Viknesh Vijayenthiran, Editor
Articles
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The Smart brand has enjoyed modest success in the U.S. since its launch here back in 2007 but with a lack of any new models or updates, the oddly-designed minicar brand has fallen largely off the...
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Nissan To Release New Fuel-Saving Technologies Over Coming YearNissan has showed us the future of the automobile with its advanced Leaf all-electric vehicle but that doesn’t mean it’s game over for the internal combustion engine. Gasoline and diesel powered cars can live on, well into the future in fact, thanks to new fuel-saving technologies that Nissan...
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No Diesel Option Planned For 2011 Jeep Grand CherokeeIn Europe, more than half of the new cars sold feature a diesel engine of some form. This is because modern diesel engines, especially in turbocharged form, offer similar performance to their gasoline counterparts but with much better fuel economy. Some models are even more fuel efficient than...
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IPO Nets Tesla CEO Elon Musk A Cool $24 MillionWhen Tesla (Nasdaq:TSLA) finally listed on Nasdaq on Tuesday its share price went from $17 up to $23.89 at the end of trading, a gain of almost 41 percent in just one day alone. Scores of profit takers would have been rejoicing; among them Tesla CEO Elon Musk who managed to walk away with a cool...
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2011 Subaru Forester More Efficient Thanks To New EngineSubaru hasn’t made much of a commotion over its 2011 model year updates for the Forester range but we will as the compact SUV has been made more fuel efficient. An all-new four-cylinder ‘boxer’ engine for the base 2.5X models sees fuel economy rise to 21/27 mpg city/highway for both manual...
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BMW Teases Megacity Vehicle (MCV) Ahead Of 2013 LaunchBMW's plans for the future have been dramatic and decidedly high-tech of late, including the U.S.-bound 1-Series ActiveE and the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept, itself headed to production in the next few years. Today, BMW has released a teaser for an all-electric car under the project name...
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The 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric vehicle will be upon us soon, very soon in fact, but for a few select markets, the Volt will arrive much earlier than elsewhere.
GM has confirmed that...
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Tesla Building Next-Gen Roadster Completely In-HouseToday was a big day for Tesla, with the company’s shares finally trading on Nasdaq and investors pouring in more than $226 million into its coffers. As with any major Wall Street listing, Tesla needed to submit an IPO filing to the SEC detailing its structure, future plans and just exactly where...
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Tesla Stock Surges Nearly 41 Percent On First Day Of TradingWall Street investors rallied behind Tesla (Nasdaq:TSLA) today, with the electric car start-up’s share price surging nearly 41 percent on its first day of trading on Nasdaq. Tesla’s share price ended the day at $23.89 a share, a gain of $6.89 on its opening price of $17. Just the day before...
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Toyota Sells 2.5 Million Hybrids WorldwideHybrid vehicles have been alternately portrayed as the saviours of modern transportation or the last gasp of the dying oil-based economy. Either way, Toyota has capitalized on their popularity with its world-beating Prius, even managing to sell more than 2.5 million hybrids worldwide--and at a...
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Tesla IPO Raises More Than $226 MillionTesla (Nasdaq:TSLA), or TSLA as it will trade under on Nasdaq, has been priced at $17 per share, allowing the electric car start-up to raise more than $226 million in its IPO. Investors were expecting the share price target range to be between $14 and $16 but the overflow of excitement saw Tesla...
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Gordon Murray's T25 Minicar Finally RevealedNews of Gordon Murray's decision to build a low-cost minicar created quite a stir when it was announced last year. That stir was in part because of the key driving force behind the project, Gordon Murray, ex-McLaren F1 designer and the pen behind the Caparo T1 supercar, but also because the car...
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Now ranked as the world’s fifth-largest automaker in conjunction with its Kia subsidiary, Hyundai is making strides to build a product line that reflects its status among the world’s top...
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Video: What Would A Toyota Prius Say About You?We already know that many Toyota Prius owners have a very special bond with their cars. It’s this connection with the Prius that many rival automakers would love to emulate but are struggling to do so. Mention the word “hybrid” and the first vehicle almost everyone will think of is...
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Video: Pearl’s Story – The Life Of A Toyota Prius
Imagine if your car could talk. What would it say about you? While for the immediate future, this is largely an impossibility, one aspiring actress based on the “West Side” has envisaged just what it could be like if cars were able to talk. Alyssa Price, the proud owner of a Toyota Prius and...
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Test Drive A Chevrolet Volt With Microsoft’s New Kinect For Xbox 360
Microsoft’s New Kinect For Xbox 360 is about to revolutionize the way we play video games, while the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt will do the same in terms of the type of cars we drive. Now the two technology pioneers have come together, with new car buyers soon to have a new way of getting...
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Microsoft Offering Virtual Chevy Volt Test Drives With Kinect For Xbox 360We’ve heard a lot about the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt, read up on all the specs, even seen a few videos of prototypes doing the rounds at GM proving grounds around Michigan, but sadly, for the great majority of Americans, getting a feel for what the Volt is really like to drive is still months...
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Chinese EV Manufacturer BYD Announces New European HeadquartersHaving recently announced plans for its U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles, Chinese battery specialists and electric vehicle manufacturer BYD has now announced that it will establish its new European headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The Shenzhen-based automaker is likely to build its latest...
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The 2011 Nissan Leaf electric vehicle is set to go on sale this December and order books for the car are filling up fast, with the first year’s allotment already gone. Infiniti, too, will get its ...
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Nissan GT-R Chief Engineer Says Alternative Powerplant PossibleThe development and launch of the R35 Nissan GT-R was an epic achievement for the Japanese automaker. After all, Nissan was able design and engineer a sports car capable of outperforming exotic supercars with pricetags twice as high or more, as well as make it seat four adults in relative comfort...
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Three-Cylinder Lotus Range Extender Engine Headed For ProductionLotus Engineering, the British sports car company’s automotive consultancy division, together with parts supplier Fagor Ederlan has announced today that it plans to develop its compact three-cylinder range extender engine for production. Lotus will be handling the engineering side...
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90 Percent Of Nissan Leaf Customers New To BrandThe 2011 Nissan Leaf has been a runaway success for Nissan, with the Japanese automaker already taking in 14,000 reservations for the cute electric vehicle and order books filled out well into next year. The first Leafs--or is it Leaves?--will hit the streets in December and the big surprise is...
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Tesla IPO Doc Reveals Plans For Crossover, Cabrio And Commercial VehicleTesla has previously hinted that its electric powertrain technology could be applied to a number of vehicle platforms and that the company would eventually expand its lineup beyond the current Roadster and upcoming Model S sedan. In fact, at Tesla’s announcement of interest in acquiring a $465...
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Chrysler Has Green StrategyA few years back Chrysler was working on all manner of electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid technologies, even going so far as to release a number of concepts as well as establish a separate division called ENVI to develop them into production models. Ever since Chrysler’s bankruptcy and eventual...
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