Autoblog

2011 Chevy Volt wins Green Car of the Year title in LA

Sebastian Blanco — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Hybrid, Sedan, Chevrolet, GM, Electric

Joel Ewanick, VP, U.S. Marketing for General Motors, and the Chevy Volt with the Green Car of the Year Award

The Chevrolet Volt drove off with the 2011 Green Car of the Year Award at the LA Auto Show this morning, beating out tough competition from the Nissan Leaf and ending a two-year diesel powertrain reign (at the 2008 show, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI was named the winner; last year, the Audi A3 TDI won). The other finalists for this year's award, given out by Green Car Journal, included the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid , Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and the Ford Fiesta.

The Natural Resources Defense Council's Roland Hwang said during the ceremony that "the environment means business." To be globally competitive, automakers need highly-efficient vehicles to compete and, "what this means is that green vehicles are going to go mainstream." The Green Car of the Year award embodies this change. When it was first given out in 2006, it was sort of tacked on at the end of the LA Auto Show. Today, as it was in '09, the ceremony was a highlight of the show.

Last year, Green Car Journal editor Ron Cogan made a point to mention the five vehicles up for consideration were notable because they were mainstream vehicles that were already available. This year, only three of the candidates are currently on dealer lots. With the high tech involved in the Leaf and Volt, though, we're okay with the slight delay in availability.

If you were rooting for the Leaf, don't worry too much. Today, that car won the Green Car of the Year title from TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk over in the UK. Still, in the U.S., the Green Car Journal award is the big one, and we want to know if the Volt claiming the first Green Car of the Year award of the electric era - and if there's one message we're heard here in LA this year, it's that we're really in the electric era now - make sense to you. Let us know in the comments below.

[Source: Green Car of the Year]

Continue reading 2011 Chevy Volt wins Green Car of the Year title in LA

2011 Chevy Volt wins Green Car of the Year title in LA originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UCS: Honda remains Greenest Automaker, Chrysler named Most Polluting

Noah Joseph — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:02:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Chrysler, Honda

In 2009, Business Car claimed that Toyota was still the world's greenest automaker. That same year, the folks at Dow Jones named BMW the greenest automaker for the fifth time in a row. Apparently, an organization's methodology has a lot to do with automakers winning titles like this over and over, since the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has just bestowed the Greenest Automaker Award on Honda, again for the fifth time in a row (the last time the award was given was in 2007).

At least this time, the race was close: Toyota and Hyundai (which lays claim to the most fuel-efficient automaker in the U.S.) tied for second, and their rankings were just a single point behind Honda. The most polluting automaker? Chrysler, but both Ford and General Motors were contenders for the title - blame their heavy mix of body-on-frame trucks.

The UCS ranks automakers based on the scores of their "smog-forming and greenhouse gas emissions (primarily CO2) in its U.S. automobile fleet." The 2010 award was based on model year 2008 data, the most recent information that was available for analysis. You can read a summary of the report here (PDF) or just get the whole thing (PDF).

[Sources: Union of Concerned Scientists, Honda]

Continue reading UCS: Honda remains Greenest Automaker, Chrysler named Most Polluting

UCS: Honda remains Greenest Automaker, Chrysler named Most Polluting originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Going to Pot: Motive to unveil cannabis-composite Kestrel [w/video]

Autoblog Staff — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:31:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Technology, Videos

Motive Industries talks about its cannabis-bodied car - Click above to watch a video after the jump

Motive Industries has announced that they will unveil Canada's first bio-composite bodied electric car this September at the EV 2010 VÉ Conference and Trade Show in Vancouver. Dubbed the Kestrel, the four-passenger compact forgoes some of the traditional fibers used in composites for a renewable green car (*ahem*) technology - hemp.

The bio material is derived from hemp mats produced by Alberta Innovates Technology Futures (AITF) who gets their stash from Vegreville, Alberta (industrial hemp, i.e., Cannabis sativa L, is legally grown in Canada under license from Health Canada and must contain less than 0.3 per cent THC). As well as having the impact resistance of fiberglass composites, the hemp version has the added bonuses of being lighter and cheaper - two important qualities for battery-powered vehicles.

