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2010 Toyota Prius Raises the Bar for Hybrids

Posted on 09. Mar, 2009 by admin.

When it launches this spring, the all-new 2010 Toyota Prius will once again set new standards for innovative hybrid design and technology, raising its level of convenience features and performance to new heights, including a combined EPA estimated fuel efficiency rating of 50 miles-per-gallon.

The midsize third-generation 2010 Prius will offer better mileage ratings, enhanced performance, and innovative design features. It will be quieter, roomier, and equipped with advanced standard and available features such as a moonroof with solar panels, four driving modes, Intelligent Parking Assist (IPA) and steering wheel touch controls that display on the instrument panel. [...]

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Chevrolet Volt Named 2009 Green Car Vision Award Winner

Posted on 03. Feb, 2009 by admin.

The Chevrolet Volt has been named the 2009 Green Car Vision Award winner by the auto enthusiast magazine Green Car Journal. The award was presented at a press conference this morning at The Washington Auto Show.

Competition for the award was keen, with plug-in hybrid, range extended electric, battery electric, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles vying for the prize. Among them: the Fisker Karma, launching late this year; the Honda FCX Clarity, a sleek, fuel-cell sedan; the MINI E, an electric version of the conventional internal combustion MINI Cooper; and the Mitsubishi I-MiEV, a battery electric city car based on a popular internal combustion model in Japan. [...]

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2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid Qualifies Buyers For Highest Available Federal Tax Credit

Posted on 28. Jan, 2009 by admin.

Customers eager to purchase America’s most fuel-efficient mid-size sedans, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid and Mercury Milan Hybrid, can take advantage of a $3,400 tax credit from the federal government.

Buyers of a new 2010 Fusion Hybrid or Mercury Milan Hybrid this year will qualify for the $3,400 tax credit, the highest credit amount ever offered for hybrids purchased or placed in service after December 31, 2005. The Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner Hybrid, the most fuel-efficient SUVs in America, continue to qualify for a $3,000 tax credit, the highest available tax credit of all hybrids on the road today. [...]

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Lexus HS 250h – The World’s First Dedicated Luxury Hybrid Car

Posted on 23. Jan, 2009 by admin.

This week Lexus announced the latest addition to its entry-luxury sedan line-up, the HS 250h fits nicely between the IS luxury sport sedan and the ES luxury sedan. Research has shown that more than 60 percent of entry-luxury car buyers would have considered a hybrid car if available, and the HS will provide these consumers with a viable purchase option.

Equipped with Lexus’s first four-cylinder petrol engine, the 2.4-litre Atkinson-cycle powerplant is part of the latest Lexus Hybrid Drive System, which generates 187 total system horsepower. The highly efficient Atkinson-cycle engine, made possible by the Variable Valve Timing with intelligence (VVT-i) system, allows the expansion/power stroke to be longer than the compression stroke so that combustion energy can be more effectively used for production of engine power. The HS 250h sedan’s expected fuel efficiency will be more than 30 percent better than the most fuel-efficient model currently in the Lexus lineup, while earning a SULEV emissions rating utilising regular 87-octane petrol. Among the technologies adopted in the 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine are cooling piston oil jets; an optimised balance shaft rate for improved Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) characteristics; and a hot-air venting system mounted behind the radiator.
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2009 Honda Insight Hybrid to Make World Debut at the NAIAS

Posted on 03. Dec, 2008 by admin.

The all-new 2009 Honda Insight hybrid will make its world debut in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The five-passenger, five-door Insight will go on sale in the spring of 2009.

The Insight is expected to have annual global sales of 200,000 units per year – approximately 100,000 in North America – and will utilize a new interactive, driver-focused fuel economy enhancement technology named the Ecological Drive Assist System (Eco Assist™).

A leader in the development of cleaner, more fuel-efficient mobility products, Honda introduced to market the first mass produced low-emission gasoline vehicles; America’s first commercially produced gas-electric hybrid car and the world’s first EPA-certified hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, the FCX. In 2007, Honda was named “greenest automaker” by the Union of Concerned Scientists for the fourth straight time.

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