Free Republic

If you've been driving around any major city in Australia lately, chances are you've probably already spotted a new BYD Shark 6 plug-in hybrid electric ute on the road. In the past week, I've personally counted at least 15 on the road in the Sydney area, and they certainly stand out. The first BYD Shark 6 – an all-new model never previously sold in Australia – arrived in local showrooms in mid-January 2025 and already has given the long-standing best-selling utes, the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux, a run for their money. According to February VFACTS data, 2026 examples of...

Honda has announced it will produce its next-generation Civic hybrid in the United States instead of Mexico to avoid potential tariffs.Honda revealed that it plans to produce its next-generation Civic hybrid in Indiana.The change comes as Honda is bracing for President Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada.Honda, Japan’s second-largest automaker, originally planned to manufacture the next-generation Civic in Guanajuato, Mexico.Production is slated to begin in May 2028 with an estimated production of 210,000 Civics.Honda decided to produce its next-generation Civic hybrid in the US state of Indiana, instead of Mexico, to avoid potential tariffs on one...

Mazda is defying industry trends with surging sales of its gas-powered SUVs. Can it keep the momentum going without a fully electric vehicle in its lineup? While many automakers are racing toward electrification, Mazda is proving that there’s still room for gas-powered success. The Japanese automaker is set to break its U.S. sales record from 1986, with over 420,000 vehicles expected to be sold in 2024—a 16% increase from the previous year. Mazda’s president of North American operations, Tom Donnelly, credited the popularity of its compact crossovers and mid-size SUVs for this growth, with a target of 450,000 vehicles for...

Would you be impressed by a car that gets 93 mpg? If the answer is yes, then you’re going to be impressed by the current Toyota Prius. While the current Prius may be EPA-rated for a “lowly” 57 mpg, it just completed a cross-country drive, from Los Angeles’ City Hall to New York’s City Hall, while averaging 93.1 MPG. That’s a 3,200-mile trip, so unlike a lot of fuel efficiency tests that take place over a few dozen or a few hundred miles, this one took place between two of America’s biggest cites, one on each coast . And yes,...

(NewsNation) — Americans’ morning commutes are getting longer as remote work and rising housing costs continue to change the way people live. The share of “super-commutes,” those 75 miles or longer, is up by nearly a third since the start of the pandemic, according to new research from Stanford University. Those trips to the office typically take two hours and 20 minutes each way, nearly five hours total, the study found. For workers who super-commute daily, that’s almost a full 24-hour day of travel per week. However, a daily journey may not be the norm. Researchers suspect hybrid work is...

Battery electric vehicles like Teslas are fast, sleek, jewelrylike cars that capture the imagination. Hybrid cars, at least in the U.S., often bring to mind the Toyota Prius, long seen as a dawdling, egg-shaped vehicle for shuttling back and forth to Trader Joe's. But quietly amid all the BEV hype, automakers' hybrid fleets took broad strides forward. Car buyers flinched at the challenges of EV ownership. And sales of hybrid cars, led by Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC), ramped up to outpace those of the flashier electric vehicles. Now carmakers are in overdrive to respond as analysts take...

DETROIT (Reuters) - As U.S. sales of gas-electric hybrid vehicles surge and electric-vehicle sales cool, automakers and suppliers are betting consumer demand for a compromise between all-combustion and all-electric is a durable trend. Automakers and suppliers are adding capacity to build gasoline-electric hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles for the U.S. market, responding to increased consumer demand for technology that General Motors and other automakers once planned to phase out in favor of all-electric fleets, industry executives and analysts said. U.S. sales of hybrids grew five times faster than EV sales in February, Morgan Stanley said. A plug-in hybrid version of...

A plug 'n' play electrified trailer that reduces fuel consumption on trucks to about the level they can do without a trailer onRange Energy VIEW 2 IMAGES Range Energy makes truck trailers, with a clever connection to any standard tractor cab, loaded with electric powertrains to turn any semi into an efficient hybrid. They also let you push entire trailers around by hand at the depot in "shopping cart mode." Range's 53-foot (16-m) RA-01 trailer packs its own 200-kWh battery, as well as an 800-volt e-axle powertrain that can put up to 14,000 Nm (10,326 lb-ft) of torque, at up...

An Arizona car owner says he was shocked when he heard how much it would cost to replace a battery in his hybrid vehicle. Lucas Turner told KPHO that he recently took his 2014 Infiniti hybrid to a dealership for a check engine light. He said he knew something was wrong but wasn’t expecting it to be this bad. “They told me that I need a new hybrid battery and it’s going to cost $18,000 for the battery and another $2,000 to have it installed,” Turner said. The hybrid car owner said his vehicle has less than 70,000 miles on...

