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The Morning Briefing: Hybrid vehicles

By | November 21, 2012, 12:30 AM PST

“The Morning Briefing” is SmartPlanet’s daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we’re reading about hybrid vehicle development.

1.) Volvo starts making the world’s first diesel plug-in hybrid. The new car, which is the world’s first production diesel plug-in hybrid, is being built on the same line as the standard V60 at the Volvo’s Torslanda plant in Gothenburg, alongside its other large models, the V70, XC70, S80 and XC90.

2.) DWP to address auto-enrolment ‘hybrid’ loophole. The Government has pledged to address an automatic-enrolment “loophole” which could see 3,000 employers with 4 million employees delay implementation of the changes by four years.

3.) Ford hybrids’ fuel economy failing to live up to EPA ratings? It appears that two new hybrid cars from Ford–the 2013 C-Max Hybrid hatchback and the 2013 Fusion Hybrid sedan–may not deliver real-world gas mileage that’s anywhere near their 47-mpg EPA ratings.

4.) The most cost-effective hybrid cars. While most fuel-saving gas/electric-powered hybrid cars carry a substantial price premium over their conventionally powered counterparts, a recent analysis determined that a surprising number of them can indeed prove to be cost effective over time.

5.) Hybrid lemons. Heaven help taxicab drivers who bought into Bloomberg administration propaganda that hybrid cabs would end up saving so much money from greater fuel efficiency.

Bonus: Porsche prepping electric hybrid e-Cayenne.

Image credit: Ford

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Charlie Osborne

About Charlie Osborne

Charlie Osborne is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Charlie Osborne

Charlie Osborne

Contributing Editor

Charlie Osborne is a freelance journalist and graphic designer based in London. In addition to SmartPlanet, she also writes the iGeneration column for business technology website ZDNet. She holds degrees in medical anthropology from the University of Kent.

Follow her on Twitter.

Charlie Osborne

Charlie Osborne

Charlie Osborne does not have financial holdings that would influence how or what she covers.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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Hybrid C-Max
Man! I was thinking about getting the C-Max Hybrid hatchback. Now I'm not so sure I should! eek!



auto wraps Las Vegas
Posted by Delanerandell
21st Nov
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Interesting. I had once assumed...
...that hybrids would be excellent for use as taxis. Long hours idling and mostly low-speed stop-and-go seemed a good fit for the technology. Obviously, they aren't up to it.

And once again another fine example of when the government "recommends" that you do something, you should do the opposite.
Posted by JohnMcGrew@...
21st Nov
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Which 1 doesn't belong??
The inclusion of a story about a hybrid pension system can't possibly be intentional, can it?
Posted by theotherwill
22nd Nov
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