Electric Cars
-
Which two startup companies showed new ways to get more miles out of an electric vehicle? What Chinese automaker received approval to import new models to the U.S. this week? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending March 1, 2019. Tesla has promised a $35,000 electric car with 220 miles of range now for three years, and that base Model 3 finally arrived Thursday. Along with it, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the company will close many of its stores and move entirely to online sales and he laid out his plan for Full-Self...
-
$35,000 Tesla Model 3, "Full Self-Driving" returns, BMW-Mercedes car sharing: Today's Car NewsTesla announced it will sell the base $35,000 Model 3 this month, and will only sell cars online going forward. At the same time, CEO Elon Musk announced plans for the company's long-awaited Full Self-Driving system. The U.S. Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler as permanent EPA Administrator. Daimler...
Eric C. Evarts -
Mercedes joins forces with BMW to build an electric ecosystemMaking electric cars accessible to more people requires developing an ecosystem that would help drivers charge, and occasionally get to destinations that might not yet be ideal for an electric car—like a long road trip. To bridge those gaps for buyers of its upcoming EQC and other electric...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla Full Self-Driving will still require drivers when it arrives later this yearTesla CEO Elon Musk has said that he expects Tesla vehicles to have "Full Self-Driving" capability by the end of 2019. In a media call Thursday night to announce the base, $35,000 Model 3, Musk for the first time gave a concrete explanation of what he means by that. He said that by the end of the...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla Model 3 Standard Range arrives soon at $35,000 and 220 miles. Really.In 2016, Tesla created a fever pitch over its Model 3 promise: $35,000 with a range of 220 miles. The company claimed more than 450,000 reservations were made for the Model 3, at $1,000 each, in part because of that low price and high range. On Thursday, Tesla announced that its entry-level Model 3...
Bengt Halvorson -
Nissan Leaf progress, fast electric motorcycle charging, Audi plug-ins: Today's Car NewsAudi plans to introduce four new plug-in hybrids at next week's Geneva auto show. A drive in the Nissan Leaf Plus reveals how far electric cars have come in nine years. Electric motorcycle maker Zero has a novel way to get faster charging and longer trips on an electric bike. And German prosecutors...
Eric C. Evarts -
When a completely new vehicle is introduced, it's generally around for five to seven years before an entirely redesigned generation of that vehicle is launched. By that measure, the 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus we reviewed earlier this week is ancient, with a basic structure in its ninth model year—though it received a very thorough restyling for 2018. In electric-car years, the Leaf is even older. But looking back at its humble beginnings underscores how fast battery-powered vehicles and our expectations for them have advanced. We dug out the briefing book from our first-ever drive of a...
-
Audi plans new plug-in hybrid Q5, A6, A7, and A8 for Geneva revealAudi's future plans for plug-in vehicles involve more than the all-electric e-tron quattro scheduled to roll out later this year. Now, with the previous plug-in hybrid, the A3 Sportback e-tron, already in the rearview mirror, the company has announced plans to reboot its plug-in lineup with four...
Eric C. Evarts -
Volvo's Polestar 2 electric car, plug-in Jeeps, Honda e Prototype: Today's Car NewsHonda showed off its e Prototype concept for the upcoming Geneva auto show. Volvo unveiled its first all-electric car, the Polestar 2, and we compared it with the Tesla Model 3 Fiat Chrysler announced a new $4.5 million investment to lay the groundwork to begin producing plug-in versions of all of...
Eric C. Evarts -
Do you look forward to home wireless charging? Twitter poll resultsIn a study released on Tuesday, Volvo and its Harris polling partners found that 29 percent of electric-car drivers wished for more wireless charging. That may or may not be what our readers think. After one of the biggest suppliers of wireless charging, Qualcomm, announced last week that it would...
Eric C. Evarts -
Honda e Prototype is a production-bound Urban EV for EuropeOne of Honda’s best-received concepts of recent memory was the car that it brought to the Frankfurt auto show in 2017—the Urban EV Concept, a model that reincarnated the automaker’s old City hatchback, with elements of retro Civic thrown in, all built as a modern electric car...
Bengt Halvorson -
Fiat Chrysler lays groundwork to build electrified Jeep modelsWith a $4.5 billion investment in manufacturing in Michigan announced Tuesday, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will put some big plans in motion to electrify its entire future Jeep lineup. That is likely to include a new Jeep Grand Cherokee plug-in hybrid, based on an all-new Grand Cherokee planned to...
