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Recharge Wrap-up: Volt makes up third of Quebec Chevy dealerships sales, Tesla seeks Aussie talent

A Chevrolet dealership in Quebec has had the Volt make up 35 percent of its sales so far this year. Bourgeois Chevrolet in Rawdon, Quebec received recognition for the feat at the 2014 Electric Vehicle Conference, where it won the award for Leading Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Dealership. To sell that many, Bourgeois Chevrolet had to import used Volts from the US, and keeps about 50 units on the lot in various configurations. The conference also saw Park Avenue Nissan of Brossard, Quebec win the Leading Battery Electric Vehicle Dealership Award, and Loch Lomond Mitsubishi of Saint John, New Brunswick receive the award for Electric Vehicle Dealership Inspiration. Read more at Green Car Reports. Tesla Motors has begun scouting Australian engineers as other automakers shutter operations there. Ford, General Motors and Toyota have announced that they will shut down their Australian factories, leaving behind a lot of unused talent. Tesla recently held a "Recruiting Open House" in Melbourne for engineers to fill positions at its plant in Fremont, CA, where they will be paired with other Aussie engineers already on staff. Read more at Green Car Reports, or at Motoring. Electric turbochargers may come to play a key role in making internal combustion engines more efficient. Valeo recently showed an electric turbo it plans to supply to an unnamed automaker at a fuel economy showcase event at the EPA's National Vehicle Emissions and Fuel Lab. Electric turbochargers have the advantage of greatly reduced lag when compared to exhaust-driven turbos. They also work well when paired with cylinder deactivation, providing a much-needed boost when driving on a grade, which can help reduce the need for cylinders to reactivate. Independence from the exhaust system also makes it easier to package the turbocharger wherever there is room. Read more from Navigant Research. US crude oil futures have dropped to their lowest in more than two years. Saudi Arabia cut oil costs for the US and raised them for Europe and Asia as the US has increased output. On November 3, US crude futures fell as much as 2.2 percent in New York. West Texas Intermediate closed at $78.78, the lowest since June 2012. Brent crude slipped $1.08 to $84.78 a barrel. Read more at Bloomberg.

MotorWeek's 80's GM muscle coupe roundup includes Regal GN and Monte Carlo SS

Even with just four brands in the family, General Motors still represents a performance powerhouse. Between the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Camaro Z/28, Cadillac CTS-V and ATS-V, The General can still deliver plenty of thrills. The 1980s, though, saw the brand go even crazier with performance. While the Camaro and Corvette were still around back in the day, GM had a number of other interesting performance offerings. The Bowtie was complemented by the long-deceased Monte Carlo SS, while the now-defunct Pontiac and Oldsmobile offered the Grand Prix and thumping 442, respectively. And Buick, which isn't short on performance with its Regal GS and Verano Turbo, offered a much more serious vehicle, in the form of the Grand National (not to mention the Darth Vader-spec GNX). MotorWeek, in its hugely entertaining retro flashbacks, looks back on these three long-lost GM performance icons, and it's just as good as you might expect. News Source: MotorWeek via YouTube Buick Chevrolet GM Pontiac Coupe Performance Classics Videos buick grand national chevy monte carlo oldsmobile 442

Chevy Volt beats Nissan Leaf again in February

For Chevy, February was a good month for Volt sales. They were up 62.5 percent compared to 2015, as the company locked in 1,126 sales. No one should be surprised, since buyers have a new generation Volt to look at on the lot this year. It was introduced late last year in just 11 states, with the nationwide roll-out not happening until this spring. Nonetheless, GM put the new Volt on sale in the states where it sold the most first-gen Volts, so the sales increase was totally expected. Year-to-date, Volt sales are up 71.8 percent: 2,122 for 2016 vs. 1,235 for January and February of 2015. Over in the Nissan lot, things look pretty much the same. By that I mean both the numbers (steadily down, recently) as well as the car itself. We've had numerous hints about a new Leaf, but nothing confirmed, and that means that fewer and fewer people are interested in the aging first-gen model. By the numbers, Nissan sold 930 Leaf EVs in the US last month, down 22.4 percent from the 1,198 it sold in February 2015. For the first two months of the year, Leaf sales are down 25.7 percent: 1,685 in 2016 compared to 2,268 in 2015. As always, we follow up our flash sales report for the Volt and Leaf with a more in-depth look at all the green cars sold in the US last month. Look for that soon, and discuss the latest numbers – which are a lot like the not-as-late numbers – in the Comments. Related Video: Green Chevrolet Nissan Electric Hybrid ev sales hybrid sales