Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)
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Not a lot has changed since last month: Buyers continue to move from passenger sedans to crossovers and trucks, and gasoline remains relatively cheap. That means you can pick up some bargains fuel-efficient and electrified vehicles. DON'T MISS: Lexus lowers hybrid prices a lot to cut premium over gasoline Our list of deals for March, courtesy of CarsDirect, includes a variety of discounts: low financing rates, cheap leases, and money off sticker prices. They cover a variety of vehicle types, with hybrids among the heavily discounted. Hybrids As it's done for a few months now, the 2018 Kia...
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Tesla Model 3 quality is terrible, but will it matter to buyers?
So we've finally had the chance to spend time with a 2018 Tesla Model 3, courtesy of a generous and devoted Green Car Reports reader. We'll have our first-drive report and a full review of the car within a day or two—but that's not what this article is about. The build quality of the early...
John Voelcker -
Audi e-tron electric SUV appears in camouflage at Geneva show, on city roads
The Geneva auto show was expected to offer the first head-to-head comparison between the first two all-electric SUVs models from European luxury brands, both starting deliveries later this year. It didn't quite work out that way. The 2019 Jaguar I-Pace did indeed debut last Friday, before media...
John Voelcker -
Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, Feb 2018: turning over new Leafs
Cumulative Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales surpassed 50,000 units in February, aided by the second-generation 2018 Nissan Leaf, which sold 179 units in its “rookie” month. Unfortunately for the world’s best-selling plug-in electric vehicle (and third-best in Canada), its...
Matthew Klippenstein -
2019 Jaguar I-Pace electric crossover priced from $70,495 in U.S.
The 2019 Jaguar I-Pace, the brand's first-ever production electric car, made its debut last Thursday before the Geneva auto show. At that time, only U.K. pricing was given—but on Tuesday, Jaguar released the U.S. price for the electric crossover utility vehicle that goes on sale sometime this...
John Voelcker -
Which electric car is your favorite? Take our Twitter poll
This week's Geneva auto show has seen lots of news about new electric cars, but almost all of them come from luxury brands. The 2019 Jaguar I-Pace has made its debut, Aston Martin announced its Lagonda brand would be dedicated to all-electric vehicles, and so forth. That's all very nice, but what...
John Voelcker -
The storied British brand Lagonda has been owned for half a century by the tiny maker Aston Martin, best known globally for its connection to James Bond, Agent 007. It's had a number of iterations, including a startling low, sleek, square-edged sedan designed by William Towns in the 1970s and a concept for a hulking SUV in 2009 that thankfully never arrived in the flesh. These days, Aston Martin is led by Andy Palmer, the man who shepherded the 2011 Leaf into production while he was product chief at Nissan. DON'T MISS: Aston Martin RapidE electric luxury sedan delayed to 2019 as Williams...
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Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo concept: second electric model previewed
A design study for the second version of the Porsche Mission E electric sport sedan broke cover Tuesday at the Geneva auto show. The closely guarded concept car is effectively a shooting brake version of the low-slung Mission E sedan that debuted at the 2015 Frankfurt show and will go on sale by...
John Voelcker -
Volkswagen ID Vizzion concept for all-electric sedan by 2022 debuts in Geneva
What's known as Volkswagen Group Night is always a major event at European auto shows. One of the marquee attractions at Monday night's event, held before Geneva auto show media days start Tuesday, was the Volkswagen ID Vizzion concept for a large, all-electric sedan. It will be the largest car in...
John Voelcker -
Jaguar I-Pace beats Tesla Model X in electric car drag-race video
The 2019 Jaguar I-Pace SUV that debuted Thursday beat all the German luxury makes to the punch in launching a viable competitor to the looks and capabilities of electric cars offered by Tesla. The 14-year-old Silicon Valley startup has attracted huge attention for the stunning acceleration of its...
John Voelcker -
2019 Jaguar I-Pace electric crossover debuts in production trim; estimated 240-mile range
Total sales by Jaguar Land Rover are a fraction of those by its rivals Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. Arguably, that has required the British luxury maker to be more agile and more creative to compete. While Audi has discussed its plans for an all-electric crossover utility version for more than two...
John Voelcker -
NHTSA finalizes quiet-car rule for hybrids, electrics, to take full effect in 2020
The idea of adding noise-makers to vehicles that are "too quiet" didn't exist until the first hybrid-electric cars hit the market in 2000. Within a few years, however, organizations representing the blind began to raise alarms that cars operating at low speeds solely on electric power couldn't be...
