Videos

  • Electric motor, shown in 'How Does an Electric Car Work?' video by Learn Engineering

    While many drivers generally understand the concept of an electric car, understanding generally stops there. It's a car, and you plug it in to get power to run it. That's fine as far as it goes. Beyond that, things get hazy pretty quickly, we've found. DON'T MISS: Plug-in hybrid problem: buyers don't understand them at all We've stopped counting the number of times novices have suggested that an electric car's battery "runs its engine," for example. (The correct term is actually a motor.) As for how an induction motor actually works—magnetic fields spinning a shaft—forget about...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV crash
    2017 Chevy Bolt EV rated a Top Safety Pick by IIHS

    The Chevrolet Bolt EV has just been awarded a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). This makes it the first electric car from the 2017 model year to receive an IIHS award. In order to qualify as an IIHS Top Safety Pick, a vehicle must earn the highest score of...

  • Hypermiling a Ford C-Max Hybrid
    How to drive Ford C-Max Hybrid for best gas mileage? Owner video explains

    Purchasing a hybrid vehicle makes for a slightly different ownership experience than a traditional gasoline-only car. There are always a few tips and tricks for owners to return the best mileage and range from electrified vehicles, and now a 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid owner has shared his secrets...

  • 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric battery depleted
    Hyundai Ioniq Electric: what happens when battery is run down to the end?

    One owner has now run his 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric's battery down all the way to "empty" so other owners know what to expect. The Ioniq Electric is EPA-rated at 124 miles of range from the 28-kwh battery pack that powers an 88-kilowatt (118-horsepower) electric motor. The driver in the video...

  • Tesla Model S P100D drag race
    South's good ol' boy drag racers whupped by Tesla, not happy about it

    For as long as there have been automobiles, drivers have had the itch to go faster than the guy in the next car. Throughout decades we've seen horsepower wars waged between giant, large displacement V-8 engines and even 4-cylinder engines with plenty of forced induction. The rise of the electric...

  • Production-ready Jaguar I-Pace spotted in Monaco
    Video shoot shows Jaguar I-Pace electric SUV in production form

    The British luxury brand Jaguar, far smaller than any of its three German competitors, may be looking to steal a march on all of them. While Audi revealed a concept version of its forthcoming e-tron all-electric SUV 18 months ago, and Mercedes-Benz followed with its EQ Concept last September, the...

  • 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid

    Road trips have been a staple of automobile culture for decades, but with the rise of electric vehicles, charging infrastructure has thrown them a curve ball. Unlike gasoline-powered vehicles, which can refuel almost anywhere in a populated area, electric vehicles require a little more planning to ensure things go smoothly. So, how easy is it? The Straight Pipes aimed to find out in a new video installment. DON'T MISS: 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid video drive review The duo took a 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric and an Ioniq Plug-In Hybrid to see how easy it is to take on a spur of the moment road...

  • Image from 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric-car ad by Ourisman Chevrolet, Rockville, Maryland
    Low-budget Chevy Bolt EV dealer ad normalizes electric cars

    Ah, local car-dealer ads on television. You've likely seen them, usually during the local ad minute on national shows, often late at night or in the cheaper slots. They're mostly formulaic, but each one mixes several elements for its own unique blend of attention-grabbing pitch. DON'T MISS: This...

  • Teaser for 2019 Volkswagen T-Roc debuting at 2017 Frankfurt auto show
    Volkswagen T-Roc video teases new small SUV five months early (updated)

    Sales of crossover utility vehicles—the ones that look like tough, capable, high-riding SUVs but actually sit on passenger-car underpinnings—continue to surge all over the world. Carmakers are meeting the demand by adding new varieties (four-door coupe utility vehicle, anyone?) and...

  • Riding in prototype of fully autonomous Nissan Leaf electric car, March 2017  [video: Fully Charged]
    Riding in prototype autonomous Nissan Leaf electric car: what it's like (video)

    It's been a vision of the future for decades now: self-driving cars that let you get in, specify your destination, and then curl up for a bit more sleep, waking when you arrive. That kind of anywhere-any-time autonomy remains some years in the future, most engineers suggest. Automakers are already...

  • First release candidate Tesla Model 3 electric car, from video tweeted by Elon Musk, March 2017
    First 'release candidate' Tesla Model 3 driven: video posted by Elon Musk

    The news earlier this week that the Tesla Model 3 would skip its usual "beta" development phase came as a shock to the industry and even to Tesla fans. With no reported sitings to date of Model 3 development versions on the roads, that seemed a startling and risky thing for Tesla to do. Especially...

  • 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric - frame from video road test
    2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric: first drive review of 124-mile electric car

    For the first six years of electric cars, from 2011 to 2016, we've had a variety of mass-priced cars with ranges of 62 to 107 miles. This year, in 2017, we got the Chevy Bolt EV, at 238 miles. But there's a new competitor as well. This is the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric. DON'T MISS: 2017 Hyundai...

