Car Throttle

There has been a lot of hubbub over GM's much-trumpeted 230 miles per gallon figure on the range-extended Chevrolet Volt. The back and forth on whether or not that is a correct number (GM says the EPA cycle will result in that rating) has been intense. Now its Fisker's turn to make a splash, announcing the MPG rating for the Karma. In Fisker's announced figures, they are using results from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) methedology for measuring plug-in hybrids. Speaking of which, Fisker still continues to call the Karma a plug-in hybrid when really it's a range-extended electric vehicle. Anyways, the Karma will achieve 3.5L/100km (or 67.2 mpg U.S) and CO2 emissions of 83 grams per kilometer. Fisker says that "941 million liters (248 million gallons)

I love to see people accomplish their dreams - and it looks like Fisker is doing just that. Henrik Fisker and his company is continuing to move forward on schedule with the launch of the Karma range-extended electric-vehicle. If all goes to plan, the Karma will be the first luxury vehicle of it's kind on the road. Other than in Fisker's commercial that displayed the Karma in motion, we've yet to see the car driving on the road. It looks like that is about to change though. How? Well a lot of automotive events are going on in Monterey, California next month. One of those is the Historic Automobile Races in California. The races are part of the car themed Monterey Weekend, where 3 car events are

I'm on board with alternative fuel technologies like hybrids and electric vehicles because of their impact in ways like national security and practical matters like less spent on gas. However, there has to be room for performance in there. So in that regard, there hasn't been much promising news. Tesla? Definitely. They've shown us electric technology can be crazy fast and a whole lot of fun. Is the Prius fun to drive though? Not really. Chevrolet may be thinking more along the lines of enthusiasts with new Volt. As I've said before, it's not the technology that isn't fun for performance reasons; it's the way it's used that makes the difference.  How about handling? GM's chief engineer was recently asked how the Volt compares to "rivals" the

Chrysler is trying to show it's serious about it's ENVI Electric Vehicles division by releasing a minivan using their technology to a fleet customer. The announcement is designed to coincide with Earth Month (pictures were released on Earth Day). I was waiting to see if the company would have a press release on the program following the pictures, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Chrysler showed three electrified vehicles as part of it's ENVI electric vehicles program. I speculated at the time that the only model with a real chance at production was the Lotus Europa-based Dodge EV (Now Circuit). The others seemed just an attempt to show everyone that it was working on a family-friendly vehicles. The Circuit EV still will be the one going