Hybrid

Calculating the fuel costs of a traditional vehicle is quite easy – just look at the price read-out on the gas pump or receipt after you finish filling it up. The cost of filling up an electric vehicle's battery can be a bit more difficult to pin down because you don't get a receipt on the spot and the cost of electricity fluctuates regularly. GM plans to make the process easier for Chevy Volt owners with a new app currently being tested designed to give Volt owners a full cost breakdown.  Read More

Segula Technologies may not exactly be a household automotive name, but if designs like the Hagora are any indication, it could be in the future. Designed to protect and serve the environment, the new concept car combines an innovative hybrid powertrain, composite construction, 1 + 2 layout and sporty crossover styling.  Read More

On Wednesday, Britain’s BLOODHOUND team will take the next step in their attempt to break the land speed record when they test Europe’s largest hybrid rocket engine at the Aerohub, located at Newquay Cornwall Airport. The static test for the BLOODHOUND SSC car’s rocket system will be the largest rocket fired in Britain in 20 years and, if successful, will open the way toward building a car capable of doing 1,000 mph (Mach 1.4, 1,600 km/hr).  Read More

Ferrari arrived at the Paris Motor Show with five models representing the Italian marque’s new full model range. These include coupé and Spider versions of the 458, the California 30, the four-wheel-drive FF sporting a new full-length panoramic roof, and the most powerful V12 ever built, the F12berlinetta. However, the big draw was the unveiling of a new composite chassis derived straight from Formula One technologies that Ferrari will use in its first ever hybrid model.  Read More

For a time it seemed as though Porsche could only design 911's. The range-expanding For a time it seemed as though Porsche could only design 911's. The range-expanding Boxster, Cayenne and particularly Panamera models were great cars of course, but good-looking? Absolutely not. They resembled squished and stretched distortions of the somewhat limited 911 design vocabulary. No longer. Both the Cayenne and the Boxster have emerged from a series of updates as coherent designs with their own individual style and if the concept car just revealed at the Paris Motor Show is anything to go by, it is time for the seriously ugly Panamera to mutate into the handsome Grand Tourer it should always have been.  Read More

BMW is bringing its BMW Concept Active Tourer to the 2012 Paris Motor Show, which takes place September 29 to October 14. The four-door plug-in hybrid concept car showcases technology that combines fuel efficiency and comfort in a design aimed at the premium compact market.  Read More

Taking a number of cues from the LF-LC Hybrid Sports Coupe Concept unveiled in Detroit in January – which isn’t a bad place to take some cues from in our opinion – the Lexus LF-CC Concept Car is a mid-sized coupe concept featuring a new 2.5-liter full hybrid powertrain that will soon be introduced on the Lexus model range. The vehicle will be unveiled at the 2012 Paris Motor Show that kicks off at the end of the month.  Read More

The battle of the hybrid racing cars in World Endurance Racing took an interesting turn this weekend when Toyota's TS030 Hybrid won the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The TS030 Hybrid uses a THS-R (Toyota Hybrid System - Racing) comprising a gasoline-burning 3.4 liter V8 engine and a 500 kJ Nisshinbo supercapacitor energy recovery unit which supplies power to the rear wheels. The Audi uses a turbocharged 3.7 liter V6 diesel engine with a 500 kJ electric flywheel accumulator to store recovered energy and feed it to the front wheels to create four-wheel-drive. It seems Audi has a worthy adversary in Toyota and the remainder of the season will be worth watching.  Read More

Scheduled to go on sale in early 2013, the new Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) sedan represents Honda's first two-motor hybrid system. It has the ability to travel up to 15 miles (24 km) on electrics only and boasts a total driving range of more than 500 miles (800 km).  Read More