Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that it will begin equipping certain vehicles with inflatable seat belts that the company says will help prevent injuries in auto accidents.
The "Valley of Death," in auto-industry-speak, is a metaphorical desert where emerging technologies reside while car executives figure out which of the experiments ought to make their way into actual cars.
Tesla Motors turned profitable for the first time in July, when the electric car manufacturer shipped a record 109 vehicles, the company said Friday.
The federal government on Wednesday named which companies will get $2.4 billion in stimulus grants to develop batteries, parts and programs for electric cars.
Drivers looking for fuel efficiency and performance may cheer Ford's efforts, but for Mustang fans who demand a burbling V8, fuel economy takes a back seat to tradition.
The cars of the future will run on electricity, most major automakers agree on that. What they don't agree on is how soon drivers will be ready to fully embrace electric power and how aggressively to push electric cars.
Honda's new hybrid-only Insight, touted as a low-cost competitor to the Toyota Prius was dealt a major blow Monday after it failed to get a thumbs up from the influential magazine Consumer Reports.
It wasn't too long ago that the thought of buying a reliable car from Korea seemed laughable. Today, Korean vehicles are common fare and automakers from India are getting ready to invade the U.S. market.
Exxon Mobil Corp. said it will unveil an electric car Tuesday through a test-drive and car-sharing program in Baltimore.
Daimler AG and Tesla Motors announced Tuesday that they will partner to manufacture electric cars.
Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that it will begin equipping certain vehicles with inflatable seat belts that the company says will help prevent injuries in auto accidents.
The "Valley of Death," in auto-industry-speak, is a metaphorical desert where emerging technologies reside while car executives figure out which of the experiments ought to make their way into actual cars.
Tesla Motors turned profitable for the first time in July, when the electric car manufacturer shipped a record 109 vehicles, the company said Friday.
The federal government on Wednesday named which companies will get $2.4 billion in stimulus grants to develop batteries, parts and programs for electric cars.
Drivers looking for fuel efficiency and performance may cheer Ford's efforts, but for Mustang fans who demand a burbling V8, fuel economy takes a back seat to tradition.
The cars of the future will run on electricity, most major automakers agree on that. What they don't agree on is how soon drivers will be ready to fully embrace electric power and how aggressively to push electric cars.
Honda's new hybrid-only Insight, touted as a low-cost competitor to the Toyota Prius was dealt a major blow Monday after it failed to get a thumbs up from the influential magazine Consumer Reports.
It wasn't too long ago that the thought of buying a reliable car from Korea seemed laughable. Today, Korean vehicles are common fare and automakers from India are getting ready to invade the U.S. market.
Exxon Mobil Corp. said it will unveil an electric car Tuesday through a test-drive and car-sharing program in Baltimore.
Daimler AG and Tesla Motors announced Tuesday that they will partner to manufacture electric cars.
Regardless of whether you're talking politics or automotive technologies, the voting and driving public often gravitates to what's new and fresh.
Much has been made of the electric car driving to the rescue of ailing automobile manufacturers and saving the planet at the same time. But what if that eco-savior came on two wheels instead of four?
FORTUNE's Brainstorm: Green conference is not even 24 hours old as I write this and already we've had a lot of memorable moments. Here are some of the things we've heard so far:
After years of churning out giant gas-guzzlers, lobbying against fuel-economy standards, and refusing to repent even while begging Congress for a bailout, the humbled and chastened Big Three gathered recently at the Detroit auto show to finally embrace the electrification of the automobile.
A battery-powered 268-horsepower two-seat sports car is in line to become Chrysler LLC's first electric car, provided the carmaker lives to see another day.
Did a battery bring down General Motors?
American car buyers have been shifting away from larger vehicles, fearing higher gas prices, but they could be leaving themselves vulnerable in a crash, claims the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Ford is preparing to sell an electric car developed almost entirely by an outside supplier. While that may cut down on bragging rights - General Motors created the Chevy Volt in-house - Ford says it also cut down on costs and risk.
Ford Motor Co. will introduce its first all-electric vehicle in 2010, but it will be intended for business owners - not families. The electric Transit Connect, a small van, will be offered in "select" U.S. Ford dealerships.
