| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Hybrid sales up 82 percent in Nov. 2007 vs. Nov. 2006 Gas prices impact car-purchasing decisions in the U.S. |
Joseph Romm |
09 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Hybrid sales are taking off again as gasoline prices soar: Reported sales of hybrids in the US in November rose 82% year-on-year to reach 33,233 total units, representing 2.8% of all light-duty vehicles sold during the month. GM does not break out its hybrid sales separately, and so is not reflected in the hybrid number -- thus, the actual hybrid total and new market share will [be] slightly higher. Toyota posted a strong month, with Prius sales hitting 16 ... |
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| Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics) |
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Prius smackdown, round two High gas prices make hybrids look even better |
Clark Williams-Derry |
07 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| A couple of years ago, I ran some numbers trying to figure out which was the better buy for the planet -- a biodiesel Jetta or a hybrid Prius. And I came to the tentative, but perhaps counterintuitive, conclusion that the best buy was ... wait for it ... a Toyota Corolla. The Corolla, you see, was thousands of dollars cheaper than the Prius (the runner-up), even after I accounted for all the savings on gas from driving a fuel-miser. And if you were a gre ... |
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| Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, energy, green living, hybrids, Prius (all these topics) |
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Who will reincarnate the electric car? Automakers want to delay the transition to electric vehicles |
Joseph Romm |
13 Nov 2007 |
Gristmill |
| The following is a guest essay by Marc Geller, who blogs at Plugs and Cars, serves on the board of directors of the Electric Auto Association, cofounded Plug In America and DontCrush.com, and appeared in Who Killed The Electric Car. ----- The IEEE Spectrum Magazine for November 2007 touts on its cover: 'Battery or Fuel-Cell Cars? A California Cabal Will Decide.' Interesting choice of headlines. Surely a strong argument can be made that something approaching a caba ... |
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| Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, energy, hybrids, innovation, tech (all these topics) |
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Preorder your high-end plug-in hybrid now! Plug-in sports car to hit showrooms in 2010 |
Joseph Romm |
11 Nov 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Fisker Automotive is taking orders for its $80,000 (only $1,000 down!) '4-door plug-in hybrid sports sedan': The specs released so far (PDF) are: Performance details for the first car are impressive achieving 50 miles (80 kilometers) on a pure electric charge [sic]. Additionally, by further utilizing a gasoline or diesel engine offered by Fisker, one can extend the total range of their Fisker to more than 620 miles (1000 kilometers). The first Fisker will a ... |
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| Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids (all these topics) |
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It Only Hertz a Little Rental and car-share companies get hip to hybrids |
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14 Aug 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| It Only Hertz a Little Rental and car-share companies get hip to hybrids Fueled by consumers' green interests, rental, car-service, and car-sharing companies are increasingly turning to hybrids. (Hear the collective sigh of relief from guilt-prone enviros who cringe with every tap on the rental accelerator.) Big renters Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis have all recently added several ... |
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| Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids, news, Prius (all these topics) |
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Cleaner by the Dozen Green group produces list of top 12 eco-friendly vehicles |
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07 Feb 2007 |
Daily Grist |
| Cleaner by the Dozen Green group produces list of top 12 eco-friendly vehicles American autos are drowning their sorrows in foreign oil after not making the 2007 Green Book list of the top 12 eco-friendly vehicles, released yesterday by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Honda's natural-gas-powered Civic GX (available only in California and New York) regain ... |
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| Topics: Big Auto, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids, lists, news, Prius (all these topics) |
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Catch up post: replying to some comments
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Gar Lipow |
16 Jan 2007 |
Gristmill |
| As promised, this is a catch-up post, wherein I belatedly reply to various comments. Ron Steenblik, director of research for Global Subsidies Initiative, said: 'Long distance transmission lines are good because they reduce the need for storage or backup if we use variable sources to generate electricity. (Storage is good, but transmission is almost always cheaper.)' Gar, may I make the friendly suggestion that you qualify that statement. I can recall back in the 19 ... |
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| Topics: consumerism, energy, hybrids, tech, cars, electric vehicles (all these topics) |
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Some Prius-mature celebration Car-maker planning to expand the family |
Kate Sheppard |
03 Nov 2006 |
Gristmill |
| The Prius may soon be more than just one oh-so-stereotyped hybrid motor vehicle. Toyota's talking about starting a family of the cars, and in this case I'd have to support wanton reproduction. The automaker announced this week that they are considering creating a line of the gasoline-electric cars. It could include a wagon and a smaller, Smart-Car-esque inner-city model. U.S. sales of the Prius fell in the first quarter of 2006 simply because Toyota couldn't keep up ... |
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| Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids, Prius (all these topics) |
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Sticker Shock Absorber Some hybrids can pay back their price premium over time |
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24 Aug 2006 |
