 due to tooling changes at...

  • Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept
    2010 Detroit Auto Show: Cadillac XTS Concept Revives GM's Plug-In Hybrid Hopes

    Say "luxury hybrid," and very few people think of Cadillac. Sure, the Escalade Hybrid large luxury sport-utility vehicle has been around for a few years, but Cadillac has no hybrid sedans. That may be about to change, if the Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept unveiled this morning at the Detroit Auto...

  • 2011 Infiniti M 37
    New Way To Save Gas: An Accelerator Pedal That Talks Back

    Next year's all-new 2011 Infiniti M series of luxury sports sedans will spawn a hybrid version, the 2012 M35 Hybrid, a year later. But even standard gasoline-engined models will offer new technology to help drivers save fuel. In this case, it's an accelerator pedal that talks back, courtesy of the...

  • 2009 Mercedes-Benz Vision S500 Plug-In Hybrid Concept
    Mercedes-Benz To Launch Pricey Plug-In Hybrid S-Class In 2012

    After lagging in development of hybrid and plug-in cars for years, Mercedes-Benz is now attacking the new technology with a vengeance. The latest proof: reports that it will offer a pricey plug-in hybrid version of its next S-Class large luxury sedan in 2012. The British magazine Autocar writes...

  • 2009 BMW Concept ActiveE
    Detroit Auto Show Preview: BMW Concept ActiveE Electric Car

    A little more than a year ago, the all-electric Mini E stole the limelight at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show. Now, BMW has released details of its next all-electric concept car, which will formally debut at next month's Detroit Auto Show. The BMW Concept ActiveE electric car is based on the BMW...

  • 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid 4-door Sedan Angular Front Exterior View
    Cash or Coupon for Honda Civic Hybrid Owners In Mileage Lawsuit

    If you're one of the 120,000 people who own a Honda Civic Hybrid made between 2003 and 2008, you may already know about the proposed settlement to a lawsuit against Honda contending its advertising overestimated the gas mileage of your car. If you're not aware of the suit, read up quick. EPA...

  • Denmark Crown Prince Frederik and Fisker Karma

    Not surprisingly, automotive journalists compete to be the first to drive the latest new cars. Some crave Chevies, others follow Ferrari. Here at GreenCarReports.com, we want to be among the first to drive electric cars and other plug-ins, new hybrids, clean diesels, and so forth. We've driven a lot of them, but one we haven't is the Fisker Karma extended-range electric sports sedan. But we don't feel singled out. No one outside the Fisker development team has ever driven one. Not a single person. Until now. So who gets the first drive? Noted auto afficionado Jay Leno, perhaps? Vice President...

  • 2011 Ford Fiesta
    2011 Ford Fiesta Prices Start at $13,995, Go As High As $23K

    Prices for the eagerly awaited 2011 Ford Fiesta will start at $13,995 for the four-door sedan, but prices for the new subcompact will go as high as $23,000 for top-line model when it goes on sale next summer. The base sedan with a five-speed manual gearbox carries a sticker price of $13,320, plus...

  • 2010 Hyundai Tucson
    Hyundai: No More V6s For Midsize Cars or Compact Crossovers

    One of the standouts among the global carmakers at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show was Hyundai. The Korean company has seen its market share rise from 3 to 4 percent during a dismal downturn, even without any new volume models to spur excitement. Now, with its Los Angeles launch of the 2010 Tucson...

  • 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show GM Car Hero
    2009 Los Angeles Auto Show: Preview

    Only a handful of U.S. auto shows count as important. Detroit, in January, is one; historically, New York in April has been another. But the up-and-comer is the Los Angeles Auto Show, which now occurs in late November or early December and focuses on green cars of all stripes: hybrids, electric...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Cruze
    Preview: 2011 Chevrolet Cruze

    For the first time ever, U.S. automakers are getting ready to sell small cars that go beyond adequate to potentially great. Certainly the styling, specification, and safety equipment of upcoming compacts and subcompacts is a giant step above their predecessors. The latest example is the 2011...

  • 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom
    All-Electric Rolls-Royce Phantom To Awe 2012 London Olympics?

    We almost never mention the 2010 Rolls-Royce Phantom here on GreenCarReports.com. That's because--at three tons, with 453 horsepower from its 6.7-liter V-12 engine, and an EPA rating of 13 mpg city / 19 mpg highway--it's [ahem] just not that green. Well, Rolls-Royce is looking ahead. Not only into...

  • Ford Focus EV

    Attendees excitedly swarmed around a prototype of the all-electric 2012 Ford Focus EV at an October conference held on Microsoft's Redmond campus, outside Seattle, Washington. But a newer, nice, cooler, and much flashier prototype of the 2012 Focus EV made its debut a few weeks earlier in rather more glamorous surroundings: the Jay Leno Show weeknight talk show, on NBC-TV. Beyond oil An audience of 300 at the October event, called Beyond Oil: The Sustainable Communities Initiative, heard presentations and panel discussions by more than 50 experts. Topics included innovative transportation...

  • BMW logo
    More Hybrids On the Way From BMW, Including 1-Series

    We've covered BMW's first two hybrid vehicles, just launched for the upcoming year: the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 "sports activity coupe", the world's most powerful hybrid, and the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7, the world's fastest hybrid sedan. Now a spy photo from the British magazine Autocar shows that...

  • Small cars as share of overall U.S. industry, 2000-2009, Ford Motor Co.
    Small Vehicles Will Be Largest Part Of U.S. Market By 2013, Ford Says

    Today we were in Michigan to learn quite a lot about the 2011 Ford Fiesta--absolutely none of which we're allowed to share with you today. (Soon, soon!) Yesterday, though, Ford's George Pipas presented data to journalists in New York that shows what Ford thinks about the future of small vehicles...

  • 2011 BMW ActiveHybrid 7
    BMW's Other Hybrid: 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7 Sedan

    For 2010, BMW is releasing two hybrid vehicles that are very different both in style and in their approach to using electric power to assist the gasoline engine. We've already covered the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 "sports activity coupe", which uses the Two-Mode Hybrid system jointly developed by...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Cruze
    2011 Chevrolet Cruze Compact Car Launch Delayed Til Next Fall

    As U.S. carmakers get serious about building world-class compact cars, one of the most eagerly awaited entries is the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, which will face off against a totally new 2012 Ford Focus as well as revised models of the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, and Nissan Sentra. Now reports say that...

  • Fisker Karma at Laguna Seca
    Biden Blurts Out Fisker Nina Plug-In Hybrid Line: Sedan, Coupe, Crossover

    There's nothing like a little old-fashioned reporter shoe leather, especially when few other automotive media outlets bother to make the trip. Our colleague Gary Gastelu of Fox News traveled down to Delaware yesterday, to cover the official announcement of Fisker Automotive's $18 million purchase...

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