The best compact utility vehicle? Particularly in terms of Ford’s overall hybrid effort The upcoming Ford C-Max hybrid is easily Ford’s best hybrid offering, and I believe, one of the best overall new vehicles coming on the market. Akin to the Toyota Prius V, the C-Max utility hybrid promises a better and more powerful driving [...]
Un oh. My wife's new passion. And she doesn’t give one crap about plug-in technologies I can still remember the debut of the original Chevy Volt concept. The long front end, like the Camaro and the Corvette. I had mixed feelings about that design, but in terms of a concept that form worked well I [...]
If you're rich and green, the Tesla Model S is THE statement car, by far It’s crunch time for this EV maker Last quarter Tesla lost $89 million dollars. The quarter before, $48.9 million. But Tesla CEO Elon Musk isn’t worried, as long as Tesla can perfectly deliver 5000 Model S’s this year and head [...]
Smart's two-wheeled plug-in aresenal Could be a good way to train the kids to love electrification The other day I facetiously called the plug-in revolution dead. I should have restricted that death mask to cars and other four wheeled vehicles. China alone proves that the plug-in revolution is alive and well, but only on two [...]
The king of cheap rides? Can a hybrid or plug-in ever be the most cost-effective new car buy? In this sluggish economy, many new car buyers want to spend less on a new ride, plus they want to save money on their monthly fuel bill. Obviously, saving money on a fuel bill makes you think [...]
2012 Camry updates were worth the effort According to Total Car Score Do hybrid cars save consumers money? Some do and some don’t, and which ones depends on whom is asked. Ask JD Power, Consumer Reports, Kipplingers, etc that question and they all come up with different results. Car ratings themselves are similar. Edmunds says [...]
Another plug-in related fire is bad news for the plug-in revolution. OK. It’s not dead, but the plug-in revolution is on life support I have one metric in life when it comes to transportation. OK. It’s one metric, but it’s split into two parts. The basic metric — the main part — is simply US [...]
How soon can Toyota increase Prius supplies? New hybrids ordered for the growing US market Toyota’s best year of US Prius sales was 2007, when the automaker sold 181,221 units according to Bloomberg. This year, thanks to the growing Prius family, Toyota aimed for 220,000 units. However, the Prius is now on a pace to [...]
A millennial Eclipse over Prius sales Most of their favorite brands don’t even sell hybrids American consumers are a pretty sad bunch. Noble intentions are everywhere. Noble actions are not. For several years now consumer survey after survey demonstrates that a good majority of Americans are interested in buying hybrid cars. Yet, month after month, [...]
It should have been an American car 30 percent improvement in fuel economy the last 10 years I can still remember 9/11 like it was yesterday. On that day I decided to make major changes to my lifestyle. Eventually, annoyed by the countless ‘no blood for oil’ bumper stickers on blood-oil guzzling SUVs attending anti-war [...]