Engineered for a program called Project Eve that aims to aid Canadian firms produce electric vehicles and components, the Darren McKeage-designed cannabis car will undergo prototyping and testing later this month. Hit the jump for Calgary News broadcast discussing the new composite, including footage with company president Nathan Armstrong.

[Sources: Motive Industries, Calgary News]

Continue reading Going to Pot: Motive to unveil cannabis-composite Kestrel [w/video]

Going to Pot: Motive to unveil cannabis-composite Kestrel [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First Drive: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid looks to split the uprights

Chris Paukert — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sedan, Technology, Hyundai, First Drives

2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid - Click above for high-res image gallery

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid hails from a nation where Buddhism is one of the dominant religions. After all, this slippery sedan's design is the gas-electric's equivalent of The Middle Path - a road that the company hopes is truly the way to automotive enlightenment.

Say what?

In the still-young history of the modern hybrid automobile, there have been two prevailing schools of thought on design: As the less costly path, The Low Road to hybridization is already a crowded one - it's a design route that basically calls for the electrification hardware to be buried beneath a familiar bodyshell that's shared with a conventional internal combustion-only model (see: Lexus LS 600h, Ford Fusion Hybrid, Chevrolet Silverado, etc.). The driving philosophy here is to keep production costs in check while also appealing to audiences that might be otherwise reluctant to embrace "new" technology.

Despite being on the checklist of every politician, environmentalist and Hollywood glitterati, hybrids don't sell in America

By contrast, The High Road calls for swoopier model-specific bodywork - if not an entire dedicated platform - enabling a "greener than thou" halo for its owners and parent company. Unfortunately, this high-visibility strategy also costs a boatload of cash, and the only such model that has managed to make a solid business case for itself is the Toyota Prius, a vehicle that's become the de-facto postercar for the green movement.

But here's the conundrum that Hyundai has keenly recognized: Despite being on the checklist of every politician, environmentalist and Hollywood glitterati, hybrids don't sell in America - they account for less than two percent of new vehicles purchased in the U.S. every year, and their high technology bandwidth means that they require a disproportionate amount of money to develop. Basically, Hyundai knows that the Sonata Hybrid is a necessity for improving its technological capabilities, as well as for burnishing its industry-leading CAFE scores, but it also seems to understand that it is almost certain to lose money on each one it builds. Which is why they've taken The Middle Path.

In this case, the Sonata Hybrid tries to integrate the best of the other two hybrid strategies - create a distinctive new model with a unique look that says "I care more about the earth than you do" without incurring the cost of a whole new platform and all-new sheetmetal. Have they been successful? We flew all the way to South Korea to find out...

Gallery: First Drive: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

Continue reading First Drive: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid looks to split the uprights

First Drive: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid looks to split the uprights originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumormill: Mercedes developing super-eco car to take on BMW Mega City

Jonathon Ramsey — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:39:00 EST

Filed under: Mercedes-Benz, Rumormill

Mercedes-Benz is throwing everything at the small car game in what appears to be a bid to keep up with BMW, with BMW working to keep up with/stay ahead of Audi, when Audi was only trying to catch up to BMW in the first place. The Audi A1 was developed with the Mini in mind, now BMW is reportedly developing a sub-1 Series car, a car that could wear the Roundel and Mini badges to compete with... the A1... as well as a Megacity EV, and now Mercedes is apparently developing a sub A-Class car to compete with the Megacity.

For Mercedes, this would be in addition to the coming Smart ForFour, sub-C-Class AMG on the sketchboards and the BLK aimed at the Mini Countryman and X1 crossovers. Not much is known about the little Mercedes, but an insider has suggested to Autocar that it will be the length of the original A-Class, which was about 15 inches (338 mm) shorter than the current car. To pull that off, the Mega City challenger could be built on the next Smart ForFour platform. Got all that? It's about to get really crowded at the shallow end of German pool.

