General Motors is joining the electric-car price war with a lease deal on the Chevrolet Spark EV at $199 a month.

The deal, announced this morning, follows the recent offerings of $199 leases on Nissan’s Leaf – a big price drop after two years of slow sales – and the newly released Fiat 500e.

The Spark EV will be available at select dealers in California and Oregon starting in mid-June, according to Chevrolet. The growing number of EVs and the price competition should help all automakers sell more cars in the segment, said GM spokesman Kevin Kelly.

"We welcome more entrants into this space as it only helps everyone when more options are available for the consumer to consider," he said.

First drive: Chevrolet's tiny Spark

Expect more cheap lease deals as automakers seek to comply with California clean-air regulations by selling zero-emissions cars that most consumers have so far rejected as too expensive.

“They’re all going to do it – it’s the...

In 2009 the famed Isle of Man TT racetrack hosted the first "zero emissions Grand Prix" -- a motorcycle race closed to the internal combustion machines that for 100 years brought their roar to the narrow streets and winding country roads of the tiny English island.

Similar Grand Prix followed for the next three years as teams from England, India, Germany, the U.S. and elsewhere battled to beat one another to the finish line and to overcome local sentiments ranging from apathy to outright opprobrium.

Photo gallery: Ten very fuel efficient motorcycles

The drama has been captured on film by documentarian Mark Neale, whose "Charge: Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed" chronicles the quest to conquer the Isle of Man.

Narrated by actor and motorcycle enthusiast Ewan McGregor -- whose own motorcycle adventures were told in the documentary TV series "Long Way Round," and who was also the narrator for Neale's earlier MotoGP docs "Faster" and "Fastest" -- the new movie is getting a local airing...

Upstart electric car maker Tesla Motors on Wednesday paid off a Department Energy loan that had become a political hot potato.

Tesla owed the federal government $451.8 million on a loan that was part of a special program to develop alternative fuel vehicles and renewable energy sources. 

Paying off the loan “is pragmatic as well as symbolic,” said Jeremy Anwyl, vice chairman of auto information company Edmunds.com.

“There is a nice party going on on Wall Street right now. Tesla is participating. They would be crazy not to pay off the loan,” Anwyl said.

Tesla has raised about $900 million this month in stock and debt offering deals and is expected to raise another $100 million in the coming days.

Its shares have more than double in the last year, helped by the automaker’s first-ever quarterly profit earlier this month and its success selling the Model S electric sports sedan that Tesla makes at a Fremont, Calif., factory.

The Energy Department’s loan...

Texas auto tuner Hennessey Performance Engineering, the company that supercharges anything with four wheels, has revealed its latest project: a modified Ford F-150 SVT Raptor truck.

The company has taken the F-150, a pickup truck that's been the bestselling vehicle in the U.S. for decades, and transformed it into a roomy SUV with seating for up to eight people.

The truck, dubbed VelociRaptor, doesn’t get the usual Hennessey power overhaul (although there is a supercharged upgrade available), instead all of the factory Ford truck components and systems are kept intact.

PHOTOS: Hennessey Performance Engineering's custom VelociRaptor

The same 6.2-liter leviathan engine produces 411 horsepower and 434 pound-feet of torque and is paired with a six-speed automatic transmission with a tow mode and manual shifting.

While the vehicle's weight is increased by approximately 600 pounds, the VelociRaptor can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds, Hennessey says. With the supercharged...

The decades-old tradition of shutting down U.S. auto factories for two weeks around July may be coming to an end, experts say, pushed out by strong demand and staggered vehicle launch dates.

With sales booming, Ford Motor Co., for example, said it will close 21 of its North American factories for just one week this year.

Only four of Chrysler's 10 U.S. plants will close for two weeks this summer, and General Motors, also having a strong sales year, said it will not close any factories this summer.

"The institution of the summer factory closures has really begun to fray," Alan Adler of General Motors' Detroit-based news bureau said in an interview. "Fewer and fewer factories are bound by it. We have a ton of product launches this year, and we have healthy demand out there."

"We have enough work for them to stay open," he said.

Jeff Schuster, global forecaster for LMC Automotive, said the summer factory closings around the Fourth of July holiday date back to a time when almost all...

Ford Motor Co. is expanding its production capacity to take advantage of the shift in buyer sentiment toward smaller cars and SUVs and for F-series truck sales spurred by the housing market recovery.

Ford said it will increase production by about 200,000 vehicles to 3.4 million this year. Part of that expansion will take place at the automaker's Flat Rock, Mich., assembly plant, which will be adding workers and shifts to meet strong demand in California and the West Coast.

Ford said California has become its fastest growing market for sales of its Fusion midsize sedan, which have climbed by 118% in the state through April, up to 7,000 cars.

