Unless you visit a select dealer in California or New York, you are not likely to see the new Accord Plug-in Hybrid on a local U.S. showroom floor. Honda is taking a limited-market approach to introducing the vehicle ostensibly positioned against cars like the Prius Plug-in Hybrid, Ford Fusion Energi and C-Max Energi plug-in hybrids,
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Having been advertised for months prior as a Prius beater, Ford’s C-Max Hybrid vaulted to the ninth spot among hybrid sales in its inaugural month last September. Ford’s ads have especially targeted the spacious 42 mpg Prius v highlighting any perceived advantage. The C-Max Hybrid has been promoted as more fun to drive with 54
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Toyota’s 2013 RAV4 EV is the automaker’s second go round of converting its small gasoline powered sport utility to an electric vehicle. From 1997 to 2003, 1,484 RAV4 EVs were leased or sold. Of those, Toyota says approximately 449 are still on the road. This time, rather than develop the electric RAV4 on its own,
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Volkswagen’s Jetta Hybrid has been anticipated since June 2010, and since its November 2012 launch, it is proving to be a fairly fun-to-drive, yet frugal car. The entire Jetta line was revised in 2011, made more distinct from Golf hatchbacks, and the 2013 Hybrid represents the fifth powertrain option for this sixth-generation model range. Thus
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When Toyota announced its redesigned 2013 Avalon flagship last year, among the most significant revelations was it would offer a hybrid version alongside the traditional V6. The move is part of Toyota’s ongoing effort to introduce hybridized examples of its various models and it was a good time to do it. Why? Because the Avalon
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Even though the luxury hybrid was somewhat of a novelty when Lexus introduced the RX400h in 2005 as a 2006 model, it quickly followed its gasoline counterpart and became a top-selling model. At the time it was the closest thing to a guilt-free sport-utility vehicle we’d ever seen: luxurious with an impressive assemblage of features
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Still fresh from a substantial mpg- and power-boosting upgrade for 2012, Toyota’s 2013 Camry Hybrid continues forward with nary a change to speak of. As the gas-electric version of what has for most of the past decade been “America’s top-selling car” you can call it how you see it: Maybe Toyota is resting on its
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Launched in Japan in 2009, Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV was the first of the new all-electric vehicles on the market. The subcompact city car was introduced in Europe, Asia and Australia in 2010, the U.S. and Canada in December 2011 and was made available in all 50 American states by June 2012. Counting i-MiEVs in South America
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When Lexus introduced the GS 450h hybrid sport sedan in 2007, it confused a lot of folks. The automaker proudly brandished its performance credentials such as acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds, making it both the quickest Lexus and the quickest hybrid vehicle at the time. As for fuel economy, the raison
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Do you recall the TV ads with champagne glasses stacked in a pyramid on the hood of a car with the engine running? The glasses never quivered, but they sent a shock wave through the automotive luxury market. The year was 1989 and the car was the 1990 Lexus LS, the first entrant from Toyota’s
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