Videos

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric launch, New York City, January 2011 - Bill Ford Jr.

    Whether you think they're needed or not, all electric and hybrid cars are going to be required to fit noisemakers so that they can't be missed at speeds of 15 mph or below. To involve its fans, Ford posted four possible sounds for the noise that its upcoming 2012 Ford Focus Electric will emit as YouTube videos, linked to them on its Ford Electric Vehicle page on Facebook, and asked fans to comment. As of this morning, Ford had received almost 400 comments (as well as more than 60 "Likes"). Almost 300 people have rated the candidates, as did more than 3,400 Ford employees in a separate poll...

  • BMW ActiveE electric car production line, Leipzig, Germany
    BMW ActiveE Electric Car Shown On Leipzig Assembly Line (Video)

    You might call it pure propaganda, but confident young BMW worker Mirco Schwarze describes the process of assembling the BMW ActiveE electric car in a way that makes it all quite palatable. The short video below, barely longer than a minute, shows the BMW 1-Series assembly line at the carmaker's...

  • Screen capture from Xtranormal animation, "I just bought a plug-in car," by Jeff U'Ren
    Xtranormal Explains Plug-In Cars, Mostly The 2011 Chevy Volt

    By now, you may well have seen short video clips of crudely animated people talking in monotonous tones, with more than occasional mispronunciations and odd rhythms. They're Xtranormal animations, created by feeding your dialogue into a website that animates them based on the author's choices of...

  • Renault Frendzy Electric Concept
    BREAKING: Renault Teases Frendzy Concept Before 2011 Frankfurt Show

    Renault has just unveiled its latest electric car creation ahead of the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. Called the Frendzy, and looking a little like the Kia Soul, the concept is a just under 14 feet in length and features a whole host of technology worthy of any concept car, including the ability to...

  • 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport. Photo by Joe Nuxoll.
    Tesla Electric Car Plus Solar Power Equals Zero-Cost Driving (Video)

    Mike Koenigs is also a true Tesla and clean power activist

  • Nissan Leaf on track at Laguna Seca. Photo via MyNissanLeaf forum member nader.
    Nissan Leaf Turns Laps At Laguna Seca: Video

    EVs aren't typically thought of as the sporting choice--yet.

  • Greenpeace 'Dark Side' ad attacks Volkswagen

    In the United States, we often think of Volkswagen as a moderately green company -- an automaker responsible for small vehicles like the popular Golf and New Beetle, and one of the few companies to make diesel rides for the American market. Across the pond, however, Greenpeace has singled out VW as Europe's least green automaker, and it's launched a full-scale marketing campaign to encourage the company to change its ways. Greenpeace has leveled a number of complaints against Volkswagen, but two carry the most weight: 1. Despite being Europe's largest automaker and having ample resources to...

  • 1914 Detroit Electric car, owned by GE scientist Charles Steinmetz, Schenectady, NY, June 2011
    1914 Detroit Electric: Pretty Spry For A Century Old (Video)

    For decades, old electric cars--those built from the 1890s to 1930 or so, when the last remnants of the industry died out--were nothing more than oddities. Tall, imposing, mostly resembling closed horse carriages, they were stately but sidelined reminders of an entirely vanished way of propulsion...

  • Casey Neistat pleads his case on YouTube. Image: Casey Neistat
    Always Stay In The Bike Lane, Even When You Can't: Video

    Cops ticket a Manhattan bicyclist, but #fail to do the same for all the hurdles he captures in a YouTube viral video.

  • Nissan Leaf 'polar bear' ad
    Advertising Electric Cars: What To Make Of Leaf vs. Volt Spat?

    For the first time in 80 years or so, major automakers are building and selling plug-in electric cars in the U.S. How are they letting people know about their new cars? Advertising, of course. Our colleague Richard Read looked at four electric-car TV ads, analyzing what made them work and what...

  • Nissan Leaf 'polar bear' ad
    Volt, Leaf, And The Rest: How Automakers Pitch Electric Cars

    We don't envy the makers of electric cars. They have to deliver vehicles that look as great as their gas-powered counterparts, and they have to explain those vehicles, too -- how they work, battery range, and so on. They've got a long, tough battle to win over consumers. But while we wouldn't...

  • Tesla Model S Alpha build
    2012 Tesla Model S: More Factory Photos Released (Gallery)

    It seems that people just can't get enough of the 2012 Tesla Model S, the all-electric luxury sports sedan that SIlicon Valley startup Tesla Motors says it will put on sale in little more than a year from now. The factory has now released a whole set of new images, showing slight tweaks to the...

  • V60 PHEV First Drive

    A few weeks ago we were invited to the Challenge Bibendum - an auto-industry event devoted to fuel economy and green vehicles - in order to drive the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid Station Wagon. We’ve already shared our own first drive report with you, but now it’s time to share our video review of the same test-drive. The car we drove was only a prototype of the V60 PHEV, but the final version of the V60 PHEV promises an all-electric range of around 30 miles, an extended range of up to 745 miles and a fuel economy as good as 124 miles per gallon from its combined diesel engine and...

