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At Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, a garage that accommodates hundreds of vehicles has only one spot reserved for recharging all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR As a potential buyer of a Tesla Model S, I hope New Jersey auto dealers don't succeed in their campaign to prevent the California-based company from selling directly to the public. Those dealers and state bureaucrats have already forced Tesla to stop selling the revolutionary all-electric car from showrooms in Paramus and Short Hills. The company immediately initiated online sales in New Jersey, and buyers pick up their cars in Springfield. The Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid has an electric-only range of 11 miles. Background On March 16, I wrote that Governor Christie and state bureaucrats are no fans of Tesla. And that's OK with editors of The Record, a major daily in Woodland Park that has published a number of mistakes in covering the controversy. They haven't bothered to take an...

The driver of a Toyota Prius hybrid, below, still hasn't gotten the word about the Port Authority Green Pass toll discounts available to drivers of green cars. His E-ZPass, above, is white, the kind available to all drivers. The sticker on the left says, "You just got passed by a hybrid." I don't know the meaning of the sticker on the right. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates in mysterious ways. The bistate agency offers off-peak toll discounts to drivers of hybrid and all-electric cars as long as they obtain a special green-colored E-ZPass, called a Green Pass. The New York State E-ZPass agency does the same, but doesn't honor Green Passes obtained from New Jersey. A bigger break But the Port Authority offers an even bigger toll discount valid 24/7 at all agency crossings -- not just during the restrictive off-peak hours -- and you don't need a green car to get it. What you do need is a private E-ZPass account an...

A 17-inch touchscreen in the dashboard of the Tesla Model S simplifies the all-electric car's operation, unlike the complicated controls of gas-guzzling German luxury sedans costing twice as much. In late March, the Model S shrugged off the rain in Tenafly, where consumers were offered test drives. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR When Toyota unveiled the second-generation Prius in the United States, the company emphasized how the gas-electric hybrid would help clear the air. "Low emissions. High hopes" was the simple message on the front of the 2004 catalog available at dealers. But the media have basically ignored the environmental benefit of hybrids and electric cars, this despite all the recent attention to climate change. Bad press for the Prius The Prius has gotten a surprising amount of bad press or no press. In 2006, Automobile magazine claimed writers who drove a Prius across the country "discovered mileage plummeted on the interstate." That directly contradi...

One of the minor quality problems I've encountered in my 2010 Toyota Prius was adhesive oozing from between the two parts of the stylish shift knob, above. My Toyota dealer replaced the knob, but other quality problems with the car were never resolved. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR I've owned new and used Toyotas for nearly 30 years, but in the last decade, I've been loyal to the Prius, a sophisticated gas-electric hybrid from Japan's No. 1 automaker. I remember my initial visit to the  service department at Parkway Toyota in Englewood Cliffs for my first Prius, a 2004 in one of my favorite colors, burgundy. After a routine service, I was driving to my apartment in neighboring Englewood when I started smelling oil. I parked the car, lifted the hood and found that the oil cap on the gasoline engine was missing, and oil had splattered all over the engine compartment. I also found one of mechanic's tools in the engine compartment.  I drove back to the dealer, where the s...

Derrick Hatami, Nissan's vice president for U.S. sales, answered questions today in Manhattan from members of the International Motor Press Association. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Nissan officials boast their Leaf is the best-selling all-electric car in the United States, but won't say when we'll see a new version with a longer range. The homely Leaf, introduced to the U.S. in December 2010, seems poised for a makeover, especially in view of its nail-biting range of well under 100 miles on a full charge. Derrick Hatami, Nissan's vice president for sales, said today the 4-door hatchback is the "No. 1 selling electric vehicle in the United States." Speaking to the International Motor Press Association in Manhattan, Hatami said the No. 2 car company in Japan is the leader in electric vehicles, selling 3,000 Leafs a month here. But Hatami wouldn't comment when asked when a second-generation Leaf would debut. 2011 Nissan Leaf at the Washington Auto Show. ( Wiki...

The spectacular BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sounds and drives like a sports car, but scissor doors and a high sill make it difficult to get into and out of. And it lists for nearly twice the price of an all- electric Tesla Model S with a 60 kWh battery and an EPA range of 208 miles. The BMW i8 was available for test drives last month at a meeting of automobile writers in Monticello, N.Y. Another new car from BMW, the i3, is the polar opposite of the hybrid sports car. The i3 is a stylish, all-electric four-door sedan with a range of 70 to 110 miles per charge. It proved so popular with writers and other participants, I not only didn't get to drive it; I didn't get a photo. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Where are the hybrids?  I scanned  the rows of cars lined up last month in a parking lot at the Monticello Motor Club, a 4.1-mile racing circuit in New York State's Catskill Mountains, looking for green cars. Where is Tesla, maker of the world's most advanced all-electric producti...

Tree trimmed in the shape of a car. (Getty Images) By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Owners of hybrid and all-electric cars know how much they save on gasoline. They're also proud of their role in helping make the air cleaner. But in New Jersey, New York and other states with toll roads and crossings, green cars also get a break on those dreaded levies.  The Port Authority, which gouges drivers at the Hudson River crossings, issues a Green Pass, a special E-ZPass that gives discounts to drivers of nine green models, including the Toyota Prius, Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf. Those drivers also get toll discounts on one of the most expensive toll roads in the nation, the New Jersey Turnpike (30%), as well as the Garden State Parkway (10%). But the discounts are given grudgingly -- what the Port Authority euphemistically calls "off peak" -- and many owners aren't aware of the unpublicized Green Pass program. Cars with a Green Pass pay only $5.50 during off-peak hours, compare...

Just when you thought dinosaurs were extinct. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Have you seen a hulking Nissan Armada, an enormous Chevy Suburban or a 5,000-pound Range Rover? Probably, if you drive the New Jersey Turnpike or Garden State Parkway or any other highway in America. Just look into your rear-view mirror and you'll find one of these enormously wasteful vehicles just feet from your rear bumper as the driver brakes hard to avoid punting you off the road. Despite these big SUVs' thirst for fossil fuel and the hundreds of dollars owners fork over at the pump every week, the ungainly vehicles usually are driven way above the speed limit, tailgating and cutting off drivers of slower cars. The Armada comes from the same Japanese automaker that produces the all-electric Leaf -- a sure sign Nissan doesn't have its corporate act together on climate change. A couple of weeks ago, I came across another blog called GAS2, subtitled "GREEN CARS THAT DON'T SUCK." Really? ...

I'm raring to go all-electric. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR I'm ready for an affordable all-electric car, but the world's auto industry isn't ready for me. I've owned four Toyota Priuses since 2004, and now drive a red 2010 model with less than 41,000 miles on the odometer. But 15 years after Honda introduced the first hybrid car to the United States, followed a year later by the Toyota Prius, neither Japanese auto company produces an all-electric model with a range of 200 miles. The 2015 Nissan Leaf, with an MSRP of $29,010 for a basic model, has an EPA range of only 84 miles -- a nail-biter, judging from my recollection of renting one for the day from Hertz in San Francisco, where customers often ran out of juice and the rental agency had to send out a flat-bed truck to retrieve the vehicle.  That Hertz agency stopped offering the Leaf in 2012. Here is what I said about the 2012 Leaf in a post on my food blog, Do You Really Know What You're Eating? I rented the ...