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Tokyo 2009: Mitsubishi i-MiEV Cargo is bigger, o-kei!

You can make anything bigger and better if you just add a hump, and that's what Mitsubishi has done to its i-MiEV to create the i-MiEV Cargo. For those who find Ford's Transit Connect simply too monstrous and don't want to pay for gas – like, oh, a commercial concern in Tokyo – Mitsu's battery-powered i-MiEV could be the perfect solution. Growing only in height compared to its hatchback sibling, the thing is tiny but still packs 62 cubic feet of cargo space in its Quasimodo back end – that's a little less than half the ... Read more →

Want to take the Audi e-tron for a test drive? Grab your Playstation 3 Jonathon Ramsey

You might expect a car with four motors and 3,319 lb-ft of torque to take a great deal of electronics and skill with the right foot to drive properly. If so, you got the electronics part right at ...

Frankfurt 2009: Audi e-tron is red outside, nice inside Jonathon Ramsey

The Audi e-tron concept has a few good things going for it on the outside, like lustrous red paint, some wicked cool taillights, and... well... maybe something else that's escaped us. Sadly, ...

Introducing the next eco supercar: the Steenstra Styletto Jonathon Ramsey

Watch out Tesla – there's another California-based zero-emissions sports car company in the works: Steenstra GCM. Founded by designer and auto industry consultant Cornelis Steenstra, the ...

British government drags its feet, Tata threatens to cancel Indica EV for the UK Jonathon Ramsey

In January, the UK government set aside £2.3 billion for loan guarantees to help automakers start producing electric cars on the island. In April, Tata applied for £10 billion from the ...

Next Honda NSX could be dubbed "Super Hybrid Sports" 4 months ago on Autoblog

Even though it's been going on for more than two years now, the tale of the Acura NSX is like a news story that just broke: you have to keep checking back for details, and each subsequent update could turn the whole story on its head. The V10 NSX that was going to own the sports car gods on Mt. ...

Google phone designers plot for "The End of Driving" with autonomobile 4 months ago on Autoblog

In Possible Future Scenario #317-B, San Francisco industrial design firm Mike and Maaike presents the atnmbl (get it? – "autonomobile"). Less a car than an autonomous, seven-person mobile living room, the atnmbl is billed as a complete redesign of the car for those who believe that the ...

Rumormill: 2012 Jaguar sports car to get Volt-like extended-range hybrid tech? 5 months ago on Autoblog

Ratan Tata, Jaguar's owner, knows that the future of the company rests on "shiny and new" products. That's why the XE roadster was reportedly moved to the front of the line and given a 2011 release date. If the soothsayers at Motor Trend are correct, Tata also understands that cleaner engines are ...

The new Audi: more performance, less weight 5 months ago on Autoblog

Audi is developing the groundwork for an entirely new way of building its cars. The future for the four rings is light weight, giving it the proper base to support the best hybrid and electric cars, as well as extract the most from its traditional offerings. As previously reported, the first ...

U.S. Department of Energy funding for Chevy Volt on hold 7 months ago on Autoblog

Aside from the bridge loans supplied to GM by the federal government, GM had applied for $10.3 billion from the Energy Department. Of that amount, $2.6 billion was meant to be devoted to building the Chevy Volt and two derivatives of it, as well as a third hybrid model. May is when the Energy ...

The Price of Green: Bentley Continental Supersports is $267,000 7 months ago on Autoblog

The Continental Supersports has been priced, with Bentley having decided that $267,000 is fair compensation for exclusive access to green, luxurious speed. The ethanol-capable Conti is not only a sign of Bentley technology to come, it also provides the first clues to the next generation ...

Honda CEO says Insight price won't be reduced further 7 months ago on Autoblog

Honda's new Insight went on sale in hits homeland about a week ago, and already it's under attack. Before it hit the market, there were rumors that it would be much cheaper than the Toyota Prius. Toyota, however, has other ideas. The Insight is 1.89 million yen ($18,853 USD) in Japan, which is ...

