Hybrids

As would-be rivals Nissan and Volkswagen begin their first tentative steps into the hybrid and electric arenas, veteran Toyota has announced it is taking the first steps toward building a third hybrid battery plant. The second plant was announced last week. Toyota's stated goal of increasing hybrid...

This year Chrysler will launch its first hybrid models with the Chrysler Aspen and the Dodge Durango SUV's, both of which feature Hemi Hybrids. Chrysler may be a little late to the hybrid party, but that doesn't mean it will be left completely behind as the company is already planning to expand its...

Tesla's problems with the gearbox and drivetrain of its early models is well-known, and early buyers of the car were assured they would get updated internals installed free of charge as soon as they were ready. That update is known internally at Tesla as 'powertrain 1.5', and the company announced...

The Automotive X-Prize has already spawned some pretty interesting entries, from both aesthetic and technical perspectives. The car revealed today by Hybrid Technologies fits the bill no matter how you look at it. Expected to achieve over 220mpg with supercar performance, the best part of the...

Volkswagen is the latest carmaker to announce a co-operation with an electronics company over the joint-development of advanced lithium-ion battery technology for future hybrid vehicles. The German giant, together with Sanyo will work on a new and extremely efficient electric power storage system...

Rather than go through all the associated development costs of building an electric car from the ground up, Cincinnati-based Advanced Mechanical Products (AMP) has decided to replace GM's four-cylinder petrol engine in its Saturn Sky roadster with its own electric motor. This effectively turns the...

With the announcement last week initial prototypes for the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid have already met their target of 40 miles of electric-only driving, GM CEO Rick Wagoner is confident the car could be released earlier than first predicted and has told German media that it could even...

Toyota is about to pass another major milestone in the race to build the next-generation of hybrid vehicles with the announcement today that it will construct a new $192 million plant in Japan solely to manufacture batteries. The plant is being developed jointly with Matsushita Electric – the...

As the Big 3 American car makers' outlooks move from bad to worse and the global car market slows, it's reassuring to know innovation and planning for the future is still going on. Subaru's plans are some of the most interesting, both in the near and long terms. Thanks to a new alignment with...

The Nice (No Internal Combustion Engine) electric car company is a UK-based manufacturer of full electric zero-emission vans, hatchbacks and scooters. The carmaker has revealed that it plans to expand into other segments - including the performance arena – with the unveiling of a new sports...

Revealed today at the Eden Project Green Car Show in the UK, the newly-formed company Liberty Electric Cars Ltd. plans to invest £30 million ($58.4 million) in the re-engineering of luxury cars and SUVs to turn them into emissions free yet still high-performance electric vehicles (EVs). The...

The Automotive X Prize, which will see challengers competing to build and race a commercially viable 100mpg vehicle, isn’t the type of competition where you’d expect to find a super-sports car capable of reaching speeds in excess of 160mph or covering the 0-62mph dash in under five...

Real-world tests have shown hybrid cars fall well short of their claimed emissions and fuel efficiency figures, raising the question of whether the technology has so far been anything more than a very effective marketing gimmick. Some diesel-powered cars also received bad marks in the review...

We've been covering Nissan's plans for an all-electric car since 2007, but until now there has been little tangible progress, at least in the public eye, aside from the concept debuted at this year's New York Auto Show. A joint venture with NEC to mass produce advanced lithium-ion batteries and the...

Indian automotive giant Tata Motors, the company behind the world’s cheapest car, the diminutive Nano, has announced plans to enter the $10 million Automotive X Prize competition with a new 100mpg car. Tata is first major carmaker to enter the challenge and it could be one of the few as most...

Toyota has managed to rack up one million sales of its petrol-electric hybrid since the car first went on sale in Japan back in December 1997. At the end of April, Toyota said it had sold 1,028,000 Prius models with 100,000 finding a home in anti-hybrid Europe. Only last year Toyota’s...

Toyota’s appeal for a case it lost last year against American technology company Paice LLC has been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, which means the Japanese giant will now have to pay Paice up to $4.3 million in damages. The case involved Toyota using a technology for its petrol-electric...

Since the release of its official strategy in September last year, media sources around the world have been speculating that BMW is looking at either launching its own new brand or acquiring one to help its expansion. CEO Norbert Reithofer previously revealed BMW would establish a new environmental...

The Fisker plug-in hybrid saloon has officially been revealed at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. Click here for all the details and images. Fisker Automotive is keen to launch its Karma plug-in hybrid by the end of the next year and is hard at work testing prototypes of the upcoming eco-saloon in...

The price penalty for the added complexity of a hybrid drivetrain has always been a bit of a concern for those looking to not just save fuel, but to save money. In some calculations from a decade ago, popular hybrids would have taken as much as eight or ten years to repay in fuel savings the cost...