Honda Urban EV Concept to go on sale in 2019, but not for North America

Honda Urban EV ConceptIf there were a favorite car among journalists and car fans at this week's Frankfurt motor show, it may have been a small, all-electric hatchback city car. Which is pretty remarkable, given the practical, unexciting, utilitarian, slightly nerdy image every non-Tesla electric car seems to carry among that group even today. The car in question is...

BYD: tiny electric cars for China could be 75 percent of sales

BYD Qin EV300Chinese automaker BYD was the world's largest producer of plug-in electric cars last year, and the outlook for new markets in its home country are quite healthy, suggesting strong continued growth. BYD plans to tackle the country's inland cities, viewed as a new frontier for automakers, with a small and very affordable electric car. The industry...

Baojun E100: GM’s tiny, two-seat electric car for China

Baojun E100 electric carMost North Americans and Europeans will likely never have heard of Baojun, but it's one of many brands operated under General Motors' SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture in China. Its portfolio is mostly made up of small sedans, multi-purpose vehicles (small minivans), hatchbacks, and a crossover utility vehicle, but the brand recently undertook its...

2017 Smart ForTwo electric cars priced from $24,550

2017 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive - first drive, Miami, Nov 2016   [photo: Jeff Jablansky]The market for electric vehicles normally comes with a high price of entry, though Smart is proposing that its new two-seat battery-powered minicar is a value proposition. Prices for the 2017 Smart ForTwo electric coupe and cabriolet begin at $24,550 and $28,750 respectively. If you've followed Smart's electric offerings, the starting price for...

Smart to be all-electric in U.S. and Canada; gasoline goes away this fall

2017 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive - first drive, Miami, Nov 2016   [photo: Jeff Jablansky]When the tiny Smart ForTwo launched in the U.S. a decade ago, it got a huge boost in sales from both novelty and soaring gas prices. While its EPA ratings never approached those of the larger Toyota Prius hybrid, the little two-seater found buyers who liked its cheeky character and the ease of parking a car less than 9 feet long. Its first-year...

2017 Mitsubishi Mirage G4: gas mileage review

2017 Mitsubishi Mirage G4 SE, Catskill Mountains, NY, Nov 2016The Mitsubishi Mirage is the underdog of small cars: slow, loud, and archaic, but scrappy. And it's been a much bigger sales success than Mitsubishi expected, given the small numbers of minicars and subcompacts sold in the U.S. these days. For 2017, Mitsubishi added a four-door sedan model dubbed G4 to the existing five-door hatchback, and gave...

Smart ForTwo minicar: 15 years later, has it made a difference?

2016 Smart ForTwoMinimal cars are often an appealing idea: why should one person drive a two-ton vehicle with five or more seats on local journeys of 10 miles or fewer? Then there's the crushingly difficult parking in major European, Asian, and North American cities. Add to that, perhaps, a desire for minimal use of energy and material resources. So why not design...

2017 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive: first drive of electric two-seat car

2017 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive - first drive, Miami, Nov 2016   [photo: Jeff Jablansky]On a hot, muggy day in south Florida, nothing is more comforting than knowing that your well-cooled car will make it to its destination. When that car is a reboot of the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive, the tiny battery-powered European city slicker—and you’re surrounded by a sea of drivers who couldn't care less about keeping to a speed...

New Nissan Micra debuts in Paris, not for US but Canada perhaps

New fifth-generation Nissan Micra at launch, 2016 Paris Motor ShowWhile Nissan sells many different types of vehicles in the U.S., there's one that's globally very popular that has never shown up in the States. That would be the Nissan Micra, a smaller car than the Versa sedan and Versa Note hatchback, the largish subcompacts that are its smallest U.S. offerings. The Micra is, however, sold in Canada—and...