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Buick Regal likely to be launch platform for next GM hybrid system

Last night, General Motors publicly unveiled the 2011 Buick Regal that goes on sale in North America in the first half of next year. The Regal will be Buick's new mid-sized sedan entry and is essentially just a re-grilled version of the Opel Insignia that went on sale in Europe last year. The North American Regal will be built at the Oshawa Ontario assembly plant in Canada beginning in calendar 2011 and will only be offered with a choice of direct-injected four-cylinder engines. However, the Regal is actually slated to go on sale in calendar ... Read more →

ETA says plug-in cars could "speed climate change" unless we get off coal Sebastian Blanco

Think that plugging in your vehicle will protect the earth? Sure, this was the message that EPRI and the NRDC sent following a 2008 study that found that, if 60 percent of the U.S. fleet of light ...

Some say "No plug, no deal," but not everyone is gonna buy that Sebastian Blanco

This week, the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers found that plug-in hybrids have to be "affordable" if automakers think that customers will want to buy them. People are interested, U ...

Webchat with Tony Posawatz and Felix Kramer, 3:30pm EST today Sam Abuelsamid

Readers of this site are probably quite familiar with the names of Felix Kramer and Tony Posawatz. Kramer is the founder of the California Cars Institute (CalCars) and major proponent of plug-in ...

Bientôt Electrique Association offers plug-in kit for the Prius Xavier Navarro

The French pro-EV association, Bientôt Electrique (which means "electric soon") is offering a kit, guaranteed for two-years, that converts a regular Toyota Prius into a plug-in hybrid. The ...

GM to suppliers: Keep working on Two-Mode Hybrid PHEV 2 months ago on Autoblog Green

Now that General Motors has offloaded its Saturn brand and the once-planned Buick plug-in hybrid SUV failed to get off the ground after being roundly criticized by the press and public, GM needs to pick yet another platform to introduce the Two-Mode Hybrid powertrain in its first plug-in capable ...

Frankfurt Preview: More on Toyota's new lithium-ion Plug-in Prius 2 months ago on Autoblog Green

Toyota's new-generation plug-in hybrid Prius will be shown for the first time at the Frankfurt Motor Show next week, and now we've got some new images and details. As expected, the PHEV Prius will be equipped with a lithium-ion battery pack. The hybrid synergy drive system has been upgraded for ...

Survey says... nearly half of Americans want to buy something like the Volt, but do they want to pay? 2 months ago on Autoblog Green

The Chevrolet Volt is a data driven design in many ways. The shape is driven by aerodynamic data. Its conception was in part driven by public perception data. Its powertrain architecture was driven by empirical data about how drivers actually use their cars. For example, roughly three quarters ...

Quick Drive: Buick/Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid prototype 3 months ago on Autoblog Green

We had a chance for a quick drive of a development prototype for Buick's upcoming plug-in hybrid crossover this week at the GM proving ground. The prototype was still wearing its Saturn grille and badging as that was the original intent of the program. When Rick Wagoner announced in late 2006 ...

Is retro-fitting older vehicles the solution to accelerating electrification? 3 months ago on Autoblog Green

Is the mass retrofitting of older vehicles the solution to a rapid transformation to an electrified vehicle fleet? Felix Kramer, founder of Cal Cars, certainly thinks so. The problem lies in the fact that there are nearly 250 million vehicles on the road in the U.S. with a median age of about ...

Breaking: Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid reborn as new Buick crossover 3 months ago on Autoblog Green

GM CEO Fritz Henderson may not believe in re-badging Pontiacs for other GM brands, but it looks like at least one Saturn model will live on. The mid-size Vue crossover will become a Buick in 2011, and a plug-in hybrid will be part of the program. The Two-mode hybrid system that was originally ...

Shai Agassi to Australian car industry: become the Saudi Arabia of plug-in cars 4 months ago on Autoblog Green

Better Place head Shai Agassi told the Australian car industry that it is looking at "certain extinction" unless it moves towards plug-in vehicles. Never one to let a good quote go by as he tours the world promiting EVs – he recently told the Chinese that the future of the electric car ...

