Green Car News

  • Can-Am Defender side-by-side off-roader

    One way to get more buyers interested in electric cars is to introduce electric power to other machines whose function is less critical, and where consumers can get used to the idea of driving electrically. That could be the outcome of a deal in which Bombardier Recreational Products has purchased selected assets from Alta Motors (nee: Faster Faster). Alta Motors built highly regarded motocross bikes until October, when a planned deal with Harley-Davidson fell apart. (Harley introduced its own electric motorcycle, the Livewire, in November, and says it will go on sale in August.) DON'T MISS...

  • Volkswagen turbodiesels await their fate near Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado Springs
    VW sold twice as many diesels in 2018 as in 2017

    Volkswagen is scrambling to convert its business to building electric cars from building internal combustion cars to building electrics. But globally it hasn't put diesels behind it. According to a report by VW itself, global orders for its diesel vehicles rose from 39 percent of its products in...

  • 2019 Tesla Model 3 and 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus
    Tesla Model 3 Standard Range vs. Nissan Leaf Plus: What you get for your money

    Until recently, there have been electric cars, and then there have been Teslas. Quite a few automakers were scrambling to build electric cars to meet increasing demand from California and other states, to earn ZEV credits, and to give their Corporate Average Fuel Economy numbers a booster shot...

  • Teaser for Porsche Taycan debuting in September 2019
    Amazon charges Kias, Chevy Bolt mountain range, UN climate report: Today's Car News

    A second automaker has signed on to Amazon's Home Services charger installation program. We took a Chevrolet Bolt EV to the top of the Continental Divide to see how its range fares in mountain driving. A new UN climate report calls for optimism in tackling climate change. And our latest Twitter...

  • Tesla Model Y
    Which electric SUV would you buy? Take our Twitter poll

    The Tesla Model Y will be the first model from the company to launch into a sea of electric competitors. Mainstream automakers, from Audi, BMW and Jaguar to Hyundai and Kia have announced new electric SUVs that are either already on the market or will be in the next few months. The Model Y is not...

  • Smokestacks [CREDIT: Global Climate Budget 2018]
    UN global climate report restores hope, lays out roadmap

    A new UN report on global climate change isn't quite as dire as one it issued last October. That special report on warming of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) showed that the effects of climate change could become catastrophic by 2040, at least 10 years earlier than scientists had...

  • 2019 Kia Niro EV

    Those just transitioning to an electric car, like the 2019 Kia Niro EV, face some potentially daunting decisions well beyond the vehicle itself—not just how they’re going to charge up the vehicle in their own garage or driveway, but how they’re going to charge it quickly enough. The 2019 Niro EV starts arriving to dealerships next month while the 2020 Soul EV is expected a couple of months later. Both of these models will offer a big 64-kwh pack that Kia says in the Niro EV can charge to full in about 9.5 hours—if you use a Level 2 charger like you might find at a...

  • 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV on I-70 in Colorado
    Mountain hardware: Testing the 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV on a high-country day trip

    Colorado, which is taking steps to adopt California’s EV mandate, has always had a different wildcard factor affecting road trips: altitude. The state has the highest portions of the Interstate highway system, including routes spanning past 11,000 feet and varying several thousand feet. Even...

  • Tesla Model Y
    2020 Tesla Model Y: Latest price, range, specs for new crossover SUV

    The 2020 Tesla Model Y borrows some of the same underpinnings of the Model 3 sedan, and marries it to what so many American families today want: a crossover utility vehicle shape. As such, the Model Y has the potential to amount to an even greater sales success than the Model 3. The California...

  • Tesla pickup truck teased by Elon Musk on Twitter
    2020 Tesla Model Y competitors, no more Mid Range Model 3, new Fisker SUV: Today's Car News

    Today, we run down all the current and near-term competitors to the upcoming Tesla Model Y, and look at everything we know about the car to this point. In the meantime, Tesla dropped the Mid Range Model 3 this weekend. And one-time Tesla rival Fisker revealed that it will launch its new lineup with...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3
    Tesla Model 3 Mid Range disappears from automaker's lineup

    The Tesla Model 3 Mid Range didn't last long. Tesla quietly dropped the middle trim level over the weekend, which had offered buyers 264 miles of range. The company introduced the car last November in lieu of the entry-level Standard Range car—although Tesla opened that most affordable Model...

  • 2019 Jaguar I-Pace, photographed outside Tesla Store, Mount Kisco, NY
    Electric crossover charge: These are the rivals to the Tesla Model Y

    As Tesla finds its sea legs as a larger-scale global automaker, the launch of the Model Y small crossover is its most critical test since the California company started in 2003. No other Tesla has faced this much competition. No other Tesla has faced much of any. When Tesla first delivered the...

