Green Car News

  • Solar Panels by Flickr user Chandra Marsono

    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 with SolarCity to install a large battery farm and solar array in Hawaii. DON'T MISS: Hawaii, utility offer $10,000 Nissan Leaf rebate; hope for carbon-free transport That project is now complete, and ready to provide electricity to a Hawaiian utility. Tesla, SolarCity, and partner Kauai Island...

  • Owner Dawn Hall before 800-mile road trip in 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car
    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...

  • Nissan Sway Concept  -  2015 Geneva Motor Show live photos
    Second-gen Nissan Leaf, electric-car questions, fast-charging issues: Today's Car News

    Today, the second-generation Nissan Leaf is slated to debut in September, five electric-car questions to worry about this year, and electric-car fast-charging presents challenges to drivers. All this and more on Green Car Reports. The second-generation Nissan Leaf will make its world debut in...

  • 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder
    How to pay most of a million bucks to use the carpool lane in Florida

    Some people will do anything to avoid a little traffic. Like many other states, Florida offers drivers of greener cars solo access to its high-occupancy vehicle lanes, also known as carpool lanes. That privilege is extended to hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery-electric cars. DON'T MISS: Porsche...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV
    Chevy Bolt EV, Hyundai Ioniq show slow, confusing state of 'fast' charging today

    When you drive into a U.S. gas station to pump gas, every pump works exactly the same way. The only choice to make is which grade of gasoline you want. If you want diesel fuel, of course, you may have to find one of the six out of 10 stations that offer it. DC fast charging for electric cars isn't...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Cruze
    Best deals on hybrid, electric, fuel-efficient cars for March 2017

    Once again, it's time to look at the month's best deals on hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric cars, and fuel-efficient gasoline cars. Deals for March include several new models, as well as a couple of holdovers from the previous model year. Some manufacturers seem to be more aggressive with...

  • 2017 Nissan Leaf

    It seems fair to say that the new presidential administration may have increased the generalized level of worry among many Americans, not to mention the rest of the world. Among the things to worry about are the future of incentives, infrastructure, and legislation encouraging the adoption of zero-emission vehicles, primarily electric cars. These are the five questions we've been mulling over on that front. DON'T MISS: Six new electric cars coming for 2018 and 2019 (1) What does the Trump Administration mean for electric cars? The new administration has already said it intends to kill the...

  • BMW M3 M Performance exhaust
    EPA's internal watchdog to check vulnerability to emission cheating

    Even with a new leader apparently at odds with its mission, the Environmental Protection Agency continues to function on some level. On Thursday, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said carbon dioxide released by human activity is not a major cause of climate change, directly contradicting the...

  • 2017 Tesla Model S
    Another day, another positive electric-car adoption rate forecast

    If only success could be guaranteed by positive predictions. While the fossil-fuel industry is notably skeptical of the long-term prospects of electric cars, a growing number of studies and forecasts predict the adoption rate will grow rapidly in the coming decades. Electric cars still face...

  • Nissan Sway Concept  -  2015 Geneva Motor Show live photos
    Nissan Leaf leases can extend until all-new 2018 electric car late this year: updated

    More Nissan Leaf electric cars were sold in 2014 than in any model year before or since, fully 30,000 of them. That means a whole lot of three-year leases are coming due this year. Now Nissan is offering to extend those leases—and in the process, it's given us a little more information on the...

  • 2017 BMW 740e xDrive
    BMW 740e, X5 xDrive 40e: where do low-range plug-in hybrids fit in?

    More than a year ago, we spent a weekend with a 2016 BMW X5 xDrive 40e luxury plug-in hybrid SUV. Rated at 14 miles of range, it never achieved anything near that number in winter weather. Now our colleague Kirk Bell has driven a 2017 BMW 740e plug-in hybrid luxury sedan that uses the same...

  • 2017 Nissan Juke
    Chevy Bolt EV road trip, 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric, Nissan Juke hybrid: Today's Car News

    Today, a Chevrolet Bolt EV owner takes her electric car on an 800-mile road trip, we drive the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric, and the Nissan Juke is slated to get an e-Power hybrid option. All this and more on Green Car Reports. The 238-mile Chevrolet Bolt EV has generated quite a bit of excitement...

  • 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric - frame from video road test

    For the first six years of electric cars, from 2011 to 2016, we've had a variety of mass-priced cars with ranges of 62 to 107 miles. This year, in 2017, we got the Chevy Bolt EV, at 238 miles. But there's a new competitor as well. This is the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric. DON'T MISS: 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid video drive review It's one of three models in the Ioniq lineup—it also has a plug-in hybrid, and a regular hybrid—and the Ioniq Electric offers a range of 124 miles. That's the highest of any battery-electric car that isn't a Tesla, or a Bolt EV. And the Ioniq Electric may...

