Hybrid Car

What It Is/ Who It's For The 2012 Toyota Prius c is aimed to satisfy the desire of Gen Y -- or Millenials -- for a highly fuel-efficient, smartphone-connected, stylish vehicle costing less than $20,000. Best Thing Doesn't feel like you're driving a hybrid vehicle. Worst Thing The noisy continuously variable transmission, when ...    Read more

Toyota announced yesterday it plans to expand its Princeton manufacturing facility in Indiana, and will add 400 jobs with it. The added support will increase production of the Highlander and Highlander hybrid. The Highlander is currently exported to Russia and Australia, and the Indiana production facility will be in charge ...    Read more

Ford announced today that the all-new 2013 Ford Fusion and redesigned Flex will come standard with SYNC, the Detroit-based auto maker's multi-media player. First introduced in 2007, SYNC hasn't turned out exactly how Ford execs had planned, with consumers finding it difficult to use. With the standardization of a refreshed ...    Read more

Tata Motors, parent company of Jaguar, has announced the latest step in building the Jaguar C-X75 hybrid supercar with the opening of a gasoline engine factory for the hybrid supercar. The Bland Jets Engineering facility in Coventry England will employ 15 people and house all the necessary equipment needed to ...    Read more

Out with the old and in with the bold. According to Auto123.com, BMW is axing the 3 Series diesel engine for the 2013 BMW 3 Series, instead opting to push forward with the new 3 Series ActiveHybrid. It's shocking news, given the popularity of BMW's excellent 335d and the ...    Read more

Toyota has big plans for 2013, and aims to introduce 19 new Toyota, Lexus, and Scion models to the market, including the 2013 Toyota Avalon. We've heard rumblings about Toyota's premium sedan for several months now, that a radical redesign is on the horizon. This news, and more, was unveiled last weekend in ...    Read more

The Los Angeles small claims court has awarded 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid owner Heather Peters $9,867 against American Honda in a case stemming from her car's inability to achieve numbers anywhere close to the EPA estimates. Starting last November, Peters filed a claim against Honda after her car failed to achieve ...    Read more

Mike Nemat knows all too well that it's not easy being green. See, Nemat lives in an apartment building, and he owns a Chevy Volt. Recently, he came under fire for recharging his car at his apartment building. In a single-family home, that's no big deal, but in Nemat's building ...    Read more

The 2012 Chevrolet Volt will receive the Holy Grail of California's highway commuting status: An HOV-lane sticker enabling its driver(s) to occupy the carpool lane. This is an important development for a car that hasn't exactly burned with consumer interest. Toyota's wildly successful Prius has become, despite its egg-like shape and ...    Read more

Auto parts supplier Continental sees massive shifts in the auto industry both here in the U.S. and abroad, and predicts car safety and fuel economy as numero uno among automakers' priorities in their future vehicles. We had a chance to catch up with Continental at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show ...    Read more

How smart is your smartphone? If you asked it how to hypermile or get better fuel economy, you might be out of luck. We tried to ask Apple's Siri, and all we got from her was a bunch of snark. Fortunately, Buick sees the need for this information, so it has ...    Read more

Earlier this month, the California Air Resource Board met to vote on the state's latest auto emissions laws. Federal and state governments, as well as most automakers, keenly watched the proceedings since California environmental laws tend not only to be stricter than most federal mandates, but followed by other states ...    Read more

Its been a busy week here at Automotive.com, and there's a good chance you missed some of it. So to help out, we've compiled our top five stories, one from each day, to help you stay on top of what's going on in the automotive world. Monday, January 23 ...    Read more

The California Air Resources Board, the state agency in charge of emissions laws, is voting this week on whether it is to adopt the Advanced Clean Cars Program. The Consumer Union, parent company of Consumer Reports, let its voice known that it wants California to vote approve the strongest measures ...    Read more

We're believers in the scientific method here at Automotive.com. As people's opinions are as reliable as a politician's words, facts—especially repeatable ones—are as close as inviolable as possible in a world where belief denies global warming and vaccinations are viewed with suspicions. (Personally, we think believers of the latter should ...    Read more

During its first go around with Heather Peters small claims court over her 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid's dismal gas mileage, Honda skipped out on supplying subpoenaed information. But after the case ...    Read more

In 2006, Audi surprised the racing world—and pleased oil-burner fans everywhere—when it introduced its diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI at Le Mans. The move helped shift public perception of diesel vehicles as smoky, slow-moving obstacles to viable performance machines. Toyota may be hoping to do the same for hybrid vehicles ...    Read more

Chevrolet's upcoming Super Bowl commercial exemplifies the exuberance people feel for the brand and its vehicles, in this case a Chevy Camaro. But in the 33-second Youtube clip, "Morning in Hamtramck", General Motors shows a different, more somber but equally important, side to the bowtie brand. In the "Morning in ...    Read more

The past few years has seen major shakeups in the automotive industry, and it shows in a recent survey on brand perception conducted by Consumer Reports. Once dominant players Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Chevrolet remain on top, but each automaker has seen its points gap decrease compared to last year. ...    Read more

Burn the witch! Today, General Motors Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson went before the U.S. House Subcomittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Spending to answer committee members' concerns on the automaker's Chevrolet Volt hybrid electric vehicle. Specifically, the committee wanted to know more about the EV's battery fires, whose investigation ...    Read more

Harsh winters take a toll on cars, and electric and plug-in vehicles are no exception. As EVs and plug-in vehicles become more common, automakers are being tasked with creating cars that can function in and withstand varying environments. Cold temperatures are one of the toughest, because the chill can affect battery ...    Read more

Normally when you think of drag racing—or any racing for that matter—a hybrid vehicle doesn't come to mind. However, Infiniti thinks hybrids and racing can coexist, squaring off its M Hybrid against a Porsche Panamera S hybrid in the desert. In today's Video of the Day Infiniti shows off its ...    Read more

Two steps forward, one step back. Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officially closed its investigation on the Chevrolet Volt. As reported for months, the federal agency had been investigating the Volt's battery system, which could catch fire under certain circumstances, all of which occurred under test ...    Read more

Picture this: You're mid-conversation at a friend's fundraiser promoting the recycling of recycled napkins (completing the napkin cycle, as it were) when your phone lights up. An alert from OnStar notifies you that your husband's plug-in hybrid—which as it turns out just so happens to be at home and plugged ...    Read more

Hybrids aren’t as environmentally friendly as you may think. Take a Toyota Prius, for instance. The car is manufactured in Japan and shipped to the U.S. That takes a lot of fuel. But there’s more to it than that. The rare earth metals used in manufacturing the electric motor—neodymium and dysprosium—are ...    Read more