Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)
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One of the challenges of electric cars is persuading potential buyers that they can do virtually everything that most other vehicles can. For those who live in wintry climates, that includes dealing with snow, slush, road salt, ice, and variable traction. Given the recent major snowstorms that hit large swaths of the U.S. this month, we felt an article on that topic might prove useful. DON'T MISS: Electric Cars In Winter: Six Steps To Maximize Driving Range (Jan 2013) What follows is a set of advice from Chris Neff, a New Jersey electric-car advocate who's now on his second BMW i3 REx...
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Another Chevy Bolt EV electric-car owner weighs in on pros and cons
We've had a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car in our fleet for a handful of days, and have been thinking about our impressions of the car in everyday use. While a major snowstorm cut half the days out of our test run—with a 7-foot snowdrift blocking the road to my house—we've been...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model 3: beta phase to be skipped, will go straight to production?
Development of new vehicles, especially if they're on underpinnings that haven't been used in previous models, follows a very predictable schedule. First, a concept car is revealed. Often, it's a thinly disguised version of the future production car with some added design flourishes that won't make...
John Voelcker -
Has GM really 'already lost' the electric-car race to Tesla?
Lots of people like horse races, win-or-lose competitions, and rankings. They're easy to understand, and definitive. They may also lose the forest for the trees, which is what we're tempted to suggest about a new article that addresses the launch of the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car. GM's...
John Voelcker -
Electric cars only need 100 miles of range, some carmakers say; is it true?
Hyundai first made the argument that energy efficiency in electric cars is just as important as their range, as part of its launch of the Ioniq Electric hatchback, EPA-rated at 124 miles. Now Honda is making that argument as well, based on a news report it confirmed saying that the Clarity EV...
John Voelcker -
Porsche Mission E electric car to cost less than Panamera sedan
Porsche's most ardent fans no longer complain about the expansion of the German sports-car maker's lineup into sedans and, even worse, sport-utility vehicles. The large Panamera sedan and the Cayenne and Macan SUVs are not only some of Porsche's more popular models, but fund its development of the...
John Voelcker -
Fleeing my home in New York’s Hudson Valley for California during February and March has a number of charms. Currently at the top of the list: reading about Winter Storm Stella while watching the surfers at Rincon Beach. For electric-car nuts like me, however, there’s another California perk that’s not far behind: the wide availability of the Chevy Bolt. Back home, I’d been hankering for a Bolt test drive for months. As a long-time Tesla Model S owner, I was eager to see how it compared to the gold standard of electric cars. DON'T MISS: Chevrolet Bolt EV: Green Car...
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After Audi e-tron, next electric car to be compact BMW i3 competitor
Next year, the Audi e-tron luxury electric crossover is expected to arrive at U.S. dealers, bringing Audi into direct competition with the Tesla Model X roughly three years after the world's first all-electric utility vehicle went into production. But with a pledge to sell 25 percent of its cars...
John Voelcker -
Which luxury brand will do best in electric cars? Poll results
Within the next two years we will see new all-electric luxury cars from Audi, BMW, Jaguar, and Mercedes-Benz appear in actual showrooms. All four of those makes have shown concepts for their pricey, 200-mile-plus electric cars, and most of them are expected to go on sale in the second half of next...
John Voelcker -
Volvo plans a long-range electric car for 2019, details to come (updated)
The electric car that Volvo has long planned for 2019 could join a growing group of long-range, mass-market models like the Chevrolet Bolt EV, the upcoming Tesla Model 3, and the second-generation Nissan Leaf. The Swedish automaker has concentrated on plug-in hybrids for the most part thus far, but...
Stephen Edelstein -
Why I canceled my Chevy Bolt EV electric-car order: a reader explains
The advent of affordable 200-mile electric cars promises to increase public acceptance of cars with plugs—or at least that's the hope of both carmakers and advocates. The first of those, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, is now entering the market, state by state, to great acclaim. But not every...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Leaf leases can extend until all-new 2018 electric car late this year: updated
More Nissan Leaf electric cars were sold in 2014 than in any model year before or since, fully 30,000 of them. That means a whole lot of three-year leases are coming due this year. Now Nissan is offering to extend those leases—and in the process, it's given us a little more information on the...
