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Cadillac Teases ELR
Anyone looking for a poorly-lit teaser of the Cadillac ELR is in luck! Cadillac just released this image in advance of the car’s debut at NAIAS in a few weeks. In addition to the CUE system, the ELR...
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Oregon Considers Per-Mile Tax On Fuel-Efficient Vehicles
“Everybody uses the road and if some pay and some don’t then that’s an unfair situation that’s got to be resolved,” said Jim Whitty, manager of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Office of...
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QOTD: What Sound Should Hybrids And EVs Make Below 18 MPH?
NHTSA is proposing to make it mandatory that hybrid cars and EVs have the ability to emit a sound when traveling below 18 mph on electric power, as a means of warning pedestrians and cyclists. The...
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Review: 2013 Ford C-MAX Energi Plug-In Hybrid (Video)
In 2005, ABC News Polls claimed the average daily commute in America was 16 miles, a number borne out in our own Facebook poll. If you have a commute like that and want an EV for commuting and a...
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VC Firms Expected To Take A Billion Dollar Bath On Fisker
PrivCo, a private corporate intelligence firm, has published a 20+ page dossier on Fisker’s seemingly strong ability to fundraise for itself, while failing to do a good job of actually creating cars....
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Media Reporting Tesla Model S As Plug-In Sales Champion: O RLY?
It’s a headline you might have seen in the past couple days: “Tesla Model S outsells Nissan Leaf (or Chevrolet Volt, you pick)”. To the layman, the story is that this amazing car from an amazing...
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Review: 2013 Chevrolet Volt (Video)
The Chevrolet Volt may be the most maligned and least understood car on the market. After a week of strange questions and bipolar reactions to GM’s plug-in hybrid, I came to a conclusion. GM’s...
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First Drive Review: 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid (With Video)
As of October, the most fuel-efficient mid-sized sedan in America is the Honda Accord. Or so Honda says. After all, Ford has been trumpeting a matching 47 MPG combined from their Fusion. Who is right?...
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Never Say Never: Hydrogen, Diesel En Vogue Again
Remember this piece from the Honda Summer 2008 Hydrogen Collection? It was supposed to point the way to future of green fuel technology before the Tesla brought plug-in sex appeal down the ramp with...
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Review: 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV (With Video)
Outside North America, this little blue pill of an A-segment car is known as the Daewoo Matiz Creative. It may look an obsolete computer peripheral (or a pregnant roller skate), but GM claims that the...
View ArticleCadillac ELR Inventories Balloon To 725 Day Supply As Dealers, Consumers...
Click here to view the embedded video. The Cadillac ELR is shaping up to be one of the biggest automotive flops in recent memory – as of May 1, inventories had expanded to a 725 day supply, with...
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Chart Of The Day: ExxonMobil Predicts Long Reign For The Internal Combustion...
The next 25 years of automotive powertrain technology belongs to the internal combustion engine, according to oil & gas giant ExxonMobil. While many will dismiss this as the wishful thinking of an...
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2016 Volvo XC90 First Drive (With Video)
Volvo seems to be on the long road to recovery. Although sales have continued to slip in the USA, the numbers were up worldwide last year. In an interesting twist, 2014 was also the first year more...
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Honda Civic Hybrid, CNG and Accord Plug-In Hybrid Models Get the Axe
UPDATE: Clarification on CR-Z at bottom. Honda is doing a bit of late spring cleaning as it looks to get its hybrid house in order. The automaker announced production of the Civic CNG has ended and...
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Report: Next-gen BMW M3 Will Be All-Wheel Drive Plug-in Hybrid
TheDetroitBureau’s Paul Eisenstein has a fine piece of reporting that the next-generation of BMW’s iconic M3 will have a hybrid, plug-in powertrain — a first for the performance sub-brand. Eisenstein...
View Article2016 BMW i8 Review – The ‘Affordable’ Plug-In Supercar
“Looks like sex, goes like stink” is the usual supercar mantra, but BMW’s guru was humming a different tune when penning the i8. You see, the i8 isn’t just a sexy car with “butterfly doors.” It’s also...
View ArticleTTAC News Round-up: Santa Fe Sports in Alabama, Tiguan With A Tether, And GMC...
