Plug-In Hybrids
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The tax reform bill likely to be voted on by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives retained a number of provisions originally slated to be cut from the tax code. Among them was the federal income-tax credit for purchase of a plug-in electric vehicle. Three carmakers—General Motors, Nissan, and Tesla—have now used more than half the 200,000 full credits allowed to each electric-car maker before the credit starts to sunset. DON'T MISS: Electric-car tax credit retained in Congressional tax reform bill: confirmed The federal incentive is a credit taken against U.S. income...
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Under Paris agreement, electric cars will hurt oil demand well before power supply: report
Electric vehicles have the potential to upend energy markets as their adoption becomes more widespread. But how much of an effect will they have? And on which specific markets? According to a recent report by Wood Mackenzie, the global power grids are likely safe for quite a while, but another...
Mark Stevenson -
Toyota plans 1 million zero-emission vehicles a year by 2030: our analysis
Sales of plug-in electric cars are rising steadily in North America, Europe, and Asia, with roughly 2 million now on the world's roads. China is debating when it will ban sales of new vehicles with combustion engines. Meanwhile, Toyota—one of the four largest global automakers—is only...
John Voelcker -
Four of Wards' Top 10 Engines are actually electric or electrified powertrains
The industry trade journal WardsAuto has been giving out "Best Engine" awards for 24 years now, and this year's list includes some interesting choices. For starters, there are no engines from German manufacturers on the list: The sole luxury recipients this year are Infiniti and Jaguar. But more...
Mark Stevenson -
Electric-car tax credit retained in Congressional tax reform bill: confirmed (update)
We'll likely never know whether it was the influence of auto lobbyists, pressure from the actual public, or a letter signed by two dozen mayors. But however the sausage was made, it appears that the U.S. income-tax credit for purchase of a plug-in electric vehicle will not be killed after all...
John Voelcker -
22 mayors join letter urging electric-car tax credit retention by Congress
Two bills from the Senate and House of Representatives that would radically reform U.S. tax policy for the first time in three decades are now being reconciled by a joint committee from both houses of Congress. No public hearings on those bills have been held in either chamber, and the legislation...
John Voelcker -
This has been something of a plug-in hybrid month. Last week we got our first drive in the 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid, which we felt was the first affordable car with a range similar to that of the Chevrolet Volt. This week we're driving the 2018 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid. DON'T MISS: 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid first drive That car and its corporate sibling-under-the-skin, the Hyundai Ioniq Plug-In Hybrid, will arrive in dealerships within several weeks. So will the plug-in Honda Clarity. So we decided to get a sense of the relative popularity of the leading plug-in hybrids on the...
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Can Honda break through buyer confusion about plug-in hybrids?
With the launch of the 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid sedan, the Chevrolet Volt now has its first serious competition among long-range plug-in hybrids. About 25,000 second-generation Volts were sold last year, and this year's number will be about 20,000. Honda says it may sell about the same...
John Voelcker -
2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid first drive
There's a new plug-in hybrid in town, and it could expand the audience for cars that provide useful electric range for daily driving while retaining an efficient gasoline engine for longer trips. The 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid is the third and most important model in the Clarity lineup...
John Voelcker -
Best deals on hybrid, electric, fuel-efficient cars for December 2017
If you're looking to give the gift of efficient motoring this holiday season, numerous manufacturer incentives are available this month that'll save you from breaking the bank. For December, CarsDirect has uncovered leases as cheap as $159/month and discounts as much as $18,100 on fuel-efficient...
Mark Stevenson -
European electric and plug-in hybrid sales for Jan-Oct 2017
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Europe's October electric vehicle sales saw significant growth versus a year ago as 56 percent more battery-electric and plug-in hybrid hybrid vehicles found new homes and the Volkswagen e-Golf shot up the standings. But, atop that growing...
Mark Stevenson -
Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, Nov 2017: the vaulting Chevy Volt
A record 582 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids were sold in Canada last month, two months after Chevy delivered a then-record 483 Volts in September. The achievement is even more impressive considering Canadian car sales dropped by 15 percent between the two months, as the industry enters its slow...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Looking back at last week's Los Angeles auto show media days, one new vehicle sucked up a disproportionate amount of attention and airtime. That would be the new 2018 Jeep Wrangler, a once-in-a-decade redesign of the iconic off-roader that's the linchpin of the Jeep brand image worldwide. While the new Wrangler itself had long been expected—and seen in dozens of spy photos leading up to the reveal—the announcement came with a surprise. DON'T MISS: Turbo-4 to boost fuel economy in next Jeep Wrangler (May 2016) That was the announcement that the Wrangler would be offered with a...
