Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, Contributing Writer
Articles
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Imagine the scene: you’re an advertising executive for General Motors given the task of finding new and exciting ways to promote the Chevrolet Volt’s sponsorship of the annual Coachella...
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Is It A Hybrid Or Electric Car? In Massachusetts, Check The PlateThese days, unless you’re an ardent fan of hybrid or electric cars, it can be pretty hard to tell them apart from their gasoline equivalents. For the average motorist it isn’t an issue, but for first responders attending the scene of an accident, it’s important to know what a...
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Audi Gives More Details On 2013 Q5 Hybrid Quattro SUVEver since Audi unveiled the A5 Hybrid Quattro SUV at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, we have to admit to being a little excited about seeing it reach the U.S. market. Now, Audi has given us a little more insight into the model, due to hit the U.S. some time this year as a 2013 year model...
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Coda Plans Second Electric Car, Withdraws DoE Loan ApplicationWhen Coda Automotive started production and sales of its 2012 Sedan earlier this year, it ended years of doubt and confusion about the firm’s abilities to bring a highway-capable electric car to market. Yesterday, Coda CEO Phil Murtaugh confirmed Coda’s intent to manufacture a second...
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Want A Brand-New 5-Year-Old Toyota Prius Hybrid? Head For MiamiBelieve it or not, the Toyota Prius has been available in the U.S. for over a decade. Aimed at a much more mainstream market than the first two generations of Prius Hybrid, the 2012 Toyota Prius Liftback, 2012 Toyota Prius V, 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid and 2012 Toyota Prius C offer the best...
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2012 Mitsubishi i Wants You To Be Free From ElectriphobiaLet’s face it. The U.S. auto industry hasn’t always been very good at advertising the benefits of the electric car. Among them of course, General Motor’s infamous 1996 ad for its EV-1, the cringe-worthy Chevy Volt Dance, the Nissan Leaf Bear Hug ad, and of course, Nissan’s...
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There was a time when hybrid drivetrains were only used in ultra-green cars like the venerable Toyota Prius.
In recent years however, even automakers like Ferrari have embraced the concept of hybrid...
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Bentley EXP 9 F Concept SUV: Will Come With V-6 Plug-in Hybrid OptionEarlier this spring at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, Bentley pulled the covers off the EXP9 F Concept, its first ever SUV in its 94-year history. Now, just six-weeks later at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show, the luxury automaker has confirmed details of the range of engines it plans to offer with the EXP...
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Audi Unveils A6 L e-tron Plug-in Hybrid: 2012 Beijing Auto ShowEarlier today, German automaker Audi unveiled the latest in its e-tron plug-in concept cars at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show. Based upon the A6 L, a highly-popular Chinese-only variant of the A6 sedan, the A6 L e-tron plug-in hybrid concept combines a 2.0-liter turbocharged, direct injected gasoline...
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Ford Shares EcoBoost, High MPG, Small Engine Math: InfographicFor years, the V-engine has dominated the American auto industry. Thanks to increasing gas prices and tougher gas-mileage and emissions targets however, the V-6 and V-8 engines once found in everything from family cars to pickup trucks are being slowly replaced by smaller, direct-injection...
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Domino’s Electric Delivery Scooter: Best New Alert SoundToday is Friday, which means we, like many other editorial teams around the world, are on the lookout for a fun, lighthearted story to end the week. This week, our chosen light-hearted story comes courtesy of the humble pizza delivery scooter. Hated in cities worldwide for their annoying, buzzing...
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Will Electric-Car Charging Stations Get 'Roaming' Or Stay Proprietary?There’s an ongoing joke among electric car owners that every new electric car should come with a free wallet. Why? To store the array of cards, tags and access keys that electric car drivers inevitably collect to gain access to an increasingly complicated public charging network. Earlier this...
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Once upon a time, if you wanted to buy a used car, the place to start your search was the local used car dealer or newspaper listings.
Over the past decade however, searching for a used car has...
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Electric Car Charging Stations Replaces Gas Station: Is This A First?We’ve often heard people muse that electric car charging stations need to be as ubiquitous as the humble gas station. In fact, we’ve even encountered rare occasions where electric car charging stations are offered alongside regular and premium, but what if electric car charging stations...
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Sales Of Diesel Cars Rise By 40 Percent In 1 Year, But...They might get impressive gas mileage and be great for towing, but it isn’t a secret that most Americans hate diesel-powered cars. Historically, diesel-powered cars account for less than one percent of all new passenger car sales in the U.S., but according to data released by a non-profit...
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2012 Empulse, Empulse R Electric Sports Motorcycles Coming May 8Over the past few years, while we've seen a slow and steady increase in the number of electric cars available on the market, the electric motorcycle industry has positively exploded. Primarily designed to satisfy the commuting needs of inner-city residents, most electric motorcycles and scooters...
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Fisker Focuses On Karma Sales, Delaware Factory In HibernationFor Fisker Automotive, the last twelve months haven’t been exactly easy. Beset by delays, recalls and even a legal case from an irate investor, Fisker hit a low point in February when it was forced to lay off workers after missing deadlines associated with much-needed U.S. Department of...
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11 Months, 36,000 Miles In A Nissan Leaf Electric Car? No ProblemIn the minds of many consumers, electric cars like the 2012 Nissan Leaf are over-priced, second-cars that are only capable of short trips around town. We’ve proven that sentiment wrong ourselves, covering just over 15,000 miles in a year in our 2011 Nissan Leaf. Earlier this week however, we...
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Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of speculation surrounding the actual cost to automakers of the lithium-ion battery packs used in most modern electric cars.
Unfortunately, the...
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Honda Starts Hybrid Battery Pack Rare Earth Metal RecyclingOver the past few decades, demand for rare earth metals, has dramatically increased. So called because they are difficult to find in large deposits and often difficult to mine, rare earth metals are used in everything from electronics devices to hybrid and electric car battery packs. Now increased...
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Volvo Unboxes V60 Plug-in Hybrid...LiterallyUnless you’ve been living in a tech-free bubble for the past decade, you’re probably familiar with the concept of the unboxing video. Common since Internet video-sharing site YouTube became popular, the archetypal unboxing video documents the almost ceremonial removal of a new computer...
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Small Four-Cylinder Engines Are Here To StayThere was a time when most car buyers looked on small capacity four-cylinder engines with distain. To them, unless an engine had 6-cylinders or more, it was over-stressed, underpowered and only fit for use in small European or Japanese economy cars. Nowadays, increases in gas prices, combined with...
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2012 Ford Focus Electric To Pace NASCAR RaceSince it was officially launched at the end of last year, only a handful of 2012 Ford Focus Electric hatchbacks have been sold. That’s hardly surprising considering Ford has been particularly cautious about spending large amounts of money advertising its first production electric car. In...
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Does Public Charging Network Confusion Hurt Electric-Car Use?Ask most non-electric car drivers why they haven’t even considered an electric car, and the reason they give will undoubtedly involve some form of range anxiety: the idea that an electric car will run out of juice before it reaches its destination. On the other hand, as those who own an...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield