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Meet The Entrepreneur Who Hauls Motorcycles With A Prius [I Feel Gassy]
The Toyota Prius, while boasting capacious cargo space and better than decent fuel economy, is not the sort of vehicle American consumers have been trained to think of as a tow rig. But some folks are willing to take a different tack and try something new. More »
Meet The Entrepreneur Who Hauls Motorcycles With A Prius [I Feel Gassy]
The Toyota Prius, while boasting capacious cargo space and better than decent fuel economy, is not the sort of vehicle American consumers have been trained to think of as a tow rig. But some folks are willing to take a different tack and try something new. More »
How to make a green car sexy [I Feel Gassy]
Solutions to modern problems sometimes can be found in a distinctly classical place. The Magnolia Special was built to recapture the grace and romance of 1930s European roadsters — internal combustion and all — yet it emits 40% less CO2 than an equally powerful gas-burning automobile. And it does this using technology as old as internal combustion itself. More »
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First Drive: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid looks to split the uprights
Filed under: Sedan, Technology, Hyundai, First Drive

2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid - Click above for high-res image gallery
Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid hails from a nation where Buddhism is one of the dominant religions. After all, this slippery sedan's design is the gas-electric's equivalent of The Middle Path - a road that the company hopes is truly the way to automotive enlightenment.
Say what?
In the still-young history of the modern hybrid automobile, there have been two prevailing schools of thought on design: As the less costly path, The Low Road to hybridization is already a crowded one - it's a design route that basically calls for the electrification hardware to be buried beneath a familiar bodyshell that's shared with a conventional internal combustion-only model (see: Lexus LS 600h, Ford Fusion Hybrid, Chevrolet Silverado, etc.). The driving philosophy here is to keep production costs in check while also appealing to audiences that might be otherwise reluctant to embrace "new" technology.
Despite being on the checklist of every politician, environmentalist and Hollywood glitterati, hybrids don't sell in America
By contrast, The High Road calls for swoopier model-specific bodywork - if not an entire dedicated platform - enabling a "greener than thou" halo for its owners and parent company. Unfortunately, this high-visibility strategy also costs a boatload of cash, and the only such model that has managed to make a solid business case for itself is the Toyota Prius, a vehicle that's become the de-facto postercar for the green movement.But here's the conundrum that Hyundai has keenly recognized: Despite being on the checklist of every politician, environmentalist and Hollywood glitterati, hybrids don't sell in America - they account for less than two percent of new vehicles purchased in the U.S. every year, and their high technology bandwidth means that they require a disproportionate amount of money to develop. Basically, Hyundai knows that the Sonata Hybrid is a necessity for improving its technological capabilities, as well as for burnishing its industry-leading CAFE scores, but it also seems to understand that it is almost certain to lose money on each one it builds. Which is why they've taken The Middle Path.
In this case, the Sonata Hybrid tries to integrate the best of the other two hybrid strategies - create a distinctive new model with a unique look that says "I care more about the earth than you do" without incurring the cost of a whole new platform and all-new sheetmetal. Have they been successful? We flew all the way to South Korea to find out...
Continue reading First Drive: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid looks to split the uprights
First Drive: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid looks to split the uprights originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A High-Tech Mobile Shrub Will Let You Spy On Anyone [LOLCars]
Are you a spy with a James Bond mission and a Mr. Bean budget? The camera-equipped and electric-powered Terrestrial Shrub Rover is the "car" for you. Why? It's disguised as a well-manicured shrub. More »
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— Ford Shareholder, On Global Warming [Emissions]
A Ford shareholder (not pictured) at today's shareholder meeting expressing displeasure with small, green-oriented cars like the 2011 Ford Fiesta. She claimed that global warming doesn't exist. [via @NickBunkley] (Photo Credit: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images) More »
