Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)
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Sometimes reporters and editors will see an article or a section in another outlet and think, "Darn, why didn't we think of that?" This is one of those times. Enthusiast publication Motor Trend had the very clever idea of comparing two electric cars with 60-kilowatt-hour battery packs and more than 200 miles of EPA-rated range. DON'T MISS: Germans are coming for Tesla, German paper says, so now it's 'interesting' They are the 2016 Tesla Model S 60 sedan and the upcoming 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV hatchback. The magazine notes that the Model S 60 is an odd duck; it was the lower of two battery...
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Now Toyota can make electric cars: it's tamed lithium-ion batteries, it says
Toyota is one of the world's three largest carmakers, along with General Motors and Volkswagen Group. Having placed its bets for the future of zero-emission transport on hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, it's by far the most resistant of the three to the notion of battery-electric cars. But a recent...
John Voelcker -
2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV: video review of 238-mile electric car
From the outside, this car looks like a tall hatchback, not all that remarkable, maybe a bit bigger than some of the smallest cars around. But from the moment you open the door and get behind the wheel, it's clear that this is no ordinary Chevrolet. In fact, it's Chevrolet's first-ever mass-market...
John Voelcker -
2019 BMW i5 crossover utility vehicle rendered from patent drawings
With BMW having decided to offer not only plug-in hybrids across its range but also fully electric versions of its core models, its 'i' sub-brand is in a curious position. Is there a future for the high-tech vehicles designed for maximum efficiency when battery-electric powertrains are rolling into...
John Voelcker -
LG Chem: GM to sell 'more than 30,000' Chevy Bolt EVs next year
A very brief article on a single sentence uttered on Tuesday by an executive at Korean battery maker LG Chem has reverberated around electric-car circles for most of this week. The executive was vice president Kang Chang-beom, and he spoke on a conference call for financial analysts on the topic of...
John Voelcker -
Green Car Reports' 2017 Best Car To Buy nominee: Tesla Model X
Pretty much any Tesla electric car is bound to start a conversation. The low, tiny 2008 Roadster, the sleek and Jaguar-esque 2012 Model S sedan, or the company's latest car, the 2016 Model X crossover utility vehicle. But as we experienced first-hand, the Model X has the most attention-getting...
John Voelcker -
The announcement of the Chevrolet Bolt concept car came like a thunderclap at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show. After unveiling the 2016 Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, General Motors CEO Mary Barra rolled out a bright orange five-door hatchback electric car. It would have 200 or more miles of range, she said, for a price starting at $37,500 before incentives. DON'T MISS: Is Chevy Bolt EV's Main Mission To Marginalize Tesla Electric Cars? And very quickly it became clear that what's now called the Bolt EV was a real project, one that Chevy is now preparing to sell by the end of this year. Its...
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Nissan Leaf S quietly gets 30-kwh battery upgrade, higher price
For 2016, the model year just ending, the Nissan Leaf electric car got a larger-capacity battery for all but its lowest trim level. The Leaf SV and SL models this year have been fitted with a 30-kilowatt-hour battery, up from the previous 24-kwh capacity, that boosts their EPA-rated range from 84...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Bolt EV allocations: dealer in California gets electric-car update
As its new electric car gets closer to public sale, General Motors has apparently made its first allocations of 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EVs to Chevy dealers. The news comes via a posting on the GM-Volt forum from a southern California dealership. Rick Alpern, the general manager of Keyes Chevrolet in...
John Voelcker -
2017 BMW i3 preview
The 2017 BMW i3 gets a larger battery pack and estimated 114-mile maximum range.
Stephen Edelstein -
2017 Chevy Bolt EV review consensus: car is good, range is real
Early reviews of the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV are encouraging.
Stephen Edelstein -
Plug-in electric car sales in Sept: Volt steady, Leaf higher
Sales of plug-in electric cars in September chugged along steadily, with consistent sales from the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid and a stronger number for the Nissan Leaf battery-electric car. Chevrolet logged 2,031 deliveries of its Volt hatchback, likely now almost all the new second-generation...
