Green Car News
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London's famous retro-style black taxis are as much a part of the landscape as Buckingham Palace or the Houses of Parliament, but so too is the pollution they create. The diesel engines used over several generations of taxi have been picked for their durability--racking up many hundreds of thousands of miles--rather than their cleanliness, and along with other outdated diesels have contributed to much of London's inner-city pollution. A greener solution is looking ever more important, which is where the range-extended electric Ecotive Metrocab comes in. MUST READ: U.S. Drivers Ready For...
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2015 BMW i8 Plug-In Hybrid Sports Coupe: Guided Video Tour
Launching early next year, the 2015 BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports coupe is the second stage in BMW's i-car program, dedicated to vehicles with electric drivetrains. While it isn't a full battery-electric vehicle (or range-extended EV) like the i3 city car, electric power is still an important part...
Antony Ingram -
Chinese Teslas, BMW's Lasers And Electric Vipers: Today's Car News
Today on Green Car Reports: Copyright struggles mean Tesla is selling under a pseudonym in China, BMW gives us a look at its laser headlights, and one company wonders whether electric cars have reached a tipping point. All this and more on Green Car Reports With another company owning the Tesla...
Antony Ingram -
Lighting A Christmas Tree The Modern Way: With An Electric Car
Should you be one of those people among our readers who celebrates the Christmas holiday, you might be interested in having a greener Christmas. Did you know, for example, that it's greener to have a real Christmas tree than a plastic one, unless you keep the plastic tree many years? The real ones...
Antony Ingram -
All-Electric SRT Viper: Battery-Powered Supercar On Sale Now
With hybrid supercars starting to appear at last--the Ferrari LaFerrari and McLaren P1 among them--many electric-car fans wonder when we'll see another battery-electric supercar to follow the Tesla Roadster. One already exists, it turns out--and we didn't even notice. You can literally put a...
Joel Feder -
Have Electric Cars Already Reached The Tipping Point? ABB Says Yes
With wider choice and better cars, electric car ownership seems to get more appealing by the month. But as yet, predicting the future of the electric car industry has still been largely guesswork--nobody quite knows how much batteries will come down in price, how many electric cars automakers will...
Antony Ingram -
BMW's plug-in hybrid i8 sports car is set to be one of the most exciting cars of 2014, but it'll also be one of the most technologically advanced. As well as the use of a new 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine, its part-electric drivetrain and unique styling, it'll also be the world's first production car to use laser headlights. Headlights are so much a part of automobiles that it's easy to forget they exist. But along with safety technology and in-car infotainment, they've come a huge distance in the past decade, far more so than they have over the previous century. Automakers are...
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Buying A Tesla In China: Just Call It 'Te Su Le'?
Tesla Motors is selling cars in China without a Chinese name.
Stephen Edelstein -
Future Ford F-150 MPG, Electric Motorcycle Guide, 5-Cent Gasoline: Today's Car News
Today on Green Car Reports: We look at what could raise fuel efficiency in the next Ford F-150 pickup truck, we run down electric motorcycle options this year, and cheer the passing of Venezuela's soon-to-vanish gas price: 5 cents per gallon. All this and more on Green Car Reports. After an...
John Voelcker -
2015 Ford F-150 Gas Mileage: What We Know So Far
The Ford F-150 full-size pickup is the best-selling single nameplate in the U.S. market, so any changes to Ford's premier truck mean a lot. Buyers, dealers, and the whole industry are paying close attention to information about the next generation 2015 Ford F-150, the first all-new design of Ford's...
John Voelcker -
2014 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid: Plug-In To Replace Hybrid
Contrary to published reports, no plug-in Porsches were sold in the U.S. last month. Whether the first one is handed over late this month or early next month--we'll know by Friday, January 3--the company is taking an unusual step with its 2014 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid. The German prestige maker...
John Voelcker -
Could Venezuela Gas-Price Rise From 5 Cents Sell Greener Cars?