  • Members of Deeplocal work on the Toyota Prius 'Charged Life' project
    Making Music With A Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid & Unattended Baggage

    About a year and a half ago, Scion launched a new webmagazine called ScionAV. The goal? To engage potential Scion shoppers (i.e. Millennials) on lifestyle topics like music, film, and fashion. It's the way marketing works in the Social Media Age: you don't just talk to customers in showrooms, you...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius V media drive event, May 2011 - screen grab from drive report video
    Behind The Wheel: 2012 Toyota Prius V Station Wagon (Video)

    Sometimes we get nicely produced video, and sometimes we get our codriver to shoot it on the fly. For the 2012 Toyota Prius V station wagon we drove last week, it was very much a case of the latter--complete with a mutli-tone "bong" interruption from the Toyota Entune system. Our one-minute video...

  • 2004 Toyota Prius
    Does The Toyota Prius Hybrid Hold Up? Consumer Reports: Yes

    Gas prices are going up, smaller cars are better than ever, and once again, U.S. car buyers are turning their sights toward higher gas mileage. For that, there's nothing that beats the 2011 Toyota Prius, with its 50-mpg combined EPA rating. But will that Prius hold up? Will the battery pack and...

  • 2012 Subaru Impreza at New York Auto Show, April 2011
    2012 Subaru Impreza: Video Walkaround Of New 36-MPG AWD Car

    The list of compact cars offered with all-wheel-drive as an option is short. The list of compact cars that come with all-wheel-drive standard is even shorter: Subaru Impreza. For 2012, Subaru has restyled its Impreza compact sedan and hatchback, and fitted them with a new and more fuel-efficient...

  • 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas model at New York Auto Show, April 2011
    2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas: Video Of Alternative-Fuel Car

    OK, so gas prices are hovering around $4 a gallon, and dispensing with gasoline altogether is getting more and more attractive. But for whatever reasons, plug-in cars aren't for you. Maybe it's the limited range of battery electric vehicles, maybe it's the $41,000 cost before incentives of the 2011...

  • 2012 Honda Civic sedan at New York Auto Show, April 2011

    With gas prices topping $4 a gallon and a slew of brand-new models on the market, the compact car class has never been more competitive. For several years, the highest-selling model to actual retail buyers (after you take out rental cars and other fleets) has been the well-known and much-loved Honda Civic--available as both a four-door sedan and a two-door coupe. The new ninth-generation Civic launched last month at the 2011 New York Auto Show, and we've already done various short videos showing you around the line. Our latest, below, is the High Gear Media two-minute review of the regular...

  • 2012 Honda Civic HF at New York Auto Show, April 2011
    2012 Honda Civic HF 41-MPG Model: Video Tour, NY Auto Show

    Of the five separate 2012 Honda Civic models featured at last month's New York Auto Show, the Civic HF sedan is probably the most affordable tradeoff between gas mileage and purchase price. Its base price is $19,455. It's EPA-rated at 29 mpg city, 41 mpg highway, toward the top of the 2012 Civic...

  • 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid at New York Auto Show, April 2011
    2012 Honda Civic Hybrid: 44-MPG Compact's High Points (Video)

    The largest single model launch at the New York Auto Show two weeks ago was the 2012 Honda Civic line, with five separate models, new styling, and better fuel economy. The highest gas mileage in the entire lineup comes from the 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid. Honda projects it will achieve 44 mpg for each...

  • 2012 Honda Civic launch, New York Auto Show, April 2011
    2012 Honda Civic: Video Rundown Of The Complete 5-Car Lineup

    Even in the sixth year of its life, the old 2011 Honda Civic frequently topped the chart in retail sales--meaning individual buyers--in the compact car segment. Now, there's a new 2012 Honda Civic lineup, launched to the world at the New York Auto Show two weeks ago. The version with the highest...

  • 2012 Nissan Versa after debut at 2011 New York Auto Show
    2012 Nissan Versa On Video At New York Auto Show

    With gas prices approaching $4 a gallon and the effects of the recession still very much in evidence, a high-mileage, inexpensive compact car with better-than-average interior room sounds like an appealing offer. That's what emerged at the New York Auto Show 10 days ago, as Nissan officially...

  • Mercedes-Benz Concept A-Class at 2011 New York Auto Show
    Mercedes-Benz Concept A-Class Compact Car: NY Auto Show Video

    Last week's New York Auto Show had few out-and-out concept cars. One was the Scion FR-S sports coupe, a striking deep red shape that wowed crowds throughout the time we were there. Despite its 2.0-liter turbocharged flat-four engine, it's not inherently on the green end of the scale. But another...

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