Eric C. Evarts -
A Volvo/Harris poll reveals that three quarters of Americans see electric cars as the future—and they might buy one if more chargers were available. Porsche announced that its next Macan small SUV won't offer a gas engine. Our Twitter poll has some suggestions for other names for an upcoming high-performance SUV from Ford. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Porsche revealed on Monday that the entire next generation of the Macan, due out in 2022, will be based on the company's PPE premium electric platform—which doesn't allow for a gas engine. A new patent filing from Rivian...
-
Rivian patent reveals removable battery for the truck bedRivian is proving that there's more than one way to get more range out of an electric car. A new patent filing from the company reveals that its upcoming R1T electric pickup could have even more than 400 miles of range by using an auxiliary battery in the bed of the pickup. The filing was revealed...
Eric C. Evarts -
What name should Ford revive for a future electric vehicle? Take our Twitter PollFord has teased its planned 300-mile-electric performance SUV, but so far it's thin on details—other than the fact that it's supposed to be inspired by the performance of the Mustang (and, to some degree the F-150 Raptor off-road pickup.) Originally, the company said it might call the new...
Eric C. Evarts -
Poll suggests more Americans might buy an EV—if only they had a place to chargeAlmost three-quarters of Americans see electric cars as the future of transportation, according to a new Volvo/Harris poll released Tuesday. In the poll conducted last October, which surveyed 1,510 drivers in the U.S. during the middle of October, including 250 electric-car drivers, 74 percent of...
Eric C. Evarts -
Fully electric Porsche Macan due by 2022 will replace gasoline model entirelyPorsche has somewhat publicly, for months if not years, been examining the possibility of producing an electric version of its top-selling model, the Macan. It turns out that may not have been the whole truth, and what's actually now confirmed is a huge step beyond just another version to satisfy...
Bengt Halvorson -
Chinese Kandi cars, longer-range Volvos, Nissan Leaf Plus review: Today's Car NewsA new car company from China gets approval to sell electric cars in the U.S. We have a first chance to drive the longer-range Nissan Leaf Plus. Volvo gives is plug-in hybrids additional battery range for 2020. And the last Volt rolls off the assembly line. All this and more on Green Car Reports. We...
Eric C. Evarts -
With the end of Chevrolet Volt production last week, it looks more like pure electric cars are winning the race to transform driving over more complicated, if versatile plug-in hybrids. GM built the last 2019 Chevy Volt on February 15, and in a ceremony last Tuesday it rolled off the assembly line at GM's Hamtramck factory in Detroit—after building almost 160,000 of the cars since 2011. The end came two weeks earlier than the company originally announced. On Friday, General Motors announced that it would temporarily extend production at Hamtramck for seven more months, through January...
-
Volvo XC90, XC60 T8 plug-in hybrids add electric miles for 2020Volvo announced on Friday that it is updating its lineup with two new "mild-hybrids" and more electric range for its existing T8 plug-in hybrid models. The XC60 and XC90 T8 plug-in hybrids will get up to 15 percent more range, according to Volvo's European announcement, which could boost their...
Eric C. Evarts -
Chinese Kandi electric cars a step closer to U.S. arrival (Updated)The federal government has given initial approval for the Chinese electric car manufacturer Kandi to import two electric cars to the U.S. in coming years, the company announced to investors last week. The company, which is known as Zhejiang Kangdi Vehicles Company in China, is publicly traded on...
Eric C. Evarts -
First drive review: The 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus delivers more power, 226-mile range at lastAt the moment, there are more Nissan Leafs on the world’s roads than any other electric car in history—closing in on 400,000. As of Jan 1, Nissan had delivered 380,000 Leafs globally, 130,000 of them in the United States. Nissan is entirely aware that honor may not last long. It all...
John Voelcker -
Reused Nissan Leaf batteries make happy campers with powered pop-up trailerElectric-car batteries need to get recycled or reused at the end of their road. And campers are always in need of more batteries to stay out longer and run more things without resorting to gas power. Combine the two needs and you get the Nissan x Opus, an inflatable, folding camping trailer that...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla Model 3 reliability, Bill Gates, California fast lanes: The Week in ReverseWhich electric car gets great satisfaction but subpar reliability ratings? What did a bill in California propose instead of the high-speed rail project from San Francisco to LA? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending Feb. 22...
Eric C. Evarts