Is there a Santa Fe, Alabama? If not, there will be soon. That, Volkswagen’s Tiguan + electron, who’s gonna buy all these electric cars, and you don’t really need a gas delivery service, people … after...
View ArticleNAIAS 2016: Volkswagen Tiguan GTE Active is a Plug-In Apology
Volkswagen unveiled a new plug-in hybrid concept for the Tiguan, featuring more aggressive styling than the standard model launched in Frankfurt. Interestingly, Volkswagen has positioned the...
View ArticleTTAC News Round-up: Let’s Talk Carbon Emissions, Volkswagen’s Bigger...
FCA has to clean up its act in a hurry, or pay a lot more to sell cars in the future. That, Europe wants Volkswagen to treat its owners the same as American owners, General Motors’ lawyers get down and...
View ArticleTTAC News Round-up: Don’t Leave Europe Out of the Party, Bizarre End To GM...
Volkswagen to European diesel owners: “Why you mad?” That, the mailman can’t deliver on the first lawsuit against GM, Caddies built in China and 51.3 million cars were recalled in 2015 … after the...
View ArticleBMW’s Game Plan: Connectivity, Autonomous Technology and a Whole Lot of Plug-ins
BMW Group is laying out its game plan for the future, and it includes a lot of new electric vehicles. Beyond the marketing buzzwords, there’s much similarity between BMW’s plan, released yesterday, and...
View ArticlePublic Transit Electric Avenue Certifiably Not “Awesome”
“I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but EVs are great,” John Beltz Snyder boldly writes in the opening sentence of Autoblog’s “More research shows why EVs are awesome” article. For more than 15...
View ArticleCadillac ELR Quietly Bites the Electric Dust
Rarer than an albino squirrel, the slow-selling Cadillac ELR was apparently shuffled into the afterlife three months ago. Cadillac confirmed to Automotive News that the Chevrolet Volt-based luxury...
View ArticleBMW’s New Ad is a Big Pie in Tesla’s Face
BMW has the plug-in sedan you want, no waiting. That’s the message in Bimmer’s new ad for the 330e plug-in hybrid, which takes a not very subtle jab at would-be Tesla Model 3 buyers. Titled “Wait or...
View Article2017 Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid: The Plug-in That Wants It All
With Porsche’s four-door sedan looking less and less like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Paris Motor Show will see Porsche unveil the fourth model in the Panamera line: a plug-in E-Hybrid with...
View ArticleGerman “Miracle Battery” Gets Government Safety Stamp
click “CC” for english captions When DBM Energy, an unknown German “mailbox company,” announced it would attempt a world record for the longest single-charge EV trip, the reaction from observers and...
View ArticleObama EV Credit-To-Rebate Plan Draws Opposition… From Democrats
President Obama’s goal of putting one million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015 has faced serious challenges from day one, with several studies pointing out that the goal probably isn’t achievable...
View ArticleReview: 2011 Nissan Leaf: Day One
When I was a kid I was told that by the time I was 30 we would all be piloting nuclear powered flying cars. Reality, of course, has dictated that gasoline is still the most cost effective way of...
View ArticleReview: 2011 Nissan Leaf: Day Two
Our second day with the Leaf gave us a chance to really dive into the charging realities of driving an electric vehicle. Most of us are used to filling up our car when the tank is empty or well on the...
View ArticleFeds Moving EV Tax Credits To “Cash For Clunkers” Model
Speaking at Nissan’s Smyrna, TN electric car factory, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood noted that his staff is working with Congress to make federal tax credits for plug-in car purchases available...
View ArticleReview: 2011 Nissan Leaf: Day Three
The previous day’s usage had left me in a pickle. With the 12 miles left and only nine-and-a-half hours charging time at 120V. Of course if I constantly had to remind myself, if I had a 240V charging...
View ArticleThe Curse Of The Theta Plug-In: Cadillac SRX PHEV Dies
Three times now, GM has planned to build a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version of its Theta-platform crossovers, once with the Saturn Vue, once with the Buick “Vuick” and now, according to Reuters General...
View ArticleSuzuki To Sell Plug-In Hybrid Swift
Suzuki will finally relent and will offer a plug-in hybrid version of its bestselling Swift hatchback. A lithium-ion battery will power the car for the first 30km (18.6 miles), then a gasoline engine...
