Car Tech

Audi will use electric all-wheel drive on future models.

The Hyundai Motor Group, encompassing both the Hyundai and Kia brands, is known as one of the most aggressive competitors in the global auto business. And the company has big plans for expanding its lineup of green vehicles, as we learned in an interview last week with Ki-Sang Lee, a senior vice...

At 50 miles, the 2016 Chevrolet Volt offers the longest range of any plug-in hybrid (though the range-extended BMW i3 electric car is rated at 72 miles). Announced this week at the Detroit Auto Show, following an October technical briefing, the technology in the new Volt may turn out to hold some...

Johnson Controls claims its new start-stop system can improve fuel economy up to 8 percent.

The 2015 Consumer Electronics Show took over Las Vegas this week, and more than ever, we’ve been given a glimpse into how the automotive industry may evolve and advance, technologically. We scoured the convention halls in Sin City—trust us, with all the techies in town, the biggest sin...

Progress must be coming at a much faster pace than we thought: Conventional gasoline engines will power only a minority of the new cars sold just two years hence, according to a new report. That means more than half the vehicles sold will have hybrid, diesel, natural gas, or plug-in electric...

Toyota announced today that it would make more than 5,600 patents on fuel-cell technologies available for use, free of royalty payments, to a wide array of companies in the transportation sector. Those patents include many granted for innovations that led to the production version of the Japanese...

Graphene could have a major impact on green cars.

Lead is terrible stuff: damaging to humans in even small quantities, and persistent if it's improperly disposed of. Nonetheless, it's a central element of technology that has enabled a century of automobiles to be started via ignition keys rather than hand cranks--which occasionally broke the arms...

Efficiency is a many-splendored thing, and cutting vehicle weight has multiple beneficial effects. A lighter car requires less energy to move, meaning engine output can be lower. This, in turn, requires smaller, lighter powertrain components--which require less-beefy suspensions, further reducing...

A Japanese company unveils a prototype hybrid system with an exhaust-powered generator.

If there was any doubt that we'll see a spate of new plug-in hybrids over the next few years, a set of three different announcements from BMW last week should put that to rest. The Bavarian maker of "ultimate driving machines" launched a long-wheelbase 5-Series sedan for China with a plug-in hybrid...

Clean tech holds more promise for big, money-making breakthroughs, a new study says.

Porsche is testing a semi-autonomous system designed to maximize both efficiency and performance.

The formula is simple: Put three battery and auto-industry experts in front of a camera, ask them a few leading questions, and let them debate. That's exactly what the Autoline Network did three weeks ago; the resulting 27-minute video is a must-watch for any electric-car enthusiast. The three...

Now that the 2015 model year is fully upon us, the decade is half-over. And those kinds of milestones always lead writers to look back and assess how far we've come. In the case of automobiles, we see three different vehicles launched over the last five model years that have radically changed the...

Electric turbochargers could become more common as carmakers work to boost fuel economy.

A research firm tears apart a Tesla Model S dashboard to see what makes it tick.

General Motors took the wraps off its second-generation Voltec electric-drive system this morning that will power its 2016 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car. Company executives declined to give specifications for power of the two electric motors, the range-extending engine, or range of the...

Later today, details about the powertrain of the new 2016 Chevrolet Volt will be released when GM CEO Mary Barra speaks to the Detroit Economic Club. But a GM press release this morning announcing further investments in Michigan manufacturing by the company included one nugget: The 2016 Volt will...