future
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Automakers seem to be in agreement that the ‘skateboard’ location for heavy battery packs—low and wide beneath the passenger floor—is the ideal layout for electric vehicles. Decades from now that might not be the case. Researchers in Sweden have examined the possibility of using the vehicle shell as a battery casing itself—with the carbon-fiber body shell as an electrode. DON’T MISS: Carbon fiber from plants close to carbon-neutral? “If all these functions were part of a car or aircraft body, this could reduce the weight by up to 50 percent,”...
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Do Frankfurt's electric cars cover German desperation over diesel decline?
This year's Frankfurt motor show was big, busy, and full of new concepts and production cars spanning the gamut from small electric cars to exotic supercars with prices in the millions. Every German maker showed one or more electric or electrified concepts, and renewed talk of driving on...
John Voelcker -
When will sales of of electric and gas cars be equal, globally? Poll results
It's now clear that much greater numbers of plug-in electric cars will be sold in coming years and decades than have found buyers to date. With battery costs falling faster than expected, and toughening regulations in China requiring higher volumes of electric cars, the onus is on the world's...
John Voelcker -
What is a self-driving car?
Self-driving cars are a popular topic in both the auto industry and general media coverage these days, with several makers testing vehicles and promising fully autonomous cars at some future point. But when it comes to self-driving cars, different automakers may not be talking about the same thing...
Stephen Edelstein -
Electric cars as bad as coffee or refrigerators: why we fear new things
A new book explains how humans often obstruct their own progress.
Stephen Edelstein -
Your grandchildren won't fill their tanks—or even own cars: report
Electric cars will enable autonomous driving and sharing services, a new report says.
Stephen Edelstein -
Most car buyers would be hard-pressed to name a single automobile designer working today. But it wasn't always that way: names like Raymond Loewy and Harley Earl were known well outside the design studios where they created the "cars of tomorrow." A half-century-old concept from designer Brooks Stevens underscores the futuristic nature of hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion, both in the 1960s and today. DON'T MISS: Toyota Mirai manga: hydrogen fuel cell beats electric cars, plug-in hybrids As described in Hemmings Motor News, the Utopia Concept created by Stevens in 1960 pioneered numerous ideas...
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Electric Cars To Be 35 Percent Of Global Sales By 2040: Energy Analyst
Decreases in lithium-ion cell costs will drive a massive expansion of electric-car sales, new analysis says.
Stephen Edelstein -
Expect A 500-Mile Electric Car By 2025, Says Tesla's Elon Musk
It was a relatively brief projection of the future from a man who's juggling a lot of balls in the present, but even Elon Musk's quick hits can be newsworthy. The CEO of electric-car maker Tesla Motors told attendees at the Barron's Investment Conference that he expects 500-mile electric cars to be...
John Voelcker -
A Polite Note About Tesla To Media Colleagues (Especially In Detroit)
Automotive journalists talk among ourselves, just as most people in most professions do. And because this site consistently covers Tesla Motors and its electric cars, we've had a number of colleagues at other outlets reach out to us with questions about the Silicon Valley carmaker. They all boil...
John Voelcker -
VW Emission Cheating Could Kill Diesel Passenger Cars In U.S., Even Globally
We're just four days into the Volkswagen diesel-emission cheating scandal, but it's not too early to ask about its ultimate ramifications. The 482,000 VW and Audi cars being investigated by the EPA are a majority of all the diesel passenger cars sold in the U.S. since 2008, when new and tougher...
John Voelcker -
2016 Toyota Mirai Fuel-Cell Car Will Alter Industry As Prius Did, Says Exec
Toyota hopes its fuel-cell car will have as big an impact as the Prius.
Stephen Edelstein -
It's almost inconceivable, the idea of a world without personally-owned automobiles. But that's the startling vision proposed by noted researcher Tom Turrentine and colleagues, in a recent paper published online in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, entitled "California: Beyond cars?" (PDF). The abstract lays it out: Despite--or because of--California's vaunted love affair with the automobile, the state could become a leader in the development of new, climate change-friendly transport. Electric cars, hybrid vehicles, plug-in electric hybrids, robotic cars, vehicles powered by natural gas...
