Antony Ingram, Contributing Writer
Articles
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Yesterday we reported that two companies, VL Automotive and China's Wanxiang Group, had put in a bid for struggling automaker Fisker Automotive.
It's now become clear just how little the ailing...
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Auto Exhaust Contributes To Clogged Arteries, Study FindsYou learn something new every day: Cholesterol, a little like bacteria, comes in body "good" and "bad" forms. All those low-cholesterol spread adverts have been lying to us! What's more worrying is that good cholesterol can change into bad cholesterol, and it could be car exhaust fumes that make it...
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Gasoline, Diesel, Hybrids And Plug-Ins: The Efficiency LeadersIt's official: Cars really are getting more efficient. Not that there isn't a long way still to go, but virtually every month statistics emerge to suggest the average fuel efficiency of vehicles in the U.S. has gone up another few fractions of a percent. There are still winners and losers though...
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VW To Help Prevent Diesel Misfueling With Dealer RetrofitIt's ironic that one of the best characteristics of modern diesels is also their downfall, for many owners. New diesels are so refined, and some owners so unused to filling with diesel, that they accidentally fill their cars with gasoline--resulting in a breakdown. To help prevent this, Volkswagen...
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U.S. Perfectly Placed For Algae-Based Biofuel ProductionThe U.S. is sitting on top of a fuel goldmine, it seems. Not shale gas or crude oil, but fresh water and suitable land to produce 25 billion gallons of algae-based biofuel--a month's worth of the country's fuel needs each year. The discovery comes from the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific...
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Lexus IS Coupe Planned For 2014, Plug-In Hybrid Due?Lexus has announced a coupe version of its compact luxury sedan, the IS, will go on sale in 2014. The company hasn't confirmed whether a hybrid version will be made, though with the latest IS inspired by last year's LF-CC concept, itself a hybrid, such a thing is likely. The coupe is expected to...
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Previously unknown brand VL Automotive surprised Detroit Auto Show goers earlier this year by unveiling the Destino--a V-8-powered luxury sedan based heavily on the Fisker Karma.
Now, with Fisker...
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2013 Ford Fusion Energi Gets Top Safety Ratings From NHTSA, IIHSThe belief that electric cars must somehow perform badly in crashes is slowly being eroded, with many well-known examples scoring well in crash tests around the world. The 2013 Ford Fusion Energi, the plug-in hybrid variant of Ford's midsize offering, is the latest to join that list, with a top...
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Infiniti's 'Luxury Leaf' Electric Car Will Wait For Inductive ChargingIt's been a few years since Infiniti confirmed it was working on a luxury sedan based on the Nissan Leaf, but little extra information has emerged since then. Autocar reports the firm is still working on such a vehicle--it's just waiting for inductive charging technology to become commonplace...
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NJ Per-Mile Tax Already Scrapped, Electric Car Fee Proposed InsteadA New Jersey senator's plan to drop gas tax and charge all vehicles a per-mile fee has already been scrapped, according to reports. Instead, Asbury Park Press reports the state is now looking towards a flat fee of $50 for electric vehicles. The state is one of several exploring ways to account for...
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Toyota Accelerates Switch To Lithium-Ion Batteries, Still Lags OthersToyota is one of few automakers still using nickel-metal hydride batteries in its hybrid vehicles, but that could change for its next generation vehicles. Reuters reports that the company aims to boost production of more common lithium-ion technology by six times for its future products. Toyota has...
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Sales Of Renault Zoe Off To Strong Start In France, Trounces LeafTesla's Model S might be making all the headlines, but there's a smaller, more accessible electric car with equally high expectations placed upon it. That electric car is the Renault Zoe, sold only in Europe and tasked with making electric cars a usable proposition for the masses. And to a small...
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With Chevy's Volt topping customer satisfaction surveys for the last few years running, it's no surprise to hear that other plug-in electric cars are also popular with owners.
A new survey from the...
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Two-Thirds Of 2020 Vehicles Will Be Four Cylinders, Ford SaysFour-cylinder engines, often equipped with turbochargers, are very much in vogue at the moment. It's unlikely to change any time soon, either, with Ford predicting that two thirds of U.S. vehicle sales will comprise smaller-capacity four-cylinder units by 2020. That figure represents a fast climb...
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Electric Vehicle Sets Longest-Distance-Traveled Record...On Another Planet!A vehicle journey of just over 22 miles hasn't really been cause for celebration since the dawn of the motor car itself, when low speeds and unpaved roads made it more arduous than it would have been on the equine alternative. But transpose that figure to another planet and well, it starts to look...
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Gumball Supercar Rally Now Carbon Neutral, But Hardly GreenIf you've not heard of the Gumball 3000 before, it's fairly simple to explain. Blend hundreds of well-heeled supercar and sports car owners, a few thousand miles of roads, intersperse with fancy hotels and not-always-entirely-legal driving, and serve to the public. Given those ingredients, you'll...
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The 60 MPG Honda Civic... Not Sold In The U.S.The most frugal Civic U.S. drivers can currently buy is the 2013 Civic Hybrid. The low-key sedan manages 44 mpg in city, highway and combined driving, sips gasoline, and goes about its business with relative anonymity. In Europe, things are a little different. There, the Civic is a five-door...
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Mitsubishi Electric Race Car To Tackle Pikes Peak Hill Climb Once AgainMitsubishi caused a stir at last year's Pikes Peak hill climb with its electric i-MiEV Evolution race car, and the team is returning this year to challenge for overall honors. While last year's racer was loosely based on the i-MiEV or 'i' electric road car, the new MiEV Evolution II makes no such...
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Hybrids are hot property right now, but none more so than at the very top end of the market.
Ferrari's unimaginatively-named LaFerrari, the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918 will all utilize hybrid...
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Hybrid Cars: Six Important Things Everyone Should Know (But May Not)Hybrid cars are increasing in popularity all the time in the U.S, but they still make only a small proportion of new vehicle sales, and as such some people still aren't clued-up on their benefits. Hybrids use two powertrains--in the U.S, that's generally a gasoline engine and electric motors...
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BMW CEO To Germans: Get Over Your Angst, Buy Electric Cars Already!It's a tough job selling electric cars anywhere in huge numbers at the moment, with much of the buying public still skeptical of the potential benefits. Spare a thought for those trying to sell electric cars in Germany then, where buyers are traditionally even more conservative in their tastes. To...
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Acura NSX Hybrid Supercar To Be Designed, Built Here In U.S.The Honda NSX sports car is ingrained into Japanese car culture, but the latest model will be every bit as American as it is Japanese. Sold under the Acura brand in the U.S, Honda has now announced the new hybrid supercar will be produced at the company's Performance Manufacturing Center in Ohio...
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Elon Musk Answers Qs About Tesla In 2010: Rate His ResponsesElon Musk isn't a man who minces his words--few people in his position get to where they are by being shy and retiring. That means the Paypal, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] and SpaceX executive is always good for a soundbite, and there are quite a few in this Time interview from 2010. Such a great deal...
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Low-Cost Truck For Developing Countries To Come In Flat PackageThe dispersal of automobiles is quite an uneven one. For every three or four-car household in the developed world, there are huge swathes of land in developing countries without access to any sort of motorized transport however badly they may need it. One British entrepreneur hopes to change that...
Antony Ingram