IN THE LEAD-UP to next month’s Tokyo Motor Show, Suzuki has presented a plug-in hybrid version of its popular Swift hatch.
The Swift Plug-In Hybrid concept is powered primarily by an electric motor, charged from a wall socket for short trips. As the battery’s charge begins to run low, a 658cc petrol engine kicks in to [...]

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PROVIDING GREEN POWERTRAIN options is fast becoming a key strategy for the world’s automakers. Not every solution fits every market though which is why Audi is preparing a petrol-electric hybrid version of its Q5 SUV, targeted principally at North American ‘green’ buyers.

Set to launch in 2011, the Q5 Hybrid is aimed squarely at markets that [...]

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Ford has announced it is another step closer to production of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Ford America, in conjunction with supplier Johnson Controls-Saft, has announced plans to build its first Lithium-ion battery facility in Holland, Michigan.

The partnership with Johnson Controls-Saft will see an advanced Lithium-ion battery system developed for the company’s first commercial plug-in vehicles, [...]

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Many a word has been used to describe the ‘hybrid war’ brewing between the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, but in all honesty, there is no war. Yet.

While Honda will no doubt be keen to make an impact on Toyota’s hybrid market dominance, each will be more focused on winning new buyers to the segment [...]

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At least $2.4 billion will become available to American car manufacturers, in President Barack Obama’s latest support program for next-generation electric vehicles.

The announcement was made while the President was visiting the southern California Edison’s Electric Vehicle Institute.
“This investment will not only reduce our dependence on foreign oil, it will put Americans back to work,” President [...]

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The first version is still yet to go on sale, but engineers at General Motors are already hard at work developing the second and third generations of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.

With the first Volt still over twelve months away, GM has decided to start work on successive generations of the car in an attempt [...]

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In an effort to bring even more efficiency to the Volkswagen range, the boffins at Wolfsburg have mated its V6 TSI petrol engine with an electric powertrain and a new eight-speed automatic transmission.  Installed in the Touareg, Volkswagen claims the big SUV will offer 248kW and a 9.05L/100km fuel economy figure.

The electric motor in the [...]

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