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The 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV has been a long time coming, but it's almost here. This morning, Chevy announced that its only battery-electric car will have a range of 82 miles and be rated at a combined 119 MPGe efficiency. MPGe, or miles-per-gallon-equivalent, is a measure of the distance a car can travel electrically on the same amount of battery energy as contained in 1 gallon of gasoline. The Spark EV's 82-mile range matches that of the 2013 Honda Fit EV, but isn't as high as that of the 2013 Fiat 500e (87 miles) or the 2013 Toyota RAV4 EV (103 miles). But its 119 MPGe is the highest...
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Chrysler CEO: Going Green is Good, But Natural Gas Better Than ElectricFiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne isn't known for his love of electric vehicles. We really rate the company's first offering, the 2014 Fiat 500e electric car, but Sergio himself doesn't--speaking at the Society of Automotive Engineers 2013 World Congress, he reiterated that the company is losing...
Antony Ingram -
Gas-Mileage Rules To Add $3,000 Or More To Car Prices By 2025?You most likely know by now that fuel efficiency is slated to double in new vehicles by 2025. What you may not know is how much that will cost you when you buy a new car in future years. Thousands of real dollars The EPA has long estimated that a new vehicle will cost about $3,000 more in real...
John Voelcker -
2014 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel Rated At 46 MPG HighwayThe 2014 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel will be something of a highway star when it goes on sale, with an EPA-estimated rating of 46 mpg highway. That's better than previous estimates of around 42 mpg, and if other diesels on the market today are anything to go by, some owners may find themselves beating...
Antony Ingram -
Does Tesla Already Outsell Audi, BMW, Lexus & Mercedes-Benz?The established German luxury brands--Mercedes-Benz and BMW--have sold cars in the U.S. for decades. So how could Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] possibly be beating them at their own game? The answer lies in how you define sales: It appears that the Tesla Model S electric sport sedan is outselling both...
John Voelcker -
2013 Fiat 500e Electric Car: First DriveThe 2013 Fiat 500e may be a compliance car, but its engineers created an electric car that's so much fun to drive that seemingly they want it to be more. And with remarkably aggressive pricing--the same $199 monthly lease payment as on a top-of-the-line gasoline 500--Fiat's marketers are trying...
John Voelcker -
Texas is tough, and Texas car dealers are no exception. But electric-car startup Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], in the person of its CEO Elon Musk, testified yesterday at a hearing in the Texas legislature on a bill that would allow it to sell its cars directly to Texas buyers. That's presently illegal in Texas, where legislation long backed by state dealer groups requires all new cars to be sold by an independently-owned third party. That is to say, a car dealer. No touching the new car There are now two Tesla Stores in the state, in Austin and in Houston, among the 16 stores in 12 states run by...
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Six New Plug-In Electric Cars Coming For 2014This is an exciting time for electric car enthusiasts. From just a handful of choices only a few years ago, buyers in some states now have access to as many as a dozen different plug-in vehicles. It's set to get even better--over the course of the next few years, another six electric vehicles are...
Antony Ingram -
Ford Focus Tops Toyota Corolla As Planet's Most Popular VehicleFord sold over one million examples of its Focus last year. That alone is impressive, but there's deeper meaning to the high sales statistic--for the first time, the Focus has overtaken its Japanese rival, the Toyota Corolla, at the top of the global sales charts. Thanks to the U.S. and...
Antony Ingram -
2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid: Minor Updates For Better MileageThe 2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid is the third year for the carmaker's first hybrid-electric vehicle. And Hyundai's made some minor updates to the mid-size hybrid sedan that competes head-to-head with the Toyota Camry Hybrid (which pioneered the segment), the Ford Fusion Hybrid, and later this year...
John Voelcker -
Americans Are Driving Less, And Have Been Since 2005There's a far more effective way of reducing pollution and dependency on oil than buying more efficient cars or going electric: Driving less. It's not an option available to everyone of course, but it certainly helps reduce fuel use. And it's something Americans have been doing in a steady trend...
Antony Ingram -
Detroit Electric SP:01 - The New Tesla Roadster?The Detroit Electric SP:01 you see above was teased last month, but readers will note its similarity to the British Lotus Elise sports car--albeit one with electric power. This is not, it has to be said, an original idea. The Tesla Roadster of a few years past also used a Lotus Elise chassis...