  • 2017 Hyundai Ioniq video road test with Green Car Reports editor John Voelcker

    It's been said that the only global carmaker Toyota is really worried about is Hyundai. This year, the legendary Prius hybrid—which celebrates its 20th anniversary—has some new competition. This is the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq. It's a hybrid, but there are actually three models of the Ioniq. DON'T MISS: 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid: first drive review In addition to the hybrid, which will be the volume seller, there's a battery-electric version that has no gasoline engine at all. There's no Prius competitor for that, although at the end of 2017, there will be an Ioniq Plug-In hybrid that...

  • Tesla Model S battery pack teardown: frame from YouTube video by JehuGarcia, Feb 2017
    Tearing down the Tesla Model S battery pack (video)

    The lithium-ion battery pack is at the heart of any electric car. Its cost, energy density, and safety features do as much as any other feature of an electric car to determine its success. And battery packs from Tesla Motors differ from those built by virtually any other electric-car maker in at...

  • Engineering Explained talks about how the Tesla Model S can do the 0-60 run in 2.28 seconds
    Video explains how Tesla Model S P100D takes just 2.28 seconds to hit 60 mph

    The Tesla Model S, now into its sixth model year, just keeps getting quicker. When Tesla introduced the current P100D version, it quoted a 0-to-60-mph time of 2.5 seconds. But then it released a "Ludicrous Plus" software upgrade, cutting that time to 2.4 seconds. DON'T MISS: Tesla P100D 'Ludicrous...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV
    Chevy Bolt EV electric range: can 238 miles stretch to 300 miles?

    The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV has an official EPA-rated range of 238 miles per charge on the combined test cycle. That gives it the longest range of any electric car currently on sale in the U.S. that isn't a Tesla, at a base price around half that of the least-expensive model from the Silicon Valley...

  • Nikola Tesla drives a Tesla Model S in fan-made video
    Nikola Tesla drives Tesla Model S: amateur fan video imagines

    As an auto company that exclusively produces electric cars, Tesla Motors has a very appropriate name. It is, of course, named after Nikola Tesla, a famed engineer who pioneered technologies related to electricity. So what might Nikola Tesla think of his namesake? DON'T MISS: Pilot production of...

  • Lucid Air
    Lucid Air electric car video shows luxury sedan on the road

    Lucid Motors, the California automotive startup formerly known as Atieva, unveiled its Air electric car in December 2016. But so far, the car hasn't been seen on public roads. Lucid has now rectified that by releasing a video that shows its luxury sedan driving around the San Francisco Bay Area...

  • 2017 Toyota Mirai Super Bowl ad 'Daisy' screenshot

    As is the norm these days, the ads running during Super Bowl LI this past weekend drew almost as much attention as the game itself. Automakers are among the myriad companies that expend considerable creative and monetary resources on Super Bowl ads every year. And green cars make occasional appearances in these ads. DON'T MISS: Here are the car ads from Super Bowl LI Last year, Toyota used a Super Bowl spot to promote its Prius hybrid, which at the time was just beginning to roll out in redesigned, fourth-generation form. This year, the Japanese automaker switched to its Mirai fuel-cell...

  • Evatran Plugless Power review by Transport Evolve screenshot
    Using Plugless Power's wireless charging with Nissan Leaf: video

    Wireless charging for electric cars has been discussed for some time, but at last it is close to becoming a more realistic option for drivers. Evatran currently markets its Plugless wireless-charging system for multiple electric-car models. But what does it really take to ditch that charging...

  • 2017 Tesla Model S
    How high a hill could recharge a coasting Tesla electric car completely?

    One of the benefits of electric cars is that slowing down becomes a useful activity. Regenerative braking recovers energy normally lost as friction heat, as it does when the accelerator pedal is not pushed and the car is coasting. In some cars, regeneration is aggressive enough to allow "one-pedal...

  • 2017 Tesla Model S
    Tesla P100D 'Ludicrous Plus' mode makes electric car even faster

    As well as software updates to add back Autopilot functionality in its latest cars, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted on Twitter at an update to improve performance even further. Musk recently teased a software update that would allow the latest Model S P100D to do 0 to 60 mph in 2.4...

  • 2018 Toyota Camry
    2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid: two different battery packs, 'best-in-class' fuel economy claimed

    Masato Katsumata is Toyota's chief engineer for the global Camry sedan program—so when he speaks, it's worth listening. Following yesterday's Detroit Auto Show launch of an entirely new 2018 Toyota Camry mid-size sedan, he was one of several Toyota executives who answered media questions in a...

  • 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid
    Explaining how Honda Accord Hybrid system works: video

    The 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid mid-size sedan returned last year, ending a one-year hiatus for the model. The new version uses an updated version of the two-motor hybrid powertrain fitted to earlier hybrid Accords, which were sold as 2014 and 2015 models. That powertrain is notable because it uses a...

News First Drives Electric Cars Hybrids Guides Green Life