John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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Car buyers are notoriously fond of focusing only on the purchase price of new vehicles, without much thinking about the total cost of ownership.
For electric cars that may cost twice or more what a...
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Will U.S. Military's Biofuels Efforts Lose Funding In New Defense Bill?Politics is never pretty, and the politics of alternative fuels seem even less so. Today, The Detroit News reports that the U.S. military's program to reduce its reliance on oil by using ethanol and other non-petroleum fuels could be de-funded in the military authorization bill that's now working...
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Nissan Will Build Its Electric Van In Spain; NYC Taxis Next?Nissan announced yesterday that it would start building its e-NV 200 electric van in Spain next year The small van will be Nissan's second electric vehicle globally. It follows the Leaf compact electric hatchback, which went on sale in December 2010 as a 2011 model. First shown at this year's...
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Aptera: It's Baaaaaaaaack! (We'll Believe It When We See it)This story is now a couple of weeks old, but we haven't hurried to publish it. The gist is that the unique Aptera three-wheeled electric car is supposedly going to be reborn, and will return to the U.S. market sometime next year. A new company, Aptera USA, purchased the assets of the old Aptera...
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2012 Scion iQ: The 37-MPG Minicar We Wish We Liked BetterSmall cars are fun to drive--or at least they should be. But there may be a law of diminishing returns in adapting the very smallest cars from Asia and Europe to the U.S. market. We don't much like the driving experience in the Smart ForTwo, so we had high hopes for the 2012 Scion iQ minicar--the...
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Electric-Car Prices: Tesla, Nissan, Chevy Should Be Ashamed--Here's WhyAlways read the fine print. That's a lesson every car buyer should take to heart. Especially since Nissan, Chevrolet, Tesla, and Mitsubishi all now engage in a pricing practice of which they should be ashamed. It's so-called "net pricing" of their electric cars, in which the price appearing in...
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Every year, some car models pass from our midst, often dying quietly and unnoticed.
Here's our list of the green cars that are no longer with us.
There were, of course, more cars than just this...
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Fuel Economy Now #1 Factor In Car-Buying, Consumer Reports Study SaysHistorically, when gas prices are relatively stable, fuel efficiency doesn't rank very high on car buyers' lists of priorities. But that seems to have changed recently. A new survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center found that fuel economy was the leading consideration of 37 percent...
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Fueling Stations: Electric Cars Trump All Other Alt-Fuel TypesSince about 1930, U.S. vehicles have largely been fueled on gasoline. Diesel passenger vehicles arrived in the 1960s, and there are now about 120,000 locations in the U.S. that offer one or both fuels. Since then, several alternative fuels have been proposed but largely failed to get a...
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Yes, Even Prius Drivers Can Be Utter Idiots At The WheelWe spend a fair amount of time here defending Toyota Prius drivers, who seem to have a bad reputation for slow and inept driving. We point out that gentle acceleration gets you there almost as quick and saves you money, despite the angry SUV driver 18 inches off the rear bumper. But then something...
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Volkswagen Up: The Coolest High-MPG Small Car We Can't HaveThe Volkswagen Up is a small, simple, very modern hatchback minicar that's fun to drive, keeps up with U.S. traffic, and returns 40 to 60 miles per gallon. But you won't be able to buy one in North America. And that's a shame. We drive a lot of cars here, most of them perfectly competent subcompact...
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Eager To Learn About Electric-Car Charging Stations? Webinar On Thu Explains It All For YouAre you mulling the purchase of an electric car? Or maybe wondering about wiring in your garage, and whether it would handle a plug-in car charging station? Do we have a webinar for you! This Thursday, May 24, electric-car advocates Plug-In America are holding a free webinar titled, "Everything You...
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There's no getting around it: Hybrids cost more than gasoline models, and plug-in electric cars cost a lot more than gas vehicles.
Each type of green car cuts operating costs, either by raising gas...
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Do Hybrids Save Money? FuelEconomy.gov Site Helps You DecideHybrid vehicles cost more upfront than comparable gasoline models, but get better fuel economy. So will you save money in the long run? To make the comparisons easier and more accurate, the FuelEconomy.gov site has launched a new comparison tool that provides a "Years to Payback" number based on...
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Want Govt To Pay For Half Of Your Electric Car? Try EstoniaSome electric-car makers (they know who they are) tend to quote base prices after subtracting the U.S. Federal income tax credit of $7,500. We don't do that here, but that practice would be even more tempting in Estonia--which gives a whopping $22,900 (18,000-euro) incentive on every electric car...
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Yes, It's Ethical To Drive A Stick Even If It Gets Lower MPGOh, for heaven's sakes. We're all for saving fuel by buying fuel-efficient cars, driving economically, cutting out unnecessary trips, planning ahead, carpooling, and all the other sensible, practical steps anyone can take to cut gas costs, lower their personal carbon footprint, and otherwise...
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Toyota Gas Mileage: Superb On Hybrids, Subpar On Regular CarsAsk anyone what company makes the most fuel-efficient car on the market, and they'll likely answer Toyota. That's correct. But Toyota's reputation for fuel economy rests largely on its expanding line of hybrid-electric vehicles, led by the Prius family of four separate models. Its gasoline models...
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E15 Ethanol Fuel Can Damage Engines, New Automaker Study SaysA new study released today by the Coordinating Research Council says that E15 gasoline, which contains 15 percent ethanol, could damage the engines of certain high-volume car and truck models. The two-year study was conducted on eight different engines from the 2001 through 2009 model years, with a...
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The trend is clear: To get higher gas mileage, almost all new cars will have smaller, more efficient engines.
Mazda says its new line of SkyActiv engines and transmissions, though, takes the...
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Landlords Vs Tenants With Electric Cars: The Latest RoundGarages in single-family homes are relatively easy to wire for electric-car charging; shared garages in multifamily residences often aren't. Therein lies much frustration, not only for plug-in car drivers but also their landlords. The latest episode hit the airwaves last Wednesday, when KGO-TV in...
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Reliability Of Electric-Car Charging Networks Varies Wildly, Study SaysRemember the early days of mobile phones, when lots of small carriers competed and roaming was just a far-distant dream? Welcome to the wild world of electric-car charging, folks. Right now, more than a dozen networks--some local, some regional, some national--operate Level 2 charging stations for...
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Which Carmakers Are Still Serious About Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicles?Hydrogen fuel-cell cars have not progressed as fast as some companies had predicted 10 or 15 years ago. No carmaker sells a fuel-cell vehicle in any kind of volume, but plug-in electric cars are on sale in North America, Europe, and Asia, with tens of thousands sold (and likely more than 100,000...
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Fisker Karma Fire: Owner, Company, Analyst Trade AccusationsOh dear. This could get ugly. The owner of a new 2012 Fisker Karma that burned to the ground in Sugar Land, Texas, is trading accusations with Fisker. The fire destroyed two other cars and damaged the garage it was stored in and other parts of the house. The owner reported a smell of burning rubber...
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Marketing Electric Cars As 'Medicine' = Fail, Movie Producer SaysWhy would you buy a plug-in electric car? To save money on gas? To save the planet? Maybe. But that's not how they should be marketed, said Hollywood producer Dean Devlin. "The Volt is an amazing, groundbreaking car," he said. "The Leaf is a gigantic breakthrough--but they're being sold as...
John Voelcker