Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, Contributing Writer
Articles
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Modern diesel-engined cars are quiet, provide lots of torque, get great gas mileage and are much cleaner than diesel engines of yore.
Prejudice, however, not to mention some old-fashioned snobbery...
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A Free Electric Car With Every Gas-Guzzler? It’s Happening In Spain
As we pointed out yesterday, sales of purely electric cars in the U.S. aren’t as high as many in the industry hoped they would be. In an attempt to get more customers, Nissan has lowered the lease prices of its 2012 Nissan Leaf SV and 2012 Nissan Leaf SL, while automakers in Europe have...
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EVSE Upgrade Testing 6.6-kW Upgrade To Halve Leaf Charging Time
In the world of electric cars, there are a great number of engineers who like to tweak, modify, and improve the various electric cars on the market today. So far we’ve seen everything from advanced remote monitoring devices to jet-powered range extenders, but now one prolific Californian...
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Lexus HS 250h Hybrid Car Recalled For Potential Loose Suspension Fault
Lexus is voluntarily recalling some of its now-discontinued HS 250h entry-level hybrid luxury sedans after it determined that incorrectly-adjusted components on the rear suspension arm could age prematurely and cause suspension failure. According to its official release, the safety recall only...
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The Rest Of The World Loves The 2013 Chevy Spark: Will Americans?
There’s something about the tiny 2013 Chevrolet Spark that has made General Motors go crazy for infographics. We’ve already seen Chevrolet use them to compare the pint-sized Spark to a 1973 full-size car. Now they’re back to prove how popular the tiny Spark is around the world...
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Google Adds Clout To Electric-Car Charging At Work Effort
If you drive an electric car on a daily basis, the chances are your car has more than enough range to tackle the daily commute on a single charge, so charging at work isn't a concern. Unless that is, you’re one of the few to drive well beyond the range of a round trip, and already have a...
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Cheaper, Older Outgoing 2012 Chevy Malibu More Popular Than New 2013 Malibu Eco Model Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
When an existing car model gets redesigned for a new model year, automakers and dealers often offer big discounts and incentives to anyone willing to buy the outgoing model.
Usually, some car buyers...
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Tesla Sued Over New Mexico Model S Factory That Never Was
Tesla Motors’ decision to purchase the former NUMMI automotive manufacturing facility in Fremont, California might have been one of its shrewdest business decisions to date. Not only did Tesla Motors [NASAQ:TSLA] obtain a pre-built facility --complete with the essential machinery it needed to...
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Electric Car Running Flat? The AAA Has You Covered
You want to drive an all-electric car, but you've got range anxiety: the fear that you'll run out of charge in the middle of no where, miles away from the nearest charging station. Now there's a solution that lets you drive an all-electric car and know you'll not get stranded without hope. Enter...
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2014 Porsche 918 Spyder Tackles Nurbürgring, Announces Martini Sponsorship
Between 1973 and 1978, Porsche race teams were sponsored by Martini, favorite tipple of fictional British spy James Bond. Now the pairing is set to make a comeback with a special edition of Porsche’s highly-anticipated 2014 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid. Still a year away from launch, the latest...
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2013 Dodge Dart: Automatic Cars On The Way In August
It’s a well-known fact that most Americans prefer to drive cars with automatic gearboxes over ones with manual transmissions, while others are unsure of how to drive stick at all. So it’s no surprise that Chrysler -- whose manual transmission 2013 Dodge Dart launched earlier this year...
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Analyst Predicts 4.1 Million Electric Car Charging Stations By 2017
There are currently 10,000 or so publicly-available electric car charging stations in the U.S., in addition to countless private charging stations in homes and businesses across the nation. The current number of charging stations in the U.S. today makes electric cars trump all other...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
When General Motors began producing the Chevrolet Volt in 2010, many staunch electric car fans dismissed it, saying its on-board gasoline engine meant it was only a hybrid, not a true electric car.
...
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GE WattStation Vindicated, Leaf Blamed In Charging Station Woes
It isn’t a good time to be Nissan right now. For a start, its first all-electric car, the 2012 Leaf, is suffering from poor sales. Then there’s the matter of Leafs in hot states like Arizona exhibiting premature battery capacity loss to attend to. Then, over the weekend, more bad news...
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How Many Miles Are Enough To Kill Electric-Car Range Anxiety?
Range anxiety, or the fear that an electric car will run out of charge before you reach your destination. is a real and present fear for many first-time electric car drivers and buyers. Even though research clearly shows that present electric cars can satisfy the requirements of 95 percent of all...
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2012 BMW ActiveHybrid 5: What Do You Want To Know?
Although we try very hard to put cars through a variety of tests on a variety of roads when we carry out our first drive reports, it’s not always possible to gauge what day-to-day life would really be like for real-life owners. So when possible, we try to spend more than a few hours with a...
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2012 Chevrolet Volt: Most Loved Compact Car, Most Satisfied Drivers
According to a recent, very peppy General Motors ad campaign, many Chevrolet Volt owners are brimming with enthusiasm about their plug-in hybrid. Then again, having Chevy Volt owners evangelize about their cars in an ad designed to sell the plug-in hybrid is hardly a fair yardstick to gauge how...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Chevy Volt Buyer Proves You're Never Too Old To Buy An Electric Car
If you examine the demographics of the ‘average’ electric car buyer, you’re likely to find out that they are educated to at least college level, drive less than 50 miles per day, and have a household income of at least $125,000 a year. The mean age of an electric car buyer? Just...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Look back a few years, and the Federal government under President George Bush offered buyers of hybrid cars up to $3,400 in tax credits for buying an electric car.
As of December 31, 2010, those tax...
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Tesla Buoyant After 2012 Model S Launch, Despite Losses
After nothing to sell for nearly six months, an age of anticipation, media hype and short, chaperoned rides, Tesla began official deliveries of its all-electric 2012 Model S sedan just over a month ago. So its hardly surprising that the fledgling car company has just posted net losses of $105.6...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
BMW ActiveHybrid 7 Priced At $84K, Gas Mileage Yet Unknown
What’s the price of luxury green driving? If you’re BMW, and that luxury is the all-new 2013 ActiveHybrid 7 full hybrid, the answer is $84,895. With pricing just announced, the luxury hybrid is powered by 3.0-liter, twin-scroll turbocharged inline six-cylinder engine and a 40-kilowatt...
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Volkswagen Golf Blue-e-motion: Prototype Drive Report (Video)
Driving pre-production prototypes of new electric cars is part of life here at GreenCarReports, as it enables us to give you the best possible evaluation of an up-coming new car before it hits the dealer lots. Recently however, we got a chance to sit behind the wheel again of the Volkswagen Golf...
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2013 Chevrolet Spark Automatic: 37 MPG Highway, 32 MPG Combined
Earlier this month, we told you that the diminutive 2013 Chevrolet Spark with manual 5-speed transmission had received official EPA ratings of 32 mpg city, 38 mpg highway and 34 mpg combined. Now Chevrolet has received the ratings for the 2013 Spark with automatic 4-speed gearbox: 28 mpg city, 37...
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Ford’s Urgent 2013 Escape Recall Is Quick, Painless
Regardless of the reason behind them, official safety recalls can be frustrating for both automakers and car owners. But according to Gregory Skwira, copy editor for Automotive News (subscription required), his own personal experience of Ford’s urgent recall of the 2013 Escape crossover SUV...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield