Paice LLC, just weeks after winning a patent infringement case against Toyota, has once again sued Toyota. Once again, Paice is claiming Toyota has infringed on one of their patents involving hybrid vehicles. Paice filed suit on Tuesday in federal court in Marshall, Texas. They are claiming the Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Lexus RX 400h are involved and want to block their use. In the earlier case,...

In a 77 page commentary on the new CAFE rules that will go into affect in 2010, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers stated the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is underestimating the cost to the manufacturers, who are already too stressed to take the impact. The Alliance includes the big three auto manufacturers of Detroit Ford, GM, Chrysler, plus Toyota, BMW, Mazda, Mercedes-Ben...

Chrysler was down 36%.  Ford was down almost 30%. GM was down 18%. Nissan was down 18%. Toyota was down 21%.  There were a few bright spots, as Honda actually increased sales by 1% and Hyundai increased sales 3.5%.  Daimler was up 13% and Subaru had an increase of 5%.  But all in all, it was an ugly month for the auto industry, which went from 1.455 million down to 1.189 million...

Given the high demand for hybrids in the US, it's hard to imagine Toyota reducing the pricetag on any of their hybrid cars. But in Canada Toyota is doing just that, reducing the price on 3 Toyota and 8 Lexus models. 4 of the models selected for price reductions are hybrids. "Today we are reducing the MSRP on the Toyota Prius, all Lexus hybrid models, and many other models that earn high marks for f...

The 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid has improved its fuel economy by 1 mpg over the 2008 model, getting a 34 city/31 highway mpg rating from the EPA.  Since the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner Hybrid (and Mazda Tribute) are all built the same, you should expect the same improvements in the 2009 Mercury Mariner Hybrid. Read up on more of the improvements to the 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid and Mercury Marin...