John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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Ford is now clearly worried about the mileage ratings of its new 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid and 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid.
Company officials said on Friday that while they complied with all EPA test...
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Two Years In A Chevy Volt: 12,000 Miles, 26 Gallons Of GasTwo years ago tomorrow, Jeff Kaffee took possession of his keys and became the very first person in the U.S. to buy a Chevrolet Volt. Since then, the retired pilot from Parsippany, New Jersey, has put almost 12,000 miles on his range-extended electric car--using just 26.1 gallons of gasoline while...
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Ford Dribbles Out Gas Mileage Details For 2014 Transit Van RangeThere was exactly one gas-mileage number contained in a pair of press releases Ford issued this morning. It was the prediction that one version of its 2014 Ford Transit Connect small commercial van will achieve "up to" 30 mpg on the highway cycle. It's called counterprogramming: In the midst of...
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World's First All-Electric Monster Truck: Wimpy No Longer! (Video)Public preconceptions of electric cars as wimpy fiberglass golf carts are starting to wane, ever so slowly. Now, another plug-in electric vehicle is literally looking to crush those outdated images. Shown above is the world's first all-electric monster truck, formally known as the Odyssey Battery...
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Indianapolis Works Toward Totally Electrified City FleetThere's a lot of discussion about hybrids and plug-in electric cars being sold to private buyers. But some of the biggest gains in reducing emissions and running costs are likely to come from vehicle fleets. While individual car owners may suddenly have to take a car 100 miles instead of their...
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Nissan Says It Plans To Offer 15 New Hybrid Models By 2016Nissan will add 15 new hybrid models to its global lineup by 2016, as well as several more plug-in electric cars, it said yesterday. Toshiyuki Shiga, the company's chief operating officer, made the commitment at a briefing in its headquarters town of Yokohama in which it analyzed progress toward...
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Even big pickup trucks will get significantly higher gas mileage in years to come, and the new 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and 2014 GMC Sierra will be no exception.
This morning, General Motors...
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Nissan Builds First Lithium-Ion Cells For 2013 Leaf Electric Car (Video)Just two years after the first Nissan Leaf was sold in the U.S., Nissan said today it has opened a plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, to fabricate lithium-ion cells for electric-car batteries. The first cells built at the plant have completed the necessary aging process, and can now be charged for the...
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Nissan Leaf Electric Car Owners Cover 100 Million Miles TooTwo weeks ago, we noted that drivers of the Chevrolet Volt had covered 100 million electric miles. What we neglected to note at the time was that Nissan Leaf drivers are keeping pace, having covered more than 100 million electric miles as well. And it's appropriate to note that total today, just...
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More Details Emerge On Upcoming Audi Diesel-Hybrid SupercarA few more details have leaked out on Audi's future diesel-hybrid supercar, which will transfer elements of its Le Mans-winning R18 diesel hybrid powertrain into a roadgoing car. Still in development and not even named, the unusual through-the-road hybrid would have a combined power output of at...
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Coda In Trouble? Electric-Car Maker Lays Off 15% Of StaffIf you're a couple of years late launching your car, and it gets only tepid reviews, and then its frontal crash safety is rated at just two stars out of five, it might be safe to say your company has a few challenges. That's the situation for Coda Automotive, which yesterday confirmed that it had...
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How To Boost Electric-Car Sales? Get 'Butts In Seats,' Experts SayYou might not know it from general media coverage, but plug-in electric-car sales are actually doing pretty well. Still, people get impatient, and electric-car and environmental advocates want more, faster. So what are the best ways to boost adoption of plug-in cars? Education and awareness are the...
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There's lots of interest in the award-winning Tesla Model S electric luxury sport sedan about now.
With production slowly ramping up, even the wealthiest electric-car fans have to wait as Tesla...
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Tesla Gets Green Light To Open Store In Natick, MassachusettsAfter more than an hour of discussion last night, the town selectmen of Natick, Massachusetts, voted 4-1 to grant a license to sell cars to Tesla Motors Massachusetts. The local company, which the Selectmen concluded was legally separate from Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], will operate out of a property...
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2013 Tesla Model S: Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy 2013Two years ago, our first-ever Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy award went to the first modern battery-electric car sold in the U.S. How far we've come. This year, our third annual winner is the 2013 Tesla Model S, a car that takes the all-electric vehicle to a new and far more elevated level. But...
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2014 Ford Transit Van: Fuel-Efficient Diesel Option UnveiledThe diesel engine for the 2014 Ford Transit van will be a five-cylinder PowerStroke model, the company announced today, extending the fuel efficiency benefits of clean-diesel powertrains into its upcoming commercial van. The new 3.2-liter PowerStroke Diesel will be the only five-cylinder...
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Green Car Reports 2013 Best Car To Buy: Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid, Honorable MentionVolkswagen has sold small numbers of its Touareg Hybrid crossover utility vehicle for two years now, but it's never had a mass-market hybrid entry. That will be the role of the 2013 Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid, a new entry this year that complements VW's long-established line of fuel-efficient TDI...
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Fisker Hires Investment Bank To Find Funding, Partner CompaniesFisker Automotive, often referring to in the media as "struggling," is looking for additional funding and a carmaking partner. According to a story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), the company has now hired an investment bank, Evercore Partners, to assist in those quests. Fisker...
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it's always nice when the big boys say, "You're right."
We reported three weeks ago that Ford's new 2013 hybrids were not achieving their 47-mpg EPA gas mileage rating in real-world usage.
Now ...
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Tesla Model S 60-kWh Version: EPA Range Rated At 208 MilesWithout any fanfare, the EPA has released its range rating for the second version of the Tesla Model S to come to market. The 2013 Tesla Model S fitted with a 60-kilowatt-hour battery pack has a rated range of 208 miles. That compares to 265 miles for the Model S version with the largest 85-kWh...
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GM To Offer Not One, But Two, Smaller Pickups: El Camino Too?Usually Ford and GM follow the same playbook for their pickup trucks. But in pursuit of higher fuel economy goals, the two may diverge in years to come. While Ford is fitting more fuel-efficient EcoBoost turbocharged V-6 engines to its pickup trucks, it has no plans to offer any pickup smaller than...
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Will Fisker Ask For Rest Of Its Stalled DoE Low-Interest Loan?For Fisker Automotive these days, no news is probably good news. Its latest CEO, Tony Posawatz, has been at the helm for four months now. And Fisker is putting all its efforts toward developing and producing its next model, the Atlantic mid-size sport sedan, by late 2014. In a recent Fox News...
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Green Car Reports 2013 Best Car To Buy Nominee: Nissan AltimaNot all green cars are hybrids, diesels, or plug-ins. And with new fuel economy regulations now set through 2025, all cars are going to get more efficient--gasoline cars first and foremost. The new 2013 Nissan Altima mid-size sedan has the highest EPA rating for combined gas mileage of any gasoline...
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Green Car Reports 2013 Best Car To Buy Nominee: Ford FusionThe new 2013 Ford Fusion is stunning on the street; it may well be the best-looking mid-size sedan on the market. And it comes with no fewer than five different powertrains, all of them as or more fuel efficient as those in the previous Fusion sedan. The first Fusion in 2005 started to re-establish...
John Voelcker