The continuing ramping up of fuel prices and ramping down of the real estate market has taken a toll on sales of big trucks. GM has announced their response with plans to cut production shifts at four factories that build big trucks. With gas at and…

Every carmaker has seen Ford's success in promoting its Sync technology, and they want a piece of that pie – as do many suppliers. Sync is built on top of a Microsoft-developed software platform and after a couple of years of Ford exclusivity, Kia…

At the Detroit Auto Show today, Visionary Vehicles, the latest project from serial entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, made a big battery announcement. The company is teaming up with Electrovaya to develop a lithium ion battery pack for use in plug-in…

People make career changes all the time, but Neil Hannemann is definitely making an extreme one. Hannemann is joining electric vehicle builder Aptera as the new VP of program management and manufacturing. The Aptera is, of course, a lightweight,…

click the ZEO for a high-res gallery from Detroit
The Dodge ZEO lies somewhere between it's Jeep and Chrysler concept siblings in aesthetic terms. Like its siblings, the ZEO gets drive torque exclusively from an electric motor, although this one…

As the price of crude oil remains at historically high levels, production of oil from alternatives like tar sands and shale oil continues to expand. Unfortunately, while these oil sources may not be coming from overseas (even though the tar sands are…

In preparation for the December launch of its Leaf EV, Nissan has developed its own electric vehicle charge station that will be installed at all of its dealers in Japan.
There will actually be two different chargers available – a standard…

The latest Japanese automaker to announce their intent to participate in the Environmental Showcase that will be taking place in Hokkaido, Japan in conjunction with the G8 summit in July. Environmental and energy issues are expected to be the main…

Plug-in vehicles are all the rage right now – witness the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt and Ford Transit Connect Electric all coming to market between now and the end of the year. Unfortunately, electric and hybrid vehicles carry a significant price…

Volkswagen has a long history of grassroots racing series in the US and elsewhere. For the past three decades those series mostly used various GTI models. For 2008, Volkswagen is replacing the current GTI cup with the new Jetta TDI Cup. As the name…