Nissan Leaf

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 According to BP, you've got maybe 18 years left before your car is obsolete -- and probably a lot less than that.

Gas prices are going up again, and it feels a lot like Groundhog Day: Same old problem, and media outlets are dispensing the same old advice. Not us! Here are the most interesting and innovative ideas our readers offered for reducing your pain at the pump.

Purchase price is just the beginning of what it costs to own a car. Depreciation, insurance and maintenance costs can vary widely between competing models. But is there any way to estimate all of that in advance? A few experts have taken a stab at it.

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?

Two weeks ago, DailyFinance asked our readers for their advice on how to save money at the pump. In the more than 1,500 responses that followed, we found a lot of creative solutions. Today, we look at maintenance and new-vehicle options that will help you spend less per mile.

Last week, President Obama outlined a new energy policy that aims to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. How can patient investors capitalize on his vision?

In the State of the Union address in January, President Barack Obama set a goal of getting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015. Now he's proposed $7,500 rebates, instead of tax credits, to reach that goal. Will that be enough to make it doable?

Zipcar members in San Francisco, Portland and Boston can try out Toyota's Prius plug-in hybrid, providing valuable info to Toyota before rolling the cars out to consumers in 2012. And Zipcar gets another way to make its greenhouse-gas- conscious customers happy.

The automaker has licensed technology from the Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory that will boost the performance of lithium-ion battery cells for its electric Chevy Volt. The next-generation power packs will be made at a new plant in Michigan by Korea's LG Chem.