Ford will be adding about 3,500 entry-level workers as part of the expansion.

"We have a great opportunity here," said Erich Merkle, U.S. sales analyst for Ford, in an interview. "This is much different from the recoveries of the past. We are getting to play both sides of it, in smaller cars and SUVs and in full-size trucks."

What Merkle meant was...

It didn't have to be like this. In the age of green screens and VFX houses, filmmakers responsible for the sixth installment of the "Fast & Furious" franchise didn't have to actually destroy hundreds of cars.

They didn't have to run over a custom 1969 Ford Mustang with a tank. The 2008 BMW M5, one of several demolished, didn't need to be thrown through a building. And the 1970 Ford Escort Mark 1 — beloved in the United Kingdom — didn't need to be tossed 70 feet in the air over a freeway divider with a live stunt driver behind the wheel. Twice.

"He likes to use as little CG as possible," said Dennis McCarthy of "Fast & Furious 6" director Justin Lin, referring to computer-generated imagery. From his sprawling shop in Los Angeles' Sun Valley neighborhood, McCarthy has assembled and modified millions of dollars of cars for each of the last four "Fast" films Lin has directed. The latest installment opens on Friday.

PHOTOS: The cars of 'Fast & Furious 6'

Fans of the "Fast"...

The redesigned 2014 Subaru Forester captured the top spot in Consumer Reports' reviews of small SUVs.

It bested similar crossovers that were recently redesigned, including the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V and Mazda CX-5, in what has become a competitive segment of the auto industry.

Consumer Reports noted that Subaru resisted a trend in which other automakers have made their small SUVs sportier. Instead, Subaru focused on utilitarian basics, such as a space-efficient design, large windows, and big square doors. That has given the Forester a spacious cabin with good visibility.

“Overall, if you’re looking for a small SUV that’s very functional and fuel-efficient, the Forester is hard to beat,” said Jake Fisher, director, Consumer Reports Auto Test Center.

The Forester also gets a segment-leading 26 miles per gallon overall and 35 mpg on the highway, Consumer Reports found.

Still there are some glitches. Consumer Reports dinged the Forester for a jittery ride, calling...

Honda continues its aggressive roll-out of new models -- six new machines launched since February, and 19 over the last two years -- with the impressive CBR500 trio of R, F and X units.

They're long on style, performance and value, and short on price, part of Honda's commitment to put new riders on Honda motorcycles.

Built in Honda's new Thailand factories -- like the company's new CBR250 and dual purpose CRF250L -- the CBR500s feature a parallel twin, fuel-injected, 500cc engine. It's a lightweight, low-vibration power plant, built on the same engine platform as the CBR250 and designed to run maximum miles with minimum maintenance.

PHOTO GALLERY: Top Ten Most Expensive Motorcycles The three models are priced competitively -- aggressively, even. The CBR500R, the road race model, lists at $5999, with a $500 kicker for the ABS braking package. The CBR500F, the "naked" style urban model, lists at $5499, plus $500 for the ABS. The CBR500X, the "adventure" version, doesn't yet have an MSRP...

A bill to extend carpool-lane access for electric cars and other zero-emission vehicles passed the California Assembly by a wide margin Monday.

The legislation, AB 266 written by Robert Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills), also gives such vehicles access to carpool lanes converted to toll roads. The bill passed on a 49-22 vote and now moves on to the state Senate.

Under Blumenfield’s legislation, cars with white clean-air vehicle stickers — such as electric, hydrogen fuel cell or compressed natural-gas vehicles — would get carpool-lane access to 2020.  If the bill doesn’t pass, the program phases out in 2015.

Cars with green stickers — plug-in hybrids — would get carpool lane use until 2018. 

While there is no limit on the amount of white stickers, green stickers are capped at 40,000. 

“We won’t make a dent in our clean air and climate goals without getting more of these cars on the road,” said Blumenfield.  “With more clean cars...

Though Aston Martin is spending this year looking back on its past 100 years, the British automaker recently took a quick glimpse into its future as well.

The company debuted the CC100 Speedster Concept at Sunday’s famed 24 Hours of Nurburgring. The car pays homage to the DBR1 that racing legend Sterling Moss piloted to victory on the same course in 1959.

Hence the car’s slightly odd setup: it lacks a windshield and the driver and passenger are separated by a carbon fiber body panel that bisects the cockpit at shoulder level.

PHOTOS: Aston Martin brings CC100 concept to 24 Hours of Nurburgring

In fact, all of the CC100’s panels are carbon fiber, as is the interior. Aston crammed its 6.0-liter V-12 engine under the hood. It pushes power to the rear wheels via a six-speed automated manual transmission with steering-column-mounted paddle shifters.

The company estimates the car will hit 60 mph in four seconds and has a top speed of 180 mph. Both this new concept and the...