John Voelcker -
The largest number of one single battery-electric car sold in the U.S. in a single year is 30,000, the total logged in 2014 by the Nissan Leaf. (Of course, we don't know Tesla's sales because the company doesn't break out its quarterly global delivery totals by country.) But those were back in the day when affordable electric cars (with prices under, say, $40,000) had ranges of 60 to 85 miles. DON'T MISS: 2017 Chevy Bolt EV: here's what can go wrong for electric-car pioneer The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, which is to go on sale in initial markets before the end of this year, is priced at $37,495...
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Nissan electric subcompact below Leaf in future electric-car lineup?
The 2011 Nissan Leaf was the first mass-priced modern electric car when it launched in December 2010. Nissan has since sold close to a quarter of a million Leafs, and together with its alliance partner Renault it has now sold more than 350,000 all-electric vehicles. But the Leaf is still with us...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Bolt EV not on shared architecture, but platform name secret, GM says
The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV had a fast and unusual development process. General Motors partnered closely with Korean electronics firm LG, whose LG Chem subsidiary provided its lithium-ion battery cells. Other LG units contributed both electric and electronic components and now act as contract...
John Voelcker -
2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV first drive: 240 miles in an electric car
We drove a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car 240 miles on a single charge last week. And that was the lowest range achieved among four journalists driving four Bolt EVs along the California coast. One driver covered essentially the same trip with fully 32 miles remaining, according to the...
John Voelcker -
Plug-in electric car sales for August: Volt sells at twice Leaf rate (updated)
While U.S. vehicle sales last month are expected to fall overall as data rolls in, August has traditionally been a very good month for sales of plug-in electric cars. The Chevrolet Volt, for one, kept up its pace this year, with August sales of 2,081, for an eight-month total of 14,295 Volts...
John Voelcker -
Does the Chevy Bolt EV make the Chevrolet Volt irrelevant? Is that a problem?
Sometime during the last three months of this year, the first 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV will be delivered to its buyer in a blaze of flash photography and publicity. The 200-mile electric car, base-priced at $37,500 before incentives, will be the first car in the world with those specifications. And...
John Voelcker -
As the famed Monterey Car Week moves into high gear today, Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a new concept car: the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6. It's not too surprising that a large, elegant, uber-luxe streamlined coupe with gullwing doors might be shown to depict a future design direction for its high-luxury Mercedes-Maybach sub-brand. What is surprising, though, is that it's all-electric. DON'T MISS: Mercedes electric SUV concept for Paris in September: what we know so far The "6" in its name, incidentally, refers not to it being a sixth Maybach concept but to the two-door car's length in meters...
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All-electric Subaru crossover utility vehicle coming in 2021: Japanese report
Subaru, to which auto writers often attach the adjective "quirky," has been a quiet success story in the U.S. market, which now provides almost half its global sales. The company's crossover utility vehicles handle more like cars than those from other makers, and its sedans and hatchbacks are set...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Bolt EV electric car for 'urban' sales: what does that mean?
Almost no U.S. car buyers sit down at their kitchen table and kick off a chat by saying, "Honey, we need to buy a city car." The only exceptions are those in a handful of crowded cities like New York and San Francisco, for whom a very short car that is easy to park may take priority. But as sales...
John Voelcker -
Plug-in electric car sales in July: Volt passes 100,000 with strong numbers (more updates)
Last month marked a major milestone for U.S. sales of plug-in electric cars: the 100,000th Chevrolet Volt was delivered. It's the first car with a plug in any segment to reach 100,000 units, and Chevy's justified in celebrating the occasion with a press release and a bit of fanfare. Both the Volt...
John Voelcker -
2018 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive prototype: first ride impressions
Following the launch of the latest Smart Fortwo hatchback, it was only a matter of time before the trendy German brand would introduce an evolution of its Fortwo Electric Drive version as well. While some electric vehicles remained desperately uncool or overpriced, the Fortwo "ED" (as Germans...
Jeff Jablansky -
Tesla Gigafactory tour photo gallery: one engineer's report
Last Friday, Tesla Motors opened the doors of its battery "gigafactory" outside Reno, Nevada, to an invited group of Tesla owners. They toured the plant and heard presentations from CEO Elon Musk, among others. It was a celebratory occasion, marked by many photos and lots of deep Tesla gossip and...
John Voelcker