Richard Read, Reporter
Articles
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The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has tracked fuel economy and new car sales since October 2007, and during those five years, we've seen gradual gains in efficiency. Today,...
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EPA Lifts Gasoline Restrictions In Wake Of Hurricane SandyIn 1990, the Clean Air Act amendments set out special rules regarding the manufacture and sale of gasoline in the U.S. This week, some of those rules have been suspended in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The amendments require that reformulated gasoline, or RFG, be used in cities with high levels of...
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Tata Nano Hits U.S. & Europe By 2015: How Will It Look?Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata recently assured the world that his colleagues are working on a version of the Tata Nano for the U.S. and Europe. It's due to arrive within three years. That raises a couple of important questions: (a) is such a thing even possible, and (b) if so, what would this...
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Auto Dealer Groups Escalate Battle Against Tesla StoresIf we had to pick one word to describe Tesla Motors, "audacious" would be at the top of the list. Not only did founder Elon Musk decide to build a car company, which in itself is pretty gutsy. He chose to create a car company that builds nothing but electric cars -- pricey, high-end electric cars...
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Auto Emissions Fell 20% In 5 Years, But Don't Get Excited YetThis week, we received a press release from the University of Michigan with a stunning subject line: "Emissions from new vehicles down a record 20% in five years". "Okay", we thought, as we opened the email, "what's the catch?" As it turns out, that's a little complicated. Researchers at the...
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Hybrids & Electric Cars May Spell Doom For America's RoadsYesterday, we discussed the problem of America's crumbling roads and bridges. Taxes on gasoline are meant to keep that stuff up to snuff, but the costs of maintenance and upgrades are outpacing revenue. The reason? The federal gas tax hasn't risen since 1993. The Wall Street Journal recently...
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It's a refrain we've often heard here at Green Car Reports and elsewhere: environmentally friendly technology and products are great, but consumers won't adopt them until they're competitively...
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Young Buyers Like Small Cars, Don't Care About Fuel EconomyStatistics are curious and often contradictory things. That's doubly so when they reveal shopping habits, because shoppers are curious and contradictory creatures. For example, we've heard time and again that even if Millennials (aka "Generation Y") could afford to buy cars, they wouldn't flock to...
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Gas Prices: Relief Is Just Around The Corner. Well, Maybe.
Earlier this year, it looked as if the price of gasoline might cross the $5-a-gallon mark in the U.S. (In some places, it went well beyond that.) Analysts were screaming to the media, giving Cassandra-like interviews about fuel shortages and conflict in the Middle East. Gas-sipping rides became...
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Can Electric Car-Sharing Promote Social Mobility? DiscussIn the developed world, we often think of ourselves as living in a classless society. But in fact, huge disparities still exist between the haves and the have-nots. Can car-sharing bridge the gap? Paris' city council seems to think so, and it's launched an electric car-sharing company to prove its...
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2012 Coda Vehicles Recalled For Airbag FlawCoda is one of America's newest auto brands, and now, it's undergoing a time-honored rite of passage: its first official recall. According to a bulletin from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Coda recall stems from improperly installed side-curtain airbags. Although the...
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Could Treehuggers Determine The U.S. Presidential Race?Let's face it: political discourse in the U.S. isn't very pretty. It's generally a matter of two large parties -- each backed by an army of fundraisers, copywriters, and statisticians -- shouting at each other in front of sympathetic audiences. Over the past couple of decades, the situation seems...
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There's a storm a-brewin' in Louisiana over alternative vehicle tax credits. (There's a sentence that didn't end like you'd expect.)
In 2009, the state legislature passed Act 469 (PDF), which offers...
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Saab, Aptera, Think: Can China, Russia Save Electric Cars?Last week, something miraculous happened: after more than a year of being prepped for burial, Saab rose from the dead. Of course, there had been previous attempts to revive the quirky car company -- notably, one led by Chinese investors Pang Da and Youngman (subsequently, a Chinese bank and...
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Renault ZOE Shatters Distance Record For An Electric CarIf we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times: range-anxiety is one of the biggest hurdles facing electric car manufacturers. If consumers don't believe that an electric car is going to get them from Point A to Point B (without a time-consuming battery recharge), vehicle sales will stall...
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What's Wrong With Chevy Volt Ads & How To Fix ThemPeople are rarely lukewarm about the Chevrolet Volt. Like health-care reform or pajama jeans, the Volt inspires love, loathing, and little in-between. That hasn't exactly helped Volt sales, which aren't yet living up to expectations, but fans insist that the car itself isn't the problem. They blame...
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Ryan Reynolds Gets Funny With The 2012 Nissan Leaf: VideoIsaiah Mustafa has ruined advertising. He may not have written his own monologues for those popular Old Spice ads, but Mustafa's deadpan delivery and sublime quirkiness have inspired a thousand would-be imitators. Even talented actors like Ryan Reynolds can't measure up, as we see in a new clip for...
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New Fuel Economy Standards For 2025 Coming TodayWhile much of the auto industry is focused on the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show, a handful of folks are looking in the opposite direction, toward Washington, D.C. There, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation are expected to announce new fuel economy regulations that...
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You call it "corn", we call it "fuel" -- at least in the United States. Recent statistics show that, for the first time in history, America is using more corn to fill gas tanks than to fill the...
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First 2011 Nissan Leaf Electric Car Delivered To CanadaO Canada, you've given the world so much: Keanu Reeves, Celine Dion, Pamela Anderson Lee Ritchie Salomon, poutine. Now, the world -- or at least Nissan -- is giving you something in return: your very first 2011 Nissan Leaf. The vehicle was purchased by Ottawa resident Ricardo Borba and delivered by...
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Largest Electric-Car Charging Site: Would You Believe Houston?UPDATE: To answer the question posed in our headline: No, we do not believe Houston has the largest electric-car charging site. See below. When we think of Texas, we think of many things: open roads, desert landscapes, Beyoncé. And of course, we also think of oil, since Texas is one of the...
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2012 Fisker Karma Lands A Role On 'Two And A Half Men'CBS raised a lot of eyebrows earlier this year when it canned the human trainwreck known as Charlie Sheen from its hit sitcom, Two and a Half Men, replacing him with the younger, saner Ashton Kutcher. But little did we know that producers were adding another supporting role to the show, in the form...
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Behind The Disturbing Ad Campaign For The 2012 Toyota PriusTo make its new ad for the 2012 Toyota Prius family, Toyota tapped some of the same talent that made its previous "Harmony" campaign a success. But as intriguing as the behind-the-scenes footage may be, we're not entirely sold on the new "People Person" clip. You might recall that when Toyota...
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Costco Pulls The Plug On Electric Vehicle Charging StationsBack in the 1990s, when it seemed like electric vehicles were gaining traction with consumers, Costco did something unusual: the big-box retailer installed charging stations at many of its California locations. Now, however, those stations are being removed, and electric car fans aren't happy...
Richard Read