Michigan
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One man's experience driving a Volkswagen e-Golf in a Michigan winter.
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Michigan Gov Snyder Signs Anti-Tesla Bill Called 'Corrupt Politics At Its Worst'
As expected, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder yesterday signed a bill that bans Tesla Motors from selling its electric cars directly to buyers online in the state. The bill removes one word--"its"--from existing state franchise law, which had originally been enacted to prevent franchised dealers from...
John Voelcker -
Michigan Car Dealers Slip One Over On Tesla, Ban Direct Sales: UPDATED
A bill banning Tesla's direct-sales model is passed by the Michigan state legislature.
Stephen Edelstein -
Michigan's Mock City: Where Robot Cars Will Drive (And, Ideally, Not Crash)
Seven years ago, dozens of professional stunt drivers in identical Ford Tauruses drove for hours through a ghostly and abandoned suburban California subdivision of one-story stucco homes, curving roads, and cul-de-sacs. On the roads with them were 11 self-driving vehicles, from a battered...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Volt Plug-In Electric Cars Now Have Battery Cells Made In U.S.
Over the next few months, the Chevrolet Volt will get just that little bit more American--as its battery cells are now produced in the U.S. Korean battery maker LG Chem opened a plant in Holland, Michigan two years ago, and production of lithium-ion cells for Chevy's range-extended plug-in Volt is...
Antony Ingram -
Michigan Jumps On The 'Tax Electric Cars' Bandwagon, Too
Elected officials in yet another state have proposed levying taxes on electric cars. And just to make things interesting, this time the debate is happening in Michigan. Similar initiatives have been discussed in states both red and blue, including Arizona, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Washington...
Richard Read -
General Motors has announced more shuffling of its future-tech facilities. Back in October, the automaker shut down a fuel cell center in Honeoye Falls, New York and shifted operations (along with 220 jobs) to Pontiac, Michigan. Outposts in Torrance, California, Castleton, Indiana, and Warren, Michigan are also being relocated to Pontiac, as is GM's Systems Research Lab in Wixom, Michigan. GM's other major project in Wixom, the Performance Build Center (which crafts engines for the Chevrolet Corvette), is migrating to the automaker's Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. To...
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Hybrid And Plug-In Car Sales Slow In Michigan, Report Says
Hybrid cars have well and truly hit the mainstream. After years of slow sales around a decade ago, Toyota has now sold over 4 million hybrids. And Honda recently passed its first million. But in the home of the U.S. auto industry, buyers have been slower to catch on to the concept. According to the...
Antony Ingram -
Ford's Gas Mileage Goals Spawn 3-Cylinder Engine, New Hybrids
Smaller, more efficient engines that equal the power of larger, lazier ones are how automakers all over the world plan to raise fuel economy. Today Ford [NYSE:F] doubled down on engineering as the best way to boost gas mileage, with announcements about three separate technologies it plans to use in...
John Voelcker -
Startup Offers Gasoline-Tank Swaps Derived From Electric Car Concept
Cars with electric drive motors are now midway through their second decade, and ideas from hybrids and electric cars are starting to filter back into mainstream gasoline vehicles. Ford, for one, adapted several ideas from its hybrid vehicles to reduce the fuel consumption of its 2011 Explorer...
John Voelcker -
Senator Stabenow: $7,500 Electric-Car Credit Should Be Rebate
It's long been known that purchase rebates--buy a car, get a check--are a more effective incentive for purchase of any kind of car than an income-tax credit, which may take a year or more to affect the buyer's cash position. But the current tax credits for purchase of plug-in cars, up to $7,500 for...
John Voelcker -
Three Different Electrified Ford Focus Models To Be Built At Single Michigan Plant
It’s well documented that Ford is planning an all-electric version of its new global Focus--heck, we’ve even test driven a very early prototype based on the previous generation car. But what isn’t that well known is that there will be two other electrified versions of the new...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Car assembly will never be the cleanest of processes, despite the efforts of people like Gordon Murray whose i-Stream production method for his T25 and T27 microcars is said to reduce the energy of car production by as much as 80 percent. Still, some companies do make the effort to bring down the environmental impact of car production. Smart's "Smartville" production facility in Hambach, France is one of the world's cleanest car factories, taking up less space than many plants, and clad in panels made from the wood of a fast-growing tree, carrying the mantra of "reduce, re-use and recycle"...
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President Obama Backs EV Charge With Volt Battery Factory Visit
Having recently visited Smith Electric Vehiclesin Kansas City, Missouri, president Barack Obama is now on his way to the Compact Power battery plant located in Holland, Michigan. The specialized plant will be supplying the upcoming Chevrolet Volt range-extended vehicle with its lithium-ion battery...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Teaching Fuel Efficiency In Driving School: Smart, or Satanic?
Driving school is often a drag for participants. But as long as you're learning to drive, it might not hurt to learn a bit about how to identify more fuel-efficient cars and driving tactics to save gasoline, right? Wrong. It's a distraction and irrelevant, since "so-called environmental...
John Voelcker -
Central Michigan University Requests Refund For EV
In the summer of 2008, amid staggering gas prices, Central Michigan University (CMU) invested $23,000 into an electric vehicle. Just over a year later, the school is requesting a refund, citing the vehicle's poor performance in cold weather. The EV in question is believed to be a Miles ZX40ST Work...
Robert Scardino -
Ford Names Director of Global Electrification
If there was ever any doubt that Ford wants to be known for hybrids and electric vehicles, that was put to rest today, after the Dearborn, Michigan, based automaker named a "Director of Electrification." The newly created position will be filled by Nancy Gioia, who has served almost four years as...
Robert Scardino