Nissan EV could come to US in 2010, two years earlier than expected 7 months ago on Autoblog

Nissan appears to feel the electricity in the air, and has said it is open to selling its EV to retail consumers two years ahead of schedule. That doesn't mean it will go on sale everywhere -- said a Nissan rep, "if a market is ready for it, we'll go ahead earlier." When it does arrive, it will be ...

REPORT: GM says next-gen hybrid pickups could have 50% better towing 8 months ago on Autoblog

General Motors isn't saying how it plans to do it, but according to our friends at PickupTrucks.com, it is saying that consumers are "...going to see substantial improvements in towing capability in our next hybrids." Right now, the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid and GMC Sierra Hybrid can pull 6,100 ...

Rendered Speculation: Volkswagen Golf VII already in the cards 8 months ago on Autoblog

The current Volkswagen Golf (a.k.a. "Rabbit"), which is a 2010 model, hasn't made it through the front nine, and already the next Golf is being teed up behind it. The new model is planned for 2012, two years earlier than planned, perhaps because VW wants to recast what the Golf represents with a ...

Peugeot delaying launch of plug-in hybrid? 9 months ago on Autoblog

Peugeot plans to offer its 3008 CUV with a diesel-electric hybrid by 2011. The step after that is to add plug-in capability, but those plans have been pushed back "a year or two" because of the economy. With R&D budgets pinched by slim sales, the investment in the technology simply can't be ...

REPORT: Cadillac considering four-door Converj 9 months ago on Autoblog

GM is beating on the drums -- softly, to be sure -- and the message they're sending is that the Cadillac Converj Concept could see production. The first issue with building such a car is money, and GM's problems in that arena are already well-documented. If that hurdle were to be cleared, GM ...

On the Rebound: Scientists invent regenerative shocks 9 months ago on Autoblog

Scientists at Tufts University have patented a shock absorber that converts compressive energy into electricity, which can then be stored in a hybrid vehicle's batteries. Called the Power-Generating Shock Absorber (PGSA), actually an electromagnetic linear generator, it uses "magnet arrays, high ...

ROUSH unveils liquid propane-powered Ford F-250 9 months ago on Autoblog

LPG has come to the masses massive, with ROUSH introducing a conversion for the Ford F-250. The changes are minimal: fuel tank and pump, stainless steel fuel lines, aluminum fuel rails and PCM calibration. They'll mean cheaper running costs but no loss of horsepower, torque or towing capacity. ...

SEAT unveils new Twin Drive Leon prototype hybrid 10 months ago on Autoblog

The SEAT Leon Ecomotive was a Leon that had been picked over and removed of many inefficiencies in order to deliver a frugal 3.7 liters/100 kilometers (63 miles-per-gallon) as well as lower CO2 emissions. The SEAT Twin Drive Leon Prototype takes that idea a giant leap further by making the car a ...

Ironic legislation: CARB ruling to kill aftermarket plug-in hybrids? 10 months ago on Autoblog

The uncertain future of the alternative-powered and alternative-fueled vehicle is being decided by a confluence of old and new technology, big business and start-ups, marketing, vested interests, and public perception. It is no surprise, then, that when it comes to government regulation, we are ...

AMG Boss: "The horsepower wars are over." 10 months ago on Autoblog

That's the way it goes with fashion: it's on the runway in Paris in March and in a bucket at Big Lots by September. Mercedes-Benz' in-house tuning arm, AMG, has decided to turn with the popular tide and call time on horsepower brinkmanship, with the division boss saying, "We are going to use ...

Toyota developing solar powered car? 10 months ago on Autoblog

Twelve years ago, Toyota started selling a car that was bought by those considered avant-garde, on the fringe. It was called the Prius. Now Toyota is looking to "turn around its struggling business with a futuristic ecological car," and the company is supposedly working on plans for a solar-powered ...

Autogas Chevrolet Matiz Concept = LPG for the masses 10 months ago on Autoblog

Click above for a high-res gallery of the fahgmitgas Matiz LPG Concept Thanks to a company called fahrmitgas ("go with gas", get it?), our European readers will soon be able to cut their fuel costs to the low, low price of €3 (about $4.20 USD) for every 100 km of driving. Of course, they'll ...

