2014 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 1lt on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Recharge Wrap-up: Batty battery covers, Mercedes at Silvretta, new Hyundai Sonata Hybrid available in 2015

Apparently, Chevrolet Volt battery covers make suitable homes for bats. As part of an Eagle Scout project, Matthew Netherland created 30 bat houses out of scrapped Volt battery covers donated by Chevy. 22 of the bat houses will be set up near hydroelectric dams in Michigan. Each bat house will accommodate 100 bats, and divert the scrapped materials from the landfill. The battery covers also make great nesting boxes for wood ducks, which General Motors has previously set up at its Milford, Michigan Proving Ground. Last weekend was the Silvretta E-Auto Rally, which saw emissions-free vehicles cross the Montafon Mountains in Austria, including cars from Mercedes-Benz. These cars included the B-Class Electric Drive, B-Class F-Cell, SLS AMG Electric Drive and even the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive. Also on hand for the Silvretta Classic Rally was a V8-powered C111, a 1978 Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC and 300 SL Roadster. Read more in the press release, below. BMW has finalized pricing for the i8 in the US at $135,700 (plus $925 in destination charges). In addition to the base price tag, which we've known for a while, BMW Blog has the complete pricing guide with options and packages. Most of the i8 orders were the Pure Impulse World package, which includes various aesthetic upgrades. It also provides membership to the BMW i Pure Impulse Program, which allows you to "to enjoy innovative ideas and trends in a variety of areas, including home styling, culture, gourmet gastronomy, design and many more." Head over to BMW Blog for more information. The new generation of the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid will arrive later than the rest of the model lineup, confirms Car and Driver. While the gas-powered Sonatas get updated now for the 2015 model year, the Hybrid remains unchanged until late this year or early 2015, when it will arrive as a 2016 model. Hyundai is offering a 2015 Sonata Eco edition, but with 28 miles per gallon in the city and 38 mpg highway (32 combined), it's not quite as appealing as the current Sonata Hybrid's 36/40/38 figures. Read more here. In June, average US fuel economy was 25.5 miles per gallon, making it the fifth straight month above 25 mpg, according to University of Michigan. The average window sticker ratings from vehicles sold in June dropped slightly from 25.6 mpg in May. The year started at 24.9 mpg in January, and hasn't dropped below 25 mpg since.

Thanks for keeping us on our toes, Detroit Auto Show [w/poll]

Here at Autoblog, we love unexpected debuts at auto shows – and judging by our Detroit Auto Show comments and traffic, you do, too. Surprise reveals have been fewer and farther between in recent years with so many ways for vehicles to be teased or leak out, but this week's show has been a revelation. More to the point, it's been a series of revelations, with automakers from around the globe successfully delivering a brace of concept and production surprises. It's made our jobs a lot more exciting and challenging this week, and even though it's actually more work to react and run-and-gun when the sheet is pulled on a surprise reveal than it is to publish an already-written embargoed story, we've had more fun covering this show for you than any domestic show in memory. We hope you've enjoyed the surprises along with us. To that end, borrowing the words of an unnamed automaker PR flack, we'd like to thank the following automakers for enduring "mountain of antacids" and that "creeping sense of paranoia" necessary to keeping ones' wares totally under wraps until the sheets are pulled off the sheetmetal: Buick Avenir concept Chevrolet Bolt concept Ford GT concept Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Hyundai HCD-15 Santa Cruz concept And while we're at it, we'd like to throw in an shout-out to Detroit's substantially revised and revitalized Cobo Center, and in particular, the redone Michelin media center, which is arguably the single best accommodations for writing show stories that we've encountered on the entire international circuit. Well done, everyone. Thank you, and keep the surprises coming. Auto News Detroit Auto Show Buick Chevrolet Ford Hyundai Volvo 2015 Detroit Auto Show

Here's how Detroit is selling more luxury vehicles than Germany and Japan

Now there's an attention-grabbing headline, eh? Although the answer to the riddle - pickup trucks and SUVs - might be somehow deflating, the numbers involved deserve a going over. According to TrueCar's figures (click on the table to enlarge), six of the year's ten best-selling vehicles in the US that sell for a transaction price above $50,000 are body-on-frame, and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class is the only foreigner to crack the top five. Every enthusiast knows that pickup trucks are 'Murica's most popular vehicle by a colossal margin, and there have been plenty of reports about the popularity of luxuriously appointed trucks and SUVs, but compare these figures from TrueCar: 70 percent of Chevrolet Tahoe sales have a transaction price above $50K, and The Bowtie is expected to make $3.9 billion in revenue on 66,945 predicted high-dollar sales; 95.1 percent of E-Class sales break $50K, so the German company will make $4.0 billion on 67,006 predicted sales in that pricing sphere. It's about the only time you'll see the Tahoe ranked right next to Mercedes' bread-and-butter sedan. Ram is ahead of those two with $4.2B coming from $50K-plus sales. The Ford F-Series does almost as much revenue as the next three combined, with an expected $10.8 billion coming from sales of trucks over $50K - more than a quarter of the model's total sales, when a base F-150 can be had for about $26,000. Yes, the Germans make a lot more money on fewer sales, but considering the comparison, the bottom line isn't too troubled by such facts. Weighing like-for-like, the full-size Ford walks it in every category; elsewhere, the Chevrolet Silverado outsells the Ram, but the Ram outsells the Chevy by 6.7 percent above $50K. And for all the flak GMC takes over swapping out grilles, the Sierra also outsells the Chevy in the well-appointed segment, 16.1 percent of sales versus 11 percent – the Professional Grade brand is a huge profit center for The General. You'll find more info in the TrueCar press release below. TrueCar finds pickup trucks far outsell premium brands among top 10 vehicles over $50,000 Ford F-Series pickup sales over $50,000 surpass combined BMW 3, 5, 7 Series luxury car sales SANTA MONICA, Calif. (December 10, 2014) - TrueCar, Inc., the negotiation-free car buying and selling platform, finds mainstream pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles dominate U.S.