John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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'Tis the season for 'car of the year' awards, and we're right there with the rest of the media.
Next Monday, we'll announce the winner of our second annual Green Car Reports "Best Car to Buy" Award...
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Will Toyota Prius Hit Gas-Mileage Trifecta: 40, 50 & 60 MPG?With new corporate average fuel economy rules now taking us to 54.5 mpg by 2025, gas mileage will be the focus of new-car development for years to come. With its 15 years of experience in hybrid-electric vehicles, Toyota seems well positioned for steady improvements. Now, there's a chance that...
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2013 Mazda CX-5 Kicks Compact Crossover Gas Mileage HigherLet's face it: If you want the best gas mileage in a compact or mid-size all-wheel drive crossover, you have to go hybrid. But hybrids are still more expensive than gasoline models by a few thousand dollars, and the majority of buyers prioritize price over those last few miles per gallon. So the...
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What's The Best Diesel Car Of 2012? Cast Your Vote NowThe prospects for clean-diesel passenger cars are, slowly, looking up. Long-time diesel stalwarts Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen were joined in the U.S. market by BMW and Audi a few years ago, and the number of diesel models rises this year with the addition of the new 2012 Volkswagen Passat TDI and...
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Nissan Picks Coulomb To Keep Its Charging Points Up To DateOnce in a while, you get an announcement that looks interesting but requires ... ummmmm ... some interpretation. During the barrage of car launches, interviews, press releases, and general running around that comprised media days at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, we got a press release with the...
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Electric Honda Fit EV: Details, Live Photos From L.A. Auto ShowOne year ago, Honda unveiled a prototype Fit EV electric car at the Los Angeles Auto Show. This year, it showed a refined version that it says it will offer for lease next summer in California and Oregon, expanding into six East Coast markets early the following year. Lease only, no sales Honda...
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It's the smallest car ever sold as a Chevrolet. It's already a huge hit in India (where it's fitted with a tiny 0.9-liter three-cylinder turbodiesel). And now it's coming to the U.S.
At this week's...
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Chevy Volt To Qualify For California HOV-Lane Access In 2012Chevrolet announced today at the Los Angeles Auto Show that its Volt extended-range electric car will qualify for solo access to California's HOV lanes, a feature deeply desired by many of the state's car buyers. A 'Low Emissions Package' will be fitted as standard equipment to all Volts sold in...
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All-New 2013 Ford Escape: Full Details From LA Auto ShowFor the new 2013 Ford Escape, introduced today at the Los Angeles Auto Show, it's all about efficiency--and family-friend features designed to lure buyers who can choose from a growing array of very competent compact crossovers. Ford has already revealed the three engines available for its new...
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2012 Toyota Prius C: Video Shows Sporty Hybrid On The RoadEarlier today, Toyota released the first images of its 2012 Prius C compact hybrid hatchback that will arrive at U.S. dealers next year. The 2012 Toyota Prius C will be the fourth member of the growing Prius family, joining the classic Prius five-door hatchback, the 2012 Prius V wagon, and the 2012...
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2012 Toyota Prius C Unveiled: Compact 52-MPG-Plus Hybrid HatchbackToyota is doubling down on its best-known model for gas mileage, the Prius hybrid. It's already added two models to sit beside the 2012 Prius five-door hatchback, and now, the last new addition to the Prius lineup has been revealed. The 2012 Toyota Prius C, the first compact Prius since the...
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Electric Cars Easier In Smaller Places: Ireland Outpaces U.S.The spread of electric cars and public charging stations for them across the United States will be uneven for many years to come. Many analysts and advocates believe that California residents will buy as many plug-in cars as are sold in the next five states combined. With the exception of Texas and...
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Cars with higher gas mileage pay less per mile in gasoline tax. And plug-in cars pay no gas tax at all.
With far tougher fuel economy standards looming--34.1 mpg by 2016 and no less than 54.5 mpg by...
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Fire Marshal Says NC Garage Fire Started Away From Chevy Volt: ExclusiveThe fire marshal investigating a Mooresville, NC, fire that engulfed a 2011 Chevrolet Volt electric car has concluded preliminarily that the car was not the source of the fire.
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Third Fire Consumes A Chevy Volt Electric Car: PerspectiveNeither GM nor the NHTSA has been able to replicate a fire that occurred in a wrecked Chevrolet Volt three weeks after it was demolished in an NHTSA crash test.
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Jay Leno Shows Stunning Hand-Built Natural-Gas Retro RacerWe may be having a natural-gas moment. Next week, we'll test-drive a 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas, the only factory-built passenger car sold to retail buyers that runs on compressed natural gas. We drove its predecessor, the Honda Civic GX, last year. Now noted auto collector and fan Jay Leno (he...
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Electric Rolls-Royce Phantom 102EX: Quick DriveIf you're going to have your very first drive behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce, what better car than a one-of-a-kind experimental all-electric Phantom? The metallic silver-blue Phantom, given a rare factory experimental designation of 102EX, has been touring the globe to gauge the reactions of...
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Fisker Karma Electric-Car Production Ramps Up, But SlowlyEvery carmaker ramps up production on a new vehicle slowly. So Fisker Automotive struck back at the thesis of a GigaOm article yesterday that suggested the company was delaying the production schedule for its 2012 Karma extended-range electric luxury sport sedan into the middle of next year...
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They're both featured in Revenge of the Electric Car, the documentary that's now in limited release across the country, so it makes sense they'd be doing media together.
The pair of auto-industry...
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GM Relents, Lets Dealers Sell Their Volt Demonstrators, Today
Year-end sales figures are looming ever closer, and the critics of the GM bailout and all thing electric-drive are already drafting wrapup stories about how the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car has been a sales disaster. So Chevy has taken off the gloves. The company said it would allow...
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Dream About Ordering A 2012 Fisker Karma? We Show You How It's Done (Video)Have you ever dreamed about just walking into your local Fisker dealer and ordering a Karma plug-in luxury sport sedan? Very few of us have the funds to afford the $95,900 starting price of a 2012 Fisker Karma, but that doesn't mean we can't imagine doing it. The youngest member of the High Gear...
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Your Electric Car Out Of Juice? AAA Tests Roadside RechargingEveryone makes mistakes once in a while, and we’re sure most drivers have run out of gasoline at least once in their life. But as the saying goes, it's hard to carry a gallon of electricity back to your plug-in car if the battery is completely out of charge. Which is why AAA is now testing...
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2011 Kia Forte SX Five-Door Hatchback: Weekend DriveWhile it may come from the same company as the Hyundai Elantra, our 2011 Kia Forte hatchback weekend test car is nothing like that curvaceous, fuel-efficient compact. Instead, the Forte is aiming for a kind of European performance niche--closer to a Volkswagen Golf or Jetta than the Toyota Corolla...
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Want To Drive Greener? Move Closer To Your Job, Save Cash TooWe get a lot of questions about greener or more fuel-efficient cars. But we rarely get questions about how to drive less. A cheerful little post and infographic by the delightfully named Mr. Money Mustache highlights the true cost of commuting to jobs that are no longer within walking or biking...
John Voelcker