In about three years, the new EcoBoost 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine from Ford Motor Co. will enter global production. But according to an insider source familiar with the engine, there is still no timetable for a US version. The source added that it isn’t happening yet for North America. The source added that the subject is certainly being discussed but there’s still no vehicle planned for it yet. There are talks for the next-generation Ka, a front-drive car that is even smaller than... 

From the racetrack to the road, this might be the story of the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid race car that was unveiled back in March at the Geneva Motor Show. And this is not just another rumor, as the spies caught a prototype near Nurburgring, in Germany, that had a number of telltale signs that under its body it is not an ordinary 911. Regarding the 911 GT3 Hybrid R, this race car already showed that it can write a page of history, as it scored a podium finish in its second appearance in the Nurburgring... 

  Hyundai and Kia announced that they will offer stop-start technology as a fuel-saving feature on many North American vehicles within 2 years. “Start-stop will be a key part of our development activity in the next two product cycles,” in 2012 and 2016, said Timothy White, Hyundai-Kia’s senior powertrain manager. The new technology is expected to provide a 3% increase in fuel economy. As you may know already Stop-start engine technology is being adopted by more automakers... 

By the end of the year, Ford Motor Co. is expected to expand its EcoBoost fuel-saving technology to three additional engines. We’ll know more soon this Tuesday at the SAE World Congress in Detroit from Barb Samardzich, Ford’s vice president of powertrain engineering, who is slated to provide more details about EcoBoost production plans. To reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, the technology combines direct fuel injection, variable cam timing and turbocharging. In a statement, Samardzich... 

Volkswagen just introduced an all-new version of the Touareg, but that vehicle’s Audi relative, the Q7 SUV, is still a couple of years away from a full redesign. In the meantime, Audi is launching a full revamp of the powertrain lineup at the Leipzig Motor Show. The Q7 probably won’t get a hybrid powertrain until the next-generation model debuts, but all Q7s will get a new eight-speed automatic transmission and a range of boosted and direct-injected engines for 2011. On the gasoline... 

Last week Tesla Motors filed an update to its original S-1 documents. The S-1 filing is a requirement as the company moves closer to its initial public offering (IPO). The update contained an abundance of new information such as the report regarding the current Roadster production continuing into 2012 as well as additional financial funding information. Something else was found in the filing worthy of mention. It appears Tesla, in light of the recent Toyota unintended acceleration problems, is... 

The numbers are in for Mach sales and hybrids have fared well compared to last year. Hybrid automakers can’t heave a sigh of relief quite yet, because sales have fallen short of the overall industry rise compared to a year ago. The numbers show that hybrid sales are up 18 percent from last March, while light vehicle sales rose 25 percent. Hybrid sales were also below expectations. It’s likely that strong incentives for traditional cars and a rebounding economy drove buyers towards conventionally... 

Last Wednesday at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, the first pre-production Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid rolled off the line, according to a statement from General Motors Co. But don’t expect to see these pre-production versions at the dealerships as they won’t be sold there and will instead be used as test cases, which ensure that the quality targets by the Volt engineering team will be met. In the next few months, workers will be producing more pre-production Volts. The manufacturing... 

In an effort to make the government’s fleet of vehicles more green, the Obama administration has reportedly announced plans to add more hybrids this year followed by plug-in hybrids next year. The plan should double the number of hybrids in the government’s fleet, a step towards achieving its goal of reducing fleet petroleum use by 30 percent by 2020. The new plan involves purchasing 100 plug-in vehicles by the end of next year, and the front-runner is the Chevrolet Volt. According to... 

It’s official: starting this December, Nissan dealerships in select U.S markets will start selling the all-electric Leaf, the first mass-produced, zero-emission vehicle, at a starting price of $32,780. After $7,500 worth of federal tax credits, the price should drop to as low as $25,280. There are several states offering additional tax credits that could lower the cost of owning a Leaf even more – such as a $5,000 statewide tax rebate in California, a $5,000 tax credit in Georgia and...