John Voelcker -
For the first six years of electric cars, from 2011 to 2016, we've had a variety of mass-priced cars with ranges of 62 to 107 miles. This year, in 2017, we got the Chevy Bolt EV, at 238 miles. But there's a new competitor as well. This is the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric. DON'T MISS: 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid video drive review It's one of three models in the Ioniq lineup—it also has a plug-in hybrid, and a regular hybrid—and the Ioniq Electric offers a range of 124 miles. That's the highest of any battery-electric car that isn't a Tesla, or a Bolt EV. And the Ioniq Electric may...
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Chevy Bolt EV: 800-mile trip in 238-mile electric car shows challenges remain
With about twice the range of any non-Tesla electric car, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV has generated a great deal of excitement and won numerous awards over the last year. In combination with a nascent DC fast-charging infrastructure, it offers the possibility of much longer road trips powered solely...
John Voelcker -
Renault Zoe e-Sport Concept at Geneva highlights electric-car performance (live photos)
The Renault Zoe, a subcompact hatchback, has little in common with the Tesla Model S besides a battery-electric powertrain and five doors. But the maker of Europe's best-selling electric car seeks to underscore the idea that "electric cars can be fun and fast," perhaps hoping that some of Tesla's...
John Voelcker -
$8 billion cost to make Tesla Superchargers as common as gas stations: analyst
Tesla is the world's only automaker to build and operate its own large-scale network of public charging stations. This year, the Silicon Valley automaker hopes to double the number of Supercharger DC fast-charging sites, to make it more convenient for U.S. Tesla owners to undertake longer road...
Stephen Edelstein -
Plug-in electric car sales for Feb: Volt outsells Prius Prime, Bolt EV, Leaf (final update)
Once again, it's the first day of the month following a weekday sales close, when the auto industry turns its eyes to the sales charts emerging from all automakers (except Tesla). For plug-in electric cars, the question this month remains the same as last month: how many Chevrolet Bolt EVs did GM...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model 3 prices: reader makes his guesses, via spreadsheet
Since more than 350,000 people around the world put down $1,000 deposits to reserve a place in line, the Tesla Model 3 electric car has assumed larger-than-life status. Its maker, Silicon Valley-based Tesla Motors, recently reaffirmed that series production will start in July and that Model 3...
John Voelcker -
There are essentially two types of electric cars on sale today. Battery-electric vehicles are powered only by a battery, while plug-in hybrids have an engine to supplement a more limited battery range. Which type will ultimately predominate isn't clear; each has advantages and disadvantages. DON'T MISS: Plug-in hybrids to catch on more quickly than electrics: Toyota Toyota, for one, firmly believes that plug-in hybrids will be the path to electric transport for more buyers than will battery-electric vehicles. The company's executives have said that, and it fits with the company 's blanket...
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Tearing down the Tesla Model S battery pack (video)
The lithium-ion battery pack is at the heart of any electric car. Its cost, energy density, and safety features do as much as any other feature of an electric car to determine its success. And battery packs from Tesla Motors differ from those built by virtually any other electric-car maker in at...
John Voelcker -
Electric-car range: why Japanese needs differ so radically from the U.S.
It was one of the new battery-electric vehicles anticipated for this year, a mid-size sedan from a global maker that remains the second highest-volume hybrid maker in the world. Then the news hit earlier this week: the all-electric Honda Clarity EV would have a rated battery range around ... 80...
John Voelcker -
Honda Clarity EV electric car to have only 80 miles of range: report
One of the more eagerly awaited all-electric cars coming to market this year has been the 2018 Honda Clarity EV. It's a battery-electric version of the 2017 Clarity Fuel Cell already on sale in some regions of California, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. But unlike most of the pure electric cars on...
John Voelcker -
2018 BMW i3 preview (including battery rumors)
This year's updated BMW i3 electric car is only just arriving at U.S. dealerships after a battery-capacity boost that gives it longer range. But already some details of the 2018 BMW i3 have leaked out, in the form of spy photos and further rumors about more battery capacity yet. Unlike our usual...
John Voelcker -
Which type of car will go all-electric the fastest? Poll results
One reason cited for the slow, if growing, penetration of plug-in electric cars in the U.S. is that they're not available in all segments and body styles. With the exception of the pricey Tesla Model X and the discontinued Toyota RAV4 EV, for example, there are no battery-electric SUVs or...
John Voelcker