Finalists announced for Green Car Journal's Green Car Vision Award 11 months ago on Autoblog

The Green Car Vision awards celebrate a car that's got its headlights pointed down the road of the future. Among this year's five finalists are two serial hybrids (Chevrolet Volt and Fisker Karma) two electric cars (MINI E and Mitsubishi i-MiEV), and one hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (Honda FCX ...

No, really: Toyota won't create seperate Prius brand 12 months ago on Autoblog

The idea of a separate brand for the Toyota Prius has gone from "seriously considering" to "not a 'go'" to, now, "Um, no." That's the word from Miguel Fonseca, Toyota's managing director in the UK, who says that there won't be a Prius sub-brand. However, Fonseca did say that the stork would be ...

Rumormill: Could Lexus become a hybrid-only brand? 1 year ago on Autoblog

This could be Japanese-only news, or just a case of bad translation, but Toyota Managing Officer Toshio Furutani has apparently told Japan's Nikkei Business News that Toyota wants every vehicle in the Lexus product line to offer a hybrid option, and that "in the medium to long term, Toyota was ...

Paris Preview: Kia cee'd Hybrid 1 year ago on Autoblog

Kia's will have at least two new tricks at the Paris Motor Show, one of them being the Kia Soul. The other will be a Kia cee'd gas-electric hybrid. Already available in coupe, 5-door hatch, and sportwagon variants, a hybrid addition based on the five-door would be a perfect addition to the line. So ...

Spawn of Volt: More details on more variants 1 year ago on Autoblog

GM is not going to let the Volt or its E-Flex powertrain get lonely. The first Volt -- the one due in late 2010 -- hasn't been finished yet, yet is so popular that GM is publicly theorizing about how far it can spread the technology through the empire. Ideas include a smaller car with a smaller ...

Nanotech research stumbles on homemade hydrogen 1 year ago on Autoblog

Efficiency is a large stumbling block if you're looking for a way to replace gasoline. It's pretty hard to better such an exceptional fuel, and several alternatives show promise but are nagged by inefficiencies or cost, and usually both. Nanotech to the rescue; it may soon be possible to produce ...

Porsche warming to diesels 1 year ago on Autoblog

In yet another move demonstrating that Porsche is capitulating to the greener crowd, an industry newsletter is reporting that the German automaker's executives have overcome their long-time reservations about diesel powerplants and are considering such a vehicle for their lineup by 2010. ...

Volvo says it won't be building in North America 2 years ago on Autoblog

There have been periodic rumors of a United States assembly plant for Volvo cars since at least the early 1980s. There was a North American construction arm of the Swedish carmaker, situated in Nova Scotia, but that plant has been shuttered for several years now. Volvo CEO Fredrik Arp has told ...

Enter the rumormill: Ford Fusion hybrid coming to LA? 2 years ago on Autoblog

Jalopnik got the skinny from a Ford Motor Company snitch they've dubbed "Electric Throat" (ahem), who says that a hybrid Fusion will be launched in concept form at either the Los Angeles Auto Show this November or North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January '08. While we knew some ...

EEStor ceramic electric motor 3 years ago on Autoblog

Alternative-fuel engines of different sorts all suffer from one major drawback or another: poor range, hard-to-find filling stations, high cost, poor performance. EEStore is out to change all that with a revolutionary new kind of "battery". We put "battery" in quotation marks because the unit ...

"Project Driveway": GM launches largest ever fuel-cell fleet 3 years ago on Autoblog

General Motors yesterday unveiled plans for "Project Driveway", a field market research project that will place 100 hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles with customers across the United States. A diverse cross-section of customers with varied driving environments will be chosen to participate in ...

Audi R-Zero electric sports car 3 years ago on Autoblog

Not much is known about this all-electric Audi concept called the R-Zero except that it's the brain child of three design student: Pierre-olivier Wagner, Franck Levivier and Remi Marchand. What we can gather from the vehicle's website, which displays all non-essential information in English and the ...

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Autoblog Podcast #153: With Phil Berg

Phil Berg puts his reputation on the line and hangs with the podcast crew.

 
 

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