ChevyVolt

Thanks to TARP loans that saved GM, the Treasury ended up with a major stake in the world's largest automaker, and it still holds 500 million shares -- 32% of the company. Here's the reason it won't be selling them any time soon.

Bad news for GM: The Chevy Volt still isn't selling the way the automaker hoped it would, so it's temporarily halting production of the battery-powered hybrids for five weeks. Worse news for GM: Shutdowns like this only make the Volt a harder sell.

When a major oil company predicts that the era of gas-powered cars is coming to an end soon, the rest of us might want pay attention. According to BP, you've got maybe 18 years left before your car is obsolete -- and probably a lot less than that.

The electric car has arrived, but odds are that there isn't one in your driveway. Several factors have gotten in the way of the eco-friendly automotive revolution, but at least now we can ask conspiracy theorists -- who argue that oil companies and the government are blocking plug-in cars from the road -- to leave the room and take their tinfoil hats with them. The electric car is here; drivers simply don't want them yet.

Upstart automaker Tesla Motors confirmed this week that its groundbreaking Model S, an all-electric luxury-sports sedan, was on track to enter production by this summer. It already has pre-orders for more than 8,000. Is the moment coming soon when electric cars go mainstream?

A host of new products launched this year. So were big successes -- like the iPhone 4S and the Boeing Dreamliner 787. Other new offerings crashed and burned spectacularly. Here's 24/7 Wall St.'s look at the biggest duds of 2011.

Finally, U.S. automakers may have found their way out of the recession with a car Americans should be willing to buy -- the Chevy Volt and the 230 miles per gallon of gasoline it will get in city driving.General Motors announced on Tuesday morning that the $40,000 Chevrolet Volt rechargeable...