John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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The 2013 Ford Escape, the first entirely new design in more than a decade for its popular compact crossover, will be officially unveiled next month at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
But before that, Ford...
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Electric-Car Sales: Does GM Have A Chevy Volt Sales Problem?It's that time of month again. Car sales reports spewed forth from the High Gear Media teletypes yesterday (September sales were up), and analysis stories followed. On the electric-car front, Nissan sold 1,031 Leaf battery-electric vehicles and Chevy shifted 723 Volts. While that's an improvement...
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2013 Tesla Model X Crossover: What We Know Before Jan RevealTesla would like all eyes to focus on its 2012 Model S electric sport sedan this week. But there's a second model lurking in the background: the 2013 or 2014 Tesla Model X crossover, the next vehicle to use the platform that underlies the Model S. A lot of information has emerged in bits and pieces...
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2012 Tesla Model S: Photo GalleryThis week's most discussed car may well be the 2012 Tesla Model S. And that's by design. Startup electric-car company Tesla Motors opened its Fremont, California, factory for the last three days to let a select list of customers, reservation holders, and journalists from around the world see...
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Facing Tough Competition, Toyota Doubles Down On Prius HybridsFuel efficiency is on every automaker's mind, and will be through at least 2025. Toyota sells the most fuel-efficient gasoline vehicle on the U.S. market, the 2012 Prius hybrid. It's rated at 51 mpg city, 48 mpg highway, and a combined 50 mpg by the EPA. Tougher competitors But the competition is...
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2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas Sedan Priced At $26,905, Cleanest Combustion Car SoldHonda released the bulk of its 2012 Civic range this spring, but one model lagged behind: the Civic Natural Gas, the all-new version of what had been called the Civic GX. As the new name indicates, the 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas runs solely on compressed natural gas. It's the only natural-gas...
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There are many unusual things about the BMW i3 Concept electric minicar revealed last month, including its glass doors and roof, not to mention BMW's first production battery-electric powertrain.
But...
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2012 BMW ActiveHybrid 5: Taking Hybrid Luxury To Next LevelExit one BMW hybrid, enter another. Next March will see the U.S. launch of the 2012 BMW ActiveHybrid 5, the second hybrid sedan in the Germany luxury-car maker's lineup. And the ActiveHybrid 5 marks an important evolution: It's the first BMW that uses the single-motor hybrid system jointly...
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2012 Buick Lacrosse eAssist: TV Ad Sells MPGs, Avoids H-Word (Video)The 2012 Buick Lacrosse with eAssist is now beginning to roll into dealerships across the country, and we've been curious to see how GM would market the car. On our preview drive this spring of a prototype Lacrosse with eAssist, we noticed that the dreaded H-word (hybrid) had been virtually...
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Will Tesla Succeed Like Apple, Or Vanish Like Altair?Of every 10 companies started by entrepreneurs, half or more fail. Some are sold for the parts or the people, a couple of lucky ones may be bought by larger companies, and only the very lucky ones survive as independent companies over the long term. Tesla: Apple or Altair? For every Apple, in other...
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Subaru Hybrid For 2014 To Echo Honda, GM Mild-Hybrid ApproachBeyond the obvious Toyota, if any other make were to build hybrid cars, you might expect it to be Subaru. The small Japanese company's cars are revered for durability and standard all-wheel drive, and their drivers are often assumed to be on the liberal side of center. Subaru owners tend to cluster...
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Lotus Ethos Minicar With Volt-Like Series Hybrid For U.S.?Proton is a totally unknown carmaker in the U.S., but the Malaysian company happens to own British sports car maker and engineering firm Lotus. A couple of years ago, Lotus launched--and recently revised--a range-extending three-cylinder, 1.2-liter Range Extender engine-and-generator set for...
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Electric-car advocates spend a lot of time touting the advantages of driving on plug-in power rather than burning gasoline.
Sometimes, it can be a lonely battle.
But now the U.S. Department of Energy...
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2012 Chevrolet Sonic Subcompact Named IIHS Top Safety PickThe influential Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has designated the subcompact 2012 Chevy Sonic one of its Top Safety Picks.
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European Carmakers Propose Single Electric-Car Charging PlugWithin a few years, it may be possible to drive an electric car from northern Germany to the south of Spain after all. Worries over the possibility of incompatible European electric-car charging standards are starting to abate, after a proposal by several European automakers for a single European...
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2012 Mercedes-Benz C-Class: Four-Cylinder C 250 Drive ReportThe onslaught of four-cylinder engines into vehicles that previously wouldn't have had anything lower than six cylinders continues. It's in the service of gas mileage, and the 2012 Mercedes-Benz C 250--with a 1.8-liter turbocharged and direct-injected four putting out 201 horsepower and 229...
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Gas Prices Fall To $3.50 As Economic Stall Slams Crude-Oil CostsRemember $4 gasoline? It was just last May that gasoline soared to an average price of $4 per gallon across all U.S. markets, with even the cheapest pumps showing prices of $3.50 or more. What a difference a few months makes. Gasoline has now fallen below $3 a gallon in a handful of areas...
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Why Toyota Will Sell 2012 Prius Plug-Ins: It's The Sticker, StupidDespite wrangling among electric-car fans over whether the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid's 9 to 14 miles of electric range are sufficient, one factor will make the car a success, at least in California: the valued sticker that gives drivers solo access to the HOV lane.
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Yesterday, auto dealers met with their members of Congress to try to delay new rules that would stiffen the gas-mileage requirements for cars sold in model years 2017 to 2025.
The National Auto...
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Homebrew 6-HP Motorcycle Sets Biodiesel World Speed RecordCombine a whole bunch of parts from motorcycles, go-karts, industrial machinery, and even generators, and what do you get? In John Petsche's case, he not only built a motorcycle that runs on store-bought vegetable oil, he managed to take home a world speed record for the 350cc Alternate Fuel class...
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Electric-Car Owners To Lose If CA Carpool Lanes Get Tolls?State and local agencies are strapped for cash, and one source of income may be the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on congested freeways. In Southern California, local officials plan to convert "carpool lanes" to toll lanes with variable pricing, allowing drivers to pay up to $10 for the...
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Want To Buy A 173-MPG Honda? You Have One Day Left To BidReading eBay auction listings, it's important to look at the disclaimers. Such as ... This is a non-running experimental vehicle being sold AS-IS / WHERE-IS. and Proof of the "Documented 173 [Miles Per Gallon!]" has yet to be found. and The exact origins of this vehicle are unknown. OK, so now that...
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GM To Develop Electric Cars In China With SAIC, Longtime PartnerMaybe you can beat 'em and join 'em at the same time? That may be what General Motors is hoping with its announcement this morning that it would develop electric cars with its longtime Chinese partner SAIC. In Shanghai this morning, GM CEO Dan Akerson and SAIC Motor Corp. chairman Hu Maoyuan signed...
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Graveyard Grows: RIP BMW Hybrid X6, Mercedes ML 450 HybridThe hybrid graveyard is growing. BMW and Mercedes-Benz, the German luxury makers that teamed up to adapt GM's Two-Mode Hybrid to high-end luxury vehicles, have both canceled both the hybrid vehicles that used the system for 2012, after no more than three model years. Pricey and low-production We...
John Voelcker