Sports
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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...
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All-Electric Roadtrip From LA to Detroit? No Problem, Says Tesla
As we've noted elsewhere, we write a lot about Tesla. We certainly give them more ink...errr, electrons?...than their share of the sports car market, since they're just delivered their 900th Roadster. Not that they're not wildly fun to drive, mind you. But despite early engineering difficulties...
John Voelcker -
Want To Drive a 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport? Enter Our Writing Contest!
We tested a 2009 Tesla Roadster last spring. Without a doubt, it's one of the most fun and breathtaking performance cars around. And the new-for-2010 Roadster Sport model is even quicker. Zero to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, anyone? Now you too can have your very own chance to drive a 2010 Tesla Roadster...
John Voelcker -
Hide the Children! Porsche Goes Green And Hybrid, Purists Blanch
Europeans have been slow to the game with hybrids, having bet most of their green strategy on highly efficient clean diesels. But they are increasingly hedging their bets, learning to work with electric motors and battery packs. In the sports-car world, aside from startups Fisker and Tesla, no...
John Voelcker -
Want $42K Off A New Tesla Roadster? Call Your Colorado Cousin
[REVISED UPDATE, October 23: For awhile, it seemed too good to be true. The full text of Colorado House bill 09-1331, "An Act Concerning Incentives For Efficient Motor Vehicles," turns out to include a cap of $6,000 on the tax credit available for any low-emission car. The all-important phrase...
John Voelcker -
More Tesla Turmoil? Executive Turnover Continues
Executive turnover continues at Silicon Valley electric-car startup Tesla Motors, with three executives leaving in nine months and two more hired. The turnover comes both in Vehicle Engineering--the group that must executive and deliver the 2012 Tesla Model S electric luxury sports sedan--and in...
John Voelcker -
The 2010 Chevrolet Corvette goes like stink. Its 430-horsepower, 6.2-liter V8 is the epitome of all-American performance. And that's just the base car. The supercar contender ZR1 model heads straight into the stratosphere. The Vette is an icon, and GM messes with it at its peril. So a throwaway line in Automotive News set hearts pounding and Corvette fans sweating: If it had to, General Motors would do a hybrid-electric Chevrolet Corvette to meet Federal fuel-economy standards. We think that's a great idea. Here's why: What would you say to a 750-plus horsepower Vette...with better gas...
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Full Details: Audi e-Tron Electric Supercar, Competition for Tesla?
Yesterday we brought you the first images of the Audi e-Tron concept car from the Frankfurt Auto Show. Now, we have all the technical details of this stunning supercar propelled purely by electrons. Until now, all we knew was that the e-Tron was based on the regular R8 sports car, with the side...
John Voelcker -
BMW's Newest, Greenest Concept: Vision EfficientDynamics
BMW's legendary M series performance cars use big, brawny, turbocharged gasoline engines. The 2009 BMW M5, for example, has a 500-horsepower, 5.0-liter V-10. How many cylinders ??? Where ??? But the concept car BMW will unveil in two weeks at the Frankfurt Motor Show promises "the performance of an...
John Voelcker -
Mini Coupe Concept Celebrates 50 Years of Minis, Targets Audi TT
On Wednesday, August 26, 1959, a new type of small car was unveiled in Austin and Morris dealerships across Britain. Many buyers didn't know quite what to make of the Morris Mini-Minor and Austin 7even (yep, that's what they called it--for a very short while). It had seats for four, it was just 10...
John Voelcker -
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Supercar Going Electric (Without Tesla)
The Mercedes-Benz AMG division has historically been about ungodly power and torque, space shuttle-like acceleration and street legal race car performance. Each AMG engine is hand built by one engineer from start to finish. With so much emphasis on making cars fast and exclusive, fuel economy has...
Robert Scardino -
Cute AND Clever: Chrysler's Coming Green Innovations
Chrysler's on the skids right now, no doubt about it. June sales plummeted 42 percent, and some consider its takeover by--errr, sorry, partnership with--Italy's Fiat to be the blind leading the lame. But Fiat is far from the company it was 20 years ago, when it folded its tents and snuck out of the...
John Voelcker -
Hell is freezing over pretty frequently these days, it seems. Porsche, once the pinnacle of piston-engined power, will launch its first hybrid late next year. The 2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid sport-utility will get gas mileage of at least 26 miles per gallon (less than 9 litres per 100 km), according to a report in the German Automobilwoche. That's at least a 25-percent improvement, especially in city driving, over the most economical gasoline version. That model, just known as the 2009 Porsche Cayenne, uses a 290-horsepower, 3.6-liter V6 that returns EPA ratings of 14 mpg city / 20 mpg...
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Racing Goes Green As Diesels Romp At Le Mans
We were once told by an auto writer that "real car people" didn't want green cars. They wanted noise, and roaring engines, and squealing tires. Well, the triumph of diesel-powered race cars at the famed 24 Heures du Mans shows you can have both. The French carmaker Peugeot placed first and second...
John Voelcker -
Hybrid Ferrari To Launch At LA Auto Show In December?
It's obviously green supercar day here at GreenCarReports. No sooner had we written about Lamborghini's green vehicle plans than more info popped up on our previous story about the plans for Ferrari hybrids as well. Editor Eddie Alterman from Car and Driver writes that a concept could debut at the...
John Voelcker -
Anxious Lamborghini To Follow Ferrari, Launch Hybrid Supercar
First Ferrari frightened purists everywhere with news that it's designing hybrid electric systems for future Ferraris. Now competitor and fellow supercar maker Lamborghini is joining the purity parade. Rather than the patent drawings that sparked the Ferrari kerfuffle, Lambo issued a text-heavy...
John Voelcker -
Ferrari To Go Hybrid, World Trembles On Its Axis
Ferrari is now testing prototypes of a hybrid-electric system in the fabulous 599 sports car
John Voelcker -
Tesla's New BFF (And Savior?) Is Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG announced today it would buy 10 percent of Silicon Valley electric-car startup Tesla. What does it all mean?
John Voelcker -
Electric performance is great, so more electric performance would be even greater, right? In Chevy performance tradition, we got to thinking about the Volt SS ....
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Plug-In Prius on the Way?
A 100-mpg Prius could be in the offing, as Toyota plans a rechargeable version using home power outlets.
Martin Padgett