China

  • 2014 Tesla Model S in China

    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...

  • 2014 Tesla Model S in China
    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...

  • 2019 Volvo XC40
    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...

  • Chinese market Nissan Slyphy
    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...

  • Byton K-Byte concept
    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...

  • Byton SUV concept
    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...

  • Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland   [photo: Forth]

    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...

  • Infiniti Q Inspiration concept
    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.

  • Buick Velite concept, 2016 Guangzhou auto show
    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...

  • SF Motors SF5
    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

  • 2014 Tesla Model S in China
    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...

  • Traffic in China
    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...

  • Bob Lutz at Via Motors extended-range electric truck conversion launch, 2012 Detroit Auto Show

    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...

  • Ford's upcoming small off-road crossover SUV
    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...

  • Woman with smog mask (pic by Nicolò Lazzati on Flickr)
    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...

  • Volkswagen ID Neo concept, 2016 Paris auto show
    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...

  • 2018 Fiat 500e
    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...

  • Mercedes-Benz EQA concept, 2017 Frankfurt auto show
    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...

  • Honda CR-V Hybrid introduced at 2017 Shanghai auto show

    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...

  • BYD Yuan. Photo by Indian Autos Blog.
    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...

  • 2014 Tesla Model S in China
    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...

  • Faraday Future plant in Hanford, California
    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...

  • Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland   [photo: Forth]
    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...

  • Traffic in China
    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...

News First Drives Electric Cars Hybrids Guides Green Life