[Source: Autocar]

Rumormill: Mercedes developing super-eco car to take on BMW Mega City originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LA 2009: Audi A3 TDI named 2010 Green Car of the Year in diesel repeat

Sebastian Blanco — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:41:00 EST

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Hatchback, Audi, Diesel

Audi A3 TDI - Click above for high-res image gallery

At the LA Auto Show this morning, the Audi A3 TDI was crowned the 2010 Green Car of the Year, wresting the title away from last year's winner, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Even though three hybrids made this year's list of finalists, the A3's win marks the second year in a row that a TDI diesel car took top honors in the Green Car Journal competition.

The judges selection kind of meshes with AutoblogGreen readers, who overwhelmingly picked the VW Golf TDI from the list of five finalists. The other contenders were the Honda Insight, the Mercury Milan Hybrid (we still don't get why this car beat out the better-selling and nearly identical Ford Fusion Hybrid) and the Toyota Prius.

Each year, Green Car Journal picks the five finalists and then hands over selection duties to celebrity jurors (Jay Leno, Carroll Shelby, and the Sierra Club's Carl Pope, to name a few). During the award ceremony, Green Car Journal editor Ron Cogan said that the five finalists are notable because they are all mainstream vehicles that are available today. They exist because that's what the market is asking for. Whaddya think? Is the A3 TDI this year's rightful Green Car of the Year?

Gallery: Audi A3 TDI - 2010 Green Car of the Year

[Source: Green Car Journal]

Continue reading LA 2009: Audi A3 TDI named 2010 Green Car of the Year in diesel repeat

LA 2009: Audi A3 TDI named 2010 Green Car of the Year in diesel repeat originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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STUDY: 88% of Americans believe hybrid leadership is crucial to U.S. - Do you? [w/POLL]

Chris Shunk — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:29:00 EST

Filed under: Car Buying, Trends, Hybrid, Green

We Americans want hybrid leadership. We want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Trouble is, most of us aren't willing to pay for it. Johnson Controls surveyed 2309 adults on all matters hybrid, and it found that 84% of Americans believe the government should support the advancement of hybrid technology and fully 88% believe hybrid leadership is crucial to America's future. But the devil is in the details, and few things bring out the worst in people more than money.

The survey asked whether car buyers would expect to pay more, less, or about the same amount as a comparable gasoline-powered vehicle. 23% of the adults surveyed said they were willing to pay more for a hybrid, while 35% would only purchase a car with battery assistance if it cost the same as a comparable non-hybrid. 33% actually think they should pay less for a hybrid than a conventional vehicle. And the other 11%? They wouldn't purchase a hybrid at any price. Click through to the jump for more on the study, the official press release, and the chance to participate in our poll.

[Source: Johnson Controls]

Continue reading STUDY: 88% of Americans believe hybrid leadership is crucial to U.S. - Do you? [w/POLL]

STUDY: 88% of Americans believe hybrid leadership is crucial to U.S. - Do you? [w/POLL] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 May 2009 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NADA picks America's top five cleanest conventional gas autos

Dan Roth — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:01:00 EST

Filed under: Car Buying, Trends, Green

With Earth Day coming up on April 22nd, it's inevitable that automotive conversations will take on a green tinge. While hybrids are an obvious hot topic, it's not the only way to tread lightly on Mother Nature. NADAGuides.com have named what they think are the top five cleanest conventional vehicles, basing the scores on a combination of greenhouse gas emissions, pollution levels and fuel economy. Surprisingly or not, the list is primarily comprised of domestic vehicles. The press release is posted after the jump, and hit the gallery to see the results in order.

Continue reading NADA picks America's top five cleanest conventional gas autos

NADA picks America's top five cleanest conventional gas autos originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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P1-E electric sportscar planned by ex-McLaren designer

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:59:00 EST

Filed under: Coupe, Hybrid, Performance, Green

Click above to enlarge the JJAD P1-E

Remember the P1 project from ex-McLaren F1 designer Jim Dowle? Just about a year ago, JJAD, Dowle's design firm, announced plans to build an inexpensive sportscar that was supposed to be a Lotus Exige challenger. Why mess with something that's already so well established? Instead, Dowle has charted a new, greener course and will now use an electric drivetrain for his upcoming gullwing-doored sportscar, now named the P1-E.

