Bengt Halvorson, Senior Editor
Articles
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Diesel engines and typical American-style commuting conditions are already a great match. Longer daily-driving distances get diesels up to their peak operating temperature—and hopefully out to...
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2014 Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTec: First DriveWhile there are a number of new diesel models for 2014, diesels are nothing new for Mercedes-Benz. Yet at first blush, making the most fuel-efficient model in the lineup—the one that packs a new four-cylinder diesel—the entry point for mainstream luxury shoppers could be seen as a...
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2014 Chevrolet Spark EV: First Drive ReportAspire, Sprint, Swift, and Esteem: They’re among the most ironically inappropriate car names. But in its new EV guise, the Chevy Spark has the perfect name, on many levels. This car certainly has more than a spark of personality; it's all-electric (forget about those spark plugs); and...
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After Price Cut, Will More Choose 2014 Focus Electric Over C-Max Energi?If you've been considering an electric car but have been deterred by pricing, it might be worth another try—or at least another look at the numbers. This past week, Ford dropped the price of the 2014 Focus Electric to $35,995; that's about a 10-percent cut from the 2013 sticker price of...
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2014 Volkswagen XL1: First Drive Of Wolfsburg's 261-MPG CarLook out, owners of 200-mph testosterone-supplement poster cars. If there ever was a real hypercar, it's the Volkswagen XL1. Although in recent years the term hypercar has been distorted—to include cars that are faster (and often even thirstier) than those supercars from Lamborghini, Ferrari...
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Ford Energi Plug-In Hybrids Let You Choose Your Own 'Eco Coach'Information is power, right? More precisely, based on an interview last week with Mike Tinskey, Ford’s Director of Global Vehicle Electrification and Infrastructure, information is both what buyers of the brand’s Energi plug-in hybrids want to feel empowered, and what they need to get...
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Plug-In Hybrids like the Ford Fusion Energi and Ford C-Max Energi—or the Toyota Prius Plug-In, among others—encourage those with regular commutes to plug in daily and do some (or all) of...
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Tesla Planning Grid Storage As Part Of Supercharger ExpansionBuy a Tesla Model S, and you won't need to worry about brownouts. And you could even keep driving through the Zombie Apocalypse. Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk revealed that little tidbit at a press conference today, where plans were detailed for an expanded network of the company's Supercharger...
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Tesla Maps Out Supercharger Network, Speeds Up ChargingThe electric-car maker Tesla Motors [NYSE: TSLA] has announced breathtaking expansion plans for its Supercharger network, detailing where the company plans to install its proprietary Supercharger rapid-charging stations all the way through 2015. According to CEO Elon Musk, who announced the...
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2014 Ford Fiesta ST: At 35 MPG, Highest-Mileage Performance Hatch?From our earlier first drive of the 2014 Ford Fiesta ST over at Motor Authority, we already knew that Ford has put together not only one lean pocket rocket that's a hoot to drive, but one of the most compelling small cars from a value standpoint. With its 1.6-liter turbocharged EcoBoost...
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2013 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive: Yes, Better Without GasolineIf you’re still smitten with the design and styling of the Smart Fortwo, you’re probably going to be happier with the version that never needs a gas station. That’s the conclusion we emerged even more confident about, after the hour earlier this month we spent with the Smart...
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Garcetti: An EV Fanboy, Now The Mayor-Elect Of Los AngelesDespite major reductions in air-pollution levels, the Los Angeles basin still has the worst smog problem in the nation. While you might debate over what exactly is the longer-term solution for reducing that smog, vehicles with internal-combustion engines are still contributing to problem. And it's...
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The quest toward better gas mileage and incremental gains isn't relegated just to engine and transmission improvements, or to aerodynamics or weight reduction. Even when we're not talking hybrids,...
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Next Ford F-150: Advanced Materials Likely, Hybrid Powertrain PossibleThe new Atlas Concept that Ford Motor Co. [NYSE: F] unveiled at Detroit this past week revealed several interesting technologies that altogether could save fuel (active grille shutters, active wheel shutters, a drop-down air dam, and power running boards) and be useful to serious truck users...
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Ford Atlas Truck Concept Demos Fuel-Saving Active Wheel ShuttersIn order to improve the aerodynamics of new vehicles—and boost their highway gas mileage—automotive engineers have looked to a new series of seemingly minor features that add up to meaningful gains in EPA ratings. One of them is the active grille shutters that have become increasingly...
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2014 Nissan Versa Note: 2013 Detroit Auto Show First PhotosAt the Detroit Auto Show—a day prior to a press conference revealing full details—Nissan took the wraps off the new-generation version of its low-cost Versa Hatchback. From the outside, which is all we’ve been able to see thus far, the Versa Note looks essentially the same as the...
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Official: GM Quietly Drops Hybrid Pickups; Are SUVs Next?GM's full-size hybrid pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid and GMC Sierra Hybrid, for much of the time they've been on sale, have offered the highest gas mileage of any full-size truck on the U.S. market. Yet these hybrid pickups, which were introduced for the 2009 model year, have been...
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2014 Mazda Mazda6: VW TDI Models To Get A Clean-Diesel RivalMazda 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...
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BMW is committed to creating a full line of electric and advanced plug-in hybrid models—so much so that it's establishing them apart from BMW (and MINI), as an 'i' sub-brand, revolving in part...
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Honda Demonstrates 'Green Wave' Tech Designed To Ease TrafficHave you noticed how much poorly synchronized lights—or traffic that's trying to go faster than the lights permit—can add to congestion? A new system in the works from Honda aims to provide a simple interface for smoothing traffic flow, while increasing safety and gas mileage. The idea...
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Honda Brio: Quick DriveIt takes driving an emerging-market car like the Honda Brio—as we did briefly this past week—to understand just how much the small cars we get here in the U.S. (and Europe) have improved over the past decade or so. The five-seat Brio is about a foot shorter than the Honda Fit but about...
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Honda N One: Quick DriveThe retro-styled Honda N One, which goes on sale in Japan this month, is super-cute—nodding to the original 1967 Honda N360—and looks perfect for space-confined urban duty. It's possible at first glance, from a distance, to liken the N One to the Mini Cooper or Fiat 500 and see it...
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Next-Gen 2015 Honda Fit Getting More Efficient DI Engine, CVTIf you shop strictly by the EPA numbers today, the 2013 Honda Fit probably won't be among the top subcompacts you cross-shop. The current Fit's federal ratings, of 28 mpg city, 35 highway with the five-speed automatic, or just 27/33 mpg with the five-speed manual, aren't exactly at the top of the...
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Honda Micro-Commuter: An Innovative Electric Car, Too Small For The U.S.How small can a vehicle get, and at a certain point is it better considered (and regulated as) a motorcycle…or some other kind of vehicle class altogether? Although these are questions that we should likely consider in the U.S., they’re issues that Japan is evaluating right now. And...
Bengt Halvorson