If you have friends in Europe, you might have heard them complaining of gas prices topping $8 per gallon. It's certainly enough to make you feel better about the average $3.60 a gallon drivers pay in the U.S. Until you see what our counterparts in Venezuela are paying for gas--with the nation's...
Antony Ingram -
Recently, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has had to deal with the latest in a line of high-profile fire events involving one of its cars. While the original events were triggered as the result of accidents though, the latest was a garage fire, the cause of which is still unconfirmed. Tesla, quick to dismiss any probability the car itself caused the fire, has already released a software update for the car to deal with its suspected cause for the fire--faulty wiring in the garage's electrical supply. Revealed by Apple employee and Model S owner @ddenboer on Twitter, the update is an "automatic charge...
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U.S. Drivers Ready For Electric Cars, Even If They Don't Know It Yet
When Chevrolet was engineering the Volt range-extended electric car, it gave the car a battery just big enough for 40-50 miles of electric range. GM did this because it reasoned that this electric range would be most effective for most drivers--covering the average commute on electricity alone...
Antony Ingram -
Mahindra Reva e2o: Living With India's Most Modern Electric Car
In just three years or so, the number of plug-in cars on U.S. roads has gone from just a few thousand to over 160,000 units, with over a dozen different models available to consumers. In India though, electric car sales are much smaller--despite a population of over 1.2 billion. And just one single...
Antony Ingram -
2015 Honda Fit, Envia Collapse, Real-Life Slot Cars: Today's Car News
Click the links for stories on Honda, Envia, and Tesla.
Stephen Edelstein -
Electric-Car Maker Tesla Is The Highest-Trending Car Brand On Google
For any new company, creating recognition of its product and its branding is one of the most difficult things to achieve. If internet search terms are to be believed--and as a mark of how much people are trying to find out about something, they're pretty important--Tesla Motors has certainly...
Antony Ingram -
Ad Turns Electric Car Into Slot Car, With The Help Of CGI
Two Renault Zoe "slot cars" race through London in a new ad.
Stephen Edelstein -
The race to find battery technologies of the future is not one without casualties. The trail left behind Envia, one of the most promising battery startups in recent years, has left something more akin to a warzone--and even huge companies like General Motors have taken shrapnel during their contribution. Now, Steve LeVine at Quartz has pieced together Envia's full story for a comprehensive and well-researched look into just what went wrong at Envia--and why it's the subject of lawsuits from rivals and bemusement from GM executives. Promising beginnings Envia is the brainchild of Sujeet Kumar...
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2015 Honda Fit To Make 2014 Detroit Auto Show Debut
The Honda Fit has always been a little different from other small cars. A little more zing, a dash more space inside and a much smarter interior layout than most. The new 2015 model looks set to continue those trends, but we'll know for sure from January as that's when the car will make its U.S...
Antony Ingram -
Life With Tesla Model S: Battery Upgrade From 60 kWh To 85 kWh
A recent 1,200-mile East Coast road trip in my 2013 Tesla Model S electric car proved to be something of a turning point in my view of the car. Fitted with the smaller 60-kilowatt-hour battery pack, my car's EPA range of 208 miles was not quite enough to make it between Superchargers--Tesla's...
David Noland -
Tesla Fire Dispute, Magnesium Cars, VW Tiguan TDI Driven: Today's Car News
Tesla Motors, Subaru, and Mazda make headlines today.
Stephen Edelstein -
Gasoline Cars To Remain Dominant In 2040, Energy Agency Says
Cars running on gasoline have been with us for almost 140 years, and diesels for almost 80 years. More than 1 billion vehicles on the planet use those fuels today. So the view that liquid hydrocarbon fuels are on their way out requires taking a rather long view. Now we have one estimate of a...
John Voelcker -
Will There Be Another Electric Mini E Within A Few Years?
Back in 2009, the MINI E electric car was BMW's very first attempt at building a battery-electric vehicle. The fleet of several hundred electric MINIs was leased out to volunteer test drivers in the U.S., Europe, China, and the U.K. to let the company gather data on how drivers used plug-in cars in...
John Voelcker