Green Car News
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Volkswagen has submitted a plan for electric-charging infrastructure to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. VW's "Electrify America" plan shows how the automaker would spend funds it is required to commit to zero-emission vehicle infrastructure under the terms of a settlement for its diesel-emissions cheating. This provision of the diesel settlement has attracted criticism from both right-wing politicians and electric-car advocates, who have said the project will dampen competition. DON'T MISS: VW pleads guilty to felonies in diesel emission...
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Lucid Air priced slightly below Tesla Model S at $60,000
The Lucid Air electric car will be available in a base model with less power and a lower range than the high-end model unveiled last year, but at a much lower price. A Lucid Motors press release confirmed the Air base model will start at $52,500, after the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric...
Stephen Edelstein -
Chevy Bolt EV tested by Tesla Model S owner: his assessment
Fleeing my home in New York’s Hudson Valley for California during February and March has a number of charms. Currently at the top of the list: reading about Winter Storm Stella while watching the surfers at Rincon Beach. For electric-car nuts like me, however, there’s another California...
David Noland -
Tesla battery bet, next Audi electric car, governors support renewable energy: Today's Car News
Today, Tesla offers South Australia battery energy storage within 100 days of signing a contract, Audi will follow the e-tron SUV with a smaller electric car, and a bipartisan group of governors urges President Donald Trump to support wind and solar energy. All this and more on Green Car Reports...
Stephen Edelstein -
More details emerge on low-cost electric car from Renault-Nissan for 2020
The Renault-Nissan Alliance's plans for future electric cars are beginning to come into focus. The two automakers have dominated global battery-electric car sales with the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe, as well as lower-volume models like the Nissan e-NV200 and Renault Kangoo ZE electric vans. But...
Stephen Edelstein -
After Audi e-tron, next electric car to be compact BMW i3 competitor
Next year, the Audi e-tron luxury electric crossover is expected to arrive at U.S. dealers, bringing Audi into direct competition with the Tesla Model X roughly three years after the world's first all-electric utility vehicle went into production. But with a pledge to sell 25 percent of its cars...
John Voelcker -
Automakers may gradually be putting more emphasis on plug-in electric cars and conventional hybrids, but they are far from done with plain old internal combustion. Over the past few years, automakers have applied more technology to a wider array of cars in order to boost their efficiency to meet stricter fuel-economy standards. The most popular manifestation of this is downsized turbocharged engines, which aim to produce similar power to larger naturally-aspirated engines with the better fuel economy of their lower displacement. DON'T MISS: VW suggests engine downsizing is done; emissions...
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Tesla offers South Australia battery storage within 100 days
If only we could all be as optimistic, and energetic, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Even as Tesla gears up for mass production of the Model 3 electric car and a hoped-for annual production rate of 500,000 total cars by next year, Musk has found time to place a high-profile bet on the renewable energy...
Stephen Edelstein -
Bipartisan governors' group urges Trump to back solar, wind power
The new presidential administration seems poised to take a radically different approach to energy policy than its predecessor. That approach is founded on denial of accepted climate science, and an expressed desire to promote the fossil-fuel industry, including the so-called revival of coal. But...
Stephen Edelstein -
Which luxury brand will do best in electric cars? Poll results
Within the next two years we will see new all-electric luxury cars from Audi, BMW, Jaguar, and Mercedes-Benz appear in actual showrooms. All four of those makes have shown concepts for their pricey, 200-mile-plus electric cars, and most of them are expected to go on sale in the second half of next...
John Voelcker -
EPA emission-rule review, Volvo electric car, Nio Eve concept: Today's Car News
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to reopen the comment period for emissions rules, Volvo plans to launch a long-range electric car by 2019, and the Nio Eve concept previews an electric SUV from a Chinese startup. All this and more on Green Car Reports. The Nissan e-NV200 was...
Stephen Edelstein -
Nio Eve concept is yet another Chinese luxury electric SUV, this one autonomous
Chinese startup NextEV is the latest company attempting to replicate the success of Tesla with a long-range electric car. NextEV launched its Nio brand last year in dramatic fashion with the EP9—a 1,360-horsepower electric supercar. At the time, the company noted it was developing a model...
