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The new Tesla Motors Showroom and Service Center, above and below, are at 530 Route 17 north in Paramus, the shopping capitol of the Northeast, near Paramus Park Mall.  The Tesla gallery at New Jersey's biggest mall, Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, will remain open. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Got juice? For owners of all-electric cars, the availability of juice or electricity is the key to their extended mobility. Now, Tesla Motors has opened a new showroom and service center on Route 17 in Paramus, where eight Superchargers are available 24 hours a day to Model S and Roadster owners. A 20-minute charge adds 170 miles to your range, and a full charge takes an hour.  The cost? It's free. There's no charge to recharge. Get it? But the opening of the 20,000-square-foot building this month is also big news for prospective Tesla owners, because new cars will be delivered there. Until the Paramus service center opened, new owners had to travel to Springfield Township, so...

Hybrid electric buses have been a common sight in Manhattan for years, but this is the first hybrid electric UPS truck I've seen, being driven up Third Avenue a couple of weeks ago. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Christopher DeMorro is a writer for Gas2, a blog that promises to bridge the gap "between gear heads and green heads." I've been driving hybrids for more than 10 years and have no idea what a "green head" is. In view of climate change and air pollution that kills many thousands of people every year, you also have to question the assertion of Gas2 that it reports on "green cars that don't suck." How could any green car "suck," if it reduces the reliance on fossil fuels and helps clean the air? But today, DeMorro has outdone himself with a post that advises Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk to take five steps to improve his all-electric cars: Elon Musk should 'stop, just stop' DeMorro faults Musk for undertaking too many projects,...

In Manhattan today, German-born Uwe Ellinghaus, chief marketing officer for Cadillac, answered questions from automobile writers and publicists about the move of General Motors' luxury division to the City That Never Sleeps. Ken Gross, above, and Peter Harholdt received the International Motor Press Association's Ken Purdy Award for excellence in automotive journalism for their book, "Sensuous Steel: Art Deco Automobiles." By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR When automobile writers, publicists and other members of the International Motor Press Association are offered a free lunch, look out. In Manhattan this afternoon, the host for the monthly IMPA meeting was Cadillac, the General Motors luxury division that is trying to reinvent itself in a bid to woo away customers from Mercedes-Benz, BMW and other premium-car makers. At one point, the 3 West Club ran out of food and servers had to set up another large, round table to seat the overflow. IMPA members normally pay $45 for a b...

The MSRP of the all-electric Tesla Model S ranges from $69,900 to $104,500. Some competing luxury models from major automakers cost far more. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Consumer Reports gave the Tesla Model S its highest rating -- 99 out of 100 -- and a survey showed a higher percentage of owners say they would buy the all-electric luxury car again. But writers and blogger never fail to point out a Tesla Model S is "expensive." The MSRP of a Model S ranges from $69,900 for the 60, which has a range of 208 miles on a full charge, to $104,500 for the P85D, an all-wheel-drive performance model that may be the fastest production car in the world. Is 208 miles enough? How many of you can drive that far without stopping to go to the bathroom? Lexus and Mercedes Compare that to the $120,440 Lexus is asking for its LS 600h L, a gas-electric hybrid with a long wheelbase and roomier back seat. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class luxury sedans range from $94,400 for a V-8 powered S550 to an astro...

BMW's new i3 looks like an updated, more aerodynamic version of the boxy Honda Element, especially in the arrangement of the four doors. The front doors must be opened to reach the hidden handles of the back doors, which are hinged at the rear and sometimes referred to as "suicide doors." The hidden handle of a rear door in the BMW i3. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR BMW says its new iBrand is "fueled by innovation," but one of the two models seems to have borrowed a number of ideas from Tesla, Chevrolet and Honda. The BMW i3 is a four-door hatchback built on a battery platform that looks a lot like the one used by Tesla's all-electric Model S. The i3 is available as an all-electric car with a range of about 80 miles, but buyers can choose the extra-cost option of a 2-cylinder gasoline engine that charges the battery and doubles the range. With the plug-in Volt, Chevrolet uses a gas-powered generator that performs the same function to extend the EPA-estimated ran...

The highest percentage of drivers who would definitely buy their car again own the all-electric Tesla Model S, according to Consumer Reports annual Owner Satisfaction Survey. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Consumer Reports lists 22 hybrid or electric cars in its annual Owner Satisfaction Survey. When asked, "Would you buy your car again," 98 percent of Tesla Model S owners delivered an emphatic "yes." The next highest percentage are owners of the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid, and Honda Accord Hybrid, both at 85 percent. They are followed by the Ford Fusion Energi, 84 percent; Toyota Prius, 82 percent; Lexus ES 300h Hybrid, 81 percent; and Toyota Avalon Hybrid, 80 percent. Only 77 percent of Nissan Leaf owners would buy the all-electric car again, according to the Consumer Reports survey, published in the January 2015 issue. The lowest percentage of drivers who would be repeat buyers own the Kia Optima Hybrid, at 56 percent. The best three sedans are listed as the Te...

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey toll discounts for drivers of the Tesla Model S and other green cars will be less generous, starting on Sunday. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR I'm planning to drive my Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid across the George Washington Bridge and into midtown Manhattan on Sunday, the first day of a toll increase. Under the Port Authority's restrictive toll-discount plans, I will be denied the reward given drivers of low- and zero-emissions cars, but will qualify for the even better "carpool" discount. Go figure. Owners of all-electric cars and gas-electric hybrids get a break only during off-peak hours -- and that's before 11 a.m. and after 9 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. On weekdays, off-peak hours are before 6 a.m., between 10:01 a.m. and 3:59 p.m., and after 9 p.m. The carpool discount, on the other hand, is available 24/7, as long as you have a total of three people in the car. Both plans require you to have an E-ZPass, registe...

Under the hood of the Tesla Model S: Storage space. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR There has been a lot of big news in the world of green cars lately -- from Toyota's decision to turn its back on all-electric passenger vehicles to Tesla owners picking their Model S as most satisfying. Toyota recently unveiled the 2016 Mirai fuel-cell sedan, but a report today says only 700 units of the hydrogen-fueled car will roll off the Japanese assembly line in its first year of production. See:  Only 700 fuel-cell Toyotas in first year Few of the reports I've seen have questioned why Toyota -- the world's leading seller of gas-electric hybrid vehicles -- didn't make the seemingly natural transition to all-electric cars.  Meanwhile, California-based Tesla Motors expects to sell 50,000 premium electric cars in 2015, just over half of those in North America, officials said in November. Sales of Tesla's Model S began in mid-2012, and the four-door hatchbacks carry no model-year designa...