The Car Tech blog

Is this Hover Car the next people's car?

When you think of a basic, affordable vehicle that everyone can buy, a hover car doesn't immediately come to mind. But that's what emerged from the People's Car Project launched by Volkswagen in China last year.

Volkswagen, which translates to "people's car" in English, challenged China residents to submit their ideas of what the car of the future should look like. The company sifted through more than 119,000 ideas submitted to the project Web site and compiled three concepts, including the Hover Car.

The Hover Car is a two-seater zero-emissions vehicle that hovers above the more

EPA rates range of 300-mile Tesla Model S at 265 miles

Tesla announced a goal of 300 miles for the range of its Model S electric sedan early in its development. As the company came closer to production, it said that only the top-trim Model S, with an 85-kilowatt-hour battery pack, would achieve the 300-mile figure. Less expensive versions of the car, with 60- and 40-kilowatt-hour batteries, would hit 230 miles and 160 miles, respectively.

Today, in a somewhat technical and involved blog post from Tesla founder Elon Musk and CTO JB Straubel, the company revealed that the 85-kilowatt-hour Model S only achieved a range of 265 miles.

The post initially more

The Honda hybrid lawsuit saga ends

Regardless of the actual mileage Heather Peters achieved with her 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid, the automaker did not misstate its fuel economy estimates, ruled a California judge today. Based on that decision, Honda won its appeal to overturn a $9,867 award granted to Peters in small-claims court.

The 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid is advertised to achieve up to 50 mpg in the city. However, due to faulty batteries many drivers argue that the vehicle gets closer to 30 mpg. Peters opted out of a class-action lawsuit against Honda that granted dissatisfied customers up to $200 in cash compensation -- more

BMW gives ActiveE drivers incentive to fuel up with the sun

By driving electric cars, BMW ActiveE drivers have already kicked the gasoline habit. But now the auto manufacturer is giving them a little help in the effort to quit fossil fuels for good. BMW has partnered with Real Goods Solar to offer EV customers discounted residential solar panel systems so they can charge up using only the sun.

Real Goods Solar will install solar panels at homes of ActiveE drivers at a 35 percent discount. The Colorado-based company operates offices in California and Connecticut, and offers several purchase plans, including the typical upfront system purchase, a zero-down 20-year lease of more

Fisker Karma involved in house fire but battery not cause

Fisker Automotive received worrying news last week when a Karma sedan burned in a house fire in Texas. The cause is still being investigated, according to the company.

The fire started shortly after a new Karma owner parked the car in a garage, according to a report in Autoweek. A fire investigator told Autoweek that the Karma, which was not plugged in, was the origin of the fire, but the cause was not known.

Fisker released a statement saying that the electric car's battery pack was intact and "does not appear to be a contributing factor in this incident." more

Cadillac launches CUE iPad app

NEW ORLEANS--After introducing its CUE touch-screen instrument panel at CTIA last October, Cadillac has returned to the 2012 wireless trade show with more services.

When CUE is introduced in the 2013 Cadillac XTS next month, buyers will be able to test the system on a new iPad app. According to Cadillac, the app will replicate many of the system's features and make them available anywhere.

XTS buyers in the United States will receive a new iPad loaded with not only the CUE app, but also the MyCadillac App and OnStar RemoteLink. And to help drivers get started, Cadillac dealers more

Siemens electrifies trucks with trolley technology

City buses, streetcars, and regional rail lines all over the world run on electricity, garnered from overhead lines. Now Siemens wants to apply the same technology to long-haul trucking with its eHighway concept.

Siemens, an industrial and automotive supplier, contends that the majority of vehicle pollution comes from big diesel trucks transporting goods over many freeway and highway miles. Its eHighway would eliminate tailpipe pollution from these trucks for the majority of those miles.

On a test track in Europe, Siemens has been running trucks using its diesel-hybrid drive technology. Conductors on top of the trucks make contact with overhead more

Audi A8: Running hot on the ice

SEEFELD, Austria--At the Audi Winter Driving Experience, the first thing I need to do when I slide into the driver's seat is forget everything I've ever learned about driving in the snow.

I'm not at your typical winter-driving school where you learn how to stop slides. Not here. Opposite lock in an $80,000 luxury sedan while kicking up plumes of snow is taught and encouraged. Oversteer and understeer -- the moves that usually send you careening into a snowbank -- are met with an approving nod, a round of applause from my classmates, and the occasional more

Google's self-driving cars win big in Nevada

Nevada is known as being one of the most lenient states when it comes to gambling, fireworks, and getting married; and now it's extending that easygoingness to driverless cars.

As of today, Nevada is the first state to let Google's self-driving cars on the roads. The state's Department of Motor Vehicles issued the tech giant the first license to see just how these cars act and react on busy streets and highways, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

"We're excited to receive the first testing license for self-driving vehicles in Nevada," a Google spokesperson told CNET. "more

Toyota unwraps Tesla-powered RAV4 EV

Toyota showed off its RAV4 EV, the electric version of the RAV4 compact SUV, as a concept about a year and half ago at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. The wraps came off the production version of this new electric car this week, showing some speedy automobile development indeed.

More impressive is that the deal between Toyota and Tesla to develop the electric RAV4, on the heels of Toyota's decision to sell Tesla its NUMMI auto manufacturing plant, came less than two years ago. This is a car with a completely different drivetrain than that of the car on which it is based. Most model updates take longer to put into production.more