2015 Chevrolet Tahoe Lt on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Evatran, Bosch will sell wireless home charger for as low as $1,998*

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today, the big news for plug in vehicles is that they can now start to ditch the plug. As expected, the system costs around $3,000 and is available for both the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt. For the first 250 customers, though, Evatran is offering $1,000 off the standard price, a 30 percent discount. Deliveries start next month and Evatran says it expects the discounted units to all be snatched up in the first half of the year. The wireless charger charges as quickly as conventional corded systems. Called the Plugless Wireless EV charger, the 240-volt station will be installed by Bosch and needs a specific adapter to be used with the Volt or the Leaf (the Leaf version costs $100 more). So, any two-EV families out there will need to pony up double if there's a Chevy and a Nissan in the garage. Of course, since the Plugless system only works with older Leafs (2010-2012 model years - but with any Volt), any late adopters will not be able to take advantage of the new technology, for now. Evatran says the wireless charger "charges the Volt and Leaf as quickly as conventional corded systems and all vehicle features, such as charge-timers and phone applications, can be used seamlessly with the Plugless system." After the first 250 units, standard prices for the wireless chargers take effect again: $2,998 (Volt) and $3,098 (Leaf). Evatran says it will announce wireless chargers for additional vehicles and model years later this year. Evatran and Bosch offer Promotional Pricing as low as $1,998 to first 250 PLUGLESS™ Wireless EV Charging Customers LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Evatran Group, Inc. ("Evatran"), in partnership with Bosch Automotive Service Solutions, announced today at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show that it is offering reduced promotional pricing to the first 250 customers who opt to Go PLUGLESS with their electric vehicle ("EV") experience. The PLUGLESS system offers a convenient, wireless charging alternative to the repetitive process of unplugging and plugging-in electric vehicles. The reduced pricing includes all charging hardware and is as much as a 30% discount off the system's standard MSRP. The discount is available only to the first 250 customers. Initial shipments of the PLUGLESS system, the first wireless EV charging product in the world available to individual EV drivers, will begin in February 2014.

GM applies for LT5, LTX trademarks... are new small block variants coming?

Recently discovered General Motors trademark applications for LT4, LT5, LT88 and LTX have observers wondering what kind of high-performance offerings could be on their way. A new LT4 would mark a return of the engine designation first used on the Corvette Grand Sport, SLP Pontiac Firehawk and SLP Chevrolet Camaro SS from 1996 and 1997. Supposition at Corvette Forum - which provided advance intel on the C7 like these leaked images - believes a new LT4 could go into the high-performance trim of the next-gen, 2015 Camaro that would be more powerful than the 580-horsepower Camaro ZL1.
Seeing an LT5 again would also be déjà vu - in its former life it was a 5.7-liter V8 for the C4 Corvette ZR-1 from 1990-1994 designed by Lotus, producing from 370 hp to 405 hp. A mix of rumor and hope is that the new LT5 will be a supercharged evolution of the 6.2-liter LT1 (pictured) placed in the new C7 Corvette, and that it will go into the C7 version of the ZR1 pumping out something like 700 hp.
The LTX trademark is, as with that last letter, a complete mystery. If the "X" isn't a generic way to denote the whole LT family, it's wondered if it LTX could refer to a crate motor offering like the LSX.

Should heavy-duty pickup trucks have window stickers with fuel mileage estimates?

If you were to stroll into your nearest Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Nissan, or Ram dealership, you'd find a bunch of pickup trucks. Most of those would have proper window stickers labeled with things like base prices, options prices, location of manufacture, and, crucially, fuel economy estimates. But you'd also run across a number of heavy-duty trucks with no such fuel mileage data from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA doesn't require automakers to publish the valuable miles-per-gallon measurement for vehicles with gross weight ratings that exceed 8,500 pounds. That makes it difficult for consumers to compare behemoths powered by turbocharged diesel engines – between one another, and between smaller, gasoline-fueled trucks. Consumer Reports doesn't think it should be this way, and it's spearheading an effort (PDF link) to get the government to require manufacturers to publish fuel economy estimates. In its own testing, CR found that heavy-duty pickups powered by Ford's Power Stroke, GM's Duramax, and FCA's Cummins diesel engines (which doesn't include the Ram's EcoDiesel) get worse fuel mileage than their lighter-duty gas-powered siblings. We're not so sure HD-truck buyers are unaware of this fact – big diesels don't really come into their own until big loads are placed in their beds or attached to their trailer hitches. Under heavy workloads, the diesel trucks will almost certainly return greater efficiency than a similar gas-powered truck. What's more, HD trucks with lumbering diesels in general make the driver feel more confident while towing due to greater torque at low engine RPM than gas trucks. They also offer greater max-weight limits. Still, we agree EPA fuel mileage estimates should be offered for heavy-duty pickups. And we think the comparisons provided by Consumer Reports might be interesting to potential buyers. Click here to see the results of CR's tests, and let us know what you think using the poll below. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2017 Ford F-Series Super Duty: First Drive View 22 Photos News Source: Consumer Reports Government/Legal Green Read This Chevrolet Ford GMC Nissan RAM Fuel Efficiency Truck Commercial Vehicles Diesel Vehicles poll gmc sierra hd chevy silverado hd