Cruze Diesel driven, Model 3 mania, emission rules revisited, electric-car lessons: The Week in Reverse

What lessons have visitors, car shoppers, and advocates taught an EV showroom about how people really view electric cars?

Which settled emissions regulations were reopened by the Trump Administration this week—and how do auto-industry lobbyists want them changed?

This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, August 11, 2017.

Friday, we covered a collective effort by several carmakers in Europe to launch trade-in incentives to get their dirtiest diesels off the road (and sell new cars while doing it).

Panasonic says making cells for the Tesla Model 3 will be profitable before the end of this year.

2017 Tesla Model 3 and 2011 Nissan Leaf, Half Moon Bay, California, Aug 2017 [photo: Scott Forrest]

Meanwhile, Michigan has no love for the Tesla Model 3: like any other electric car from the Silicon Valley automaker, it can't legally be delivered to a buyer within the state housing the domestic auto industry.

On Thursday, the EPA reopened its finalized emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, we reported on how an automaker lobbyist group says it wants those regulations altered.

The Chevrolet Cruze Diesel compact sedan may be EPA-rated at 37 mpg combined, but it faces headwinds; we've driven both the automatic and the manual, and reported on what we found.

Online signups for new electric vehicles from startup carmakers appear to be a thing: tiny Bollinger got 6,000 hand-raisers for its all-electric B1 utility truck.

Wednesday, we offered our usual monthly list of great deals on hybrids, electric cars, and fuel-efficient vehicles.

Chrome exhaust pipe

Freezing or rolling back CAFE rules for 2022 through 2025 would benefit one very specific kind of vehicle far more than any other. Can you guess what it is?

Scientists gave a comprehensive report on climate change to the media because they were afraid it would be buried by the Trump administration, and its conclusions are grim.

On Tuesday, we wrote about Mazda's upcoming SkyActiv-X engine: it features HCCI, which boosts fuel economy up to 30 percent by letting a gasoline engine behave like a more efficient diesel.

We also took a deep dive into the lessons learned at an electric-vehicle showroom that offers education and test drives of multiple cars, along with charging stations, for car shoppers.

And one major global auto-parts supplier had a startling prediction: German carmakers will end refinements to internal-combustion engines by 2025. Wow.

2017 Toyota Prius Prime and 2017 Chevrolet Volt with Green Car Reports editor John Voelcker

We kicked off the week on Monday with a request from contributor John Briggs for some advice: should he buy a Toyota Prius Prime, Chevy Bolt EV, or Chevrolet Volt?

(We're now at 500 comments, and they're still coming in.)

An alert fan snapped the photo that gave us the missing EPA efficiency rating for the Tesla Model 3 electric car.

Hawaii will become the second state in the U.S. to offer Toyota Mirai leases, once a hydrogen fueling station on Maui opens; it's now under construction.

Over the weekend, one reviewer called the Chevy Bolt EV user interface "the best of any electric car" on the market.