Featured (was)

  • 2015 Audi RS 5 Coupe Sport

    Just when it looked like the Volkswagen Group was getting a grip on its diesel emissions cheating scandal that erupted in September 2015, a report has come out claiming the automaker has cars with a different type of “defeat device” used to hide emissions from regulators. Germany’s Bild am Sonntag (via Reuters) on Sunday reported that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) discovered software in an automatic transmission used by Audi to hide emissions, this time in both gasoline and diesel cars. According to the report, the software could determine whether a car was on a...

  • 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI
    What will VW do with TDI diesel buyback cars? It's not what you think

    Within weeks, Volkswagen and Audi will starting buying back thousands of 2.0-liter diesel cars sold between 2009 and 2015. So what will the company do once it's legally taken possession of those vehicles, the first of close to half a million caught up in the VW diesel emission scandal? It turns out...

  • 2016 Nissan Note e-Power
    Nissan e-Power series hybrid builds on electric-car expertise

    This morning, in Japan, Nissan unveiled what its lineup has long been missing: strong hybrid technology. The company's new e-Power hybrid system, demonstrated in a Nissan Note hatchback, contains a gasoline engine and an electric traction motor. But unlike the power-split hybrids used by Toyota and...

  • Province of Quebec in Canada
    Quebec passes Canada's first zero-emission vehicle rule, to start in 2018

    Quebec has become the first Canadian province to adopt a requirement for sales of a certain number of zero-emission vehicles, similar to the one in effect in California. Quebec's Assemblée Nationale passed the regulation on October 26 by a unanimous vote of 112 to 0, and to universal praise...

  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk presents Powerwall 2.0 and SolarCity solar roof
    Tesla debuts bigger PowerWall 2.0 battery, glass solar-roof tiles from SolarCity

    Late last week, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk held a press conference whose underlying message was support for the proposed combination of Tesla with solar installer SolarCity. Musk's cousin Lyndon Rive runs SolarCity and Musk sits on its board, but the proposed acquisition has been criticized by...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV
    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...

  • BMW i3 and Volkswagen e-Golf electric cars using Combined Charging System (CCS) DC fast charging

    Yesterday, federal judge Charles Breyer signed the final agreement committing Volkswagen to buy back or modify the 465,000 TDI 2.0-liter diesel vehicles that are the main focus of the VW diesel scandal. As part of that settlement, Volkswagen has also committed to providing $2 billion in funds to install charging or fueling infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles. The clock now starts ticking on a 120-day deadline for the company to submit its initial plan for spending that money over the next 10 years, starting with activities proposed for the first quarter. DON'T MISS: Final VW diesel...

  • Volkswagen TDI 'clean diesel' television ad screencap
    Final VW diesel settlement signed; buyback offers to start soon

    As expected, yesterday U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer signed the final agreement among Volkswagen, the EPA, and the state of California covering the bulk of VW's diesel emission cheating scandal. The agreement means that buyback offers can now be issued to owners of almost half a million...

  • 2017 Toyota Prius Prime Premium
    Green Car Reports 2017 Best Car To Buy nominee: Toyota Prius Prime

    The 2017 Toyota Prius Prime is a far, far better plug-in hybrid than its predecessor. It defaults to electric-only operation, it has 25 miles of EPA-rated electric range, and in electric operation, it is by far the most energy-efficient vehicle you can buy this year in the U.S. And when it reverts...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV
    Bolt EV sales, new Tesla sensors, unusual ethanol, BMW plug-in hybrids: The Week in Reverse

    Which electric cars are finalists for our 2017 Best Car To Buy award? What unusual source for making ethanol did researchers at a Federal lab discover? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, October 21, 2016. Friday...

  • Tesla Hardware 2 self-driving technology
    Tesla upgrades self-driving sensors, hardware; full autonomy test next year?

    Yesterday morning, the state of California held a hearing on proposed rules governing self-driving cars. Both automakers and Google objected to the regulations as written, saying that the requirement to comply with voluntary federal regulations issued last month would hobble their development...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, road test, California coastline, Sep 2016
    Green Car Reports 2017 Best Car To Buy nominee: Chevy Bolt EV

    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...