Antony Ingram -
The big news in plug-in car sales for March was Tesla's statement that it delivered "more than 4,750" Model S electric cars from January through March. That news early Monday not only sent stock in Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] soaring, it also cued up an interesting three-way horse race. Those sales put the Model S on a par with the Volt, ahead of the Leaf, and add roughly another third or so to the total number of plug-in cars from established makers that were delivered for the quarter. Would Chevrolet manage to deliver more than 2,000 Volt range-extended electric cars to outsell the Model S?...
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Big Mystery Unveiled: You Can Now 'Lease' 2013 Tesla Model SAnd now we know: Tesla's Big Mystery Story, teased via more than one tweet from CEO Elon Musk, is this: You will soon be able to "lease" a brand-new 2013 Tesla Model S. That's a good thing (though not nearly as much fun as some of the ideas proposed under the Twitter hashtag #TeslaPredictions). But...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model S Electric-Car Deliveries For Q1: 4,750-Plus, Says CompanyWhen the news is good, you want to get it out there. Last night, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] released a statement saying that it had delivered more than 4,750 Model S cars from January 1 through March 31 of this year. The statement came before the first quarter of 2013 had even technically ended...
John Voelcker -
Who Might Buy Diesels? Gasoline Drivers, Not Hybrid OwnersWith a raft of new diesel vehicles entering the market this year and next, the question arises: Who exactly will buy them? Based on the results of a survey to be released later this morning, Volkswagen of America suggests that some drivers of gasoline cars are likely to be open to the benefits of...
John Voelcker -
2014 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid: Full Details From NY Auto ShowThe 2014 Nissan Pathfinder enters its second year as a seven-seat family crossover with a new model added: the first-ever Pathfinder Hybrid, a direct shot across the bows of the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. The 2014 Pathfinder is unchanged in style from the model introduced last year, with its rakish...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Debuts In New YorkA brand new generation of the Toyota Highlander crossover made its debut at the 2013 New York Auto Show this morning, and with it came a new version of the popular Highlander Hybrid. The new Highlander is bigger and bolder than the model it replaces, now looking much more like a full-blown SUV than...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
With a backlog of more than 10,000 depositors for the Tesla Model S, its maker is making and delivering electric luxury sedans as fast as it can. Among other benefits, that may allow Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] to achieve CEO Elon Musk's suggestion that the company could be profitable for the first quarter of this year. George Blankenship, Tesla's vice president of worldwide sales and ownership experience, said in December that the company had reached its target production rate of 400 cars a week. And that 400-cars-per-week production rate was backed up in January by Jerome Guillen, director of...
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2014 Mitsubishi Mirage: Brief Drive Of NY Auto Show DebutYes, the green paintwork was a deliberate choice. Not that the Mitsubishi Mirage, widely expected to be unveiled at the New York Auto Show next week, isn't available in any other colors. But we couldn't pass down an opportunity to drive one which matches with the site's green focus. The new Mirage...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Kia Forte Sedan: Pricing And Gas Mileage DetailsKia has retained its talent for styling and nose for value with its 2014 Kia Forte Sedan, but the same can't be said of the new car's fuel efficiency. The company has released pricing details for the new sedan, which slots in as the lowest-priced car in the segment, starting at $15,900--excluding a...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid: New York Auto Show PreviewNext week at the New York Auto Show, the 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid will be unveiled. It's the first-ever production hybrid vehicle from the small Japanese maker of sturdy all-wheel drive cars and crossovers. Subaru announced the debut of the 2014 XV Crosstrek Hybrid in a press release this...
John Voelcker -
Vehicles In 2050: No Petroleum Required, DoE SaysIt's both exciting and frustrating living in the current automotive age. Exciting, because we're truly seeing an eclectic mix of powertrain technologies being developed, the fruits of which we're increasingly able to drive. And frustrating, because there's still no surefire way of knowing what...
Antony Ingram -
Oh, By The Way? The Era Of The Private Car Is OverAs a reader of this blog -- a blog about cars -- chances are good that you own a car yourself. That's not unusual: today, many Americans depend on automobiles to get to work, to run errands, to see friends and loved ones. But as Emily Badger at The Atlantic points out, tomorrow will likely be a...
Richard Read