CAFE proposal coming March 30: automakers hope national rules survive

Gas pumpIt's been hanging out there in limbo for more than six months: the answer to the question of what happens to gas-mileage rules under Trump. Given the daily political turmoil emanating from Washington, D.C., the fate of corporate average fuel economy rules may have gotten lost in the noise. But for automakers and consumers, the fate of current CAFE...

New 2019 Chevy Silverado pickup: planned for all powertrain types

2019 Chevrolet Silverado, 2018 Detroit auto showVehicle 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 stayed ruthlessly on message. The company said...

Carbon fiber from plants close to carbon-neutral? Scientists hopeful

McLaren Monocage II carbon fiber monocoque structureWhen it comes to materials with the most promise in automotive applications, carbon fiber and graphene each rank high on the list. Unlike graphene, however, real-world carbon fiber applications exist today—and they're helping automakers reduce the weight of cars coming tomorrow. There's one big, unfortunate, and somewhat ironic problem with...

What will your next new car be? Twitter poll results

2018 Nissan LeafExperienced survey companies know that what people say they will do and what they actually end up doing are sometimes two different things. They also know that picking the correct survey group to represent a broader population is crucial to obtaining useful results. Our (unscientific) Twitter polls are largely seen only by this site's Twitter...

2019 Honda Insight video preview from Detroit auto show

Honda Insight Prototype, 2018 Detroit auto showPickup 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 is Honda's third try at a dedicated hybrid, each of...

Costa Rica to become Latin American electric-car pioneer?

Arenal volcano, Costa Rica, by Flickr user Adam Baker (Used under CC License)Costa Rica isn't what you'd call a bastion of automotive sales. The Central American country ,wedged between Nicaragua and Panama, is home to 4.8 million people who buy just 154,000 vehicles annually—less than 1 percent of the sales in the United States. But that won't deter the Costa Rican government from greening its fleet. It now aims to...