  • 2017 Toyota Prius Prime test drive, Ojai, California, Sep 2016

    Which U.S. carmaker is moving to capitalize on Volkswagen's diesel woes in the U.S. market? What did Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk challenge us to do? (And when we did it, what did we conclude?) This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, October 14, 2016. At the end of the week, we had several Tesla stories stacked up at the top of our traffic charts. Friday, we summarized our own Twitter poll, which asked what the most surprising thing about the Tesla Model 3 would be, whenever it finally goes on sale. Several...

  • Tesla Autopilot
    How safe is Tesla Autopilot? Parsing the statistics (as suggested by Elon Musk)

    One of the tools Elon Musk and Tesla Motors have used to defend the safety of its Autopilot software is the dark and perplexing art of statistics. After a fatal Autopilot-related crash in May, a company blog post pointed out that the crash was “the first known fatality in just over 130...

  • Tesla Model 3 design prototype  -  reveal event  -  March 2016
    Does Tesla have plant, permits to build 500,000 electric cars a year?

    The 2017 Chevy Bolt EV is due at dealers within a couple of months, and little is known about the next Nissan Leaf. That leaves the Tesla Model 3 as the biggest question mark among electric cars. We know what the car is, since Tesla unveiled prototypes this spring. It's whether the company can get...

  • 2016 Nissan Leaf
    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...

  • Tesla Autopilot
    CA to restrict use of term Autopilot: Tesla-owning pilot weighs in

    A recent news item from California aimed directly at Tesla's Autopilot system has me musing on words, meanings, and life and death. Last week, that state's Department of Motor Vehicles published the draft of a proposed new regulation that “…prohibits the advertisement of lower levels...

  • 2017 Tesla Model S Electric GT race car
    Tesla Model S race car for Electric GT shown; Munter to drive in series (update)

    The Electric GT series launches next year with a field of Tesla Model S race cars.

  • 2017 Toyota Prius Prime test drive, Ojai, California, Sep 2016

    The 2017 Toyota Prius Prime is a considerably better car than a few electric-car fans had feared. In fact, with an EPA-rated range of 25 miles (more than projected) and energy efficiency so high—at 133 MPGe—that it matches the BMW i3 with all its whizzy advanced technology, it’s a very viable plug-in hybrid choice. [EDITOR'S NOTE: At the time this piece was written, the efficiency figure projected by Toyota for the Prius Prime was 124 MPGe. Toyota subsequently released the official EPA ratings, in which the efficiency figure was 133 MPGe—making the Prius Prime the most...

  • Volkswagen ID Neo concept, 2016 Paris auto show
    Volkswagen ID: more details of all-electric concept car at Paris Motor Show

    This morning, Volkswagen held one of the first press conferences at the Paris Motor Show, unveiling the first of several electric cars from different makers. Its Volkswagen I.D. Concept is a preview of a high-volume battery-electric hatchback that will hit the market in 2020, priced "par with...

  • Volkswagen ID Neo concept, 2016 Paris auto show
    VW shows renderings of ID electric-car concept for Paris Motor Show

    Volkswagen presently sells just one all-electric car under its own brand in multiple markets, the e-Golf electric variant of its well-known five-door compact hatchback. But in the wake of continuing fallout from the Volkswagen diesel scandal, the company is wrenching itself toward a more electric...

  • 2015 Nissan Leaf at evGo fast charger at Livingston Mall, Livingston, NJ   [photo: John Briggs]
    Charging etiquette for electric-car drivers: what you need to know

    As electric-car adoption expands past early adopters into more general buyers, it may be difficult for public charging infrastructure to grow as fast as the number of electric vehicles on the road. Here in the U.S., every month roughly 10,000 new plug-in vehicles are sold or leased—and that...

  • Tesla Store Los Angeles [photo: Misha Bruk / MBH Architects]
    Tesla sues Michigan over ban on direct sales of its electric cars

    Earlier this month, an application for a dealer license submitted by Tesla Motors was denied by the state of Michigan. It was the final decision in a process that kicked off in October 2014. That was when a last-minute wording change in state franchise law foreclosed the electric-car maker's...

  • "How to be a clean energy baller" (Courtesy of U.S. Energy Department)
    Know what a 'baller' is? Wanna be one for clean energy?

    A new Energy Department campaign promotes electric cars in a questionable way.

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