Stephen Edelstein -
Tomorrow is expected to be the day when President Donald Trump announces the EPA will reopen the comment period for the vehicle emissions standards it finalized in the waning days of the Obama Administration. The event will likely be accompanied by predictable language: Trump will be “highlighting the need to eliminate burdensome regulations that needlessly hinder meaningful job growth," in the words of beleaguered White House press secretary Sean Spicer. But assuming that's the substance of the announcement—and Trump doesn't, say, announce that all emission limits will be...
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Volvo plans a long-range electric car for 2019, details to come (updated)
The electric car that Volvo has long planned for 2019 could join a growing group of long-range, mass-market models like the Chevrolet Bolt EV, the upcoming Tesla Model 3, and the second-generation Nissan Leaf. The Swedish automaker has concentrated on plug-in hybrids for the most part thus far, but...
Stephen Edelstein -
Half of Norway's new-car sales are now hybrids or electrics
Norway has achieved yet another milestone in electric-car sales. The Scandinavian country may be the friendliest for electric cars in the world, thanks to a combination of aggressive incentives, well-developed charging infrastructure, and a citizenry committed to lowering carbon emissions. Thanks...
Stephen Edelstein -
Nissan e-NV200 beats Renault Kangoo ZE in electric van sales in Europe
The Renault-Nissan Alliance continues to lead all other automakers globally in sales of battery-electric cars. The Nissan Leaf is the best-selling electric car in history, while the Renault Zoe now leads the European market for cars with plugs. But Renault-Nissan's electric-vehicle dominance isn't...
Stephen Edelstein -
VW pleads guilty, fuel-efficient car bargains, cancelling a Chevy Bolt EV order: Today's Car News
Today, Volkswagen pleads guilty to felonies in the ongoing diesel-emissions scandal, automakers are expected to increase incentives on fuel-efficient sedans and hatchbacks as sales lag, and why one Green Car Reports reader cancelled a Chevrolet Bolt EV electric-car order. All this and more on Green...
Stephen Edelstein -
Sales of BMW plug-in cars more than double over last year
BMW is off to a strong start in meeting its ambitious plug-in car sales goals for 2017. In the first two months of 2017, it doubled combined sales of electric cars and plug-in hybrids over the same period in 2016. But the automaker will need to keep that momentum up. DON'T MISS: BMW 740e, X5 xDrive...
Stephen Edelstein -
Automakers are expected to offer greater incentives on sedans and hatchbacks as sales of these models continue to slow. Overall new-car sales fell 1.1 percent in February compared to the same month a year ago, according to Autodata Corp. But sales of passenger cars were hit particularly hard as consumers continued to flock to SUV and pickup trucks. DON'T MISS: Best deals on hybrid, electric, fuel-efficient cars for March 2017 Slow car demand is leading automakers to add incentives for what are fairly high inventories of unsold vehicles, reports The Detroit News. Passenger cars accounted for...
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Does Range Rover Velar preview Jaguar I-Pace electric-car dash?
Carmakers often use the same components across vehicles from multiple brands. It's a way to keep costs down by not having to engineer or procure completely different parts for each model. So could some new components in a new vehicle offer a peek at a future model well before it goes into...
Stephen Edelstein -
VW pleads guilty to felonies in diesel emission scandal
On Friday, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to three criminal charges related to its use of illegal "defeat device" software in diesel cars to cheat on emissions tests. Entry of the plea is the latest step toward resolving the criminal aspect of Volkswagen's diesel scandal in the U.S. A settlement between...
Stephen Edelstein -
Why I canceled my Chevy Bolt EV electric-car order: a reader explains
The advent of affordable 200-mile electric cars promises to increase public acceptance of cars with plugs—or at least that's the hope of both carmakers and advocates. The first of those, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, is now entering the market, state by state, to great acclaim. But not every...
John Voelcker -
Tesla's battery farm on Kauai opens, large-scale solar energy for Hawaii
Even before Elon Musk engineered Tesla's acquisition of SolarCity, the two companies were collaborating. SolarCity was already controlled by Musk, who believes its solar-energy business can be reinforced and complemented by Tesla's energy-storage business. Last year, Tesla announced a joint project...
Stephen Edelstein -
2018 Nissan Leaf, Ioniq drive videos, Bolt EV road trip, EPA turmoil: The Week in Reverse
What date did we finally get for the unveiling of a very popular electric car's next generation? Why are we increasingly nervous about the fate of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under its climate-science-denying head? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green...
John Voelcker