Cars, trucks and more

Get a deal on a Toyota hybrid today
Toyota has announced a bunch of incentives on its vehicles, including its hybrid cars. Incentives can vary depending upon your region, but the Toyota Camry hybrid is averaging about a $1500 discount and the Prius is averaging about $1000 discount according to Cars.com.
Check out Toyota’s consumer site for [...]

Can lithium power the Sonata past other hybrids?
Hyundai has confirmed that it plans to begin selling the Hyundai Sonata hybrid in October of next year. More interesting, the Sonata hybrid will utilize Hyundai’s Blue Drive – a lithium polymer powered hybrid drive.
In related news, the Hyundai Blue Will plug-in hybrid concept has not yet been [...]

569 units sold in first week
If you checked out your local Honda dealer last week hoping to purchase an Insight hybrid, you might have been disappointed. While Honda did begin delivery of the Insight, availability was limited. Nonetheless, Honda did record the sale of 569 Insights last week.
Interestingly, Honda Civic hybrid sales were down 20.8% [...]

The Blue-Will plug-in hybrid
Hyundai is showing off its latest hybrid concept as a sneak preview to the Seoul Auto Show in April. The Blue-Will plug-in hybrid, according to AutoWeek, utilizes used recycled soda bottles for the headlights, as well as biodegradable plastics for the engine cover and interior. Likewise, the panoramic solar-celled roof will help [...]

Now if I could only find that hydrogen filling station
So, Mazda has received permission from the Japanese government to start leasing the Mazda hydrogen hybrid. Cool, right, especially since this hybrid can burn both gasoline and hydrogen?
Still, now the President Obama has put the kibosh on hydrogen funding, isn’t the hydrogen highway closed here in [...]

An insightful attack on the Prius?
OK. There is no hybrid version of the Chevy Cruze. In the future there will probably be a range extended plug-in Cruze, much like the Chevy Volt. However, such a Cruze is years from reality.
Still, why not put GM’s BAS hybrid technology in the Cruze? Even better, speed up plans [...]

Toyota’s ultra cheap hybrid?
For quite a while I’ve been calling out Toyota to come up with a small, cheap city Prius. A compact hybrid used mostly for city commuting when extra seating is rarely needed.
Well, Toyota might not have listened to me, but the buzz around the cost of the Honda Insight has gotten to [...]

No word yet on price though
The 2010 Ford Escape hybrid, due out this summer, will come with a number of new safety features, such as active park assist, a rearview camera system, and an integrated spotter mirror that alleviates blind spots according to reports.
Labels: Ford Escape hybrid, Hybrid Vehicles
hybridcarblog.com

A Consumer Reports favorite
CNN has a feature Best American Cars based off of the Consumer Reports best new car values, but for those only interested in American cars.
Anyway, the Ford Escape hybrid ranked Best Small SUV and Greenest because it “gets best fuel economy of any SUV Consumer Reports has ever tested.”
Since it’s the only [...]

The waiting game
Sales of hybrid vehicles declined 29 percent last month. Of course, the decline in light passenger vehicles was down 41 percent, so hybrids are still selling relatively well.
Yet, with the new Honda Insight and the new Toyota Prius ready to hit the market, in addition to the Ford Fusion hybrid, it seems that [...]