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Well maybe we'll get another year+ long thread about: 2018 Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid review with price, power and photo gallery

Tech War: Prius Prime vs. Hyundai Ioniq | TechCrunch

Here is another data security issue that can have real world consequences.

Why buying used cars could put your safety at risk

I wonder if this can affect users who buy a used Prime. What about cars that have been test driven before purchase? Somebody could test drive & tie the car to their phone. The subsequent purchaser would be none the wiser until the initial test driver took over the vehicle.

I guess this is something else for dealers to check before finalizing a new or used car purchase.

Source: Delinquent Car Loans Reach All-Time Highs | TheDetroitBureau.com

Trouble in auto financing can have a domino effect. If it infects the other credit markets, the results are predictable.

Bob Wilson

Danny Cooper, Mark Coughlan and Russell Frost have a conversation with Kathy Beslic, National Advertising and Marketing Manager for GM’s Electric Vehicles.

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Next-gen Nissan Leaf looks like a small, electric Murano - Autoblog

There's a Bloomberg article making the rounds right now (and an Ars Technica article citing it), in which Bloomberg noticed that Prius sales fell off of a cliff in China, and only ONE UNIT sold in December!

They go on to speculate that it's because of the new Prius's styling, and the fact that Prius production ended in China in 2015, so any new Priuses are subject to high import taxes. They even compare Chinese-market Prius pricing to that of the Audi Q3, as an example of those high import taxes.

There's only one problem.

The Gen 4 Prius isn't sold in China, at least per Toyota's Chinese-market website. The production that stopped in China was aligned with the Gen 3's discontinuation (in Japan, Toyota changed over to the Gen 4 in December 2015). And, the Chinese market pricing is of the Gen 3, which isn't subject to the import taxes.

The...

With thanks to 0101Zero for this week’s title. Here’s the links to this week’s stories… Russell’s rant Breathing gets more difficult Repeat after me, there is no such thing as clean diesel Car companies insist on being evil, all of them and the original story Mark Bolt autonomous driving Tony Toyota recalls all 1100 US […]

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With some reservations because the title is misleading. It would be more accurate to say, Toyota fuel-cell experiment ends. Sorry CARB, you can regulate against physics and chemistry but it won't last.

Source: Toyota Shifting Bet from Conventional Hybrids to Plug-Ins | TheDetroitBureau.com

It's not set in stone - yet, but here's a chart, relating to proposed taxes - for manufacturers building mostly - or partly beyond US boarders:



This is accouring to Blumberg associates
Your Car Could Cost Up to $17,000 More With the Proposed Border Tax - Bloomberg

The irony imo is - Toyota built a nice new manufacturing plant here in the U.S. not too many years ago, that was suposedly going to be cranking out the Prius. But - with low gas prices & pickups reigning supreme here - the choice was made.

So better buy now - or kiss the fed tax credit's helpfulness goodbye if you're looking at that shiny new Prius Prime. The difference your tax & tax credit will pretty much be a wash.
[emoji35]
unless Toyota chooses to retool for a few more models, that is.
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Over the years I've become skeptical of advocacy groups that claim to rate, rank, and give awards. Too often, I've found the ratings and rankings lacked transparency and seemed disconnected from empirical data but happily, that is not the case with Greenercars.org.

• open evaluation criteria - How We Determine Ratings | Greener Cars although their coefficients aren't posted, it is clear they are data driven.
• easy access to vehicles - GreenerCars Ratings | Greener Cars it appears they use the same downloadable "test car database" that I've often used for my narrow studies. In contrast and to their credit they have institutionalized these data using their evaluation criteria for all of the cars.

Now their focus is narrowly based upon pollution and vehicle efficiency and that is...

Toyota City, Japan, February 14, 2017
Toyota Motor Corporation is proud to announce cumulative global hybrid vehicle (HV) sales of 10.05 million units as of January 31, surpassing the 10 million unit mark. More than a numerical milestone, this demonstrates the staying power of a technology that is now emerging as a mainstream solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.

Read More ...

Enjoy,
Ken@Japan

Now, that's a smart move.

Smart Done With Gas Cars In US, Will Now Only Offer Electric Vehicles!

I am loath to post this because it reads like a 'steady, undocumented speed, on a highway' rather than a proper EPA test: Chevy Cruise Diesel gets 52 mpg on highway


Understand I recently ran 1,200 miles in the 65-75 mph speed range in a Prius Prime and got 55.7 MPG. I've often gotten 52 MPG with both our Gen-1 and Gen-3 Prius in steady speed, 65-70 mph on standard days. So I don't doubt the claim for a constant speed. But a constant speed is not one of the standard EPA test protocols. Worse, if the speed is not reported, it is...

My wife and I are looking for a new family car, with that said does anyone know the invoice pricing for the 2017 HiHy? All the info I'm finding is for the 2016.

I'm sorry if this piece of news has already been commented here before. Please merge...

‘Mild hybrids to replace small diesels in three years,’ says VW’s R&D boss

Two days ago, the 1.5TDI - still to be launched in the Polo - development process in this model was said to be stopped. No sucessor for the infamous 1.6TDI.
(portuguese: Autohoje - VW aposta em híbridos para substituir Diesel )

This week’s show starts with a fiery debate between Evan and Russell over Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Come for the excitement and stick around for the excellent news coverage this week. Russell Rant/s… You can’t have it both ways, Elon Musk is normalizing trumps craziness Thanks Igor For posting info on the prime availability […]

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It mostly stays black and when it does work it stays on the Toyota screen or just freezes after it loads

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

I'm buying this car. It's called the Whisperdiesel in Europe:

"The first nonhybrid car since the 80s to get an EPA highway rating of 50 mpg or more." The previous record-holder was 51 mpg for the 1987 Honda CRZ HF (which would fail to meet current emission standards).

"The Cruze with the six-speed manual will get higher fuel economy than the model with the nine-speed automatic..... to keep diesel chatter low, the fuel injectors shoot as many as 10 squirts of fuel per stroke."

LINK: http://www.autonews.com/article/20161011/OEM04/161019959/chevy-cruze-diesel-hatchback-may-claim-highway-mpg-crown

Instead of starting a thread every month, I think I'll just keep adding to this one.

Here's January

• Total hybrid sales at 972 units (+6.7% over Jan 2016)
• RAV4 Hybrid sales total 388 units (+20.9% over Jan 2016)
• Prius Liftback totalled 131 units (+184.8% over Jan 2016)

c and v are down 29% selling around 80-ish units.

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February

• Corolla sales up 36.4% for the month of February (compared to Feb 2016)
• Prius sales up 233.3% for February and 206.1% for YTD.
• Prius v is only down 7 units compared to Feb 2016 but is down 43 units YTD
• Prius c is down 68.2% (to be fair, last Feb was unusually high.. probably because of car share purchases)

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May

• CH-R has...