Hybrids

As the traditional car industry struggles against a lack of consumer credit, economic instability and its own growing pains, several of the major players are forging ahead with next-generation vehicle programs, including all-electric zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs). Nissan has been at the forefront...

Following the announcement of the proposed alliance between Fiat and Chrysler in January, the question on everybody’s lips was which European top-sellers were finally going to come to North America. Stylish compact cars like the Fiat 500 and Bravo were suddenly a very real possibility for...

Nissan has been selling a hybrid version of its Altima sedan for the past couple of years but the core technology of the vehicle, the petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain, is based on technology borrowed from Toyota. Nissan has always promised to deliver a vehicle using its own proprietary hybrid...

A team from a west London university is claiming to have found the holy grail of the automotive world - a cheap, simple method to turn ordinary combustion engines into hybrid vehicles that run on air. The team from the Institute of Engineering and Design at Brunel University have developed a way to...

Calling the U.S. federal government's expenditures under the end of President Bush's tenure and the beginning of President Obama's a 'spending spree' is to beggar the term understatement. But in many instances, there hasn't been a valid alternative aside from letting parts of the economy wither and...

GM has already sunk $750 million into the development of the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid and resigned itself to the fact that the car won't be profitable for several years, but that hasn't stopped the company from starting development on the second and third generations of the car's...

Toyota's MR2 sports car may have only bowed out of the market less than two years ago but the popular nameplate may soon see a revival, and this time around it could even be sold exclusively as a hybrid. The news comes from Toyota's executive vice-president, Masatami Takimoto, who revealed during...

The Zero EV was originally designed by Britain’s NICE car company, the maker of the MyCar, Ze-O and the Mega City, but from the start its gestation has been handled by design teams in Italy. The goal for the Zero EV was to create a “high performance” micro-EV with a little Italian...

Daimler has chosen Michigan as the site for a new $10 million research center focusing on alternative propulsion systems, such as hybrid technology. The German auto giant was previously considering building the center in South Carolina or California but chose Michigan following the promise of a...

Environmentally friendly electrical utilities company Ecotricity has been selling green electricity for over a decade, but its founder Dale Vince has decided to take on a more ambitious project: to build a good looking, "wind-powered" electric sports car. Currently, Vince is working with a team of...

Fiat Group, Chrysler and its parent company Cerberus Capital Management in January released a joint statement announcing they had signed a non-binding term sheet to establish a global strategic alliance. The alliance, a key element of Chrysler’s viability plan, would provide the American...

Think Global is a Norwegian manufacturer of electric vehicles and is the same company behind the original ‘Th!nk’ electric car that went on sale in the U.S. during the late 1990s. Back then, Think was owned by Ford, which sold it in 2003 to Swiss company Kamkorp Microelectronics. In...

Th!nk's financial saga has seen it bounce from owner to owner, into bankruptcy and back out, and now it's looking for government aid, but still its vehicles and ideas are inspiring people. The FROST design study, for instance, was penned by a Norwegian design student as a Th!nk concept, intended to...

When it comes to hybrids, it’s usually Toyota and Honda that get all the good press but American carmakers are just as active in the segment though their efforts mostly go unnoticed. Not this time, however, as Ford wants everyone to know that it has produced its 100,000th hybrid SUV. The...

Honda's all-new Insight Hybrid has officially been priced in the U.S. to start at just $19,800, making it the most affordable hybrid on American streets. The U.S. pricing follows through on a goal set by Honda exeutive VP Koichi Kondo at the Japanese launch in Tokyo. It only just squeaks in below...

At last year’s Los Angeles Auto Show Hyundai rolled out a concept version of its Sonata sedan fitted with the company’s new ‘Blue Drive’ hybrid powertrain. Blue Drive is actually a new branding for Hyundai’s future range of eco-friendly models and will encompass...

As manufacturers seek ways to create more efficient cars without compromising power or driveability, eyes are increasingly turning to new technologies and ideas. BMW is looking to electricity generated by exhaust gas heat and solar power to take the electrical load off the engine and thereby...

ECOtality has partnered with Nissan and the Pima Association of Governments to bring a new zero-emissions initiative to the Tucson, Arizona region. By pairing prototype EVs and a new charging network, Nissan hopes to further expand its development of practical research into widespread use of...

Pain at the pump is a thankfully remote sensation for most Americans these days. Just last summer we were all hurting everytime we had to go somewhere, to the point where we traveled 30 billion fewer miles than the year before. But the absence of pain at the pump means we don't have much in the way...

General Motors has responded to a recent Carnegie Mellon University study claiming that upcoming plug-in hybrids such as the Volt are not actually as efficient as they seem. While cars such as the Volt use large batteries to achieve electric-only ranges of around 40 miles, the study claims that the...