John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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Talk-show host and comedian Jay Leno has long been known as a car fan and collector. And car companies often play nice with him to get their products onto his show.
While GM worked with Leno on his ...
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Remember the 2011 Chevrolet Volt's 230-MPG Claim? Forget It.Almost a year ago, General Motors launched a little marketing campaign connecting its 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car to the figure "230 mpg." As we pointed out at the time, they were basing that projection on a proposed formula for fuel usage patterns that made a lot of assumptions...
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Honda Doubles Down on Hybrids, Dumps Clean Diesel To Go GreenAlthough Honda designed and sold the world's second hybrid-electric car, the 1999-2006 Insight, the company hasn't done nearly as well in hybrids as its larger rival Toyota. Now the company has reinforced its earlier suggestion that it would significantly beef up its hybrid efforts by providing...
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Fisker Dealer: Karma Plug-In Sedan Deliveries Start March or AprilWe've written before about the schedule for the 2011 Fisker Karma, which (like many other electric cars) has slipped a bit since the car was first unveiled. Now Fisker's newest dealer, located in none other than LA's epicenter of green consciousness--namely Santa Monica, California--says that the...
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BREAKING: Tesla and Toyota Announce Joint Electric RAV4 ProjectEnding weeks of speculation, Tesla and Toyota announced today that they plan to develop an all-electric version of Toyota's RAV4 small crossover, using Tesla's battery and electric drive technology in Toyota's vehicle. Last week, chairman Akio Toyoda announced that Toyota was already working to fit...
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General Electric Unveils EV Charger, $200M Smart Grid Tech ContestGeneral Electric stepped up its game in the smart grid industry today, launching both a charging device for electric vehicles and a $200 million contest calling for projects working to make electrical grids cleaner and more efficient. Both developments were rolled out under the banner of...
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Sometimes, we get the most amazing stuff in our e-mail. Most spy shots show up on our sister site, MotorAuthority.com, but once in a while, sometimes they come directly to us here in green-car-land.
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2011 Chevrolet Volt Battery Pack Warranty: 8 Years, 100K MilesGeneral Motors announced today that it would offer an 8-year, 100,000-mile warranty on the battery pack, the charger, and the Voltec electric drive components of its upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt electric car. The announcement sets to rest potential worries that Volt owners might be stuck having to...
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Fiat 500 To Offer Hybrid Version Of Tiny Two-Cylinder EngineThis must be Fiat 500 News Week. How else to explain the drumbeat of announcements, from its innovative TwinAir engine to a special U.S. model offered only to current Fiat owners? Today's item: The company will develop a mild hybrid version of its 500 minicar, fitted to the 0.9-liter TwinAir...
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2011 Ford Fiesta Subcompact: You Gotta Wait Two More Weeks!The 2011 Ford Fiesta subcompact is one of the more eagerly awaited cars arriving in the U.S. market. Winning points for styling, equipment, and performance, it's Ford's first high-volume European car to be sold here. But eager buyers and test drivers will have to take a breath and wait for just a...
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Reward For Old Fiat Owners, Finally: New 2011 Fiat 500 Special EditionIt hasn't been easy being a Fiat fan in the U.S. these last, oh, 20 or 30 years. Sneers of "Fix It Again, Tony!" due to rusty and unreliable cars were followed by Fiat fleeing the U.S. market in 1983 with its tail tucked between its legs. But now, with the imminent debut of the 2011 Fiat 500 late...
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No, Electric Vehicles Won't Bring Down the U.S. Power GridLast week's heat wave prompted another eruption of that perennial question: Won't electric cars that recharge from grid power overload the nation's electricity system? Or put more bluntly: Will electric vehicles bring down the U.S. power grid? The answer, equally bluntly, is: No. They won't. (And...
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[UPDATE: Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes says the original report via Bloomberg that Tesla would develop two separate electric models for Toyota was erroneous, and may have been further confused later...
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Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk Can't Handle the TruthElon Musk, the CEO of electric-car startup Tesla Motors and rocket-launcher SpaceX, should be applauded for the mighty challenges he’s taken on and the powers of persuasion he has deployed to build his companies. But along the way, he discovered that he could stretch the truth, casually and...
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U.S. Buyers Save Less Using EVs (But It's Not About Payback)Auto industry analysts get paid to issue reports, and most of them are vastly better at data analysis and number crunching than we'll ever be. That doesn't mean, however, that sometimes their data isn't misleading. It's important to keep context in mind, and not miss the forest for the trees...
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If No One Notices Your Smart ForTwo, Why Not Wrap It In Plaid?You've got to be at least somewhat extroverted to drive a 2010 Smart ForTwo minicar, the smallest car sold in North America. People stare at it, point at you, and often ask you variations of, "What on earth makes you want to drive that?" Now, for the most extroverted of Smart owners, there's a new...
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2011 Mazda Mazda2: First Drive ReportThe 2011 Mazda Mazda2 subcompact had a somewhat strange introduction, with the car itself unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show but the interior not displayed until three months later. Nevertheless, Mazda's sporty little subcompact is headed for dealerships this fall, starting at the remarkably low...
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Do Electric Cars Make You Worry About Toasters in Bathtubs?As we move toward the December launch of electric cars from real automakers--the 2011 Nissan Leaf and the 2011 Chevrolet Volt--there are many myths and fears that will have to be dispelled among consumers. One of them is the old toaster-in-the-bathtub fear: If you get an electric car really wet ...
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One of the many unknowns about Toyota's partnership with Tesla was whether it would result in a jointly produced car.
That won't be known for many months yet, but Toyota has already taken a first...
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California Yanks Prius Perks: No More Hybrid HOV-Lane AccessYou may remember that in California, 85,000 lucky owners of three hybrid vehicles were granted special stickers giving them access to High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes, even with only a single occupant in the car. Well, their luck runs out on December 31, the last day those stickers are valid. While...
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Math Is Hard: MPG Still Stupid, National Research Council AgreesMore than a year ago, we wrote an article pointing out the flaws in the U.S. practice of measuring a car's gasoline use with the familiar miles-per-gallon (MPG) measure. Now, no less a body than the august National Research Council has agreed with us. As it noted in a pre-publication summary...
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Electric-Car Drive Report: 2002 Toyota RAV4 EV CrossoverOne of the best parts of the electric-vehicle world is the camaraderie. Someone knows someone who passes us along to a friend who knows a guy ... you know the story. Which is how we ended up in San Francisco on a sunny Friday, driving a well-used--but still reliable--example of one of the...
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How Do First Responders Act Around a Crashed Hybrid or EV?Once more, a reader question prompts us to share the answer with our entire green car audience. In this case, it's about how first responders should approach accidents that involve vehicles with high-voltage battery packs, whether they're conventional hybrids (e.g. Toyota Prius) or upcoming...
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Green stocks sputtering out on public markets as Zipcar nears IPOLast week, electric car maker Tesla Motors made history as the first automotive company to go public since Ford in the 1950s, but its share price continues to drop, down another 9.24 percent so far today. Despite its buzz and sex appeal, it looks like the company won’t be able to escape the fate...
John Voelcker