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Could Upcoming 2016 Hyundai Tucson Get A Diesel Engine Option?
While the keys of the first Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell to be leased in the U.S. were handed over last month, the automaker is putting the final touches on the new 2016 Hyundai Tucson. It's expected to launch early next summer. Hyundai's chief U.S. designer, Chris Chapman, told us the next Tucson will...
Matthew Askari -
Elon Musk Talks Tesla Model X Details, Model S Upgrades, At Europe Q+A Sessions
Tesla Motors is notoriously stingy with information about its cars and future plans, to the great frustration of news-hungry Model S owners and fans. But in a Q & A session in Norway on February 1, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the company's CTO JB Straubel revealed several intriguing tidbits about...
David Noland -
Should GM Buy Tesla? What Would Be The Pros And Cons?
The suggestion hit the day before Christmas: Analyst Yra Harris of Praxis Trading predicted in a CNBC interview that General Motors might buy Tesla Motors sometime in 2014. Harris called it "a perfect fit" for one of the three largest carmakers in the world to buy the closely-watched Silicon Valley...
John Voelcker -
Who Will Own Model E Trademark: Tesla, Or Ford?
Perhaps the auto world is Wonderland--for, as Alice famously said, it gets curiouser and curiouser. The latest oddity is a report last Sunday from the enthusiast site Ford Authority that Ford Motor Company has filed for a trademark on "Model E." It's odd because reports last summer indicated that...
John Voelcker -
Electric Cars So Disruptive, Gas Cars Will Be Obsolete In 2016, Says Futurist
Many people like to think they can predict the future, but only futurists (and psychics) get paid to do it. And futurist Lars Thomsen thinks that electric cars are such a disruptive technology that they will make gasoline cars obsolete--starting in 2016, or much earlier than most other analysts...
John Voelcker -
The Ford F-150 full-size pickup is the best-selling single nameplate in the U.S. market, so any changes to Ford's premier truck mean a lot. Buyers, dealers, and the whole industry are paying close attention to information about the next generation 2015 Ford F-150, the first all-new design of Ford's truck since the 2009 model. And fuel efficiency will be one of the most closely-watched specifications. MORE: 2014 Pickup Truck Gas Mileage: Ford vs Chevy vs Ram, Who's Best? This year, the new best combined gas-mileage for large pickup trucks is 20 mpg--achieved by versions of the 2014 Chevrolet...
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Gasoline Cars To Remain Dominant In 2040, Energy Agency Says
Cars running on gasoline have been with us for almost 140 years, and diesels for almost 80 years. More than 1 billion vehicles on the planet use those fuels today. So the view that liquid hydrocarbon fuels are on their way out requires taking a rather long view. Now we have one estimate of a...
John Voelcker -
Modern Electric Cars, Three Years Later: Lessons Learned
Three years ago yesterday, the first retail buyer of a brand-new Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car was handed his keys in Denville, New Jersey. Just three days earlier, the first Nissan Leaf buyer had received his battery-electric car in a large ceremony at San Francisco's City Hall...
John Voelcker -
Mentioning Moore's Law For Electric Cars: Sign Of Ignorance
You see and hear it all the time, sometimes from people who really ought to know better. It's the notion that electric cars are going to improve incredibly, amazingly, unimaginably fast ... "because of Moore's Law." If you see or hear that statement, folks, you should view the entire report with...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Corvette Hybrid: Not Nearly As Horrifying As Purists Think
Traditionalists may be feeling faint right about now. The thought of a Chevrolet Corvette with a hybrid-electric powertrain threatens to make their heads explode. But that's exactly the concept at which GM president Mark Reuss says, "Don't laugh." Reuss made the comment during a Los Angeles Times...
John Voelcker -
Are Hybrids, Electrics The Car's Future--Or Should Cars Be Shunned Like Cigarettes?
Many people who frequent this website with any regularity probably own a hybrid or electric vehicle. Many of those probably think they're already driving the future--or an approximation of it at least. But just how big a part do cars of any sort play in the future of transportation? Some would have...
Antony Ingram