Ford executives this earlier this week stepped up the anticipated timeline for the upcoming electric Ford F-150 pickup. It’s now due in 2021, according to several reports. And it coincides with a concerted effort from Ford to promote electric cars. That includes a series of ads, coming soon—spending level undisclosed—based on an... Ads from Ford tackle EV misconceptions, amid electric push
Ford executives this earlier this week stepped up the anticipated timeline for the upcoming electric Ford F-150 pickup. It’s now due in 2021, according to several reports. And it coincides with a concerted effort from Ford to promote electric cars. That includes a series of ads, coming soon—spending level undisclosed—based on an... 
The Nissan Leaf with a roughly 60-kilowatt-hour battery was expected to make its public debut at the LA Auto Show earlier this month. It didn’t. That car is expected to appear “very soon,” perhaps at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show to be held in Las Vegas a month hence. DON'T MISS: Long-range Nissan Leaf missing from LA Auto... 
Sometimes you have to build a market when there's not one to cater to. How else would Ford have begun selling 300,000 Explorers a year when they were based on a rough-riding, antiquated (even then) Ranger pickup? Ford disseminated images in front of millions of American eyeballs of Explorers tracking campers along dirt trails, heading to the Grand... 
When companies want to sell more of something, they market it. Now, at long last, electric cars are about to get the same treatment. Following an announcement at the New York International Auto Show last week, 16 major automakers are joining forces with seven states to promote sales of electric vehicles to consumers. The Alliance for Automobile... 
With the launch of the 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid sedan, the Chevrolet Volt now has its first serious competition among long-range plug-in hybrids. About 25,000 second-generation Volts were sold last year, and this year's number will be about 20,000. Honda says it may sell about the same number of plug-in Claritys. On a media drive last... 
The 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is a one-of-a-kind vehicle, the sole plug-in hybrid minivan offered for sale in North America. Its early months were plagued by a powertrain recall for a potentially faulty diode within the power inverter module. Now, the Pacifica Hybrid is back on sale in its second model year, and the minivan with 33 miles of... 
The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV isn't yet available in all states, but it's been on sale in California for six months now. While Chevy has said all along it will market the 238-mile electric car in a very targeted way, specifically trying to reach people similar to existing owners, it may have expanded its reach somewhat. This past Friday, a full-page... 
A chatbot would never lie to you, right? That’s what I wanted to find out when I tested a Facebook Messenger chatbot for the 2017 Kia Niro crossover, which recently won the Guinness Book of World Records for the lowest fuel consumption for a hybrid vehicle. (It was an interesting competition, because two people drove across the United States... 
Everything old is new again, including the 2017 Karma Revero, a reborn 2012 Fisker Karma. Now its maker has released the first-ever television advertisement for the car, a spot that debuted during the 2017 U.S. Open Polo Championship, sponsored by Karma Automotive. Simply titled "Delivery," the advertisement is full of graceful, flashing scenes of... 
If green cars can reduce emissions, why shouldn't their advertising do the same? That's the theory behind a series of billboards in relevant California markets that advertise the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell sedan. But these billboards will do more than try to attract the eyes of potential customers stuck in traffic on the highways below their... 
A 40-year-old Fleetwood Mac song, floating childrens' heads, and hydrogen molecules all kick off the marketing campaign for the 2017 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell hydrogen-powered vehicle. Like most marketing for hydrogen vehicles, the video ad above will likely be targeted only to California drivers. That state is the sole location today in which a... 
As is the norm these days, the ads running during Super Bowl LI this past weekend drew almost as much attention as the game itself. Automakers are among the myriad companies that expend considerable creative and monetary resources on Super Bowl ads every year. And green cars make occasional appearances in these ads. DON'T MISS: Here are the car... 
Despite steady increases over the past few years, electric cars still represent only a tiny fraction of new-car sales. There are no shortage of theories as to why that is the case. Some electric-car advocates blame manufacturers for not adequately promoting the vehicles, while many within the industry point to a lack of consumer demand. DON'T... 
How do you advertise new and innovative zero-emission vehicles, whether they're electric or fuel-cell cars? It's a question that's bedeviled carmakers and their marketers, who continue to experiment with messaging, different audiences, and programs to get people into the cars. The challenge is likely even greater for hydrogen fuel-cell cars, since... 
Anyone who watches even a little television knows that automakers take advertising seriously—and do a lot of it. The seemingly-never-ending stream of commercials keeps their brands in the public eye, and helps them sell cars to the subset of views in the market. But if you think that electric cars are generally not represented in that stream... 
The 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric will soon go on sale as part of a trio of Ioniq variants that also includes hybrid and plug-in hybrid models. When it arrives in dealerships, Hyundai will face the same challenge other automakers have come to know well: marketing electric cars to an uneducated and sometimes skeptical public. Instead of relying... 
Advocates of hydrogen fuel-cell cars are working to make their presence felt in much the same way that electric-car advocates have for years. Last Saturday was National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day. The specific date (10/08) was chosen in honor of hydrogen's atomic weight (1.008). Fuel provider Air Liquide used the celebration to launch a new... 
Toyota has made it abundantly clear that it believes its hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are a better path to the future than battery-electric cars. The Japanese automaker believes hybrid cars—a segment it dominates—are the more practical choice for reducing fuel consumption, and that fuel-cell cars will eventually surpass... 
Sometimes, even good intentions can't cover up poor execution. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently launched a campaign to promote clean energy in general, and electric cars specifically. The program's name, you may ask? It's entitled, "How to be a clean energy baller." DON'T MISS: How can automakers sell more electric cars? Sierra Club...