Antony Ingram, Contributing Writer
Articles
-
The modern wave of electric cars has brought with it many benefits, but also a few downsides.
Aside from obvious factors like the issue of range anxiety for some users or spending a little more to...
-
Top-Secret Tata Composite Car Styled By Lamborghini Countach Designer Gandini?Humble cars designed by supercar stylists are nothing new. The original Fiat Panda, one of Europe's best-loved cars through the 1980s, was the work of Giorgetto Giugiaro, best known for cars like the Lotus Esprit. The first-generation Volkswagen Golf was another Giugiaro product. Marcello Gandini...
Antony Ingram -
Toyota To Launch Production Fuel-Cell Vehicle At CES In Las VegasTypically, the latest new vehicles are released at one of the year's major auto shows--January's Detroit Auto Show, for example, or the Geneva Motor Show in March. For Toyota's production fuel-cell vehicle though, the Japanese automaker has chosen January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las...
Antony Ingram -
2014 BMW i3: Cheaper To Repair, Insure Than You'd ExpectCarbon fiber is not a cheap material. If it was, we'd all be driving around in cars made from it--rather than it being limited to a few supercars and high-end sports cars. And the BMW i3, of course. The expense of its carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) chassis might lead you to assume repairing...
Antony Ingram -
Blackout? No Problem For Leaf-Powered Office BuildingJapan's geological instability poses a real energy problem for the country--as witnessed during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster. Generating power and transmitting it to homes and businesses can be difficult following an earthquake or Tsunami, which is why...
Antony Ingram -
Ford EcoSport Compact Crossover: Forbidden Fruit First DriveLast year, Nissan sold over 230,000 examples of its Juke compact crossover worldwide. MINI sold over 100,000 Countryman and Paceman models. Kia moved nearly 400,000 Sportage crossovers. The message here is that subcompact and compact crossovers are big business. Ford knows this, which is why its...
Antony Ingram -
Diesel has been an option for heavy-duty pickup users for quite some time now, and the sights and sounds of a big Power Stroke-equipped Ford or Cummins-engined RAM will be quite familiar to most.
...
-
All-In-One Wheel For E-Bicycles: Battery Two-Wheelers To Swamp Electric Cars?When debating the merits of electric cars, hybrids, hydrogen and other alternative fuels, it's easy to get tied down in the notion they're the solution to all our transport problems. They aren't of course--they're just a solution. Improvements to public transit, encouraging people to walk a little...
Antony Ingram -
Audi To Show Electric Crossover Concept At 2014 Detroit Auto ShowAudi will show a new crossover concept at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show in January. Nothing surprising there you might think--Audi has a crossover concept for just about every month of the year. But this one is a little different, as it wears a badge on its flank we've seen before: e-tron. That means...
Antony Ingram -
Honda Insight Hybrid To Be Canned By 2015?Honda's Insight has never enjoyed the success of the Toyota Prius or even Honda's own Civic Hybrid, and it looks like the writing is now finally on the wall for the budget hybrid hatchback. According to Autoblog Green, sources within the company have revealed that some preparation procedures...
Antony Ingram -
GM Expands Landfill-Gas Use To Power Car Assembly PlantsCar production isn't the greenest of processes, but in recent decades many automakers have at least made attempts to reduce environmental impact--and General Motors is the latest to take a step towards improving it. The automaker has announced a $24 million investment in the use of landfill gas at...
Antony Ingram -
Envia's High-Energy Battery Cell Mired In Dispute, GM Cancels DealResearchers and development firms regularly reveal battery-technology breakthroughs. Now, Envia Systems--one company that gained much public attention by promising such a breakthrough--faces two lawsuits. One claims that Envia stole its technology from other companies. And General Motors, which...
Antony Ingram -
Save for a few electric vehicles on the fringes of the market--the Tesla Model S, for example, or the tiny Smart Electric Drive--most subcompact and compact electric cars currently offer a range of...
-
Supercar Maker Saleen Confirms Electric Car Plans"A trend, not a fad" is how American supercar builder Saleen has described electric cars--and why it intends to build its own in the next few years. That's an impressive commitment from a company best known for gas-guzzling supercars like the Saleen S7 and highly-modified versions of the Ford...
Antony Ingram -
2015 Chevy Colorado Mid-Size Pickup To Offer Diesel OptionNeed a pickup truck but don't want to see your wages burned away at the gas station? A diesel truck could be just what you need. Chevrolet will be latest to offer such an option when it equips the 2015 Colorado mid-size pickup with a diesel engine. When the Colorado arrives next year, the range...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Mitsubishi i-MiEV: $6,130 Price Cut, More Standard FeaturesJust a dozen examples of Mitsubishi's i-MiEV electric car rolled off dealer lots in November, and little more than a thousand have found homes since the start of the year. That number may climb when the 2014 model goes on sale though--as Mitsubishi has just announced a massive $6,130 price drop for...
Antony Ingram -
UPDATE: Tesla Wins Vs Ohio Car Dealers, Amendment DefeatedOnce more into the fray: Another state's car dealers are pushing for legislation to ban Tesla Motors from selling its electric cars directly to buyers. This time it's Ohio. And legislators have unexpectedly moved up a hearing on the new law to today, according to a letter from Tesla Motors...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Lexus Hybrids: Ultimate GuideAs part of the Toyota empire, Lexus was one of the first carmakers to realize the potential of hybrids, and the company now has a wide range of hybrids, competing in several market classes. So successful has Lexus's hybrid range been, that the company has now sold over half a million--and with new...
Antony Ingram -
Norway loves electric cars. So much so that last month, over a tenth of all the new cars sold had a plug.
When the figure in other countries worldwide is usually in the fractions of a percent range,...
-
Audi Q1 Compact Crossover Confirmed, Due 2016The last few years have seen dozens of new crossovers join the market, and latest into the fray is the Audi Q1, set to appear in 2016. The appeal of crossover vehicles is clear--they offer the looks and some of the ability of SUVs, but their car-based origins means better on-road handling, better...
Antony Ingram -
Saab 9-3 Production Restarts, Electric Version Still PlannedSaab's cars may not have appealed to everyone, but many a gearhead shed a tear when the Swedish automaker went bankrupt back in 2011. There's just something likeable about Saabs, and the company had a rich heritage that looked destined to cease as the last 9-3s and 9-5s rolled off the line. But the...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Lexus CT 200h: Same Price, Same Economy, Different FaceLexus recently displayed its updated CT 200h compact luxury hybrid at the Los Angeles Auto Show, and now full details of the refreshed model have landed. It's disappointing news for anyone hoping for efficiency improvements though, as the 2014 CT 200h features identical economy to the 2013 model...
Antony Ingram -
Is $25K Still The Barrier For Electric Car Ownership?How much would you be prepared to pay for an electric car with similar day-to-day capabilities to your existing vehicle? $40,000 perhaps? Maybe you'd shoot lower for a $30,000 sticker price. That's still too high for most customers, according to a new survey by Navigant Research (via Autoblog). In...
Antony Ingram -
Suzuki Every Electric Car Does 800 Miles, Sets New Japanese Range RecordA few years ago, the concept of an electric car achieving 300 miles on a charge was virtually unheard of. That made one duo's achievement in a Tesla Roadster very special indeed, even if their average speed was relatively low. But now, you can do that with a Tesla Model S and a few eco driving...
Antony Ingram