Given that the traditional four-stroke Otto-cycle engine piston engine only has a thermal efficiency of 25-30 percent, there is clearly still plenty of room for improvement. While most of the green automobile attention in recent years has been…

At this point, it's no secret that the Chevy Volt and other plug-in vehicles are not going to come cheap. The least-pricey full-speed electric vehicle may very well be the Nissan Leaf, which after incentives might drop into the $27-28,000 range…

Next generation BMW 6 Series convertible – Click above for high-res image gallery
BMW has had a remarkably steady flow of new product hitting the market in the last couple of years, and now that the latest 5 Series is starting to hit the streets and…

This Saturday, April 28, the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Model Car Challenge will be held in Washington DC as part of the National Science Bowl. Thirty-two teams of science and engineering students have designed and built fuel cell powered vehicles that will…

Click on the photo for a high-res gallery of the Mazda2
Ford has only sold small B-Class cars in the US market sporadically over the past thirty years. They sold the European Fiesta in the early eighties and the Kia-built Festiva and Aspire in the…

At the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan, this week, supplier Siemens VDO is displaying a Mercedes C230 modified with a hybrid powertrain. The system uses two electric motors with one of them mounted on the front of the engine…

Renault is currently working on a trio of electric cars that will be rolled out starting in 2011. The first to appear will be a four-door sedan based on the Megane. This one will debut in Israel as part of the Better Place rollout that includes a…

Volvo is now offering a Getrag Powershift dual clutch transmission in its smaller cars – the C30, S40 and V50. The new gearbox is paired up with a 2.0L four cylinder turbodiesel. Volvo is using a six-speed wet clutch unit with a torque capacity of…

At the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, diesels were all the rage with a wide array automakers showing off compression ignition engines that were planned to meet U.S. emissions standards and go on sale here. Within months however, a combination of factors –…

In my write-up on driving Audi's new A4 3.0 TDI the other day, there were some comments on why Audi would choose to offer the 3.0L V-6 diesel. The fact is that Audi actually offers an array of six different engines and four transmissions in various…