Daily Grist |
| Sticker Shock Absorber Some hybrids can pay back their price premium over time High price of hybrids got you down? According to the gurus at Edmunds.com, the cash some hybrid owners save on gas can make up for the sticker price. Hybrid cars and trucks cost between $1,200 and $7,000 more than their gas-chugging counterparts, but as analyst Alex Rosten s ... |
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| Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, fuel efficiency, hybrids, news, placemaking, politics, Prius (all these topics) |
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Consumer Reports backtracks
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David Roberts |
08 Mar 2006 |
Gristmill |
| Odograph will be happy to hear that Consumer Reports has admitted error: some hybrids save money after all. Including fuel savings and tax credits, Consumer Reports said, the Toyota Prius hybrid would save about $400 over five years and the Honda Civic hybrid would save about $300 compared with conventionally powered models. The magazine said it overestimated depreciation of the cars in arriving at its initial conclusion. I guess the millions thousan ... |
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| Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics) |
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Flying brick Beware the hype around plug-in hybrids |
biodiversivist |
14 Aug 2005 |
Gristmill |
| An article in Business Week Online tells us that experimental hybrid cars get up to 250 mpg (a very similar article appeared in the New York Times business section a couple of months earlier). I enjoy reading between the lines of lay press science and technology articles. There was a great discussion in Grist on this subject not too long ago. Gremban ...spent... $3,000 tinkering with his car... [I]n the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret -- a stack of 18 brick ... |
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| Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics) |
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Oh What a Feeling! Toyota to build Camry hybrids at U.S. plant |
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18 May 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Oh What a Feeling! Toyota to build Camry hybrids at U.S. plant Toyota announced plans yesterday to begin production of a new hybrid Camry model at a Kentucky plant, marking the Japanese automaker's first foray into hybrid production in North America. With Camry sales tops in the U.S. last year and the company's hybrid Prius selling used for higher than sticker price, ... |
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| Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids, Kentucky, news, placemaking (all these topics) |
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Hy Jinx Hybrids Gaining Ground Among Celebs, But Still Pricey for the Rest of Us |
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08 Mar 2004 |
Daily Grist |
| Hy Jinx Hybrids Gaining Ground Among Celebs, But Still Pricey for the Rest of Us Thanks to lobbying by intrepid enviro group Global Green USA, several high-profile celebrities arrived at the Academy Awards this year not in stretch limos, but in diminutive hybrid Toyota Priuses. Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, Charlize Theron, Robin Willi ... |
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| Topics: cars, celebrity, consumerism, electric vehicles, environmental justice, green living, hybrids, placemaking, Prius (all these topics) |
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Sticker Shocker
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06 Mar 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Sticker Shocker But never fear, there's still some hope: Eco-friendly products might not be raking in the dough, but 60 percent of new-car buyers say they would purchase a more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle, even if it raised the sticker price of the car. That was the conclusion of a study released today by auto industry research firm J.D. Power and Associates, which also found that nearl ... |
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| Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids, Prius (all these topics) |
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Enviros Suck "Clean cars" are the devil's tools, diverting attention from truly green solutions |
Jane Holtz Kay |
26 Jan 2001 |
Soapbox |
| The "clean car" is cool this season. "Is your car an energy hog? Get a new one," a web ad bombards me before I have finished the morning's second cup of coffee. "Your vote counts here," says the flashing ad that rates the energy efficiency of the web surfer's car, luring owners to buy a scrubbed-up replacement. The shock to my sy ... |
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| Topics: cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, environmental justice, greenwashing, hybrids, politics, Prius (all these topics) |
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Oh, What Mixed Feelings! The Toyota Prius sounds great, but why is it so hard to get one? |
Edward Flattau |
18 Oct 2000 |
Soapbox |
| My 14-year-old car is on its last legs. I desperately need a replacement, and as an environmentalist, I want the cleanest and (especially with escalating gasoline prices) the most fuel-efficient vehicle available. Have you seen this car? Toyota has a new product that I regard as fitting the bill, a four-door, five-passenger, part electric, part gasoline-powered automobile calle ... |
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| Topics: business, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids, Prius (all these topics) |
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Car Talk How green is your pleasure machine? |
Consumers Union |
20 Apr 2000 |
Earthly Possessions |
| They be jammin'. When you look at U.S. transportation habits, you start to wonder where in the world we're all going, and why we're working so hard to get there. The average household makes more than six car trips per day, each averaging nine miles. With busier schedules, we are each spending an average of 70 minutes a day in our cars, and traffic congestion doesn't help. Average rush-hour delays due to roadway congestio ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, cars, consumerism, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics) |
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