Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, Contributing Writer
Articles
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A few weeks ago while borrowing a 2012 Ford Focus Electric, Forbes writer Todd Woody experienced what he described as Electric Car Road Rage: fear and anger associated with unsuccessfully trying to...
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2013 Hyundai Elantra Coupe, GT: 40MPG Highway, Less Than $20k
Earlier this year at the Chicago Auto Show, Hyundai announced the expansion of its highly-popular Elantra line by announcing two new models for 2013. Now we know that both cars -- the 2013 Elantra Coupe and 2013 Elantra GT Five-door hatchback -- will go on sale for less than $20,000. Powered by the...
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Mazda To Supply SkyActiv-D Diesels For 2013 Le Mans Teams
If you’re not directly involved with the high-octane world of 24-hour endurance racing, it’s easy to forget that races like last weekend’s 24 Heures Du Mans take months -- even years -- to prepare for. On Saturday, Mazda reminded us of just that fact by announcing its intention to...
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Want To Go Racing In Your Electric Car? Refuel 2012 Set For July 1
It’s all very well reading about the electric exploits of hill-climbing all-electric race cars and the 0-60 times of purpose-built electric drag cars, but sometimes there’s no substitute for experiencing the joy of electric motorsport first hand. In a little over two weeks, that’s...
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Toyota’s New Electric Car Is One Your Kids, Not You, Will Want To Drive
If children are the future, then how do we get them driving clean, green electric cars? It’s a question we’ve thought a lot about, but Toyota thinks it has come up with a solution, with a new three-seat electric concept car that your kids can drive. As Automotive News (subscription...
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2012 Ford Focus Electric SmartPhone App, Website, Goes Live
According to our own reckoning, Ford hasn’t really sold that many 2012 Ford Focus Electric cars to non fleet customers. For those who have made the purchase however, the automaker has announced its smartphone iPhone app and website are now live, letting customers remotely interact with their...
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For as long as we care to remember, U.S. roads have hummed to the tune of the V-6 and V-8. Low-stressed and powerful, we’ve used V-engines in everything from pickup trucks and hotrods to family...
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Working Infiniti Emerg-E To Tackle Goodwood Hillclimb Later This Month
For the U.K. automotive industry, the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed is a not-to-miss annual event, culminating in its world-famous hillclimb event. Last year, we saw Nissan’s Leaf Nismo RC all-electric race car tackle the iconic 1.16-mile course, but this year we’ll see...
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2013 Ford Escape With EcoBoost: On Its Way To Dealers Now
Fitted with Ford’s latest green engine technology, the 2013 Ford Escape has started to roll off the production line at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky. Starting at $22,470, the compact crossover SUV has undergone a complete redesign for this year, giving it a strong family...
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2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Production Starts, Due Q4, 2012
Earlier this week, Daimler started production of the 2013 Smart ForTwo electric drive at its Hamback, facility in France. The third-generation all-electric Smart ForTwo, the 2013 model is the first electric Smart that will be sold as well as leased. Unlike previous versions, which we felt were...
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Forget The Prius: 2012 Scion iQ Takes Google Street View Where Other Cars Can’t
When computer software giant Google first unleashed its camera-equipped Streetview cars in the U.S. to photograph and map her roads, it chose the humble Toyota Prius as its workhorse. That’s fine for modern-day cities with large, multi-lane roads, but in Europe, Google has discovered the...
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How Clean Is Your Electric Car? Online Tool Helps You Find Out
If you’re looking to buy an electric car, you’re probably familiar with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Fuel Economy website, which lists the gas mileage of every car on sale today along with the miles per gallon equivalent rating for every plug-in car. Unfortunately, the...
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Just as those buying an electric car have a choice of several different models to chose from, there are many different charging stations that individuals, businesses and local government can chose to...
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2012 Chevrolet Volt Owners Help With Peppy Volt Ad Campaign
Just how do you advertise a plug-in car like the 2012 Chevrolet Volt? In the two years since advertising for General Motors’ first plug-in hybrid started, GM has tried a whole bunch of different tactics. Sadly, to date, very few have been successful, focusing on why you should want a Chevy...
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2011 Nissan Leaf Battery Capacity Loss: Nissan Responds
Just under a month ago, we reported a few cases in which owners of 2011 Nissan Leafs had noticed the first of twelve lights on their car’s battery capacity gauge had switched off, indicating a marked deterioration in battery capacity after just one year. Now Nissan has released an official...
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Raw Diesel Fumes Worse Than Second-Hand Smoke, Says W.H.O.
Diesel cars might get great gas mileage when compared to their gasoline counterparts, but now the World Health Organization has warned that diesel fumes are now known to prove lung cancer. In fact, the W.H.O. says, diesel fumes are more carcinogenic than secondhand cigarette smoke. So dangerous, it...
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First BMW i Store Opens in London, i3 Concept Gets New Interior
If you’ve ever visited central London in England and visited its famous Hyde Park, the chances are you’ve also seen one of BMW’s most prestigious showrooms, located along the highly-expensive and exclusive Park Lane. Now, weeks ahead of the BMW-sponsored 2012 London Olympic games...
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Consumer Reports Hates 2012 Mitsubishi I’s Range: Is It Right?
Mitsubishi’s tiny egg-shaped electric car known as the 2012 Mitsubishi i is currently the cheapest electric car you can buy in the U.S. Starting at $29,125 before incentives, the 2012 Mitsubishi i features seating for four adults, a 16 kilowatt-hour battery pack, and an EPA-approved range of...
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Talk to any electric car owner, and it’s likely they’ll tell you how little money they spend on running their plug-in car.
For them, the switch to electric pays dividends in saved gas...
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2013 Ford Focus ST: Mean, Green, With Overboosted Ecoboost
Can a sporty car also be a green car? And can you add performance boosts to a green engine without making it a gas-guzzler? For thinks the answer is yes. Enter the 2013 Ford Focus ST, the latest in a long-line of motorsport-inspired performance Ford Focus STs, but the first Focus ST to be sold in...
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Bigger Batteries Key To Better Quick Charging For Electric Cars
To help make electric cars more palatable for long-distance driving, the 2012 Nissan Leaf SL and 2012 Mitsubishi i can be rapid-charged from empty to 80 percent full in around 30 minutes using specially-designed Chademo rapid charge stations. For those using them, rapid charge stations provide a...
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Buying A High-MPG Car This Summer? You Might Have A Wait
Thanks to improved designs, lightweight materials, turbochargers, direct injection and even better gearbox design, cars on dealers’ lots today get far better gas mileage than cars made in the past few years. But while buyers are keen to buy the latest generation of green, high-mpg cars, some...
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Toyota Enters Electric Car Into Pikes Peak Hill Climb
This year’s annual Pikes Peak hill climb is shaping up to be something pretty spectacular for electric vehicle fans. After last year’s race, which saw the all-electric Yokohama HER-02 set a new course with a time of 12 minutes and 20 seconds, we’ve seen official entries already...
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2013 Nissan Altima: The Most Fuel-Efficient Mid-Size Car You Can Buy
Featuring some pretty nifty fuel-saving technology, like its redesigned continuously variable transmission and Easy Fill Tire Alert System, the 2013 Nissan Altima has always promised to be a green car. But now it’s official: according to the EPA, the 2013 Nissan Altima is the most...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield