Taking its place right next to other great existential riddles—such as “What is the sound of one hand clapping?"—GM’s claim that the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid will get 230 mpg left journalists bewildered about its meaning. Check out our favorite candidates for the best explanation of a number that defies explanation.
Economists studying government tax incentives and rebates for green cars generally agree that such programs get limited bang for the carbon buck. However, the latest wave of papers is particularly negative about the Cash for Clunkers program.
The Honda Insight and Toyota Prius received the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's “Top Safety Pick” award based on front, side, and rear crash testing. The rating dispels the myth that high fuel efficiency always requires a compromise in terms of safety.
BMW announced today that its first hybrid, the ActiveHybrid X6, will make its world premier at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, and will arrive in US showrooms in late 2009. BMW will also show the ActiveHybrid 7—which will reach the US in Spring 2010—in Frankfurt. The two BMW vehicles once again beg the question: Isn’t using less petroleum supposed to be the point of a hybrid?
Plugging cars into the grid is quickly moving from concept to reality—and the auto and electric utility industries are frantically trying to make it a success. That’s the main theme of Plug-in 2009, a conference taking place from Aug. 10 - 13 in Long Beach, Calif. Many questions remain, such as the kind of charging equipment that carmakers will offer with their plug-in cars, and how to streamline the installation process.
General Motors announced Tuesday that the Chevy Volt could get a government in-city fuel economy rating of “230 miles per gallon.” While the potential for a three-digit mpg rating is grabbing headlines, figuring out what it means is another matter. What's the significance of MPG in a vehicle which seldom or never uses gallons of liquid fuel?
Toyota is reporting brisk sales of the Lexus HS250h, its new hybrid-only luxury sedan that launched on July 14 in Japan. The company was targeting 500 sales per month, but has already received nearly 9,000 orders. Toyota will nearly triple production of the HS 250h by October.
General Motors announced last week that it plans to produce the world’s first plug-in hybrid SUV, in the form of a new yet-to-be-named Buick crossover. The vehicle will be a mash-up of the Chevy Volt, GM's full-size SUV "two-mode" hybrids, and the Buick brand.
The Department of Energy showed bias toward large well-capitalized companies when choosing recipients of $2.4 billion in grants to support electric-drive vehicles and batteries, according to critics of the DOE program.
As President Obama was yesterday announcing $2.4 billion in grants to produce the next generation of hybrid and electric cars in the US, Toyota was tallying record sales of today’s leading hybrid car, the Prius. The grants will support the deployment and trial of up to 6,873 plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicles. Meanwhile, Toyota sold 19,193 Priuses in the United States in July.