Meeting the Obama Administration's goal of putting 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015 will only happen with a coordinated set of policies and technology advances, according to an electric vehicle association.
At the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and MINI showed the world what electric vehicles of the future will look like. And the future of driving looks fun.
Electric cars have a big role to play in reducing the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but it's going to cost a lot, according to a new report. It could even push automakers into further trouble.
Ford wants to roll out a fleet of hybrid and plug-in cars over the next several years, but it does not want to go down the road General Motors is taking with the Chevrolet Volt.
For a century the gasoline engine has remained largely unchallenged, seeing off all pretenders to its crown. But with concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and a host of new contenders looming large in the rear view mirror, is the gasoline-fueled automobile due to be overtaken by a fleet of cleaner, leaner rivals?
Chrysler is pinning a huge part of its future on a plan to produce a full line of electric vehicles, at a reasonable cost to both the carmaker and the consumer.
Hybrid and electric cars play a big part in the business plans Detroit automakers presented to Congress on Tuesday. The only problem is that vehicles like General Motors' Chevrolet Volt won't be profitable for a decade or more.
The Wrightspeed X1, a sports car whose three-second acceleration from 0 to 60 makes it one of the fastest autos in the world, is also super clean: It's powered by an electric motor and gets about 170 mpg. Ian Wright, the Burlingame, Calif., entrepreneur who created the X1 several years ago, had planned on ramping up production on a line of similar electric cars in 2009. But over the summer, he changed his mind.
There's no point in having a debate without varied points of view. Send us an email by filling out the form on the front page, file an iReport or click on the "Sound Off" button at the bottom of this page.
You don't have to look too far into the past to find a time when automakers didn't see car safety as a "selling point." But over the last 30 years, car safety has become a prime factor in the minds of car buyers.
Regular readers of AOL Autos know that we have done a series of stories on the development and increasing popularity of cars that run -- or will eventually run -- on alternative fuels.
Robert Lutz, vice-chairman of General Motors, caused a stir in the auto industry -- and in the automotive press -- when he announced in January of 2007 that the Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car would be ready for mass production and on the road, by the end of 2010.
General Motors unveiled the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle on Tuesday, allowing outsiders their first full look at the car GM says will go on sale in 2010.
How do you measure the fuel economy of an electric car? Is it the equivalent of 80 miles per gallon? 8,000?
Honda Motor Co. unveiled a pure-hybrid concept car Thursday that hopes to go head to head with Toyota's wildly popular Prius.
Four small sport utility vehicles received top scores in crash tests to be released Wednesday by the insurance industry, a sign of improvement compared with SUVs built earlier in the decade
I was stranded in the Arizona desert in my broken-down truck wondering if I had made a big mistake: Our CNN.com biofuel road trip seemed doomed to fail.
Bryan Beer, a citrus grower in southwestern Florida, sees himself as a bit of a pioneer. He's not digging for gold. It's more like he's planting for oil.
A summer with budget-busting gasoline prices seems like the worst time to launch a cross-country road trip from California to Georgia, but this one is different: We're road-testing alternative fuel that might help reduce pollution and break the nation's reliance on foreign oil.
Nissan showed on Wednesday a spiffy electric car packed with a battery developed by the Japanese automaker to deliver more power than the type common in today's hybrids
The latest crash tests by the insurance industry raise safety questions about small pickups
True or False: In the 1890's electric cars out sold gasoline powered versions ten to one.
Transplanted from the U.S to London, Phyllis Earl knows how to get somebody's attention.
With the price of gas soaring, major automakers like GM and Toyota are finally following the lead of successful firms like GEM and getting serious about plug and drive vehicles
The ultra-tiny Smart ForTwo earned top marks in side and front crash tests, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said Wednesday. The two-seat car did not earn the Institute's Top Safety Pick designation, however, because it didn't earn top marks for whiplash protection.
Car companies are working to perfect a new generation of gasoline engines that could get up to 20% better fuel efficiency. The system, which burns gasoline without spark plugs, relies in massive amounts of speed and power - the computer kind - to work.
Toyota is introducing a plug-in hybrid with next-generation lithium-ion batteries in Japan, the U.S. and Europe by 2010, under a widespread strategy to be green
At the dawn of the automobile age, gasoline was the up-and-coming "alternative fuel" -- vying with electric batteries and steam power.
