John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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A little less than four years ago, the first 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car was delivered to eager buyer Olivier Chalouhi in San Francisco.
Earlier this month, Nissan and its partner the French...
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More EPA Gas-Mileage Rating 'Adjustments' To Come In New Year?First Hyundai and Kia cut fuel-economy ratings on a dozen models, then Ford on the C-Max. Then, Ford cut ratings on the C-Max again, along with those of five more models. Are there more to come? Industry sources have quietly been discussing in recent weeks that more adjustments to EPA gas-mileage...
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Car Dealers: Innocent, Delicate, Fragile Blossoms, Apparently"We're not gonna take it any more!" If you're of a certain age, that line likely brings back memories of a 30-year-old Twisted Sister song. You might be less likely to think of it as the headline of an article about the hurt feelings of car dealers. DON'T MISS: The Videos Car Dealers Hate: Is It...
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Volkswagen Golf SportWagen HyMotion: Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Concept At LA Auto ShowVery few compact wagons remain on sale in North America, but this year, the car known to U.S. buyers for years as the Jetta SportWagen has a new name: the 2015 Volkswagen Golf SportWagen. To reinforce the new wagon's new model name, VW showed off two concept Golf wagons at last week's Los Angeles...
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2016 Toyota Mirai Fuel-Cell Car At Los Angeles Auto Show (Video)The 2016 Toyota Mirai, seen here in its production form, is the first-ever hydrogen fuel-cell car to be offered for sale by a major automaker. It goes on sale in Japan next month, and will arrive in North America in the second half of next year. The four-seat mid-size sedan is effectively an...
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2015 Ford F-150 Gas Mileage: Best Among Gasoline Trucks, But Ram Diesel Still HighestPerhaps no gas-mileage ratings have been as eagerly awaited this fall as those for the all-new 2015 Ford F-150 pickup. The redesigned full-size truck with an aluminum body and pickup bed was expected to get better gas-mileage numbers than earlier F-150s. And it has, with a top rating of 22 mpg...
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Last week's Los Angeles Auto Show brought more news about hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles than we've seen in a very long time.
The 2016 Toyota Mirai was unveiled--we drove it too--and Honda showed its...
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2016 Chevy Volt, Fuel Cells Galore, LA Auto Show: The Week In Reverse (Video)Which automaker showed a plug-in hybrid concept car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell? And what will the new 2016 Chevy Volt look like? This is our video look back at the Week In Reverse--right here at Green Car Reports--for the week ending on Friday, November 21, 2014. On Friday, we looked at...
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2016 Chevy Volt: Front Styling Teaser Photos, Charging Details ReleasedA bit more of the styling of the all-new 2016 Chevrolet Volt has been revealed, in photos that Chevy released from a sneak preview of the car last night for current Volt owners in Los Angeles. The range-extended electric car will be revealed in its entirety at the Detroit Auto Show in January, but...
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Honda To Loan First Element $14 Million For Hydrogen Fueling Stations
Honda announced today at the Los Angeles Auto Show that it will loan almost $14 million to hydrogen station provider First Element Fuels to help it build an additional 12 fueling stations in California for upcoming hydrogen fuel-cell cars. The $13.8 million loan will be combined with grants from...
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2016 Toyota Mirai Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car: First Photos From Test DriveThe 2016 Toyota Mirai is getting a major launch just before this week's Los Angeles Auto Show. It's clear Toyota considers this a vehicle every bit as seminal as its very first Prius hybrid of 1997. The Prius comparisons came regularly during a day of presentations yesterday, and then again this...
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2016 Toyota Mirai Power-Out Jack Could Run Your Home In EmergenciesIt may be hidden behind a fuzzy grey triangular panel in the trunk, but the 2016 Toyota Mirai fuel-cell car offers a novel and innovative feature that could let it power your home for a day or two in the event of an emergency. Toyota executives say they haven't decided whether to offer the...
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The 2016 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle will carry a sticker price of $57,500 when it launches in the U.S. late next year, Toyota said today.
But while the company will offer the Mirai for...
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BMW i3 Sales Slow In Germany; Will They Hold Up In States?Over its first six months of U.S. sales, the 2014 BMW i3 electric car--with or without its innovative optional range-extending engine--has done quite well in the sales charts. In each of the last three full months (August through October), BMW sold more than 1,000 i3s, giving it the highest...
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Honda FCV Concept Debuts: Design Evolution For 2016 Fuel-Cell CarA revised version of Honda's hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle debuted in Japan today. The Honda FCV Concept offers more hints as to what the five-passenger mid-size sedan will look like when it appears on Japanese roads in early 2016, powered only by hydrogen. DON'T MISS: Honda FCEV Concept Previews...
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2016 Toyota Mirai Name For Fuel-Cell Sedan; Hydrogen Station Funds Coming For Northeast (Video)The hydrogen fuel-cell sedan that goes on sale in North America roughly a year from now will be known as the 2016 Toyota Mirai, the company announced today. The model name--confirming a rumor that had circulated for several months--was announced by Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda in a video released this...
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Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Car Questions: Toyota, Honda & Hyundai Respond (Part 3)This coming week will bring news of at least two new hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles from major global manufacturers. They'll be offered only in small numbers for the next few years--far smaller than plug-in electric vehicle sales over the same period--but Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda fully intend to...
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Tesla Model Changes, Fuel-Cell Questions, Best Car To Buy: The Week In Reverse (Video)Which of five nominees did we choose for our Best Car To Buy 2015 award? And what costs more per mile in a Tesla electric car: its electric 'fuel' or the tires the car rides on? This is our video look back at the Week In Reverse--right here at Green Car Reports--for the week ending on Friday...
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The Los Angeles Auto Show held every November has the reputation of being a showplace for green cars.
From design exercises to "concept cars" that are thinly future disguised production models to...
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Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Car Questions: Toyota, Honda & Hyundai Respond (Part 2)Questions around the prospects, desirability, technology, and practicality of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles will likely get a lot of attention in coming months. At the Los Angeles Auto Show next week, more details on the Toyota Fuel Cell Sedan--which may gain a new model name (rumored to be...
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Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Car Questions: Toyota, Honda & Hyundai Respond (Part 1)Next week, the Toyota Fuel Cell Sedan will be introduced in detail at the Los Angeles Auto Show, possibly with a new model name (rumored to be Mirai). Small numbers of Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell crossovers are now on the road, and Honda will launch its next-generation hydrogen fuel-cell car within...
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Kia Soul EV Drive, 2016 Volt Sales, Scion iM Concept: Today's Car NewsReaders have asked about our impressions of the new 2015 Kia Soul EV, and now we've answered with a full drive report and lots of photos. We also used the Prius past to predict the Volt future, and have an update from a sneaky little ad agency that got caught lying about electric cars. All this and...
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Why New 2016 Chevy Volt Might Sell 50,000 Units Its First YearLaunching entirely new types of cars is expensive, time-consuming, and challenging--as Toyota could have told Chevrolet and Nissan during 2010. Toyota's sales of its early Prius hybrid-electric cars, however, may offer hope to electric-car fans disappointed at modest sales of the two affordable...
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U.S. And China Agree To Curb Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Presidents SayFor the first time ever, China has agreed to limit its greenhouse-gas emissions, under a deal announced this morning between Chinese president Xi Jinping and U.S. president Barack Obama. In exchange, the U.S. set a goal of cutting its own carbon emissions more deeply by 2025, building on a...
John Voelcker