Detroit Auto Show
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Which Chinese automaker showed an electric minivan in Detroit? What upcoming SUV will underpin a new "elegant" electric from Lincoln? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending January 18, 2019. Last week, the CES show in Las Vegas was something of a disappointment for visitors looking for the latest in electric and self-driving car technology. The Detroit auto show, long a staple of big horsepower and heavy iron, provided the jolt for electric car fans that CES lacked, with several new-car introductions. Ford showed a hybrid...
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GAC Motor shows electric three-row minivan concept, delays US brand launch to 2020
China’s GAC Motor introduced a California-designed electric concept vehicle called the Entranze earlier this week in Detroit, at the 2019 North American International Auto Show. The concept, a family hauler with three rows of seating and room for up to seven, appears with its “Slick...
Bengt Halvorson -
Nissan electric crossover due in 2020 closely follows IMx concept
Despite its bold, early moves into the mass production of electric cars with the Nissan Leaf, which originally reached the market in late 2010, Nissan has taken a long, long time to release a true electric-car Second Act. With the arrival of a yet-unnamed fully electric crossover utility vehicle...
Bengt Halvorson -
Infiniti QX Inspiration concept sets design direction for brand’s electric future
The future of Infiniti is electric. And today at the Detroit auto show the brand previewed the direction of a future electric Infiniti SUV—and the brand—with the QX Inspiration concept. With entirely new proportions allowed by electric powertrains, a cleaner, simplified exterior design...
Bengt Halvorson -
Nissan elevates the sedan with IMs electric-car concept
At the Detroit auto show, Nissan today revealed the IMs concept, a vision that sees the sedan as existing in a quite different, all-electric “elevated” form. At face value, the IMs serves as a sedan counterpoint to the IMx concept first shown at the 2017 Tokyo show and advances some of...
Bengt Halvorson -
2020 Ford Explorer Hybrid signals the start of a big electrified push
As Ford prepares the first of several fully electric vehicles, for what amounts to a rapidly expanding niche, the automaker is also working on rolling out electrified versions of its existing mainstream lineup. After finding plenty of success many years ago with its Ford Escape Hybrid, and then...
Bengt Halvorson -
On Sunday night, General Motors showed renderings of a future long-range, all-electric SUV to be offered roughly three years hence by its Cadillac luxury brand. The look at the brand's first battery-electric vehicle came as part of the 2019 Detroit auto-show debut for the 2020 Cadillac XT6, a three-row crossover utility vehicle powered by a very conventional 3.6-liter V-6 gasoline engine. Cadillac president Steve Carlisle said the battery-powered utility would be the first vehicle derived from GM's future dedicated electric-vehicle platform. READ THIS: Cadillac to become “lead electric...
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Achates engine in Ford F-150 pickup targets 37 mpg, with Saudi oil company backing
One year ago at the Detroit auto show, a company called Achates Power unveiled models of a new kind of internal-combustion engine. With opposed pistons in the middle and crankshafts at either end, it was sufficiently different to startle most visitors who paid attention. That engine came with some...
John Voelcker -
New 2019 Chevy Silverado pickup: planned for all powertrain types
Vehicle launches at auto shows include a dance between automakers, which only want certain information revealed, and journalists, who want to put specific news items into a bigger and broader context. For the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado pickup unveiling Saturday night, Chevy's executives and engineers...
John Voelcker -
2019 Honda Insight video preview from Detroit auto show
Pickup trucks took the limelight this year, but a significant green car made a quiet debut. It's an interesting and handsome model that revives a familiar name for Honda. The 2019 Honda Insight is a compact premium sedan projected to get an EPA combined rating of 50 mpg or better. The new Insight...
John Voelcker -
2019 Ram 1500 pickup has 48-volt 'mild hybrid' system for fuel economy
The dominant news at the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit was about pickup trucks. Ironically, the Detroit automaker with the fewest electrified models on sale was the only one to bring hybridization to a new truck, in the form of its brand-new 2019 Ram 1500. Fiat Chrysler...
Mark Stevenson -
2019 Honda Insight prototype debuts in Detroit; 50 mpg or better projected
At the 2018 Detroit auto show, the Honda Insight Prototype was unveiled Monday to preview a production sedan due later this year. Any new hybrid car from one of the pioneers of hybrid-electric vehicles is notable, and that's what Honda has delivered. Honda called the car at the auto show an...
