costs
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A cost-of-ownership survey finds 11 diesel models that will save owners money.
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Hybrid Cars Can Cost Less To Own: Here Are Eight Examples
New data shows that only certain hybrid cars save owners money.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla Battery Cost: New Report Suggests Model 3 To Cost $50K Or More
It's likely the biggest question for the future of electric cars: How low can battery cost go, and how fast? Tesla Motors is thought to have the lowest cost-per-kilowatt-hour in the electric-car business, with some estimates suggesting the company is already approaching the crucial $200/kWh level...
John Voelcker -
Why An Electric Car Saves Fleet Operators $16,000 In Lifetime Cost
The average car spends about 95 percent of a 24-hour day parked. For the 5 percent that they're driven, they actually spend one-third of the time idling–at red lights, stuck behind leisurely left-turners, or even while the driver waits for the vehicle to warm up (or cool down) before getting...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Cost Of New EPA Carbon Limits? About $7 Per Car: Report
Every time a new environmental regulation is proposed in the United States, there's a predictable chorus of doom-and-gloom predictions that it will kill jobs, cause manufacturers to move their operations out of the country, and destroy the economy. Those predictions tend to be a bit, shall we say...
John Voelcker -
Toyota's Texas Move: Prius Maker Lands In Highest-Carbon State (Updated)
Toyota announced yesterday that it would relocate the headquarters of its U.S. arm from Torrance, California, to Plano, Texas. Left unaddressed in the announcement was the fact that the Japanese carmaker, known for its green image and its pioneering Prius hybrid range of 50-mpg cars, is moving from...
John Voelcker -
Yep, Big Oil is definitely scheming and plotting to destroy the electric car. Everyone knows that. Right? [sigh] Time for more mythbusting, it seems. The surprising success of our first debunking of five green-car myths led us to look at five more relatively common ideas and explain ... well, as they say: NOT. MORE: Five Big Myths About Green Cars And Gas Mileage, Debunked Some are about saving money on gasoline, others are more general in nature. They come from our readers and from articles we've read that propound rather, errrr, creative ways of looking at green cars, vehicles in general...
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What Can I Save Driving An Electric Car? Apps Can Help, Soon
Last month, Apple Stores in the United States began stocking the Automatic Link. And it might just point the way toward how to convince more car buyers that a plug-in electric car--or other alternatives, from hybrid to diesel to natural gas, for that matter--could make economic sense. The Automatic...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Five Things To Know About Gas Mileage That Will Save You Money
Gas mileage has gotten far more important in new-car choices over the last 10 years, and that's not likely to change. But not everyone really understands automobile efficiency--or how to maximize their mileage--and which tactics will really save them money. Here's our cheat sheet. (1) Your driving...
John Voelcker -
U.S. Gas Prices Falling; Does It Matter For Green Cars?
Gasoline prices rise. Gasoline prices fall. And every time there's significant movement, it's a news story. Last week, for instance, CNBC (via The Car Connection) reported that a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline dropped to about $3.59 last Friday. That's almost 8 cents lower than the cost two...
John Voelcker -
Nissan To Offer Leaf Battery Replacement Plan: $100 A Month
To allay fears about loss of capacity in its Leaf electric-car battery packs, Nissan announced today that it would offer what amounts to a battery leasing program after the pack goes out of warranty. The cost of ensuring minimum capacity will be $100 a month. The company now warranties the Leaf...
John Voelcker -
New Gas Mileage Rules Will Reshape What Americans Drive: Hybrids, Electrics, Cost
Hybrids and plug-in electric cars probably get more press than they deserve, given how small their numbers are in the vehicle fleet. The U.S. has roughly 250 million vehicles on the roads, of which less than 2 percent are hybrids and plug-ins of all kinds. Nonetheless, both technologies are...
