China
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In this post "1984" world, most consumers acquiesce to sharing their data with companies in return for better, quicker, more convenient, cheaper, or even free services. How many, however, would voluntarily turn over data about everywhere they went and when to the government, particularly a Communist government? According to a new AP report, that's exactly what electric car drivers do in China every time they get behind the wheel. Local laws in China require more than 200 electric-car manufacturers—but not the makers of internal combustion cars—to transmit 61 data points, including...
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Tesla secures site for Chinese factory
In the midst of escalating trade wars, Tesla is moving ahead with its plans to build a factory in China. The company announced on Wednesday that it signed a "land transfer" agreement with the Shanghai government for a 212-acre plot to build its proposed Chinese factory. The land transfer agreement...
Eric C. Evarts -
Report: Volvo's parent company in talks with Toyota over hybrid systems
Toyota revealed on Thursday that it is in talks with Chinese automaker Geely, which owns Volvo, about cooperation on hybrid vehicle technology, Reuters reported. As the company that has sold by far the most hybrids worldwide, the discussions could involve selling Toyota hybrid technology in Geely...
Eric C. Evarts -
Nissan Leaf sedan: Company builds Sylphy, first electric car for China
Nissan on Monday announced it had started production in China of a Nissan Leaf-based sedan called the Sylphy. The company first introduced the car at the Beijing auto show in April. China, the world's largest market for electric cars, also leans heavily toward sedans. The Sylphy stretches the...
Eric C. Evarts -
Chinese electric-car startup Byton reveals its second concept: a Level 4 self-driving sedan
Just months after debuting its first concept vehicle, Chinese electric-car startup Byton on Tuesday took the wraps off a second model that it says previews a production-intent self-driving electric sedan with a lightweight, aerodynamic body. The Byton K-Byte concept that the automaker showed off...
Andrew Ganz -
Chinese electric-car builder Byton says it raised $500 million
A $500 million infusion from investors including an automaker and a major battery supplier could help Chinese electric-car startup Byton put its cars on the road by the end of next year, the company said Monday. Byton said that its big investors—Chinese state-owned automaker FAW Group...
Andrew Ganz -
More than four years ago, this site looked back at its first five years of coverage to assess what had changed—and what we'd learned. Now, we're repeating the exercise. By February 2014, Green Car Reports had published about 9,800 news articles. The number is now up to more than 16,800. Much has changed since then, however. We've broken down our thoughts into seven lessons, although regular readers will know that the site has covered each of these themes at some length over the years. DON'T MISS: Green Car Reports, Five Years And 9,800 Articles Later (Feb 2014) (1) A "green car" is now...
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Infiniti announces new electric car lineup based on Q Inspiration
At the Beijing Auto Showthis week, Infiniti announced that a sedan based on the Q Inspiration will go into production by 2023, and that its platform will spawn a new lineup of Infiniti electric cars.
Eric C. Evarts -
Buick to launch new electric, plug-in hybrid models in China; what about US?
For 15 years now, Buick has been a far more important brand in China than it is in North America: four out of five Buicks sold globally are purchased by Chinese buyers. The brand has a wider range and variety of vehicles in that country, along with numerous models U.S. buyers never lay eyes on. So...
John Voelcker -
Tesla founder, Chinese company launch SF Motors electric cars
SF Motors revealed its first two electric cars, to be produced next year at the Hummer factory in South Bend Indiana
Eric C. Evarts -
What China learned from California about getting electric cars on its roads
In the U.S., California has long been viewed culturally as the crazy, free-spirited cousin. As Californians like to point out, their state of 40 million people is also the world's sixth-largest economy all by itself. Resolutely progressive, it has regulated vehicle emissions for five decades and...
John Voelcker -
China plans to standardize electric-car tech nationally to expand its global lead
Sales of plug-in electric vehicles in China were almost four times those in the U.S. last year, and the gap is expected to widen this year. The world's largest car market is engineering a massive shift over the next two decades away from cars with combustion engines toward battery-powered cars. It...
