Featured (was)
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If it's built out to the full size in the original plans, the Tesla gigafactory outside Reno, Nevada, will cover 10 million square feet. That's the equivalent of more than 260 U.S. football fields, which would make it one of the largest buildings in the world. Yesterday, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk officially opened the gigafactory building, which today is 14 percent of that size on a 3,000-acre site. DON'T MISS: Tesla Model 3: video of first ride in prototype $35k electric car Owners of Tesla electric cars have been invited to an event to be held at the plant on Friday, but Musk spoke to the...
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2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV preview
The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV will be the world's first mass-priced electric car with a range of 200 miles or more. That alone makes it a hugely important new market entry. Going on sale in late 2016 or early 2017, just six years after modern electric cars arrived, the Bolt EV represents a second...
John Voelcker -
VW diesel questions, Tesla Master Plan, Accord Hybrid drive, Prius passe? The Week in Reverse
Why did we decide that the Honda Accord Hybrid, our Best Car To Buy three years ago, faces new and tougher competition? And, what new types of electric vehicles is Tesla Motors promising to introduce now? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for...
John Voelcker -
Tesla 'Master Plan' update defends Autopilot; electric SUV, pickup, autonomous bus coming
Elon Musk's updated "master plan" for Tesla includes greater emphasis on autonomous vehicles.
Stephen Edelstein -
Why VW killed its TDI diesels in the U.S.: future emission standards
Hell hath no fury like a well-meaning government regulator who's been sneered at and condescended to by executives of one of the world's largest auto companies—only to learn the company has systematically lied to her and deliberately violated the laws she's charged with enforcing. After the...
John Voelcker -
1,000-mile Nissan Leaf electric-car road trip in the Northeast: are we there yet?
When my son scored a coveted civil engineering summer internship in Silver Spring, Maryland, the chance for an electric-car road trip from our Boston-area home presented itself. Sure, I could have done the sensible thing and taken my trusty 2006 Toyota Prius, but where would be the adventure in...
John Briggs -
The Honda Accord Hybrid was an impressive car when it launched as a 2014 model, but supply constraints frustrated buyers, and the hybrid mid-size sedan actually skipped the 2016 model year. For 2017, it's back in the lineup, with a slightly improved hybrid system and a host of updates made to the Accord lineup last year. The hybrid 2017 Accord is EPA-rated at 49 mpg city, 47 mpg highway, for a combined rating of 48 mpg. DON'T MISS: 2016 Honda Accord - review As Honda points out, revisions to the EPA's 2017 ratings calculations mean that if the latest Accord Hybrid had been rated the same way...
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Tesla says Autopilot not turned on in Model X crash NHTSA is investigating (update)
With details about a fatal May 7 crash of a Tesla Model S operating on Autopilot continuing to garner news coverage, more crashes with Autopilot engaged appear to be surfacing. Most notably, the NHTSA has said it will investigate a crash on Friday, July 1, in which a Tesla Model X ran off the road...
John Voelcker -
Consumer Reports slams Tesla on Autopilot: 'too much, too soon'
Writers at the respected Consumer Reports were enthusiastic fans of the Tesla Model S electric car they bought and drove for more than a year, using enthusiastic language rarely seen in its sober reviews. But as reliability data accumulated, the magazine also reported that the car appeared to have...
John Voelcker -
2017 Toyota Prius Prime: first drive of new plug-in hybrid
Toyota is the king of electrified powertrains. With more than nine million hybrid vehicles sold worldwide at this point, and well over 5.5 million of those wearing a Prius badge, no other automaker comes close. Yet somehow that expertise and market domination hasn’t resulted in any...
Bengt Halvorson -
Six Tesla Model 3 challenges Elon Musk has to overcome
Tesla Motors says it will start building its Model 3 sedan sometime between July and December next year, and it's targeting production of 100,000 in that period. That's beyond a tall order, and many advocates, analysts, and owners are skeptical that the company can do it. But if you accept the...
