emissions
-
Ford confessed issues with its emissions certification process that may have resulted in more pollution than suggested by test results.
-
An Earth Day Twitter poll: When will it be socially unacceptable to drive a car with a tailpipe?
Every year, as Earth Day rolls around, we survey the automotive landscape looking for progress in the industry's efforts to reduce emissions and limit global warming. We've identified a lot of progress recently. More than a dozen new electric models are set to go on sale in the coming year, and...
Eric C. Evarts -
Earth Day affirmation: New satellite data confirms Earth is warming and possibly at a faster pace
Just in time for Earth Day, new satellite data corroborates scientists' findings that the Earth is warming at an alarming pace. The new data, from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite, corroborates findings from the Goddard Institute of Space Studies Surface Temperature...
Eric C. Evarts -
Report: EPA backs off plans to freeze fuel economy rules–slightly
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler signaled that when revised fuel-economy regulations are released in coming months they may not directly follow proposed rules that would freeze emissions standards.
Eric C. Evarts -
Polluters pay, 2020 Kia Soul EV, hydrogen internal combustion: Today's Car News
We had a first chance to drive the new 2020 Kia Soul EV. London's new pollution charge on older vehicles makes it really expensive to drive older cars into the city. And our latest Twitter poll asks what GM should do with the Volt name now that it no longer produces the car. All this and more on...
Eric C. Evarts -
Ford Explorer plug-in, Karma Revero, German emissions collusion: Today's Car News
European prosecutors charged German automakers Volkswagen, Daimler, and BMW with collusion over emissions shortfalls. Fiat Chrysler will pay Tesla hundreds of millions of euros to meet emissions targets. The 2020 Ford Explorer will get a plug-in hybrid version in Europe. And Karma revealed a few...
Eric C. Evarts -
Fiat Chrysler and Tesla are working out a symbiotic relationship for Europe so that FCA might avoid emissions fines.
-
German prosecutors find collusion between automakers over diesel emissions
BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen are being charged by the EU for attempting to block more effective (and expensive) emissions tech.
Eric C. Evarts -
Recalls of older cars for excess emissions may get more sunlight this year
Earlier this month, the EPA announced a voluntary recall by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles of nearly 900,000 older vehicles for excessive emissions. The announcement may have raised eyebrows and prompted a few wagging fingers, but it was hardly new; last year automakers recalled more than 5 million...
Aaron Cole -
Global warming emissions hit record level in 2018, IEA reports
The International Energy Agency reported on Tuesday that global warming emissions reached a record level in 2018, despite efforts in the U.S., Europe, and China to reduce emissions with more sales of electric cars and cleaner power. Greenhouse gas emissions increased faster in 2018 than during any...
Eric C. Evarts -
UN global climate report restores hope, lays out roadmap
A new UN report on global climate change isn't quite as dire as one it issued last October. That special report on warming of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) showed that the effects of climate change could become catastrophic by 2040, at least 10 years earlier than scientists had...
Eric C. Evarts -
Dieselgate continued: SEC charges VW and its ex-boss with fraud
Amazingly, the diesel emissions case against Volkswagen in the U.S. is still gaining steam. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged VW and its former CEO Martin Winterkorn on Thursday with defrauding investors, according to wire-service reports. READ MORE: Gauging VW's progress on second...
Eric C. Evarts -
The Patriots are in good company, surrounded by cheaters!
-
EPA says fuel economy rose in 2017, but it may be falling again
An EPA report released Wednesday shows that cars are getting better gas mileage in response to rising fuel economy standards. Yet a roaring economy and low gas prices have put Americans on a truck-buying spree, and the EPA is working to undermine those standards. According to its annual automotive...
Eric C. Evarts -
Senate confirms coal lobbyist Wheeler as EPA head
The Senate on Thursday confirmed acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler to head the agency. Since Wheeler became the acting administrator last July, he has released plans to unwind rising emissions and attendant fuel economy standards enacted under President Obama, and to rescind California's...
Eric C. Evarts -
Germany fines BMW over diesel emissions
German automakers have been under a microscope when it comes to emissions from their diesel cars, which were formerly bestsellers in Europe. After Daimler, Volkswagen, and German supplier Bosch paid billions in fines and several Audi managers have been arrested over installing diesel-emissions...
Eric C. Evarts -
EPA cuts off fuel-economy talks with California
The Trump administration has ended talks with California aimed at settling their differences over increasing fuel economy and tightening emissions regulations, Reuters reported Thursday, citing an unnamed government official. In August, the EPA, led by Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, released...
Eric C. Evarts -
Ford investigates its own fuel-economy testing methods
Ford announced on Thursday that it opened an investigation into the fuel economy testing it does to receive official EPA ratings and federal certification to sell its vehicles in the U.S. The company plans to start by retesting its 2019 Ranger midsize pickup, after employees raised concerns through...
Eric C. Evarts -
In the wake of the debate over California’s complicated, delayed, and over-budget Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail project, a bill introduced to the California State Senate last week comes up with a simpler solution: just add more freeway lanes, and get rid of the speed limit entirely in those new lanes. The bill, SB 319, is authored by California State Senator John Moorlach, a Republican from Orange County and a longtime opponent of the high-speed rail project. In a background page, Moorlach points to the relatively low accident rate on Germany’s Autobahn...
-
What effect do you expect the Green New Deal to have for electric cars? Twitter poll results
If the goal of the Green New Deal proposed by Democrats in Congress is to get people talking about a transition to renewable energy, then it looks to be gaining traction. The Senate generated controversy on both sides of the aisle by proposing to hold a token vote on the proposal. Studies have...
Eric C. Evarts -
Ahead of electric-car production, VW demands suppliers cut carbon emissions
As Volkswagen ramps up to build a new generation of mass-market electric vehicles in the aftermath of its diesel scandal, regulators and environmental groups will likely be paying close attention to their emissions—especially the emissions created in making them. The Financial Times, in a...
Bengt Halvorson -
Diesel lawsuit proceeds against Mercedes-Benz
While Volkswagen has reached a historic settlement and had to buy back hundreds of thousands of its diesel cars in the U.S., it isn’t the only automaker to be investigated for cheating on diesel emissions. Fiat Chrysler recently agreed to recall its Ram and Jeep EcoDiesels and pay owners for...
Eric C. Evarts -
Don't worry about coal, electric cars are still cleaner
One of the easiest ways for electric-car drivers to get in an argument is discussing how much coal-fired electricity contributes to pollution. Now a new study by BNEF (a Bloomberg spinoff) can help give electric-car drivers some peace of mind in these arguments. It shows that electric cars are...
Eric C. Evarts -
Shutdown has held up EPA certification, new vehicle introductions
Now that the government has reopened after a 35-day shutdown, EPA employees are going back to work facing a backlog. Toward the end of the shutdown last week, executives at all three major Detroit automakers expressed concern about certification delays that could affect new models they plan to...
Eric C. Evarts