Being green doesn't often come cheap, and adding a lithium-ion battery pack and dual electric motors powering all four wheels has raised the expected price to £55,000, or about $75,000 USD. That sum would theoretically undercut the Tesla Roadster, and Dowle is claiming a run to 60 mph in just 2.9 seconds with a range of 230 miles to boot. Working prototypes are scheduled for 2009, after which some additional funding will likely be necessary. Stay tuned.

[Source: JJAD]

Continue reading P1-E electric sportscar planned by ex-McLaren designer

P1-E electric sportscar planned by ex-McLaren designer originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Make your car greener with Grass on the Dash

Chris Tutor — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:03:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Green

Year after year there are hucksters trying to sell miracle devices that reduce your fuel consumption. They're almost always proven to be complete shams. But now you can truly make your car greener for less than the cost of a tank of gas.

Pot your favorite flora in the Grass on the Dash planter and offset some of that carbon belched out by your gas-guzzler. If you're driving something particularly bad at conserving fuel, we suggest getting several. The GOTD's suction cup mount will stick to any glass surface, so make use of the windshield, side windows, sunroof, etc. The more greenery growing in your G-Wagon, the less guilt you'll have about the melting icecaps.

Or better yet, grow your own crops to offset the cost of gas! As far as we known there's no law against growing most cash crops in your car. We suggest several pots of corn that you can convert into ethanol.

[Source: Grass on the Dash]

Thanks for the tip, Ryan!

Make your car greener with Grass on the Dash originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nissan goes 180 degrees to develop own hybrid technology

Joel Arellano — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 14:06:00 EST

Filed under: Trends, Hybrid, Green, Nissan

Nissan, like the German automakers, initially was hesitant to develop hybrid vehicles. But seeing Toyota's and Honda's success in the fast-growing segment, Japan's second largest automaker tentatively took steps to the 'green' side by licensing parts from Toyota for the upcoming hybrid Altima which is to debut later this year.

Now it looks like Nissan is further embracing the trend. According to Bloomberg, Nissan is now developing its own battery, inverter and motor for its future vehicles. Mitsuhiko Yamashita, executive vice president of Nissan, states the new components will provide nearly double the output of today's current hybrid technology. However, states Bloomberg, the technology will not available until 2009 at the earliest.

[Source: Bloomberg]

Nissan goes 180 degrees to develop own hybrid technology originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 05 Apr 2006 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Camry Hybrid pricing announced: undercuts Accord Hybrid by $5K*

John Neff — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 08:35:00 EST

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Green, Toyota

Though Toyota has yet to issue an official press release on the subject, Dale Jewett in an Automotive News piece has revealed that the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid will start at $26,480 when it reaches dealers in May. That price is around $5,000 less than a Honda Accord Hybrid sans a nav system, which has a sticker of $31,540.

While the Accord Hybrid is somewhat of a hot-rod in its own right with a V6/electric hybrid drivetrain that puts out a combined 253 hp, the Camry Hybrid goes all green with a high-tech 2.4L four-cylinder making 187 hp in concert with its electric aid. At the Camry Hybrid's launch Toyota claimed the green machine would be capable of returning 43 mpg in the city and 37 mpg on the highway.

The base price for the Camry Hybrid will include an uplevel stereo, cruise, tilt and telescoping steering wheel, power driver's seat and automatic climate control. For a basis of comparison, the smaller yet more frugal Prius lists at $22,305 on Toyota's website.

*All prices quotes include manufacturer's charge for delivery, processing and handling.

[Source: Automotive News]

Camry Hybrid pricing announced: undercuts Accord Hybrid by $5K* originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 28 Mar 2006 08:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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