Featured (was)

  • Rendering of Tesla battery gigafactory outside Reno, Nevada, Sep 2014

    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...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV
    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...

  • 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid, Napa Valley, California, Jul 2016
    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...

  • 2016 Tesla Model S
    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.

  • 2015 Volkswagen Golf SportWagen
    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...

  • 2015 Nissan Leaf at start of 1,000-mile road trip [photo: John Briggs]
    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...

  • 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid, Napa Valley, California, Jul 2016

    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...

  • 2016 Tesla Model S
    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...

  • 2016 Tesla Model S
    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...

  • 2017 Toyota Prius Prime, 2016 New York Auto Show
    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...

  • Tesla Model 3 Driving on a Public Road
    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...

  • 2014 BMW i3 REx fast-charging at Chargepoint site, June 2016  [photo: Tom Moloughney]
    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...

  • Tesla Model S Autopilot engaged during cross-country record attempt

    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...

  • 2016 Tesla Model S
    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...

  • Tesla Model S undergoing assembly
    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.

  • 2012 Volkswagen Passat TDI Six-Month Road Test
    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"...

  • 2001 Toyota Prius Sedan
    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...

  • Tesla Model S 'swimming' through flooded underpass, June 2016  [YouTube video by Sanzhar Altayev]
    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...

  • Consumer Reports tests 2015 Volkswagen Jetta TDI diesel in 'cheat mode,' October 2015 [video frame]

    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...

  • 2016 Tesla Model X P90D after crash while owner was parking  [photo: owner 'Puzant']
    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...

  • Mercedes-Benz GLC F-Cell prototype
    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...

  • 2013 Tesla Model S owned by David Noland, Catskill Mountains, NY, Oct 2015
    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...

  • 2016 Tesla Model S
    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...

  • 2016 Tesla Model X
    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...

News First Drives Electric Cars Hybrids Guides Green Life