Featured (was)
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Bob Sliwa aims to set a new semi-truck fuel-economy record when he leaves San Diego, Calif., on May 17 in his Shell Airflow Starship truck. Hauling his full-sized trailer fully loaded to the truck's 80,000 pounds capacity, he aims to set the fuel economy record for a loaded Class 8 truck in a six-day cross-country trip to Jacksonville, Fla.
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Draft EPA memo freezes fuel economy standards at 42 mpg through 2026
Rather than continue to ratchet standards up to 54.5 mpg by 2025, as the current law requires, the new proposal would stall out fuel economy increases at just short of 42 mpg in 2020, and hold them there through 2026.
Eric C. Evarts -
Ford, BMW, and Infiniti electric car strategy, Trump loses in court, and electric car chargers everywhere: The Week in Reverse
This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, April 17, 2018.
Eric C. Evarts -
Cars out at Ford, small crossovers and SUVs left to take up efficiency banner
Passenger cars at Ford have short lives. The automaker announced Wednesday that it would pare its lineup to just two cars: The Mustang and a new Focus Active crossover, which is based on the next-generation Focus unveiled this month. The Ford Fiesta, Fusion, Taurus, and Focus hatchback and sedan...
Aaron Cole -
2018 Lexus LC 500h gas mileage review
As the industry marches toward greener cars, battery and hybrid drivetrains are expanding into vehicle segments never before concerned with fuel economy ratings or much with emissions. No segment is excluded from this progress, not even luxury grand tourers. Toyota, along with its luxury division...
Joel Feder -
When will buying gasoline cars seem weird? Twitter poll results
In honor of Earth Day last weekend, we re-ran our story about when citizens might see cars with tailpipes as morally wrong, somewhat like they do smoking or polluting factories today. This year, we decided to accompany it with a different question in our Twitter poll: When will buying gasoline cars...
Eric C. Evarts -
Airport runs are a regular challenge for electric cars. You need to use less than half the range so you can get home, and leave plenty of margin.
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Electrify America maps out charging network to rival Tesla Superchargers
Mark 2018 as the year that practical, widespread electric-car charging really started coming to America. We've had a lot of news about new charging networks coming to the U.S., and it doesn't look like it will be slowing down any time soon. Following the announcement last week that 100 Walmart...
Eric C. Evarts -
An Earth Day question: When will we see 'tailpipes' on cars as morally wrong?
With increasing availability of zero-emission cars over the coming years, when will citizens at large start to question the idea that every vehicle has an "exhaust pipe" that just belches harmful substances into our shared air?
John Voelcker -
Earth Day: 10 Questions On Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Cars To Ask Toyota, Honda & Hyundai
Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are rolling out to California buyers in small numbers with two models on the market, and hydrogen stations slowly expanding outside a narrow slice of Los Angeles. The Honda Clarity Fuel Cell vehicle first went on sale in California at the end of 2016, and 2018 models...
John Voelcker -
Audi details battery for 2019 e-tron electric SUV
When the Audi e-tron battery-electric SUV goes on sale next year, its 432 battery cells will drink from a 150-kw charging firehose–a rate quicker than the Jaguar I-Pace or a Tesla Model S. The high-energy battery pack, detailed by Audi in Berlin on Wednesday, has an apt, caffeinated analogy...
Martin Padgett -
Really fast electric-car charging stations coming to a Walmart near you
Electrify America plans to install an unspecified number of DC fast-charge stations, of up to 350 kw, at 100 Walmart stores across the country.
Eric C. Evarts -
Volkswagen said it is trickling the cars back into the market so as not to overwhelm demand and depress prices.
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Some Chevrolet Bolt EVs get new battery pack for sudden loss of power: here's why
It's every electric car owner's nightmare: the car indicates that remaining range has suddenly plummeted to zero, the battery pack stops providing current, and the car won't run. For some 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV drivers, that scenario has happened in real life. The problem has resulted in a program...
John Voelcker -
Gasoline range anxiety 100 years ago made electric-car charging seem easy
Electric cars have the great advantage that their batteries can be recharged anywhere there's electricity. It may not be particularly fast, though modern plug-in vehicles get at least 60 miles overnight, and often double or triple that. But a century ago, drivers of gasoline cars had just as much...
John Voelcker -
2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid: weekend drive review
For several years, the Chevrolet Volt was the sole plug-in hybrid with electric range notably above 20 miles—though it became clear Chevy never figured out how to market its virtues to the public at large. Now it has a strong competitor in the form of the 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid, a...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model Y production to start Nov 2019 (also, Musk doesn't have time to shower): reports
Amidst nine months of "production hell" for the Tesla Model 3 electric car, the company's next vehicle has somewhat fallen off the radar. According to a report Wednesday by Reuters, Tesla has now put out requests to suppliers for initial bids on parts for the Tesla Model Y, its high-volume...
Eric C. Evarts -
2019 Toyota Prius will be restyled to look more like Prime: report
Global sales of compact hatchbacks are hardly surging, and fuel economy for all types of vehicles is steadily improving. Even given those factors, though, the fourth-generation Toyota Prius hybrid has had an especially rough road since its launch as a 2016 model. At just 108,661 deliveries across...
John Voelcker -
What do you do when the year you planned for your round-the-world trip in an electric car turns into two—and you still haven't reached your destination? If you're taking such an ambitious trip, it helps to have a name as whimsical as Wiebe Wakker. He's the Dutchman undertaking this adventure in a Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen converted to run on battery-electric power. He's driving 60,000 miles, or more, from the Netherlands to Australia. DON'T MISS: Converted Electric Nissan Qashqai Completes Round-World Trip (May 2011) He's also depending on gifts and donations from the general public...
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Why I traded my Chevy Bolt EV for a Tesla: one reader's story
As a nation, the U.S. takes lots of road trips, because most of the country has no viable mass transit between city pairs. If electric cars are ever to enter the mass market in North America, they have to be usable on those road trips. Last year, our reader Jay Lucas of Alexandria, Virginia, wrote...
John Voelcker -
8 things you should know about EPA plan to let cars emit more (cutting fuel economy as well)
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said yesterday the agency plans to modify rules limiting carbon-dioxide emissions for light-duty vehicles in model years 2022 through 2025. The agency, he said, had reached a determination that the limits put in place in 2012 under the Obama administration were...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model 3 production crossed 2,000 last week; is it sustainable?
Tesla reported Tuesday that it built 34,494 electric cars in the first quarter of 2018, by far its largest quarterly production total ever. But all eyes were on one number: the production of Model 3 sedans, which was 9,766 vehicles out of that total. Of the rest, 11,730 were Model S hatchback...
John Voelcker -
2019 Jaguar I-Pace: brief first drive of all-electric luxury crossover
A parking lot in suburban New Jersey isn’t the first place I’d look for a revolution. According to Jaguar, it’s where ours will start. After just over four minutes behind the wheel of the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace, the electric Jaguar feels like the beginning of something. DON'T MISS...
Aaron Cole -
Nissan Leaf 30-kwh battery decline 3 times that of earlier electric cars: study
The Nissan Leaf, at least for the moment, remains the highest-volume electric car produced in history, with more than 300,000 sold. One of the measures that kept its cost down was the use of passive air cooling for its battery pack, rather than the pricier liquid cooling used by other makers to...
John Voelcker