John Voelcker -
Reporters interview CEOs all the time, but it's rare for those CEOs to end interviews abruptly. Which is what makes an article in Barron's about Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] and its current high stock price so entertaining. In "Recharge Now!", author Bill Alpert opens with a comparison between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Iron Man comic-book hero Tony Stark. He summarizes the rave reviews received by the Tesla Model S all-electric luxury sport sedan and notes, accurately, that Tesla stock was propelled to its current heights on the basis of one profitable quarter and a classic short squeeze. In a...
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Cheaper Electric-Car Batteries: Slow & Steady Wins The Race
Did your parents ever tell you, "Slow and steady wins the race"? It can be annoying to hear as a child, but often it's true--and in the case of electric car batteries, it's how they'll get less expensive. As a new posting from the Washington Post's Wonkblog points out, there is no Moore's Law for...
John Voelcker -
Electric-Car Battery Costs To Decline To $200/kWh In 2020, McKinsey Says
It's not for no reason that electric cars are more expensive to buy than their fossil-fueled counterparts. If you wanted to point the finger of blame squarely at one thing, you'd likely be pointing it at batteries. At the moment, a typical lithium-ion battery pack costs around $500-$600 per...
Antony Ingram -
Are Electric-Car Batteries Already at $250 Per kWh? Analyst Says Yes
How expensive are electric car battery packs? It’s a topic of much discussion among electric car fans, and a closely guarded secret within the auto industry, but now an industry analyst has suggested that improved technology and economies of scale has lowed electric car battery pack costs to...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Payback On Plug-Ins: Finance Commentator Misses The Point
We love data, and articles that analyze data. We love them a little less when their opening lines sneer at sites like this one by calling them the "sunshine, lollipops and rainbows electric car press." Still, there are far more interesting problems with a recent analysis on Seeking Alpha entitled...
John Voelcker -
2012 Ford Focus Battery Pack Cost: $12,000-$15,000, Says CEO
Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of speculation surrounding the actual cost to automakers of the lithium-ion battery packs used in most modern electric cars. Unfortunately, the automotive industry hasn’t been keen to disclose any figures, but on occasion we’ve managed...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
We all know that battery packs are the biggest Achilles Heel of the electric car, which is why automakers like Nissan and General Motors are working hard to improve the energy density, cost and lifespan of electric vehicle batteries. But once you've designed a new battery pack, how do you prove its lifespan without waiting year and years? You’d think that some complex math, along with some basic scientific theory would answer the problem, but life is rarely as predictable as a science lab. Instead, physicists, chemists, battery firms and automakers are working together to build...
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How Much And How Fast Will Electric-Car Battery Costs Fall?
You hear both sides of the battery cost question a lot when you cover electric cars. One side says, "Electric-car batteries will be brutally expensive for many years to come, so electric cars will never be practical." The other side believes, "With wonderful new discoveries coming out of labs and...
John Voelcker -
Want To Drive Greener? Move Closer To Your Job, Save Cash Too
We get a lot of questions about greener or more fuel-efficient cars. But we rarely get questions about how to drive less. A cheerful little post and infographic by the delightfully named Mr. Money Mustache highlights the true cost of commuting to jobs that are no longer within walking or biking...
John Voelcker -
When Does a 2011 Chevy Volt Save You Money? Consumer Reports Answers
Consumer Reports conducted a wide array of use tests on its 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car to determine its costs of operation. The answer? It depended on how the car was used.
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
How To Drive Badly & Lower Your Gas Mileage In The Real World
With gas-mileage standards through 2016 now in place, the EPA and NHTSA are turning their sights toward rules for 2017 through 2025. Proposals are floating around for CAFE standards of up to 62 mpg (which means the vehicles you might buy would average about 50 mpg in actual use). Ah, the hell with...
John Voelcker -
High Gas Prices Changing Vacation Plans, Even House Purchases
There's more than a 3-to-1 chance that your gas price fell last week. The price itself depends largely on what state you live in, but the average price of a gallon of gasoline rose in just 12 states, staying the same or falling in the other 38, according to the average pricing on GasBuddy. But...
John Voelcker