REPORT: PSA says it's not working with Mitsubishi on plug-in hybrids 4 months ago on Autoblog Green

PSA, the parent company of Peugeot and Citroën, this morning denied a report that came out in the Japanese Nikkei business newspaper about a new tie-up with Mitsubishi. The paper had reported that PSA and Mitsubishi would be collaborating on plug-in hybrid vehicles. The two automakers are ...

REPORT: Toyota will launch series production PHEV Prius in 2012 4 months ago on Autoblog Green

According to Japan's Nikkei news agency, Toyota has decided to start series production of a plug-in version of the Prius hybrid in 2012. At launch, the automaker plans to build about 20,000-30,000 units a year of the plug-in hybrid. The report indicates that the model will be priced comparably ...

GAO says truly clean plug-in hybrids need to be powered by alternatives to coal plants 5 months ago on Autoblog Green

The long tailpipe. The longer you've been interested in cleaner cars that come with a plug, the more chance there is you've heard about this topic and thought of ways to mitigate the effect of the resources that are being consumed elsewhere to move your wheels. Solar and wind are two obvious clean ...

GM will do "heavy lifting" toward plug-in goal [w/POLL] 5 months ago on Autoblog Green

- It's going to be awfully tough to hit President Obama's stated goal of one million plug-in hybrids on American roads by 2015. After all, that's just over five years away and there aren't actually any affordable plug-in-capable vehicles available as of today from a major automaker that meet ...

Hydro Quebec joins Ford Escape PHEV test program 5 months ago on Autoblog Green

Ford's Escape plug-in hybrid test program has found another electric utility partner for its field test program. Hydro-Quebec has been selected by Ford and the Electric Power Research Institute to join the three-year program. Hydro-Quebec has received one of the 21 Escape PHEV's built by Ford ...

Toyota to lease 200 PHEV Priuses in Japan starting in late 2009 5 months ago on Autoblog Green

They won't look like the second-generation Prius plug-in pictured above, but Toyota has announced the first of its non-European leasing programs for its new PHEV (see here). Starting late this year Toyota will start leasing 200 plug-capable Priuses to government and commercial fleets in Japan. A ...

Plug-in Saturn Vue not dead, will be revived (sorta) by 2011 6 months ago on Autoblog Green

For all the jokes about how Americans now own GM, it turns out that AutoblogGreen readers and GM executives think alike. In a poll we ran yesterday, the most popular choice for what to do with the Saturn hybrid powertrains was "Move the powertrain to the Equinox." A GM spokesperson said today that, ...

Foreign Affairs Auto named as official Hymotion PHEV kit installer 6 months ago on Autoblog Green

A123 Systems has named Foreign Affairs Auto of West Palm Beach Florida as an authorized installer for its Hymotion L5 plug-in conversion kits. The L5 kit consists of a battery pack containing A123 lithium iron phosphate cells designed to be installed in the second-generation Toyota Prius. The kit ...

GM ends Saturn brand in restructuring; PHEV Vue, we hardly knew ye 7 months ago on Autoblog Green

As part of the big and updated Viability Plan that GM released today, GM has moved up the "resolution" of three brands - Saturn, Saab and Hummer - to the end of 2009. That means that some of the hybrids that we were promised - including the 2010 Saturn Vue 2-mode hybrid and the plug-in Vue ...

SAE 2009: Yazaki's booth proudly displays J1772 connector 7 months ago on Autoblog Green

At the SAE World Congress last week, one of the more important technical discussions revolved around a new connector standard for plug-in vehicles called J1772. As we mentioned in our write-up of the progress made at the event, the Yazaki company was behind the connector's original design. The ...

CARB chair calls all this hydrogen/battery fighting "madness" 8 months ago on Autoblog Green

While the California Air Resources Board has certainly played a huge role in putting cleaner vehicles on the road over the years, some plug-in vehicle advocates have a bone to pick with Chairman Mary Nichols (pictured here during the 2007 Alt Car Expo). During the recent UC Berkeley Energy ...

CMU study indicates the Chevy Volt may be too expensive to be effective 9 months ago on Autoblog Green

Electric vehicle proponents never like to hear news like this, but another study has indicated that plug-in vehicles with longer battery ranges are going to be too expensive to be cost-effective, even though they will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The problem is that the cost of the batteries ...