True or False: The electric car was invented in the early 1800's.
If you don't eat, sleep and breathe cars, or devour car magazines in minute detail, there's a good chance you don't know all the technological terms that pop up in the media, new car advertising and literature.
Despite all the hype for electric cars and hydrogen fuel cells, experts say we'd better get used to pumping gas, but we can look forward to much better fuel economy down the road.
Gerri Willis answers reader's questions.
General Motors is far from being a market player with hybrid vehicles, but it may be in a position to deliver down the road, according to some industry analysts.
The tiny Smart ForTwo, recently introduced in the U.S. car market, gave a less-than-stellar performance in its first crash test by the federal government's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Sky-high gas prices bring fuel economy front and center when it comes to buying a new car. But if you're not careful, your bargain gas-sipper could wind up costing you a lot more in the long-run.
Diesel engines power half the passenger vehicles sold in Europe but almost none here. Stricter U.S. clean air regulations have meant that - until recently - they were simply too dirty to be sold in the most populous U.S. states, including California, New York and New Jersey.
It was bound to happen - the Toyota Prius could soon lose its crown as the most fuel-efficient car on the market. But you might want to hold off before you cancel your order.
If you bought a hybrid vehicle last year, and you were counting on a tax credit, you may be in for a nasty surprise.
General Motors Corp. says it expects to bring its first lithium-ion battery powered hybrid engine system to market in North America in 2010.
Midsize SUVs are becoming safer, but side and rear impact crashes remain a weakness, according to recent testing by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Gasoline use over the next two decades is expected to soar as developing nations get richer and more people there buy cars, but gas alone won't be able to shoulder the burden.
General Motors said it will recall 181,516 Chevrolet HHR wagons Wednesday after finding that some of the vehicles don't meet government standards for protecting occupants from head injury in a crash.
When Ford's new flagship Lincoln sedan, the MKS, goes on sale later this year it will be available with all-wheel-drive, a six-speed transmission and plenty of rear-seat legroom. But one feature usually found on full-size luxury cars will not be available on the MKS at any price: a V8 engine.
OK, it's official: Hybrid vehicles are definitely the wave of the future or at least one of them. With gas prices remaining over $3 a gallon and oil prices up around $100 a barrel, the need to save on fuel -- and fuel costs -- is clearly not just a passing trend. And, of course, concerns about air quality and global warming seem to mount every day.
As we're in the midst of a trend that equates green with cool, just about every automaker is showcasing ecologically-minded concepts at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. (Thank you Lamborghini for bucking the trend ... vehicles in their display are powered by gasoline gulping V10s and V12s.)
Tadge Juechter, General Motors' chief engineer for the Chevrolet Corvette, wants to set one thing straight: the Corvette is here to stay.
Not too long ago, uttering the phrase "diesel engine" was enough to elicit a wince from car buyers whose memories of previous-generation diesels often consisted of knocking engine noise, that distinctly-diesel fragrance, and plumes of blue smoke curling from the tailpipe.
I remember driving in eastern Pennsylvania one winter following my brother home on an hour-long trip. It had snowed earlier that morning, and by the time we got on the road the plows still hadn't reached the back roads we were on.
Car makers are confident they can meet new government rules calling for a national fleet average of 35 miles per gallon. But it will take a big technological push, they say.
When they're thinking about buying a hybrid vehicle, people sometimes worry about stuff that's just silly. Sometimes, though, they're absolutely right to be concerned.
Easy money: Richard Branson helps fund U.S. entrepeneurs
Steve Fambro didn't get into the car business to save the world. He did it to go faster on freeways.
The winner of this year's Green Car of the Year doesn't look a thing like the award's past winners. It's a full-sized SUV.
The number of new cars considered the safest by the insurance industry nearly tripled in the past year
Some car companies just can't leave well enough alone. After all, if you have the best-selling car eight of the past nine years, have projections to sell 420,000 more next year and your new model has won just about every automotive award available, except the Indy 500 Milk Bottle, why would you place the engineering equivalent of a graffiti mustache on it?
Gas is getting more expensive and yet you still want a fun drive, right? For some car buyers, a genuinely fast ride with excellent handling, braking, tech and entertainment makes for a big fun-to-drive factor.
