Archive for the ‘powertrains’ Category

Mazda has flipped-flopped a lot on its powertrain strategies in the recent past, at one point ruling out gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles in favor of clean-diesels and then quickly reversing that decision. Now the company has announced that it will introduce a more fuel-efficient powertrains by 2011 as its latest effort to reach its goal of increasing fuel economy across its model line 30% by 2015.

The new powertrains will include both four-cylinder and rotary engines, with some units expected to achieve fuel economy better than 42 mpg on the highway. The information comes from Mazda R&D chief Seita Kanai who said a redesign of the...

It's a great news day for Tesla Motors: not only is the company moving into new digs in Palo Alto, California, but also Tesla's co-founder and former CEO Martin Eberhard has dropped his lawsuit against the automaker and current CEO Elon Musk.

As for that first item: Tesla announced yesterday that it will lease a 350,000 square-foot facility in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, where it will develop and manufacture components for its all-electric vehicles. The bulk of those components will be electric powertrains and chargers, which Tesla already sells to one of its larger shareholders, Daimler, and which will likely be used in the...