Category: Autoblog

Honda Insight and Civic hybrid
It's no secret the revived 2010 Honda Insight has been a huge sales disappointment in North America. The once-robust sales of the Civic hybrid have also evaporated in the last two years. Apparently, things are far worse…

The SunLine Transit Agency in Thousand Oaks, CA will be expanding its hydrogen fuel cell test program this year with two new buses. The buses with different chassis and powertrain configurations will both use fuel cell stacks from Ballard Power…

When the new Prius debuts next month at the Detroit Auto Show, its interior will feature significant use of so-called “ecological plastics.” These are polymer materials derived from biomass oils rather than petroleum. Toyota had its first application…

Following the recent launch of WhizzGo and StreetCar in London, England, US-based ZipCar launched their service in the British Capital. The company got £13 million in new funding and is starting their British service with six types of cars to choose…

Controlled Power Technologies claims its new electrically-driven supercharger is ready for production and the company is looking for OEM customers. With so many automakers moving to smaller displacement engines with turbocharging to provide power as…

Click the A4 allroad quattro for a high res gallery
Audi has just launched a new allroad variant of the A4 Avant wagon in Europe that applies the Subaru Outback approach to the German premium wagon. Like the A6 allroad that was launched some years…

After British based Rover group finally ran out of gas last year, the road kill was gobbled up by two Chinese companies, Nanjing Automobile and Shanghai Automotive (SAIC). Nanjing got most of the tooling and parts, while SAIC got the intellectual…

2008 Saab Turbo X – Click above for high-res image gallery
Turbocharging has been as much a part of Saab's DNA for the last three decades as jets. Saab didn't invent turbocharging, but the Swedish brand has probably embraced it more completely than…

One of the concerns people have about hybrid vehicles is the durability of the complex drivetrains. Ford is helping to put some of that concern to rest. Less than two years ago a fleet of eighteen Escape Hybrids joined the ranks of New York City…

China's BYD is planning to build a car called the F-1 which it intends to sell for a mere $3,000. At this point, it's unknown what will propel this little machine but it's a safe bet it won't approach its McLaren-built namesake. Apparently, part of…