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Plug-in electric car sales for Nov: Volt vs Prime neck-and-neck, Bolt EV just misses 3K (updated)
Chevy didn't quite pull it off in November, but it could well happen this month in a burst of end-of-year sales. In this case, "it" would be selling 3,000 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars in a single month: the delivery total reported last month was 2,987. That brings year-to-date Bolt EV sales to...
John Voelcker -
Iconic Vespa Scooter, now 70 years old, gets brand-new electric powertrain
The Vespa scooter is undeniably an icon on European streets. For 70 years, Vespas have buzzed about roadways, but the buzz will soon give way to an all-but-silent hum in the company's latest scooter. Earlier this month at the Milan Motorcycle Show, Vespa announced its first all-electric scooter...
Sean Szymkowski -
Half of all Porsches will plug in by 2025, showing importance of electric cars
Its customers and employees know, but the rest of the world may not quite have realized that Porsche will soon sell six separate plug-in hybrid models. They span three different vehicles—the Porsche Panamera large sedan, the Panamera Sport Turismo shooting brake, and the Cayenne sport utility...
John Voelcker -
2018 Volvo XC90 plug-in hybrid SUV: bigger battery, slight range boost
It's a shock to realize that the Volvo XC90 large luxury SUV is now in its third model year. The first new Volvo in more than five years when it debuted in 2016, the seven-seat XC90 was an entirely new design that redefined luxury in a Swedish vein and won numerous awards, including North American...
John Voelcker -
U.S. Postal Service urged to choose electric delivery trucks
The current fleet of delivery trucks used by the United States Postal Service have stood the test of time, but their high maintenance costs mean it's time to retire the iconic boxy vehicles. The USPS began soliciting bids in 2016 and five finalists now remain in the running: they are...
Sean Szymkowski -
China's announcement in early September that it planned to set a date to end sales of new vehicles with combustion engines should have rocked the global auto industry. The world's largest car market, at roughly 30 million vehicles a year, will at some point permit only zero-emission vehicles to be sold. That will accelerate the development, production, and sale of battery-electric cars around the world—whether automakers want to or not. DON'T MISS: China developing timetable to end sales, production of gasoline cars We don't yet know when that will be, and the year is likely to be 10 to...
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Will Toyota Prius Prime outsell Chevy Volt this year?
Compared to the U.S. sales of, say, full-size pickup trucks, the monthly reports on deliveries of plug-in hybrid and battery-electric cars contain some fairly low numbers. The Ford F-Series routinely sells 80,000 a month or more, while the most any plug-in car has ever sold in the U.S. is about...
John Voelcker -
2019 Ford Escape to get plug-in hybrid, plus Expedition SUV hybrid, Lincoln versions too: report
In recent years, Ford Motor Company's plans for putting more plug-in electric cars on the road have been, shall we say, murky. GM has the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, sales of its Chevy Bolt EV 238-mile electric car have risen every month, and it plans a pair of all-electric SUVs by...
John Voelcker -
2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid starts at $34,290 with 47-mile range
The 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid will start at a recommended price of $34,290 including delivery, making it the least expensive plug-in hybrid sedan on the market this year. Honda says it will go on sale December 1, and it will be offered at all Honda dealers in the U.S. That means that for...
John Voelcker -
Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2018: Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid plug-in minivan
In 2011, Green Car Reports launched an award for the new car, or family of cars, that represented the best green vehicle introduced for the model year. The Nissan Leaf won that year because it was the sole affordable battery-electric vehicle on the market. Over the next seven years, more than two...
John Voelcker -
Ford C-Max Energi plug-in production over; Hybrid has only months left
The Ford C-Max, launched as a 2013 model, never really served the purpose its maker intended. The tall five-door compact hatchback was intended to be Ford's counter to the successful Toyota Prius hybrid line, more stylish and comfortable inside with almost the same fuel-economy rating. Its owners'...
John Voelcker