In our lifetime we will witness the age of 100 mile-per gallon cars, lifetime headlights and taillights, streaming entertainment and information content, and cars that drive themselves. Actually, all this will be here a lot sooner than you think -- within the next few years.
I just spent a week driving an SUV with a 4.2-liter V8 engine that produces as much torque as the 6.0-liter V10 engine in a Dodge Viper. It can go from a dead stop to sixty miles per hour in about 6.4 seconds.
Every year, millions of dollars' worth of vehicles end up as masses of tangled sheet metal and twisted parts in crash tests across the country. Those tests have saved millions of lives since they began six decades ago.
More than 35 years after the death of the original muscle cars, Detroit is once again poised to produce modern muscle cars by the thousands.
Gas-electric hybrid vehicles, the status symbol for the environmentally conscientious, are coming under attack from a constituency that doesn't drive: The blind.
While all offer reasonable protection from front impacts, there are big differences in side impact protection among six truck-based SUVs, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The 2008 Ford Mustang is the first convertible to ever earn five-star ratings in all crash tests performed by the federal government's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Ford announced Thursday.
Introduction of the next version of Toyota's hit Prius gas-electric hybrid won't hinge on improvements in a more efficient type of battery called lithium-ion, a senior Toyota executive said Friday.
To country legend Willie Nelson, the sweet smell of success may no longer be a great critical review or best-selling album. It might be the smell of french fries.
Toyota Motor Corp. says it will recall floor mats in its 2007 Lexus ES 350 and the 2007 Camry models that, if not secured in place, could slip and get trapped under or over the accelerator. This could cause a car to accelerate even after the driver lifted his or her foot off the gas pedal.
Way back in 2006, John "Bish" Neuhauser was the poster child of the biodiesel business. The shaggy-looking snow groomer for the Canyons ski area near Park City, Utah, starred in the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival documentary on global warming, "Everything's Cool," in which he made his own biodiesel out of restaurant grease and converted all of the resort's vehicles to run on it. In 2007, however, Neuhauser no longer has to brew his own fuel - he just drives to nearby Salt Lake City, where manufactured soybean biodiesel is now available at seven pumps. "Making it is fun and liberating," he says, "but I'm just too busy."
Nowadays, most car models get a major redesign about every 4 or 5 years. By that time, sales have started to slow as competitors have introduced fancier, better cars in the auto industry's endless cycle of one-upsmanship.
There are roughly 800 million cars in the world today. One day that number is going to mushroom -- but to what extent is anyone's guess. According to the Wall Street Journal, we could have 1 billion cars on the road by 2020. Forrester Research puts the number at 1.2 billion, according to Reuters. But it could be more than that.
New passenger vehicles will be required to provide head protection in side crashes for 2013 model-year vehicles, the government said Wednesday.
General Motors revealed two drivable concept cars with new engines that burn gasoline in virtually the same way that a diesel engine burns diesel fuel.
Toyota Motor Corp. and Isuzu Motors Ltd. said they would jointly develop and produce small diesel engines for use in Toyota cars for the European market, further strengthening the world's biggest automaker's product lineup.
With governments in the United States and Europe considering stricter fuel economy regulations, car companies all over are wondering how to meet the proposed demands.
Luxury doesn't always buy complete car safety, according to a new report.
If all goes according to plan, by 2009 you could be sticking it to Big Oil by driving an all electric, Chinese-made sedan for little more than the cost of a Camry.
It's a wonder criminals get caught in this country. I recently spent a week on the lam, and not once did a policeman give me a second glance.
Three pinstriped London investors stand outside an electric car factory in the green fields of the Norwegian countryside, waiting their turns to test-drive a stylish two-seater called the Think City.
Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled a "plug-in" hybrid car based on its popular Prius model Wednesday, saying it would test the fuel-saving vehicle on public roads - a first for the industry.
The percentage of car shoppers considering hybrid vehicles has declined in the past year, according to a survey released Tuesday by J.D. Power and Associates.
General Motors Corp. said Monday it is buying 50 percent of Italian diesel engine maker VM Motori from Penske Corp. and will launch a new high-performance V6 diesel engine built by VM Motori.
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