What did we think of the new 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid, with its 58-mpg combined gas-mileage rating?

When will the Tesla Model 3 be rolling off the production lines in high volumes?

This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, February 24, 2017.

Friday, we previewed the 2018 BMW i3 electric car, which will get some (very) minor styling tweaks, as shown in spy photos.

But we also covered the rumors about a further battery-capacity upgrade (which may come for 2019 instead) that will result from higher-capacity cells.

On Thursday, we wrote that Tesla Model 3 production was confirmed by the company to start in the second half of this year.

Tesla Model 3 design prototype - reveal event - March 2016

Tesla Model 3 design prototype - reveal event - March 2016

The Silicon Valley carmaker says its mass-priced, 215-mile electric sedan will be rolling off the lines at a rate of 5,000 a week by the end of the year.

If that happens—the jury remains out—similarly speedy growth in electric-car production and sales will pose big challenges to competing legacy automakers.

Wednesday, we published a one-year update by our faithful reader John Briggs on living with his 2015 Nissan Leaf electric car.

We also speculated that the 2019 Cadillac XT3 small crossover utility might be the brand's next plug-in hybrid model after the CT6 large luxury sedan.

On Tuesday, we published our first drive review of the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid, a new dedicated hybrid with one version rated at 58 mpg combined.

2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid

2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid

We'll have more reports to come in future weeks on the Ioniq Electric, the 124-mile battery-electric version, and the plug-in hybrid that'll arrive at the end of 2017.

Monday was the Presidents' Day holiday in the U.S. We kicked off the week noting that Tesla received patents on metal-air battery charging for electric cars.

Over the weekend, we noted that U.S. household energy costs are at a 50-year low, due to both cheap energy and improvements in efficiency and insulation.

Remarkably, we had no news at all this week on the Volkswagen diesel emission scandal—a first in quite a while for us.

And, finally, the automakers' lobbying group asked for a third time that EPA emission rules be reset.

This time they addressed the request to newly confirmed EPA chief Scott Pruitt, the climate-science denier who sued the agency he now runs 14 times.

Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt, 2014

Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt, 2014

Their previous requests had used a discredited projection of job losses, initially propagated by Ford CEO Mark Fields after it was issued last summer.

These are definitely interesting times we live in, folks.

Those were our main stories this week; we'll see you again next week. Until then, this has been the Green Car Reports Week in Reverse update.

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