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2016 Green Truck of the Year, Commercial Green Car of the Year finalists

Not only are commercial-grade haulers getting more green love lately, they're getting more different kinds of green love. The 2016 Green Truck of the Year, the second time the award has been handed out, is being decided by judges from Green Car Journal and the San Antonio Auto & Truck Show. This year the award is joined by the new 2016 Commercial Green Car of the Year, which crowns one of the little vans increasingly used by small business as cargo and delivery vehicles. The Green Truck of the Year finalists are the Chevrolet Colorado Duramax (pictured), Ford F-150, GMC Canyon Duramax, Nissan Titan XD, and Toyota Tacoma. The first three of those were on last year's list, but since they are completely new or upgraded for 2016 - Ford with its all-aluminum body, the General Motors twins with the new diesel Duramax engine - they qualify for entry again. The Ram 1500 EcoDiesel won last year. The Commercial Green Car finalists are the Chevrolet City Express, Ford Transit Connect, Mercedes-Benz Metris, Nissan NV200, and Ram ProMaster City. You can read more details in the presser below, and the awards will be announced in San Antonio sometime during the show from November 19-22. San Antonio Auto & Truck Show Announces 2016 Green Truck of the Year and Commercial Green Car of the Year Finalists SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Car Journal and the San Antonio Auto & Truck Show have announced finalists for the 2016 Green Truck of the Year™ and 2016 Commercial Green Car of the Year™ awards. The Green Truck of the Year™ nominees are the Chevrolet Colorado Duramax, Ford F-150, GMC Canyon Duramax, Nissan Titan XD, and Toyota Tacoma. Vying for the all-new 2016 Commercial Green Car of the Year™ award are the Chevrolet City Express, Ford Transit Connect, Mercedes-Benz Metris, Nissan NV200, and Ram ProMaster City. "Over the past few decades, new car models have benefitted from design and technology improvements that have brought higher fuel efficiency and greater levels of environmental compatibility," said Green Car Journal and CarsOfChange.com Editor and Publisher Ron Cogan. "With models like these ten deserving finalists, we're witnessing the pickup and light commercial vehicle field enjoying the same attention." The new Commercial Green Car of the Year™ award is part of an expanded awards program presented at this year's 2015 San Antonio Auto & Truck Show.

2016 Chevy Volt powertrain technical details

The last time General Motors launched a Chevy Volt, it was operating without really knowing how people would use the plug-in hybrid. Sure, it had experience with the EV1, but the Volt was a new kind of car, and you can see in the archives just how much time GM spent explaining this fresh, new powertrain to potential customers. Then, once the vehicle was released, the company collected voluntary data from a large number of owners to learn about their driving and charging habits. The company also asked them what they wanted most in the new version. There's got to be an algorithm buried somewhere in GM headquarters that was used to take all of the numbers GM collected and spat out the headline figures for the 2016 Volt: 50 miles of EV range and 41 miles per gallon. Another important number – price – is something GM isn't talking about yet (expect it in April or May), but the company is sharing some powertrain details about the upcoming car. At a preview lunch in Detroit last week for the SAE 2015 Hybrid & Electric Vehicles Technologies Symposium that's happening now in California, GM engineers Peter Savagian (who is presenting a paper on the new inverter used in the updated Volt) and Tim Grewe (talking about the entire second-generation powertrain) sat down with AutoblogGreen to tell us about the Volt's all-new propulsion system: The overall gist is that the new Voltec 5ET50 drive unit is lighter, smaller and more powerful thanks to a redesigned two-motor traction drive. As previously reported, the new engine is a 1.5-liter DOHC four-cylinder that offers 101-horsepower (at 5,600 RPM). Grewe said it's "great for range extension." The electric motor side of the powertrain offers 149 motoring horsepower from a two-motor, continuously variable transaxle. Initially, the new engine will be made in Mexico. GM will move production to Flint, MI during the first year it makes the 2016 Volt. The battery is slightly bigger in the new Volt – 18.4 kWh compared to 16.5 in the current-gen – and will have less range variation in the cold. GM is also using more of the overall capacity in the pack in the 2016 Volt than in previous versions, but is not saying how much more. GM is not ready to publish acceleration times just yet, but the 2016 Volt has improved numbers, especially when going from 30-60 miles per hour. Most everything on the new powertrain has become more efficient compared to the first-gen Volt.

Sunday Drive: Spying an automotive future of performance

I spy, with my little eye ... the future of the automotive world here in the United States. That pretty much sums up this week's Sunday Drive, in which we pull out the most popular stories on Autoblog of the previous week and try to draw some sort of conclusion as to what binds them all together. This week, it's spy shots, starting with one of the biggest and baddest muscle cars the world has ever seen: the Dodge Challenger Hellcat. The Hellish coupe gets a new hood for 2019 with dual scoops, but that's about the only meaningful change for the new model year. No matter. As long as it's packing 700-plus horsepower under those two hood scoops, all will be right with the world. Moving on, we take keep the performance angle but move it from the street to the dirt with a new version of the Chevy Colorado ZR2 that we think is probably called the Bison. We think it'll keep the high-tech suspension bits of the regular ZR2, but add expedition gear that may include a snorkel and a winch. Which, if true, is pretty dang cool. Keeping the truck theme is the 2019 GMC Sierra. There's nothing particularly noteworthy about the trim level in which the truck was spied, and that's what makes this specific example interesting. Base-model trucks almost never get much attention, but they sell in droves to workers who need an honest-to-goodness truck for work or play and don't care about bells, whistles, or massive chrome badges. And finally we have the 2018 Jeep Wrangler, which is on fire on the sales floor right now. But those are all V6-powered Wranglers flying off the showroom floor. Soon, a turbocharged four-cylinder engine option will become available, and now we know that it will return up to 23 miles per gallon in the city and 25 on the highway. That makes it the most fuel efficient Wrangler that Jeep has ever sold. As always, stay tuned to Autoblog this week for all the automotive news that's fit to publish. 2019 Dodge Challenger Hellcat with twin-scoop hood spied with no camouflage Chevy Colorado ZR2 Bison caught testing 2019 GMC Sierra 1500 spied in base trim level 2018 Jeep Wrangler four-cylinder fuel economy revealed Spy Photos Chevrolet Dodge GMC Jeep Truck Coupe SUV Off-Road Vehicles Performance dodge challenger srt hellcat sunday drive