  • Lucid Air
    Lucid Air luxury electric car: Bloomberg gets brief ride

    When it comes to luxury electric-car startups, hype is the name of the game. Lucid Motors unveiled its Air luxury sedan in December, promising a range of up to 400 miles, power of 1,000 horsepower, and cutting-edge technology. But very few people outside the company have gotten more than a glimpse...

  • Audi A5 Sportback g-tron (European spec)
    Audi A5 is third model to run on natural gas, for Europe only

    New natural-gas passenger cars from major carmakers have disappeared from the U.S. Natural-gas options are available for large pickup trucks and vans but only exist for cars through aftermarket conversions offered by specialty firms. In Europe, though, the German luxury maker Audi remains committed...

  • Tesla gigafactory, March 2016, shown in drone footage posted to YouTube by Above Reno
    Nevada treasurer, Faraday's nemesis, turns eye toward Tesla tax-credit transfer

    The state of Nevada has been fairly generous to startup electric-car makers that pledge to establish manufacturing operations within its borders. After offering a generous incentive package several years ago, the Silver State landed Tesla's lithium-ion battery "Gigafactory," which is now up and...

  • 2017 Nissan Juke
    Nissan Juke concept to get e-Power series hybrid system as well

    Nissan is a leader in electric cars, but the Japanese automaker has been slow to adopt competitive hybrid technology. In a move that could potentially rectify that situation, Nissan unveiled its new e-Power series-hybrid system in Japan late last year. The system was first demonstrated in a Nissan...

  • Owner Dawn Hall before 800-mile road trip in 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car
    Chevy Bolt EV: 800-mile trip in 238-mile electric car shows challenges remain

    With about twice the range of any non-Tesla electric car, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV has generated a great deal of excitement and won numerous awards over the last year. In combination with a nascent DC fast-charging infrastructure, it offers the possibility of much longer road trips powered solely...

  • Hyundai FE Fuel Cell concept, 2017 Geneva auto show

    The Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell was actually the first hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle offered to U.S. drivers in recent years. The 2016 Toyota Mirai that followed it has now outsold Hyundai's hydrogen-powered SUV, but it's been known for a couple of years that the Korean maker will replace that model. At this week's Geneva auto show, the company unveiled the Hyundai FE Fuel Concept, which gives us a sense of what the next hydrogen vehicle will be like. DON'T MISS: Next Hyundai Fuel Cell SUV to have 30 percent more range Hyundai is sticking with the SUV format, to distinguish its offering from the...

  • 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI
    Bentley electric-car concept, VW diesel health effect, Trump EPA changes: Today's Car News

    Today we have the Bentley EXP 12 Speed 6e electric-car concept and more from the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, a study on the health impact of Volkswagen's diesel cheating, and a remarkable change in the wording of the Environmental Protection Agency's mission statement. All this and more on Green Car...

  • Bill Nye in new 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, Jan 2017 [photo: Oskar Liners, Community Chevrolet, Burbank]
    Trump's EPA deletes 'science' from Science Office mission statement

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is emerging as one of the government entities most targeted by the new Trump Administration for change. In this case, if reports of the administration's draft budget proposal are accurate, change means wholesale elimination of staff, funding, and programs...

  • Bentley EXP 12 Speed 6e concept, 2017 Geneva auto show
    All-electric Bentley convertible concept shown at Geneva

    The Volkswagen Group can't seem to get enough luxury electric cars. The Audi e-tron SUV and Porsche Mission E sedan will go into production over the next few years, with an electric version of the VW Phaeton sedan expected as well. Following that up, at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show Volkswagen...

  • 2016 Honda CR-Z Final Label (Japanese spec)
    Honda: hybrids, plug-ins, fuel cells to be two-thirds of Europe sales by 2025

    Honda's green-car strategy for the next decade or so appears to be coming into greater focus. In place of its previous mild hybrids, the Japanese automaker is planning to produce much higher volumes of its two-motor hybrid powertrain, as seen first in the Accord Hybrid mid-size sedan. It also...

  • Renault Zoe e-Sport Concept being revealed at 2017 Geneva auto show  [photo: Olivier Martin-Gambier]
    Renault Zoe e-Sport Concept at Geneva highlights electric-car performance (live photos)

    The Renault Zoe, a subcompact hatchback, has little in common with the Tesla Model S besides a battery-electric powertrain and five doors. But the maker of Europe's best-selling electric car seeks to underscore the idea that "electric cars can be fun and fast," perhaps hoping that some of Tesla's...

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