The standard Buick Regal gets 19/30 mpg, but for 2012 the Regal will be available with GM's eAssist, giving it a 26/37 mpg rating from the EPA. First unveiled at the 2011 Los Angeles auto show, eAssist (a label GM purposely uses for its less expensive gas-electric drive train in lieu of the term hybrid) was promised f...Read more

Recently the U.S. EPA began offering its hydraulic-hybrid technology (developed with Eaton) to various manufacturers including Chrysler, which hopes to incorporate it into passenger vehicles. Hydraulic Hybrid Vehicles (HHVs) basically collect braking energy in pressure tanks, later releasing that energy to drive hydra...Read more

Some time ago GM Chairman Dan Ackerson publicly stated that Volt demand is so high that the company will be increasing production for 2012 (to 45,000 vehicles). More recently company spokespeople let it be known that that number may even climb to a difficult-to-believe 120,000. But at the Detroit Auto show in January, ...Read more

GM certainly seems to be kicking Nissan's butt in the race to get each company's respective wondercar to the consumer.  In the first month of this year, 321 Volts were delivered to U.S. customers vs. just 87 Nissan Leafs (Leaves?).  Of course Nissan is also delivering cars to European and Japanese customers w...Read more

With a fuel efficiency of 261 MPG, the Volkswagen XL-1 is an amazing piece of automotive engineering, but for the very large portion of humanity who don't live anywhere near the equator, even a quick glance suggests some potential problems with the design. These  are not, of course, unique to the XL-1. They will i...Read more

In a December automotive News article that got by us until recently, it was revealed that the Honda Fit and all Honda Vehicles Since 2007 have been designed in such a way that Hybrid drive-trains can easily be dropped in.In other words, space and architecture are specifically designed to accommodate hybrid technology, ...Read more

Herbert kohler, directer of "future Mobility" at Daimler recently told Automotive News Europe that Daimler will have a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle available by 2015 that costs no more than a Euro-compliant diesel-electric hybrid, and that the company will have sold some thousands of fuel-cell vehicles by 2013-2014. ...Read more

 Mitsubishi motors is tiny in comparison to the big players like Toyota and GM, But with just a 3% market share in the U.S. it has still built an auto plant on American soil to pump out its products. The company has announced, however, that as of 2014 it will have given up on all its models currently being produce...Read more

Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with auto-industry consultant IHS Automotive, spoke at last week's Washington D.C. International Auto Show and  predicted that the Chevy Volt will have sold approximately 60,000 units by 2015. One suspects that this is much lower than GM's own forecast, since the company recently annou...Read more

All of the major automakers are currently developing their own electric motors and electronics in-house. It's not hard to see why: In a competition sense, electric motors, along with batteries and speed controllers (electronics) will be the key technologies for PHEV's and EV's going forward. Anybody who isn't actively ...Read more