View ArticleWhile The Pope Goes Green, Mortals Get Gas
The Pope is working on his green creds. When the German Pope Benedikt XVI will come to Germany in September, he will wave at the faithful from a plug-in hybrid. Made in Germany, of course. Mercedes is...
View ArticleQuote Of The Day: The Obsolescence Of Volt Edition
Fortune [via CNN]’s Alex Taylor III is clearly as disappointed as I was with Joe Nocera’s toothless, vaguely pro-Volt piece in last Sunday’s NY Times, and he’s riled up enough about it to lay down a...
View ArticlePre-Production Review: Toyota Prius Plug-In Take Two
Every time I drive a hybrid – EVERY time – someone asks: “so where do you plug it in?” It’s as if more than 10 years of hybrid sales in the USA have gone by without the public knowing that a hybrid is...
View ArticleToyota To Offer A Different Kind Of Plug-In
Toyota may not be making pure EVs widely available next year as some outlets are reporting, but it will start offering a different kind of plug-in car in 2012. We’ve already heard about Toyota’s...
View ArticleTruth Versus Advertising: Sex Is Sexier Than The Environment Edition
With the environment taking an ever-larger place in automotive advertising, it’s interesting to note that Fisker’s latest brochure puts green in its place: behind sexy. Of course these sultry images...
View ArticleReport Knocks “Big Battery” Plug-In Subsidies, Will The DOE Notice?
The main tool for the government’s crusade to get one million plug-in cars on the road by 2015 is the “Qualified Plug-In Electric Vehicle Tax Credit,” a credit that returns between $2,500 and $7,500 to...
View ArticleChart Of The Day: The Chevrolet Volt’s Sales Challenge
Is the Chevy Volt a flop? It’s a question that plenty of folks both inside the industry and beyond seem awfully curious about, and one that I’ve tried to stay away from until we had some strong data to...
View ArticleAnother Plugin Problem: A123 Warns Of “Potential Safety Issue” With Fisker...
In the ramp-up to the launch of the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, a great debate seized the engineering community: was Nissan opening itself to problems by not including a active thermal management...
View ArticleGeely Plug-In To Use Same Battery Supplier As Fisker
Geely has chosen their battery technology partner for their new plug-in hybrid vehicle, and their supplier, A123 Systems Inc., may not be a familiar name to everyone, but their wares have been used by...
View ArticleApril Plug-In Car Sales: Toyota Prius Wins, Chevrolet Volt Takes Second,...
It was a good month for the Toyota Prius Plug-In, with the newest plug-in car outselling the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf in April. Pent-up demand and the desire to outdo your neighbors in Marin...
View ArticlePre-Production Review: 2013 Honda Fit EV
Despite accounting for an incredibly small percentage of new car sales in America, the EV is all the rage in California. Rather than starting from scratch and designing an all-new car from the ground...
View ArticlePlug-In Car Sales Breakdown: June 2012
Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to take a look at our favorite automotive urination competition, the epic battle between the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf and the Toyota Prius Plug-In. Chevrolet...
View ArticleReview: 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid
Public beta tests are common in the computer world where a group of fanatics pound your beta to death and help you find the problems. In the automotive world this activity is not only rare, it runs...
View ArticlePre-Production Review: 2013 Honda Accord, Part 1
Redesigning the second best-selling midsize sedan in America is no easy task. It’s also one that doesn’t happen very often for fear of getting it wrong. Still, even with all the bad press the new Civic...
View ArticlePre-Production Review: 2013 Honda Accord – Part 2
Five days ago we released the first part of the 2013 Accord review. It’s not how we normally do things, but in order to get our hands on the second best-selling mid-size sedan in America we had to...
View ArticleA123 Wants to Void Contract with Fisker, Fisker Says That Would Disrupt...
While Johnson Controls and China’s Wanxiang Group have competing bids to acquire the assets of advanced battery maker and Fisker supplier A123, a more serious battle is occurring in U.S. Bankruptcy...
View ArticleFord’s SmartLink Plug-in Modernizes Old Cars with Wi-fi, Smartphone Alerts,...
Ford plans to offer an aftermarket device that will give older models access to new technology like remote start, 4G Wi-Fi hotspot, and smartphone alerts. According to the automaker, Ford SmartLink...
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