John Voelcker -
The highest-volume vehicle GM sells in North America is a full-size pickup truck—one that likely also contributes outsize profits from each of its hundreds of thousands of units. So the launch of the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado Saturday night before the Detroit auto show was a big deal for the company. Like every other new vehicle produced for a new model year, big thirsty pickup trucks have to deliver higher fuel-efficiency ratings at the same time they add new features and boost their capabilities. DON'T MISS: For pickup trucks, more than half all fuel savings come in 2022-2025 CAFE...
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Ford 300-mile all-electric SUV may be named Mach 1; due 2020
The big new debuts at the 2018 Detroit auto show are largely pickup trucks, one of them being the new mid-size 2019 Ford Ranger. Ford also introduced a new Bullitt Mustang, honoring the 51st anniversary of the legendary 1968 movie, and a high-performance ST version of the Edge crossover. (Is it the...
John Voelcker -
2019 Toyota Avalon Hybrid debuts with more evocative style, promise of improved efficiency
The 2019 Toyota Avalon Hybrid that debuted Monday at the 2018 Detroit auto show goes where no full-size sedan has gone before. Well, except for last year's Avalon Hybrid, anyway. For 2019, the Avalon rides on a new platform, has updated interior and exterior styling, and comes loaded with an...
Andrew Ganz -
Electric Ford Transit van conversion shown by Inventev at Detroit Auto Show
When an automaker doesn't offer a vehicle for a specific market segment, sometimes the aftermarket will fill in the gap. In the U.S., all-electric commercial vans are one of those gaps. Such vehicles are available in other markets, but so far, not on sale from major makers in North America. DON'T...
Stephen Edelstein -
China's GAC shows electric car, plug-in hybrid concept, crossover at Detroit Auto Show
China is now the world's largest new-car market, but no native Chinese manufacturers sell passenger cars in the U.S. At least one of those manufacturers is at least considering having a go at the U.S. market. GAC appeared this week at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show with three vehicles, including an...
Stephen Edelstein -
Honda hybrid minivan, SUV, or pickup coming; dedicated hybrid in 2018 too
In recent years, Honda has announced that it planned to release advanced-technology green cars in the future—without mentioning even their names, let alone any details or specifications. That's what happened two years ago with a pair of unnamed battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles...
John Voelcker -
Cars that run entirely or partly on electricity from a battery pack have no tailpipe emissions, but to judge their overall impact, you have to look at lifetime wells-to-wheels emissions. That includes emissions associated with extracting, refining, and burning the fuel used to make the electricity that recharges them, as well as the same for any gasoline they burn if they're plug-in hybrids. At today's Detroit Auto Show, Fiat Chrysler released calculations on the lifecycle greenhouse-gas emissions of its 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid plug-in minivan. DON'T MISS: Mercedes B-Class Electric Car...
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2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid: two different battery packs, 'best-in-class' fuel economy claimed
Masato Katsumata is Toyota's chief engineer for the global Camry sedan program—so when he speaks, it's worth listening. Following yesterday's Detroit Auto Show launch of an entirely new 2018 Toyota Camry mid-size sedan, he was one of several Toyota executives who answered media questions in a...
John Voelcker -
VW ID Buzz concept: all-electric Microbus could arrive in 2022
If you pronounce the word "buzz" with a German accent, it sounds like "bus"—which is almost surely why VW's second all-electric concept vehicle is called the Volkswagen ID Buzz. It's the latest in a series of concept studies for a modern-day Microbus, with stylistic nods to the classic Type 2...
John Voelcker -
Green car preview at Detroit Auto Show
The 2017 Detroit Auto Show will include a mix of hybrid, electric, and fuel-efficient car debuts.
Stephen Edelstein -
Ford Transit Connect Hybrid taxi prototype to appear in Detroit
A prototype Ford Transit Hybrid taxi will appear at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show.
Stephen Edelstein -
Fusion Hybrid again used for latest Ford autonomous test vehicle
Ford will deploy a second-generation version of its autonomous Fusion Hybrid sedan in 2017.
Stephen Edelstein