$2 billion? Nah, more like $12.5 billion for plug-in cars in the stimulus bill 9 months ago on Autoblog Green

When the big stimulus bill was passed this week, the number that rose to the forefront was a $2 billion investment for plug in vehicles. But, if you add in all the additional plug-in help for things like infrastructure, the actual plug-in stimulus package is closer to $12.5 billion, according to ...

San Francisco puts electric car charger in front of City Hall, ZipCar gets its frist PHEV 9 months ago on Autoblog Green

The city of San Francisco took another step into electric vehicle territory by installing "Smartlet" electric vehicle charging stations outside of City Hall today. The Smartlets are on loan from Coulomb Technologies and will be used to charge up cars from ZipCar, City CarShare and "a plug-in car in ...

Toyota VP says no Prius Plug-In MPG is available yet 9 months ago on Autoblog Green

Toyota's Vice President of communications Irv Miller has published a post on the company blog refuting a recent report that the small fleet of plug-in Priuses is averaging 65 mpg. The small group of converted PHEV Priuses that currently exist in the U.S. are mostly being used for demonstration ...

Ford picks Johnson Controls Saft for PHEV batteries, adds 7 utility partners to test program 9 months ago on Autoblog Green

Ford has announced that when it starts building its first series production plug-in hybrid in 2012, the lithium ion battery packs will be supplied by Johnson Controls-Saft. JCS has already been supplying the prototype packs for current test fleet of PHEV Ford Escapes as well as packs for some ...

Toyota: Plug-in Prius returning 65 mpg in testing 9 months ago on Autoblog Green

According to Toyota, its plug-in Prius hybrids are averaging 65 miles per gallon in real world testing. This is an improvement of 15 mpg over the recently-unveiled 2010 Prius. The secret to the big fuel mileage increase is a battery with the capacity to store much more energy than the unit in the ...

Responses to Obama's move, and looking at the potential of a $10,000 PHEV tax credit 9 months ago on Autoblog Green

There were good and bad receptions to President Obama's move earlier this week to push the EPA to rethink the California waiver decision (details here). GM released a very short statement that said they were "ready to engage the Obama administration and the Congress" on this topic (read the whole ...

Texas governor supports $5,000 incentive for plug-in vehicles 10 months ago on Autoblog Green

. Here's a benefit to living with dirty air in Texas: getting $5,000 off the price of your plug-in hybrid vehicle. That's the amount being proposed in the state legislature and supported by Gov. Rick Perry. In the governor's state of the state speech last night, Perry said, "I support giving ...

CARB puts off plug-in hybrid conversion warranty, emissions decision 10 months ago on Autoblog Green

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has decided to take another look at rules it is currently mulling over that would have required PHEV conversion shops to follow the same rules for emissions tests and warranties as the automakers. When word of this decision got out, some voices were ...

Almost 70 plug-in vehicles will take part in Inaugural Parade West 10 months ago on Autoblog Green

When Plug In America first announced their "Inaugural Parade West: Plug In, America!" that's taking place in Santa Monica this weekend, they were hoping about 30 vehicles would take part. They underestimated interest. An update PIA sent out this week says that 68 vehicles are now confirmed to roll ...

Consumer Reports tests plug-in Prius conversion, finds it lacking 10 months ago on Autoblog Green

While the main storyline for Consumer Reports' February issue revolves around the new Hyundai Genesis and its toppling of the mighty Lexus ES350 as the mag's top-rated entry-level luxury sedan, another tidbit of information regarding next month's rag caught our attention. Apparently, CR purchased a ...

Michigan engineering professor installs HyMotion PHEV kit in his Prius 10 months ago on Autoblog Green

Dr. John Patten of Western Michigan University recently installed one of HyMotion's L5 plug-in conversion kits in his Toyota Prius as part of his work in educating people on alternative energy. The HyMotion kit is the first commercially available system that allows Priuses to become plug-in ...

Ballina designer working on the Roade electric car 11 months ago on Autoblog Green

Part aeroplane, part electric car, a new EV by Howard Hughes (not that Howard Hughes), a designer for Ballina will be on the roads in Australia by June. The Northern Star reports on a prototype vehicle called the Roade that would have a 60 km (37 miles) range using lead acid batteries and a 96 volt ...

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