Car Tech

Mazda is pushing ahead with its plans to offer a clean-diesel four-cylinder engine that could prove to be a strong rival to the TDI four in some Volkswagen and Audi products. While the 2014 Mazda6 will arrive in its lower-priced form with a 184-horsepower, 2.5-liter version of the four-cylinder...

How small is too small, when it comes to engines? Those of the "no replacement for displacement" school of thought might be thinking more about performance than they are gas mileage, but at what point does downsizing actually start to harm gas mileage, rather than help it? As carmakers strive to...

It isn't mentioned anywhere in the press release, but it isn't hard to tell what Visteon's latest technology concept car is based on--the Nissan Leaf electric car. However, the electric drivetrain is only one part of the Visteon e-Bee concept. Instead, it's designed to showcase technology we could...

Like it or not, the majority of the world's vehicles are still powered by internal combustion engines, rather than batteries, hydrogen and other alternatives. The good news is that carmakers are still finding ways to improve the good old reciprocating piston engine. Even in the last few years...

Volkswagen's line of TDI diesel cars has passionate fans. Now that the company is launching the 2013 VW Jetta Hybrid, it will likely gain some hybrid advocates too. But diesel and hybrid fans are very different groups, as the company's marketing surveys show. So why couldn't Volkswagen simply add a...

Sitting under the hood of the next-generation 2014 Chevrolet Corvette, is a next-generation V-8 engine, both more powerful and more efficient than ever. It's said that the biggest gains in fuel efficiency can come from the least-efficient vehicles. As such, the new Corvette should be a huge...

Last year, Fiat's 875cc, twin-cylinder turbocharged engine won the 'International Engine of the Year' award, seeing off competition from Ferrari, BMW and Audi, among others. The award highlighted the importance of the new breed of tiny, efficient engines, and rumors began to surface that Volkswagen...

If you drive a hybrid or plug-in vehicle, chances are you're already familiar with 'green tires'. Also known as low rolling resistance tires, they're becoming an increasingly popular way of improving the fuel efficiency of cars, both in dedicated green vehicles and even regular cars. That...

Clatter, grumble, shudder, belch. Sound familiar? Not if you drive one of the modern breed of diesel-engined cars, which have virtually banished all sign of their clattery, tractor-like forebears. A modern Volkswagen TDI, for example, isn't just efficient and quiet--it even approaches fun, if you...

One thing common to many hybrid cars is the twin-pronged benefit of refinement and silence. Just a brief drive in a hybrid is usually enough to confirm that, at low engine speeds at least, they don't produce a lot of noise. Even less when running in electric mode. Still, there are always...

New battery charge estimation algorithms developed by engineers at the University of California (UC), San Diego, are on the verge of vastly improve the capabilities of current lithium-ion batteries. The changes center around improving charging times, potentially allowing for batteries that charge...

Over the past few years, more automakers than ever have started to promote something called active shutter grille vents. Essentially a way to boost fuel economy at higher speeds, active grill shutters are now being used by GM, Ford, and Chrysler--among others--to give gas mileage boosts to their...

Perhaps Toyota is hinting at Volkswagen Beetle levels of success with its unusually-named Smart INSECT concept car, but in reality the tiny single-seat electric car is desgined to showcase communications-linked driving. Based on the single-seat Coms unveiled earlier this year, the Smart INSECT may...

Turbochargers always used to be about performance, but in recent years they've become very popular as a way of improving the efficiency of regular engines. Forced induction by turbocharging is still a good way of developing power, and many performance cars take just such a route. But using the same...

Whether or not you subscribe to the theory that carbon dioxide released by human activity is to blame for global warming, theres no doubt that we do release a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere. Many countries have now introduced measures to curb those emissions, something that goes hand-in-hand with...

Stop-start systems have been around for many years now, cutting the engine when stopped in order to save a little gas. The technology is more refined in some cars than it is in others, and many drivers of BMWs with stop-start have decided it's a little too much hassle. In a BMW press release, the...

Think of motorsport-inspired technology and your thoughts may turn to disc brakes, active suspension and carbon fiber chassis. It's not always that glamorous though, as demonstrated by a piece of technology emerging from Audi in the near future. Developed for the R18 e-Tron quattros that won the...

Making cars more efficient is only one step in improving personal mobility in the future. The other, some will tell you, is making the roads themselves a more efficient place to travel. If the roads were empty, picking the greenest route and keeping an ideal pace wouldn't be a problem, but other...

While all automakers realise the benefits of making their cars lighter, it's only been relatively recently that some models have actually weighed less than their predecessors. Demands for safety, equipment, larger engines, more comfort and more space have pushed vehicle weight up so far that some...

Man-made carbon dioxide might be something we're trying to reduce, but on its own, carbon is an abundant and rather useful element. It's also been central to two of the most important scientific materials discoveries of recent years--graphene, and carbon nanotubes. The latter involves rolling the...