John Voelcker -
While Dyson may be best known worldwide for high-tech vacuum cleaners, the company has a strong affinity for what the British call "boffins," which roughly translates to "eccentric genius inventors." With a slight resemblance to Doc Brown of "Back to the Future" (as played by Christopher Lloyd), company founder James Dyson epitomizes the type. Now Dyson has embarked on a daring new gamble in consumer appliances powered by electricity: automobiles. DON'T MISS: Dyson electric car for 2020 draws executives from Aston Martin, Tesla A lengthy article in the British Financial Times two weeks ago...
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Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car: what's inside the battery? Teardown video shows all
The battery packs of most modern electric cars are far different than those in your mobile phone or other portable devices. In most cases, they include hundreds or thousands of cells, arranged into modules, and usually surrounded by channels containing liquid coolant to keep the battery in its...
John Voelcker -
Is this the country's first Chevrolet Bolt EV police car? (updated with video)
Using electric cars as police vehicles has some distinct advantages. Among them are near-silent operation, maximum acceleration from 0 rpm, and a novelty factor that can lead to friendly, beneficial interactions between officers and citizens. Now, the small Maryland city of Hyattsville, a suburb of...
John Voelcker -
Hyundai Kona Electric debuts before Geneva show; 292-mile range from top model
The lack of plug-in electric crossover utility vehicles with all-wheel drive is a growing and obvious gap in the market. And where there's a gap, aggressive South Korean carmaker Hyundai may try to fill it. The company has now released many of the details of the Hyundai Kona Electric small SUV that...
John Voelcker -
2018 Nissan Leaf electric car: four-day winter road-trip review
The first generation of mass-priced electric cars with ranges of 60 to 90 miles simply didn't have enough range to be used outside predictable daily commute duties and local errands around town. Sure, four-fifths of vehicles in the U.S. cover less than 40 miles a day—but that other fifth...
John Voelcker -
Tesla expects 200,000th U.S. sale this year, electric-car tax credits to start phaseout
It's been a topic of discussion for years: What will happen when a carmaker reaches the cap on U.S. sales of electric cars that qualify for the full federal tax credit of $7,500? That number is 200,000; after the rest of that calendar quarter and the one following, the credit is halved for a...
John Voelcker -
Today, most people charge their electric cars at home, overnight. That's much harder for residents of multiple dwellings or those without dedicated off-street parking, increasing numbers of whom instead recharge during the day while parked at their workplace. Now Tesla plans to make it easier for owners of its cars—and only them—to charge at work. DON'T MISS: Why Electric-Car Charging At Work Matters: Explaining The 'Duck Curve' (Apr 2014) Workplace charging gets less attention than home charging and the need for DC fast charging along highways for longer road trips, but it's a...
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China's BYD tops global electric-car production for third year in a row
Try asking any electric-car owner or advocate, or for that matter any member of the public, which automaker sold the most electric cars last year. In North America, the answer will likely be Tesla, or possibly Nissan or Chevrolet. But we'd bet you hear Tesla most often. The correct answer for...
John Voelcker -
2018 Renault Zoe electric car: more powerful motor to go with last year's bigger battery
The subcompact Renault Zoe hatchback has been Europe's best-selling electric car for several years now. Last year, sales soared after it received a major upgrade to its battery pack, which grew to 41 kilowatt-hours, up from 22 kwh in earlier versions, almost doubling its range to 300 to 400...
John Voelcker -
Nissan, Tesla surpass 300,000 electric cars; one started later, one did it with a single model
Only two automakers have built and sold more than 300,000 battery-electric cars to date. One is from Japan, the other from Silicon Valley. And each can claim a specific distinction within those totals. DON'T MISS: 300,000th Nissan Leaf sold as new electric car deliveries start We know that the...
John Voelcker -
Volkswagen ID Vizzion large all-electric sedan teased before Geneva debut
Volkswagen's first dedicated battery-electric vehicle will roll off the production lines in 21 months, but we won't see the compact hatchback ID model in North America. Instead, the first dedicated VW plug-in electric vehicle will be the production version of the ID Cross compact crossover that's...
John Voelcker -
Opel to swap Ampera-e (aka Bolt EV) for all-electric Corsa model in 2020
It's been six months since General Motors completed the sale of its Opel division in Europe to PSA Group, the French parent of the Citroën, DS, and Peugeot brands. With the sale came licenses to run out the model life of GM-designed vehicles sold as Opels (and Vauxhalls in the U.K.) while PSA...
John Voelcker