assembly

So we've finally had the chance to spend time with a 2018 Tesla Model 3, courtesy of a generous and devoted Green Car Reports reader. We'll have our first-drive report and a full review of the car within a day or two—but that's not what this article is about. The build quality of the early...

Only two automakers have built and sold more than 300,000 battery-electric cars to date. One is from Japan, the other from Silicon Valley. And each can claim a specific distinction within those totals. DON'T MISS: 300,000th Nissan Leaf sold as new electric car deliveries start We know that the...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has aspirations of vertically integrating his companies as much as possible, trying to avoid traditional suppliers wherever he can. While Tesla has been successful in developing things like their electric motors in-house, the company still relies on others for many of the...

Today, battery-electric cars are built in volume at only three locations across the entire United States. Tesla builds its three different electric models in Fremont, California; the new 2018 Nissan Leaf has just gone into production in Smyrna, Tennessee; and the Chevrolet Bolt EV is built at the...

Relatively few auto-company CEOs would publicly mention sleeping on the roof of one of their factory buildings. But Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not like most other chief executives of auto companies. Most also don't break news via tweet, for instance. A tweet by Musk Thursday evening referred to the...

It takes people to make cars: to lift and install parts, check quality, test-drive them after assembly, and so forth. Automation has eliminated many of the jobs performed by humans a century ago on the Ford Model T line, and made the rest much less physically punishing for line workers. But...

As with any auto manufacturer, the vehicle production rate at Tesla Motors is intensely scrutinized by shareholders, fans, financial analysts, and competitors. Almost two years ago, CEO Elon Musk had said that the electric-car maker expected to be operating at a "run rate" of 100,000 cars a year by...

There are just nine days to go before the much-hyped Tesla Model 3 is unveiled to the world. But it appears that the makers of a different affordable 200-mile electric car wanted to point out that their car will actually precede the Model 3 into production by at least a year. Chevy said today that...

Tesla completes a retooling of its Fremont, California, factory.

The environmental impact of plug-in electric cars is a source for much debate these days. They use less energy on a wells-to-wheels carbon basis than the vast majority of new cars sold in North America, even if they're recharged on coal-heavy electric grids. But the manufacturing impact is...

Dry announcements about temporary auto-plant shutdowns can sometimes offer hints to possible bargains on new cars. In this case, Ford said it will close the plant that makes the Ford C-Max Hybrid (and Energi plug-in hybrid) and the Ford Focus compact sedan and hatchback for two separate weeks in...

The next-generation Toyota Prius hybrid may retain the same shape as its predecessors, but it's likely to be different in several important ways. With spy shots of 2016 Prius prototypes now emerging, it's time to follow up on a piece we did six months ago. So, let's look at all the confirmed facts...

Forgive the cynicism, but color us not all that surprised at the news that startup automaker Detroit Electric is postponing production of its SP:01 electric sports car by "at least a month." Launched in a flurry of media attention in early April, the plug-in electric SP:01 sports coupe is...

You might call it pure propaganda, but confident young BMW worker Mirco Schwarze describes the process of assembling the BMW ActiveE electric car in a way that makes it all quite palatable. The short video below, barely longer than a minute, shows the BMW 1-Series assembly line at the carmaker's...

We don’t hear “death of Detroit” stories as often now as we did a year ago. When GM and Chrysler plunged into bankruptcy and the entire U.S. industry laid off tens of thousands of workers in one year, the effects on an already battered Detroit region were dire. And they led to a...

It all started when General Motors CEO Dan Akerson said the company wanted to "double" production of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, its range-extended electric car. Various media outlets reported the news with varying degrees of accuracy. So far, GM has not officially said it will make more Volts...

During the Detroit Auto Show in January, we visited the Think electric-car assembly plant in Elkhart, Indiana. It's not necessarily a place you'd expect to find electric cars being put together, but the rows of electric two-seat hatchbacks in blue, red, and black turned out to be surprisingly...

Initial deliveries of the 2011 Nissan Leaf battery electric car have been fitful, compared to hundreds of Chevy Volts sold each week. But Nissan's first modern mass-produced battery electric car continues to rack up accomplishments (and the company says it will be at full production by March)...

A green roof is not at its most photogenic in a Michigan winter. In fact, it's hardly green at all--more like gray and brown--though it still insulates the building below just as well. But while some of the green aspects of Ford's showcase Rouge assembly plant have succumbed to the January weather...

It's one of the most radical cars ever to be built in this country, the first all-electric vehicle to go on sale in many decades. So you'd expect that when the Nissan Leaf enters production in Smyrna, Tennessee, late in 2012, it would have its very own production line, right? Nope. Not at all. Far...