Hybrids

Toyota on Monday announced it would accelerate its vehicle electrification plans as part of an overarching strategy to reduce fleet-wide carbon emissions by as much as 90 percent from 2010 levels, by the year 2050. Under the accelerated plans, Toyota hopes to have every model in the Toyota and...

The latest General Motors patent underscores how busy the automaker's powertrain engineers have been. The automaker received a patent approval for a high-compression, twin-charged hybrid powertrain in October, AutoGuide reported Wednesday. And when we say "high compression," we're talking...

The United States will be among the first countries to be offered the new Polestar 1 when the plug-in hybrid coupe starts deliveries in 2019. The others will include Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany and China. Polestar says the countries were selected in part due to the level of interest...

Polestar, now its own brand within Volvo Cars Group, unveiled its first production car this past October, the Polestar 1. Although the car possesses a stunning design and impressive performance specs, it won't be a mass-market vehicle, thanks to difficult production processes. The brand plans for...

The BMW Group is committed to launching 25 electrified cars by 2025, 12 of which will be battery-powered electrics. The automaker on Tuesday revealed the full schedule for the 25 cars along with a few tentative details. The first two cars out of the 25 have already been revealed. They are the BMW...

Even the best-kept secret at the 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show was whispered in Jeep hallways years ago, the automaker’s CEO said last week. “Electrification was always on the books for Jeep—it was inevitable,” Jeep CEO Mike Manley told Motor Authority on Wednesday. Only...

A company that specializes in building concept cars for the major automakers as well as other limited production vehicles unveiled its own concept on Thursday at the 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show. The company is California’s Aria Group, which is celebrating its 21st anniversary this year with...

BMW’s i8 plug-in hybrid sports car can now be ordered as a convertible. BMW took the covers off the new i8 Roadster on Wednesday at the 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show, where the automaker also announced some updates for the i8 coupe. It was all the way back in 2012 when we first saw a concept of...

Last week, Mercedes-Benz showed off what to expect from its next-generation compact luxury cars' interiors. Upon closer inspection, the photos also revealed an A-Class plug-in hybrid is forthcoming. Virtuel Car first noticed the small detail and published the images on Tuesday. Looking closely at...

Ford loves a good police vehicle. Earlier this year, Ford showed us the first pursuit-rated Hybrid police vehicle. The Blue Oval also offered the 2018 Expedition for police use. Now Ford is bringing a plug-in hybrid sedan into active duty. It's called the Special Service Plug-In Hybrid Sedan. Based...

A handful of European nations have recently announced calls to drastically reduce vehicle emissions and in some cases ban completely the sale of cars powered solely by gasoline or diesel. Now the European Union has joined the discussion by proposing tougher emission targets in addition to an...

Mazda continues to tease us with a rotary engine, which last found a home in a production vehicle in the 2012 RX-8 sports car. At the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show, neither of the brand's gorgeous concepts housed a rotary engine, but managing executive officer Mitsuo Hitomi, who oversees engine...

Former Volvo tuner Polestar on Tuesday unveiled its first car, the aptly named Polestar 1, but if you’re thinking you've seen the design before, it’s because you have. Yes, the Polestar 1 is just a slightly massaged version of Volvo’s Concept Coupe which was presented at the 2013...

Volvo was among the first automakers to announce intentions to phase out the internal combustion engine and move to a purely electrified portfolio of cars. In the process, Volvo's former in-house tuning division, Polestar, parted ways to become a standalone brand. Its mission? Build electrified...

Mercedes-Benz is currently constructing a battery plant in Kamenz, Germany, the second of five such plants that will be in operation in three continents by the start of the next decade, including one in the United States. The U.S. plant will be constructed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at a cost of $1...

Land Rover’s Range Rover SUVs, for decades the image of inefficiency and excess, are being transformed into some of the cleanest vehicles on the road. Land Rover is starting with the Range Rover Sport which for the 2019 model year will offer a plug-in hybrid option: the P400e. Arriving in...

Volvo in-house tuner Polestar is about to be morphed into a standalone brand for high-performance electrified cars. Volvo announced the shakeup in June and at the time said to expect a major announcement regarding Polestar’s future in October. Word on the street is that we’ll see a...

Land Rover is working on a redesign for its Range Rover Evoque. The new compact SUV is expected in 2019 and should offer a plug-in hybrid option. The information was reported by Autocar and follows news this week that the larger Range Rover Sport and Ranger Rover models will offer a plug-in hybrid...

Land Rover has already paired one of its diesel engines with an electric motor and battery pack to create a hybrid Range Rover. There's nothing too special about that model except its massive price premium and curb-weight jump. Now, though, Land Rover has a more optimized solution in the pipeline...

Toyota wants to redefine how a hybrid can be perceived—well, maybe how its hybrids can be perceived. The Japanese automaker announced it will introduce a performance-oriented line of hybrid vehicles in the near future, an area it's been a bit late in the game. The announcement coincided with...