John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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U.S. vehicle sales soared in February, and so did sales of plug-in cars.
A drop in the number of all-electric Nissan Leaf sales was more than offset by a rise in sales of the range-extended electric...
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Battery Maker A123 To Supply Cells For Tata Hybrid BusesLithium-ion cell maker A123 Systems announced today that it would supply complete battery packs to Tata Motors, the largest vehicle maker in India, to be used in hybrid systems for commercial vehicles. The lithium-ion battery packs will first be deployed in city transit buses in the latter half of...
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2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid: Brief Drive ReportIn the world of plug-in cars, the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt may get all the attention, but a new arrival will make it very much a three-car race. The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid is just now arriving at Toyota dealers in California plus a dozen or so other states. While it may look just like a...
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Is Stock Market Betting On Tough Times To Come For Tesla?Only two major plug-in car startups have made it to the point of building and selling cars globally, and lately, Fisker is the one that's been in the news. But Fisker's not the only company whose long-term survival may be at issue. As Bloomberg pointed out a couple of weeks ago, Tesla Motors...
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Startup Bright Automotive Shuts Down, Slams DoE Loan ProcessStartup plug-in vehicle maker Bright Automotive announced today that it is closing down. While General Motors had invested $5 million in the company, Bright had relied on the hope that the U.S. Department of Energy would grant it low-interest loans under the advanced-technology vehicle...
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Fisker Names LaSorda CEO, Ex-Chrysler Exec, To Run Startup AutomakerIf the proverbial Chinese curse is true, Fisker Automotive has truly been living in interesting times. Its Karma range-extended electric luxury sport sedan struggled into the market in December, months late, and in January the DoE froze $336 million in untapped loans to the company. Now Fisker has...
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California's high-occupancy vehicle lanes, which emptied out last July as 85,000 hybrids lost their access, are about to start admitting more cars.
This week, Chevy dealers in California are ...
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Production 2013 Fisker Surf To Launch At Paris Motor Show: ReportNow that Fisker has managed to launch its 2012 Karma and start delivering cars to customers, the company is looking ahead toward expanding its model range. Reports today in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf indicate that it will unveil the production version of its 2013 Fisker Surf 'shooting brake'...
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Smaller Engine Watch: VW 1.4 Turbo To Replace 2.5 Five In U.S.?We've been saying for a long time that one way carmakers will meet new, tougher gas-mileage rules is to make their engines smaller but more efficient. Ford's EcoBoost lineup of direct-injected, turbocharged engines is one example, from a 3.5-liter V-6 used in full-sized pickups all the way down to...
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Truth-Telling Snopes Site Goes To Bat Over Chevy Volt E-MailGet any good e-mails lately? Maybe a chain letter that alleges how pathetically expensive the Chevy Volt is supposed to be? Well, there's one going around--it's called "Cost to operate a Chevy Volt"--and yesterday, the investigative site Snopes.com dived into the ugly politics around the Chevrolet...
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3-Cylinder 2014 Ford Focus EcoBoost To Deliver 50 MPG-Plus?Smaller, more efficient engines will be all the rage for the next 15 years, as automakers work to meet gas-mileage standards reaching past real-world averages of 40 miles per gallon. One of the most eagerly awaited is Ford's three-cylinder, 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine, first shown at the Frankfurt...
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Is Tesla 'Bricking' Story Just An Angry Owner's Warranty Claim?And now perhaps it all becomes clear. The Tesla battery 'bricking' post that was today's electric-car news story and generated reams of coverage may simply be an attempt by an unhappy owner to get Tesla Motors to replace the battery in his Roadster. At least, that would appear to be the logical...
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Late last night, a sensational blog post circulated through Silicon Valley.
It claimed that several $100,000-plus Tesla Roadsters were now useless as the result of a "devastating design problem,"...
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Bricking A Tesla Roadster Battery: Today's Electric Car MemeHeard of "bricking" yet? No? You will shortly. It's the phenomenon in which the lithium-ion battery pack of an electric car that's left unplugged for a long period goes completely, utterly dead--to the point where it cannot be recharged, and becomes a large, expensive "brick." [FURTHER UPDATE: Is...
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2014 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel: More Details Released By GMUntil now, there wasn't much official information about the upcoming diesel version of Chevy's Cruze compact sedan beyond the fact that it existed. Lots of reporters--us included--covered the diesel Cruze model that's been sold in Europe for a while now. We described that car's 2.0-liter...
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Can Driverless Cars Solve Distracted Driving? Infographic Explains It AllYou can't buy them just yet, but a few drivers in one state may soon start to see driverless cars on the streets. Last week, Nevada passed a law that set out the conditions under which autonomous vehicles could operate on its streets. Among them: The cars must be fitted with special red license...
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2012 Fisker Karma Plug-In Is Real, But Will Company Survive?After four years, an economic crisis, an industry meltdown, and plug-in cars becoming politically problematic, the 2012 Fisker Karma is on the streets at last. And it's a real car. We've driven it, shot video behind the wheel, and now we've formally reviewed it. We're still sorting out what we...
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With 2013 Fusion Hybrid On The Way, Ford Touts 461 PatentsThe 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid is one of the more eagerly awaited green cars coming this year. With fuel economy projected at up to 48 mpg city, it improves considerably on the well-regarded current Ford Fusion Hybrid, which is rated by the EPA at 41 mpg city, 36 mpg highway, for a combined overall...
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Real Americans only drive pickup trucks (imported oil be damned).
It's obvious because slaps at green cars and fuel-economy rules have become a staple of political campaigning among certain...
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Chrysler Abandons Quest For Energy Dept Low-Interest LoansThe U.S. Department of Energy hasn't made any new loans under its Advanced Technology Vehicle Program in well over a year. At its current rate, it may never do so. The latest company to walk away from applications for low-interest loans from the $25 billion DoE program is Chrysler. This afternoon...
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Have You Voted Yet For The Best Diesel Car Of 2012?You have just two weeks left to vote for the Diesel Car of the Year award, which is organized by The Diesel Driver website. Every year, that site asks green-car advocates, diesel fans, and its readers to chose from its list of nominees. That list (below) includes all 13 passenger vehicles fitted...
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Irate Investor Sues Fisker: A Little Lesson In Venture CapitalThis is the week when driving impressions of the 2012 Fisker Karma have started to appear, as Fisker invites in waves of automotive journalists for a half-day of driving in and around Los Angeles. (We'll have our report early next week, but we had a brief drive a few weeks ago, and another with...
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GE Employees Get Chevy Volt Electric Cars, All-Gas Use OKed Sometimes
Sixteen months ago, General Electric announced it would place the "largest order in history" for electric cars, to be used by its employees who are issued company cars. Now, those cars are starting to arrive and be placed with employees. And where changes are made, personnel policies are sure to...
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Tesla Motors Won't Need More Money, Says CEO MuskTesla Motors released its 2011 financial results today and held a conference call this evening for financial analysts to question officials. A number of interesting items emerged, largely from CEO Elon Musk. Perhaps the most significant is Musk's claim that Tesla won't need to raise any more...
John Voelcker