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Choosing Low Rolling Resistance Tires

It’s common knowledge that keeping your tires properly inflated is a simple yet essential step toward good fuel efficiency. But figuring out what high-efficiency tire to buy in the first place is anything but straightforward.

Birth of Industry to Recycle Lithium Auto Batteries

As automakers race toward bringing hybrid and electric cars into the mainstream, environmentalists worry about the ability to properly recycle the batteries that power those cars. Most industry analysts believe that we are a decade or more away from needing to recycle nickel or lithium auto batteries in significant volumes. Yet, the first lithium battery recycling plants are already being established.

Toyota Will Buy Lithium Batteries from Sanyo

The growth of hybrid and electric cars will greatly depend on the availability of next-generation auto batteries. In a move to secure its supply of lithium ion batteries for future hybrids, Toyota will start buying batteries from Sanyo, according to Nikkei.

GE Expands Investment in A123Systems, Hybrid Future

What goes for political corruption is also great advice for understanding the future of gas-electric and plug-in cars: Follow the money. Consider the new round of $69 million that A123Systems, one of the leading US manufacturers of advanced auto batteries, has raised to expand its facilities in Massachusetts and Michigan.

GM to Volt Suppliers: Get Us 100 MPG

At last month's Chicago Auto Show, GM added another dimension to the Chevy Volt story: the push for suppliers to develop energy-saving components in every nook and cranny of the vehicle.

Toyota's Secret Plans for Solar-Powered Car

Toyota is secretly developing a car powered by solar cells mounted on the vehicle’s roof, according to a report today from Japan’s Nikkei newspaper. The report said the automaker hopes the vehicle will eventually be totally powered by the solar cells—but that would take many years.

The Hybrid Car Battery: A Definitive Guide

In many ways, the key to hybrid cars is the battery pack. But what is a hybrid car battery? Do different hybrids use different batteries? What's on the horizon for even better batteries? These questions, and more, are answered in our new guide to the hybrid car battery.

Take THAT, Tesla fans!

We’re probably showing our age when we remember Fernwood 2 Night, the 1977 mock talk-show spinoff of classic 1970s comedy series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. But it wasn’t until we found one of the old clips that we realized: Good lord, the show’s writers anticipated the Tesla Roadster battery by at least 30 years!

Taxis Show Hybrid Battery Durability

San Francisco taxi drivers are providing solid information about the outer reaches of hybrid battery life. At a recent Ford Motor Company event, Paul Gillespie, San Francisco Taxicab Commission president, said some of his city’s Ford Escape hybrid taxis had passed 300,000 miles of use with no problems.

Smart EV Moves to Next Generation

The newest version of the electric Smart, set for demonstration projects in the US and Germany, will use lithium ion batteries that should give the car close to 100 miles of range.

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