John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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Although its much-delayed first model, the 2011 Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan, hasn't quite reached dealers yet, Fisker Automotive is powering ahead.
The company announced today that it...
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Nissan To Have More Hybrid Cars, This Time Home-GrownNissan may have killed off its Altima Hybrid model, but the company is moving forward with a range of new hybrid models. This time, however, they'll be home-grown, based on the company's internally developed hybrid system. Nissan's new single-motor hybrid technology is considerably simpler than the...
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2012 Nissan Leaf: Heated Seats, Wheel & Battery As StandardWhile Nissan killed the Altima Hybrid, its sole U.S. hybrid vehicle, for 2012, the company has made a number of important upgrades to its Leaf battery electric car. For 2012, the Nissan Leaf will include as standard heated front and rear seats, plus heated steering wheel and outside mirrors...
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How To Drive Badly & Lower Your Gas Mileage In The Real WorldWith gas-mileage standards through 2016 now in place, the EPA and NHTSA are turning their sights toward rules for 2017 through 2025. Proposals are floating around for CAFE standards of up to 62 mpg (which means the vehicles you might buy would average about 50 mpg in actual use). Ah, the hell with...
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Earthquake To Delay U.S. Assembly of Nissan Leaf Electric Cars?By far the most ambitious plan to build and assemble electric cars in the U.S. comes not from General Motors or Ford, but from Nissan. Now, it may happen a little later than expected, due to the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami that severely damaged large portions of Japan's industrial...
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1914 Detroit Electric: Pretty Spry For A Century Old (Video)For decades, old electric cars--those built from the 1890s to 1930 or so, when the last remnants of the industry died out--were nothing more than oddities. Tall, imposing, mostly resembling closed horse carriages, they were stately but sidelined reminders of an entirely vanished way of propulsion...
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The once-unthinkable actually happened last Thursday: The U.S. Senate voted 73-27 to abolish a 45-cents-per-gallon subsidy to the U.S. ethanol industry.
Immediately.
Because the amendment to end...
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After 11 Years, Two-Millionth Hybrid Car Sold In United StatesSometime early last week, someone somewhere in the U.S. bought a hybrid car. And while we may never know exactly who that person was, the car was the 2-millionth hybrid-electric vehicle sold here since the very first Honda Insight went on sale in late 1999. Industry trade journal Ward's Auto...
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Who Actually Buys 2011 Chevy Volt Electric Cars, And Why?Despite media attempts to conjure a "sales battle" between the 2011 Chevy Volt and the 2011 Nissan Leaf, both companies are selling every car they can manage to get into the showrooms. Now Chevrolet has released its first look at who is actually buying its Volt range-extended electric cars. The...
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One More For The Dead-Hybrid List: RIP Nissan Altima HybridAdd one more to the list of hybrid cars that have been sent off to the great gasoline-electric graveyard in the sky. Nissan will end production of its Altima Hybrid sedan after the 2011 model year. Launched in late 2007, the hybrid version of the Nissan Altima used Nissan's own four-cylinder engine...
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Honda Civic Joins Mustang, GTO, Cadillac, Gets Its Own SongThe list of cars that have been celebrated in song is long. Think pink Cadillacs, little Deuce coupes, Pontiac GTO, and many Mustangs, with or without Sally. Now you can add the Honda Civic to that list. The modest and unassuming line of compact hatchbacks and sedans known for their fuel efficiency...
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Mini E Driver Study: Some Caveats On Electric-Car Happy NewsThe recent study of Mini E drivers may need to be taken with a few grains of salt.
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We've heard this script before.
Some agency of the Federal Government proposes a new rule that will affect the design and performance of cars in some way, sometime in the future.
Instinctively,...
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Why Ford Would Be Crazy To Kill The Escape Hybrid: Real AWDFord has made lots of changes to its model lineup of late, some of them remarkably quickly. Now comes word that the new Ford Escape compact crossover for 2013 may not include the Escape Hybrid model it has sold since 2004. We think that would be a terrible shame, because it takes off the market a...
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All-New 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid To Get 47-48 City MPG: ReportThe all-new, entirely redesigned 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid sedan may be rated by the EPA as high as 47 or 48 mpg on the city cycle, according to reports on a website that follows Ford news. The redesigned Ford Fusion sedan will be largely identical to the next Ford Mondeo sedan for Europe under the...
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Many Ways For Volvo To Go Green And Save Gas, Says CEOVolvo likes to think of itself as a conscientious car company. "Why are we different?" asked Stefan Jacoby, Volvo's German CEO. "We are Swedish; we come from a human-centric company. We do things because they have a purpose for people." Safety, yes, but also green Those things used to revolve...
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What Would You Give Up For Higher Gas Mileage? Cash? Features? Safety?It happens every time. Gas prices go up sharply, and new car buyers suddenly decide that gas mileage is important--and shop accordingly. With gas around $4 a gallon in many parts of the country, what would you trade for higher miles per gallon? Would you pay more? Would you buy a smaller car than...
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2012 Chevy Volt Price Cut To $39,995, Options, Colors ExpandedFor its second year of production, the 2012 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car will come down $1,000 in price and be offered with several new features and two new colors. The list price of the 2012 Volt, including an $850 destination fee, is $39,995. That compares to $41,000 for the 2011...
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We know that the Mini lineup will expand into several sizes,
Now an executive at BMW (which owns the iconic British brand) has said there may be as many as 10 different Mini models in future.
The...
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Advertising Electric Cars: What To Make Of Leaf vs. Volt Spat?For the first time in 80 years or so, major automakers are building and selling plug-in electric cars in the U.S. How are they letting people know about their new cars? Advertising, of course. Our colleague Richard Read looked at four electric-car TV ads, analyzing what made them work and what...
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Test Out The New, Improved Comments We've Just Launched!This site has always enjoyed a vibrant, active discussion among our engaged readers--and we thank you all for it. Now, we're happy to have launched our new and revised Commenting system. Think of it as Comments 2.0. We wanted to make discussions and debates in our comments easier to understand, and...
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2012 Buick Lacrosse eAssist 37-MPG Sedan Priced At $30,820 (With Destination)Buick announced today that it would price the four-cylinder version of its 2012 Lacrosse large sedan at $29,960. That sneaks the advertised price neatly under the $30,000 mark, although a mandatory $860 destination charge means buyers will see a sticker of at least $30,820 before they start adding...
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Why Buy Electric Cars? Iraq Vet Says: For National SecurityMost Nissan Leaf owners are passionate about their electric cars, especially the earliest ones who've already taken delivery. But not all of them have served three tours of military duty, including service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tim Goodrich was posted to Afghanistan as an avionics technician...
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'Flow Cells' May Let Electric Cars Recharge With Liquid RefillsJust two months ago, we published an April Fool's piece about a fictional new BP cell research project that would allow battery packs to be refilled at fuel station pumps. Truth is stranger than fiction, truly. Yesterday, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology described a nascent research...
John Voelcker