John Voelcker -
Electric trucks are getting more attention now than they did eight years ago, as the world prepared for the launch of the first modern electric cars to be sold in volume. The Tesla Semi tends to draw enormous amounts of attention, while less glamorous fleet buyers are ever more favorable toward plug-in electric trucks for known urban routes within their battery range. But one company that's been around for many years has been relatively quiet of late. DON'T MISS: Via Motors 100 MPG Electric Pickup Launching At Detroit (Dec 2011) That would be Via Motors, founded eight years ago to sell...
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Ford's future hybrid, electric-car lineup: 5 things to know
The "Ford Uncovered Future Product Forum" held Thursday for journalists was a break in recent tradition for Detroit's second-largest automaker. The abrupt firing of CEO Mark Fields last May was an indication that Ford's board of directors wasn't happy with progress in preparing the company for a...
John Voelcker -
Why the future of electric cars depends on China's war on pollution
Roughly half of everyone alive in the U.S. today has never experienced really bad smog. Those over, say, age 45—big-city residents and Angelenos especially—may recall hazy days in which the sun was barely visible, and air that actually tasted metallic. It's a memorable experience, and...
John Voelcker -
VW Group has nailed down $25 billion of batteries for electric cars, it said today
For a company that has only two battery-electric models in production, both several years old, VW Group spends a great deal of time talking about electric cars. The company has plans to launch 30 new electric vehicles by 2025, and has released four Volkswagen ID concepts, the first of which will...
John Voelcker -
Underestimating electric cars was a mistake (in China), says FCA's Marchionne
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has large challenges, even nine years after it was formed when the Italian company Fiat took over the bankrupt U.S. maker Chrysler. While its Jeep and Ram truck brands are doing well, it sells only three passenger cars in North America above the subcompact category, all of...
John Voelcker -
Mercedes-Benz takes the electric car plunge, but diesel is here to stay
Daimler AG executives said Tuesday that diesel power for Mercedes cars is here to stay, even as electric cars and electrified mobility spreads throughout its passenger and commercial vehicles, and even its global partnerships. Electrified vehicles include everything from 48-volt mild hybrids...
Martin Padgett -
The Honda CR-V Hybrid, a more fuel-efficient version of the company's best-selling compact crossover, has been around for almost a year now. It's on sale in China, announced for Japan, and now, as of Tuesday, it's slated to arrive in European markets early in 2019. As for North America? The company offers radio silence, saying only it will offer information "when the time is right." WATCH THIS: 2019 Honda Insight video preview from Detroit auto show Honda said it intends to offer electrified versions of two-thirds of its vehicle lines in the U.S. But the date it has set for achieving that...
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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 -
Where will we see the most electric-car innovation? Twitter poll results
Innovation can be a hard concept to define as it relates to electric cars. Sure, there are the powertrains and structural designs of the vehicles themselves—including new proportions for the cabin enabled by the compact running gear and battery packs under the floor. But there are also many...
John Voelcker -
Faraday Future promised $1.5 billion, says FF 91 will arrive by end of this year
Starting a car company is not only very, very hard—as Tesla, Fisker, and many others testify—but requires breathtaking sums of money. Now struggling Faraday Future, the electric-car startup firm whose entrepreneurial Chinese backer is facing legal action in his home country, appears to...
John Voelcker -
Where will we see the most electric-car innovation? Take our Twitter poll
It hasn't emerged much into the public eye, but some advocates and auto-industry sources have had quiet discussions on whether the U.S. will continue to lead the world in electric-car technology in a new decade. California remains the epicenter of plug-in car adoption, with roughly half the...
John Voelcker -
China's largest electric-car battery maker, CATL, sets sights on U.S. market
Just a handful of companies today make the bulk of battery cells used in plug-in electric cars worldwide. Now the largest single maker of electric-vehicle cells in China has expanded its focus, from the home market to global markets and specifically the U.S. The name, CATL, may not be familiar to...
John Voelcker