2015

Happy New Year, Autoblog faithful! From all of us editors, we're wishing you a happy and healthy 2015.

The Nissan Leaf is getting a few updates for the 2015 model year, some functional, some purely aesthetic. The appearance options will be made available later than the rest, and include a new exterior color called MorningSky Blue, as well as standard 17-inch aluminum alloy wheels for the SV trim level.

Chevrolet has announced that it will include stop-start technology as standard in the entry level 2015 Impala. The result is a nearly five-percent improvement in city fuel economy, also known as one mile per gallon, up to 25 mpg, combined.

The long-running joke is that, "hydrogen is the fuel of the future, and it always will be." But at the Los Angeles Auto Show and Tokyo Motor Show this week, Honda and Toyota are both showing off H2-powered concept vehicles that foreshadow production models coming around 2015. Toyota has the FCV Concept and Honda will reveal the FCEV Concept later today. In fact, the senior engineer for clean vehicles at the Union of Concerned Scientists, David Reichmuth, says FCEVs are "a vital part of the solut

Geely and Volvo will finally team up for a jointly developed vehicle, more than three years after the safety-minded Swedish brand was gobbled up by Geely's parent company, according to a report in Automotive News Europe. The story quotes Geely's CEO, Gui Sheng Yue saying, "We have entered into actual research and development stage and I believe we can see the new product in the year after next."

Think of it as a recharge for the best-selling plug-in vehicle in the U.S.

Much is expected of the next-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata, primarily significant weight savings and a bit more power. The new roadster will be co-developed with Alfa Romeo as part of a joint-venture agreed upon last May. A report in What Car? suggests that that Mazda's benefits won't be limited to the hard bits, claiming that personalization possibilities for the new car will be "similar" to those of the Mini Cooper and Fiat 500. The stated aim is for additional customization is "to help a custom

Toyota has already picked the low-hanging fruit when it comes to boosting the Prius hybrid's fuel economy. But the Japanese automaker's planning on climbing a little further up that tree.

It's a long ride into 2015, and you can expect it to be filled with seemingly endless speculations and renderings, all surrounding the next-generation Ford Mustang. Inside Line hass pieced together the information it has managed to gathered so far and produced a rendering that, if not for the Evos concept, would be considered not just next-generation, but next millennium.

As late as last year, Mazda declared it wouldn't offer alternative powertrains in order to meet its goal of reducing the fuel economy of its vehicles by 30% by 2015. Now, Mazda CEO Takashi Yamanouchi has announced the automaker will begin offering both hybrids and electric vehicles in the future, but would only say that the vehicles would be in the Mazda line-up come 2015.

According to multiple unnamed sources speaking with Autoweek, General Motors has put its plans for a C7 Corvette on "indefinite hold, with no official or set timetable." That's a pretty broad admission, but not entirely surprising considering the financial issues plaguing GM, the rest of the domestics and the world as a whole.

Photo of the European Parliament published under the GNU Documentation License

What will you be driving in 2015? If you only drive GM vehicles, there's a one in three chance it'll be a hybrid, according to a report from Bloomberg. GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said, "around 2015 we're going to have to sell a ton of hybrids whether people want them or not." Lutz added, "it's basically going to result in the quasi-disappearance of V-8 engines." Lutz explained that the increase in sales of hybrids will be due to the new CAFE standards signed into law late last year that require c

Carbon capture is here and the EU is trying hard to push it forward. In an article published by economy newspaper Cinco Días, it's explained that the big problem is overcoming the high costs associated with the process. It's estimated that reducing 80 to 90 percent of the CO2 emissions from a power plant increases the price of energy 35 to 85 percent. Experts mentioned by the newspaper state that a reasonable target for 2020 is making carbon capture affordable at 20 to 30 EUR per ton.