John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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The car we know as the Toyota Prius C, the smallest and least expensive member of the Prius hybrid family, has a different name in Japan: Aqua.
And the Aqua has been a roaring sales success in...
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Tesla Fires: NHTSA Will Probe, Warranty To Cover Fire Damage, Ride-Height TweakIt's been quite a month for Tesla Motors and its CEO, Elon Musk. In the wake of three fires in Model S electric luxury sedans, a tsunami of media coverage about those fires, and a falling stock price--which may or may not be directly related--the company went on the offensive yesterday. MORE: Tesla...
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Honda Fit Gas Mileage, LA Auto Show Preview, Electric-Car Incentives: Today's Car NewsToday on Green Car Reports: The Toyota Prius C hybrid could get a convertible model in Japan, the Ford Edge could get a hybrid model with its next redesign, and we preview the green cars of the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show. All this and more on Green Car Reports. We learned that the 2015 Honda Fit will...
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2015 Honda Fit To Have 36-MPG Combined Gas Mileage RatingThe new 2015 Honda Fit will have a combined EPA gas mileage rating of 36 mpg, according to Honda officials. That's the second-highest rating for any five-door subcompact hatchback, and notably improves on the current 2013 Fit's highest rating of 31 mpg. MORE: 2015 Honda Fit - preview In a company...
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Does George Clooney Really Hate Tesla Electric Cars?There it was, on the always-factual pages of the New York Post: George Clooney hates Teslas. On Monday, the tabloid published an article focusing on Clooney's comment at the very end of a recent Esquire interview that he'd been "on the side of the road a while" in his Tesla Roadster. Clooney owned...
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2014 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid: Is It Hybrid Enough To Matter?Last year, we drove a prototype Infiniti JX Hybrid, as it was then called (it's now in production as the 2014 Infiniti QX60 Hybrid). At that point, we wondered whether its mild-hybrid system would be "hybrid enough" to compete against the Lexus RX 450h that spawned the hybrid crossover segment two...
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U.S. car buyers are fond of compact crossovers, and they buy a lot of them.
They range from high-volume entries by Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Chevrolet to more luxurious utility vehicles from the...
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Honda Accord Hybrid Our Best Car To Buy, Soul EV Details, Ethanol Damage: Today's Car NewsHonda, Mitsubishi, and Toyota make headlines today.
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Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy: 2014 Honda Accord HybridFor 2014, our fourth annual Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy award goes to the 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid. This new model of the redesigned Honda Accord sedan introduced last year is comfortable, quiet, stylish--and delivers real-world fuel economy from 40 mpg to as much as 52 mpg. And that's...
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Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy: Winner To Be Named TomorrowWe've driven the cars. We've discussed their pros, their cons, the overall technology trends, and the many unanswered questions about the future of green cars. Now we've chosen a winner. This being a teaser post, we're not going to tell you what it is yet. That has to wait a day. But to refresh...
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Next Toyota Prius Plug-In To Have 10 Miles Of Electric Range: Here's WhyYou never know what you may find if you read through public comments on government proposals. That's how we found a broad hint that the next version of the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid will have a continuous all-electric range of at least 10 miles. Remember that the current car, which the EPA rates...
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Tesla Fires: What We Know, And What We Need To Find Out
There have now been three separate fires among roughly 20,000 Tesla Model S electric luxury sedans on the world's highways. The most recent one, two days ago, seems to have set off a fresh round of Internet fulmination--combined with much opining on what the news would do to the falling stock price...
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Even conventional gasoline cars--no plugs, no hybrids, no turbos--can be green.
And we've long been looking forward to the debut of the 2014 Mazda 3, an all-new generation of the compact hatchback...
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2014 Mazda 3: First DriveThe 2014 Mazda 3 is the one of the more eagerly-awaited compact cars hereabouts, and now we've had a chance to spend 90 minutes behind the wheel. During a recent test drive that brought together Best Car To Buy 2014 finalists, every High Gear Media editor got a chance to drive a variety of vehicles...
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Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2014 Chevrolet Spark EVWhat do you call an all-electric minicar that has elements of the Chevy Volt, can spin its drive wheels if you have a heavy foot--and still ranks as the most efficient plug-in car sold in the U.S. this year? We'd call it the 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV. And it's one of our five nominees for Green Car...
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Tesla Earnings Call: Lithium-Ion Cell 'Giga-Plant' Needed For Future ProductionTesla held its third-quarter earnings call yesterday evening, and CEO Elon Musk stayed pretty much on message. He reiterated that Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] continues to produce its Model S electric luxury sedan, at a current rate of 550 cars per week, and that it is working steadily to reduce the...
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Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2014 Chevy Cruze DieselThe 2014 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel is a somewhat daring car, and one that diesel fans have been urging a U.S. maker to sell for years, if not decades. It's the first diesel-engined passenger vehicle sold by General Motors since 1986, and it's a fully modern car with the latest in emissions control...
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FINAL UPDATE: Plug-In Electric Car Sales For Oct: Volt, Leaf Hold SteadyIn October sales of plug-in electric cars, both Chevy and Nissan improved on their September results, but didn't come close to beating their record August sales numbers. The month as a whole rebounded toward August's record-breaking level, improving on September's slump--but the Tesla sales may...
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The 2014 BMW i3 is the most audacious expansion of a well-known car brand in many years.
BMW--the maker of "ultimate driving machines"--is using electric propulsion, a carbon-fiber reinforced body,...
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Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy 2014: Technology TrendsYesterday we listed the nominees for Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy 2014 award: two battery-electric vehicles, one hybrid, one diesel, and one very fuel-efficient gasoline car. But what do our nominees say about the state of green-car design this year? Overall, they highlight four trends to...
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How One Electric Utility Encouraged Employees To Use Plug-In CarsWhile workplace charging is still a work in progress at most companies, a few progressive corporations and nonprofits now offer incentives to employees to commute in plug-in electric cars. One example is PSEG, the publicly-owned New Jersey electric and gas utility, which has seen employee usage of...
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Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy 2014: The Nominees
We're heading into the last two months of the year, which means it's time for our annual Best Car To Buy award. This is our award that picks one vehicle--or a line of vehicles--that we consider to be the greenest new vehicle(s) launched for the new model year. (That means they have to be all-new or...
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BC To Get Canada's First Electric-Car Fast-Charging NetworkThe West Coast "green highway" will expand from Oregon and Washington states into British Columbia, under a plan announced today that will site DC quick-charging stations for electric cars along heavy-traveled roads and at popular destinations. BC Hydro, the province's electric utility, said it...
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Who's Still Buying Brand-New Fisker Karmas, And Why?The 2012 Fisker Karma remains a stunning car, regardless of its range-extended electric powertrain. While the struggling-though-not-yet-bankrupt company remains in limbo, with a purchase reported but not yet confirmed, it hasn't built cars since July 2012. MORE: 2012 Fisker Karma - full review The...
John Voelcker