If you like the Prius's new face, you'll probably dig the Camry's, and the interior also receives a comprehensive update. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 2025 Toyota Camry marks the mid-size sedan's ninth generation. For the first time, the Camry will be offered only in hybrid guise. A revamped cabin borrows much of its new look from the Crown sedan. While SUVs dominate the automotive landscape like some sort of fender-cladded solar eclipse, mid-size sedans soldier on as family-friendly alternatives that are a little more down to earth (literally). The Hyundai Sonata has been given a recent refresh, and Honda released a new...

The next generation of the Toyota Camry, the best-selling sedan in the U.S. market, will come with only a gas-electric hybrid powertrain, the boldest move yet by the Japanese automaker to push hybrid technology into the heart of the U.S. market. The 2025 Camry will combine a 2.5-liter gasoline engine with an electric drive system tuned to deliver more power in both front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive versions of the car, Toyota said. Compliance with tougher U.S. fuel economy rules was a factor in Toyota’s decision to make the new Camry an all-hybrid vehicle line, dropping four- and six-cylinder combustion...

U.S. states fund most of their road and infrastructure budgets with revenues from gasoline taxes. The historical rationale behind this is intuitive. The more people use public roads, the more gasoline they consume, making the gas tax a well-designed user fee. The gas tax is often levied as a specific tax per gallon. While the commodity price of oil can fluctuate dramatically, the volume basis for the tax and citizens’ general dependence on gas for transportation have made the gas tax a stable source for funding roads. Gas taxes also serve as a disincentive to drive, decreasing both traffic congestion...

Wildlife enthusiasts worldwide have been left astounded by the remarkable discovery of the world's first-ever fox-dog hybrid in Brazil. Dubbed "dogxim," this extraordinary creature was stumbled upon after being struck by a car in 2021, as reported by Popular Mechanics.

Roughly two-thirds (66%) of 700 financial executives who worked remotely part time said they would quit their jobs if they were forced to return to the office five days a week, according to a survey published Tuesday by Deloitte.“Professionals — men and women alike — whose work and personal lives have been reshaped by remote work largely want to maintain flexibility even if it comes at a personal cost,” the accounting firm said in its report.That cost may be corporate advancement, the survey suggests. More than half of respondents (52%) said they thought in-office workers were paid more. Likewise, 63%...

According to the International Energy Agency, the transportation sector is more reliant on fossil fuels than any other sector in the economy. In 2021, it accounted for 37% of all CO2 emissions from end‐use sectors.To gain insights into how different vehicle types contribute to these emissions, the above graphic visualizes the life cycle emissions of battery electric, hybrid, and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles using Polestar and Rivian’s Pathway Report.Production to Disposal: Emissions at Each StageLife cycle emissions are the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted throughout a product’s existence, including its production, use, and disposal.To compare these emissions effectively,...

During the pandemic, US employers embraced the new––and necessary––normal of working from home. But in the past year, the situation has begun changing rapidly. Major employers like Disney and Amazon have been moving employees back into the office for a few days a week––while over at Twitter, last November Elon Musk scrapped its work from home policy. As for what the wider landscape looks like in the US, a recent study from Pew Research Center shows that while the number of solely remote workers is dropping, hybrid working is becoming increasingly attractive.

its seems Canadian farmers breeding to produce a hardier pig may have been a bad idea. Northern states may end up having the same issue southern states have with feral pigs. "In April 13, a farmer in Nelson Country, North Dakota, was attacked by a feral pig*but not just any old swine. The perpetrator was what authorities and wildlife experts are calling a *super pig,* or a hybrid between a European wild boar and a domestic pig. The beast made repeated attempts to maul the farmer until it was finally shot dead. This attack is just the latest development in...

A Norwegian shipping company bans electric cars on its ferries. According to a risk analysis, such vehicles’ fire risk is too significant. An ocean liner had recently sunk because of it. The Norwegian shipping company, Havila Kystruten, has banned electric, hybrid, and hydrogen cars from its ferries. After a risk analysis, it was concluded that the risk to the safety of the shipping fleet was too significant. If a vehicle catches fire, the fire can no longer be extinguished. The risks for ships from the transport of Electric cars (EV) have been discussed since the “Felicity Ace” sank off the...

All-electric battery vehicles (BEVs) have become all the rage, particularly with the political class, who see them as a magical means to combat climate change. We know, of course, there is no such thing as magic. But that won’t stop politicians from making proclamations, followed by policies that bring about bad, even destructive, results. Climate science is highly complex, as the Earth has gone through many warming and cooling periods over billions of years with widely varying amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere long before man arrived on the scene. I have no reason to doubt the global climate...

BURIRAM, Thailand—Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda said he is among the auto industry’s silent majority in questioning whether electric vehicles should be pursued exclusively, comments that reflect a growing uneasiness about how quickly car companies can transition. Auto makers are making big bets on fully electric vehicles, investments that have been bolstered by robust demand for the limited numbers of models that are now available. Still, challenges are mounting—particularly in securing parts and raw materials for batteries—and concerns have emerged in some pockets of the car business about the speed to which buyers will make the shift, especially as...