Archive for the ‘Green’ Category

Driven: 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6

Driven: 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6

BMW's X6 "Sports Activity Coupe" is a car of contradictions. Our review of the 2009 BMW X6 range called it "an oddity: a sport-utility vehicle designed to have a coupe-like shape."

For 2010, BMW has added a new model that may polarize people even further. It's the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6, the first production hybrid from the maker of ultimate driving machines.

It's both the world's most powerful hybrid and the model in the X6 range that gets the best mileage. It has 485 horsepower and 575 foot-pounds of torque, which it gets by combining a 407-hp, 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine with a pair of electric motors. Oh, and it costs ninety...

BMW's X6 "Sports Activity Coupe" is a car of contradictions. Our review of the 2009 BMW X6 range called it "an oddity: a sport-utility vehicle designed to have a coupe-like shape." For 2010, BMW has added a new model that may polarize people even further. It's the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6, the first production hybrid from the maker of ultimate driving machines. It's both the world's most powerful hybrid and the model in the X6 range that gets the best mileage. It has 485 horsepower and 575 foot-pounds of torque, which it gets by combining a 407-hp, 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine with a pair of electric motors. Oh, and it costs ninety... Read More

Raising The Gas Tax: Auto Execs Push An Unpopular Solution

Raising The Gas Tax: Auto Execs Push An Unpopular Solution

We’ve been here before. The government mandates more fuel-efficient vehicles across the board, yet the American public continues to gravitate toward what’s big and powerful.

Barring this era of greater responsibility and restraint, which might pass like a fleeting fancy with the recession, why not pick the bigger or more powerful car, we say?

A lot of things are different this time around, though. Perhaps most remarkably, quite a few executives of automakers and major auto-supplier companies are voicing out in favor of higher fuel taxes—of more rigorous regulation of what types of vehicles can be built and sold—as a way of reducing our...

We’ve been here before. The government mandates more fuel-efficient vehicles across the board, yet the American public continues to gravitate toward what’s big and powerful. Barring this era of greater responsibility and restraint, which might pass like a fleeting fancy with the recession, why not pick the bigger or more powerful car, we say? A lot of things are different this time around, though. Perhaps most remarkably, quite a few executives of automakers and major auto-supplier companies are voicing out in favor of higher fuel taxes—of more rigorous regulation of what types of vehicles can be built and sold—as a way of reducing our... Read More

Cash-For-Clunkers Smackdown: White House Takes on Edmunds

Cash-For-Clunkers Smackdown: White House Takes on Edmunds

When Edmunds.com released its report on the Cash-for-Clunkers program on Wednesday, saying it cost $24,000 for each vehicle that wouldn't otherwise have been sold, it must have expected pushback.

It may not have anticipated, however, a sharp retort from the highest office in the land: the White House. But that's what it got yesterday, via a pithy entry on the White House blog calling the Edmunds analysis "implausible" and "faulty".

It not only refuted Edmunds' contentions by citing a report from the Council of Economic Advisors, but accused Edmunds of releasing sensational Clunkers analyses solely to draw media attention.

The White House...

When Edmunds.com released its report on the Cash-for-Clunkers program on Wednesday, saying it cost $24,000 for each vehicle that wouldn't otherwise have been sold, it must have expected pushback. It may not have anticipated, however, a sharp retort from the highest office in the land: the White House. But that's what it got yesterday, via a pithy entry on the White House blog calling the Edmunds analysis "implausible" and "faulty". It not only refuted Edmunds' contentions by citing a report from the Council of Economic Advisors, but accused Edmunds of releasing sensational Clunkers analyses solely to draw media attention. The White House... Read More