  • Teaser for Fisker Ocean electric SUV

    A decade ago, Fisker and Tesla were two electric-vehicle hopefuls, and it was looking like Fisker might have the better chances of success. While history certainly didn’t play out that way, it’s an odd twist that Henrik Fisker’s new venture, Fisker Inc., has dropped a teaser for its first product—a fully electric SUV—into the afterglow of last week’s Tesla Model Y electric SUV introduction. In an announcement of the yet-unnamed vehicle released this morning, Fisker notes that in the new model, “emotion-stirring design is combined with a...

  • Aston Martin Rapide E prototype from video posted by Andy Palmer
    Will Aston Martin RapideE be James Bond's new electric ride?

    To chase down criminals in a new carbon-constrained era, Agent 007 will need a new kind of Q Ship. But he won't stray far from the royal stable. Introducing the latest, kinder, gentler, reportedly less misogynistic Bond: James Bond, and his new all-electric Aston Martin RapideE, which will appear...

  • Tesla Model Y
    2020 Tesla Model Y, Mazda rotary, wider VW electric plans: The Week in Reverse

    Which two companies announced expanded lines of plug-in hybrids this week? What big decision did Tesla take back? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending March 15, 2019. The big news this week was Tesla's unveiling of its...

  • Tesla Model Y  -  introduction, Hawthorne CA, March 2019
    2020 Tesla Model Y reveal, more VW diesel charges, Audi reuses batteries: Today's Car News

    The 2020 Tesla Model Y officially broke cover Thursday night in LA. The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed new charges against Volkswagen, related to its diesels. And Audi has found a unique way to reuse battery packs from its upcoming e-tron SUV lineup. All this and more on Green Car...

  • Volkswagen TDI diesel vehicles owned by Phil Grate and family, Seattle, Washington
    Dieselgate continued: SEC charges VW and its ex-boss with fraud

    Amazingly, the diesel emissions case against Volkswagen in the U.S. is still gaining steam. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged VW and its former CEO Martin Winterkorn on Thursday with defrauding investors, according to wire-service reports. READ MORE: Gauging VW's progress on second...

  • Audi factory tug uses recycled e-tron batteries
    Audi plans to put old EV batteries to work in factory tugs

    Factory tugs in Audi's Ingolstadt factory now sport the latest in second-hand lithium-ion batteries. With automakers on the hook in jurisdictions around the world to take back and properly reuse or recycle all the batteries they install in electric cars, various automakers are experimenting with...

  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk introducing Model Y

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk prefaced his introduction of the company’s more affordable upcoming electric SUV, the Model Y, Thursday night, by noting how hard achieving at-scale mass production of Model X has been—and what a difficult year 2018 had been for him and Tesla. “It was pretty tight; it was a hard one,” said Musk. “2018 probably felt like aging five years in one, honestly it was really intense,” said Musk, thanking the supporters in attendance. DON'T MISS: 2020 Tesla Model Y first details: 300-mile electric SUV, starting around $48k It wouldn’t be...

  • Tesla Model Y
    2020 Tesla Model Y first details: 300-mile electric SUV, starting around $48k

    Tesla’s Thursday night reveal event for the 2020 Tesla Model Y electric crossover SUV, just as previous events from the automaker, was raucous and packed with enthusiastic fans, including many who appeared to relish everything uttered by CEO Elon Musk. What made this event a bit of a...

  • Teaser for Tesla Model Y electric SUV due for reveal in 2019
    Mazda rotary hybrids, plug-in hybrid Ford F-250, EPA ethanol push: Today's Report

    The EPA releases a proposal to increase ethanol blends, even in the summer when it can increase smog. Mazda may have more plans for its rotary engine technology than a single new hybrid. Conversion company XL Hybrids releases its new Heavy Duty Ford F-250 Hybrid pickup. And we run down the best...

  • 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV
    Best deals on electric, plug-in, and hybrid cars for March 2019

    As more and more long-range electric cars such as the Audi e-tron quattro, the long-range Nissan Leaf Plus, and the Kia Niro and Soul EVs make their way onto the market, some are starting to offer great deals. Every month, our partners at CarsDirect.com sift through all the deals offered that month...

  • Mazda RX-Vision Fast and Furious livery
    Mazda range-extended electric car may help the rotary live on

    The Wankel rotary, the peculiar pistonless internal combustion engine design that Mazda built so much of its heritage around, may see a resurgence after all. Earlier reports and remarks from Mazda executives have suggested that while the rotary will make a comeback, it will be relegated to...

  • XL Hybrids Ford F-250 plug-in
    Forget the F-150, XL offers a plug-in F-250 to do real work

    As both established and startup automakers rush to build electric pickups, many seem to have forgotten a fundamental principle of pickup design: Trucks were meant to work. Ford has announced it is developing a plug-in hybrid F150, and Ford, GMC, Tesla, and startup automaker Rivian are all working...

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