John Voelcker -
How to use $2 billion VW diesel fine for electric-car charging: advocate offers advice
The Volkswagen diesel emission scandal erupted last September, when the EPA formally issued a Notice of Violation to one of the world's three largest automakers for willfully violating U.S. emission laws for seven years. Since then, much speculation has appeared over what forms of punishment VW...
Tom Moloughney -
The NHTSA said it would open an investigation into a fatal May 7 crash in which a Tesla Model S running under Autopilot control hit a semi and passed under its trailer. The driver, later identified as 40-year-old Joshua Brown of Ohio, died at the scene of the Florida crash, which occurred after a tractor-trailer rig turned left in front of him. According to Tesla, the incident occurred because "neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the ... trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied." DON'T MISS: Let's be clear: Tesla's Autopilot is not a...
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2016 Tesla Model S vs original: how do they compare in value?
I’ve owned my 2013 Tesla Model S for more than three years, and put 66,000 miles on it now. It still runs great, and it makes me happy every time I drive it. I plan to keep it for at least a few more years. But I can’t help occasionally peeking at the Tesla Motors online Model S...
David Noland -
Can Tesla learn from its past, and make Model 3 easy to build?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has indicated the company will try to streamline its manufacturing process for the Model 3.
Stephen Edelstein -
VW diesel settlement details: buybacks, payments, modifications, fines, more
More than nine months after the Volkswagen diesel cheating scandal came to light, the full details of the proposed final settlement between VW and the EPA were released this morning by Judge Charles Breyer. Owners of the TDI diesel vehicles from Audi and Volkswagen fitted with "defeat device"...
John Voelcker -
The 12 most influential green cars in history
The automobile has been with us since 1885, but only over the last 50 years have governments started to face up to its ill effects on the environment. The world's major car markets have mostly now legislated increasing levels of fuel economy and reduced tailpipe emissions not only of gases directly...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model S can float, for short periods: Musk (video)
It's a grainy, jittery 44-second mobile-phone video, with the Blue Danube Waltz in the background. And it's suddenly relevant because that master of publicity, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, tweeted that the Model S "floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time." It shows a...
John Voelcker -
Next Tuesday was to be the day when owners of almost half a million Volkswagens and Audis learned the final terms VW would offer them to settle hundreds of lawsuits over its diesel-emission cheating software. It won't be. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer gave Volkswagen and the EPA one more week to reach final agreement on the details of their settlement. DON'T MISS: VW settlement with EPA announced over diesel emission scandal (Apr 2016) The new date set by the judge, according to Reuters, is one week later: Tuesday, June 28. The judge did not, however, delay the July 26 date for a final...
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Tesla can look at owners' driving behavior any time; is that legal?
It happens every so often: a driver claims that a car accelerated out of control just before it crashed into something or other. Only in the last 10 years have automakers had data to investigate the claims, usually from a "black box" that captures a car's most recent few seconds of operating...
John Voelcker -
Mercedes-Benz GLC to offer world's first plug-in fuel-cell powertrain
Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles face the challenge of a global fueling infrastructure that doesn't exist and will cost billions to build. Electricity, on the other hand, is pretty much everywhere. Now Mercedes plans to combine the easy recharging of a plug-in electric vehicle with the long-distance...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model S suspensions, NHTSA, NDAs: what you need to know (further update)
A post on a small auto-industry blog that accused startup carmaker Tesla Motors of concealing potentially hazardous suspension breakages blew up into a major media story—and has taken some unexpected twists and turns as it's played out so far. That's par for the course for much of the news...
John Voelcker -
Tesla adds two Model S 60 versions starting at $66K, still 200 miles or more
The Tesla Model S electric car has been offered in several versions over its five model years to date, with faster and longer-range variants getting the most attention. Today the Silicon Valley carmaker announced two new, less expensive versions of the Model S that start at $66,000. Both will offer...
John Voelcker -
2016 Tesla Model X first drive review
When you want to buy a Tesla electric car, and you've got four kids, there's only one choice on the market. That's the 2016 Tesla Model X six- or seven-seat SUV, and courtesy of an owner in just that situation, we've finally been able to spend a few hours driving the luxury crossover. Unlike other...
John Voelcker