Electric Cars
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To offset lower tax credits for its cars that started New Year's Day, Tesla dropped prices by $2,000 for every model on Wednesday. That doesn't quite make up for the $3,750 drop in federal tax credits, and it still doesn't get the company to its stated goal of selling the Model 3 for as low as $35,000. According to independent delivery reports, Tesla actually added slightly to its stockpiled inventory of Model 3s in December, despite overlapping efforts to bring buyers in. That's led some observers to speculate that all the remaining customers in Tesla's order books are waiting to buy...
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What are your hopes for plug-in cars in 2019? Twitter poll resultsWhen we asked our readers what they most hope for in the new year in the electric-car world last week our readers put a priority on making electric cars more affordable and easier to drive everywhere over having more new models to choose from. In our Twitter poll last week, we asked our followers...
Eric C. Evarts -
Some used electric-car prices start tracking higherYes, really. Used electric cars have appreciated in value, in some cases. Call it a market adjustment or a momentary blip. You have one more thing to toast this new year: that the value of your electric vehicle probably isn’t plunging as rapidly as it was. It may, actually have gone up in...
Bengt Halvorson -
Tesla cuts prices $2,000, almost hit 250,000 vehicles in 2018Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk made a multi-layered end-of-year push, focused on Tesla's final days and weeks of $7,500 federal EV tax credit eligibility. And with more than 90,000 vehicle deliveries in the fourth quarter of the year—a new record for the California electric-car maker—it...
Bengt Halvorson -
What effect will lower tax credits on Tesla and GM plug-ins have in the new year? Take our Twitter pollThe wind-down of federal tax credits on plug-in vehicles begins to hit in 2019. Tax credits for Tesla buyers were already reduced to $3,750 on Tuesday. The same reduction is scheduled to hit GM's plug-in models, the Chevy Volt and Bolt EV on April 1. The reduction in the credits is likely to have...
Eric C. Evarts -
Trump relaxes coal emissions standards (again) over holiday weekFor the second time in a month, the Trump administration has rolled back emissions restrictions on coal-fired power plants. Early in December, the EPA announced a new proposal that would undo carbon-dioxide limits on coal plants, overturning one of President Obama's signature climate change...
Eric C. Evarts -
Automakers face some daunting challenges in selling electric vehicles to urban apartment-dwellers, who are often without a home charging point. As a partial response, Volkswagen has shown a portable DC fast charging unit aimed at urban environments or temporary use at events or in parking lots—and it could be a very useful part of a strategy to help provide enough backup options for making electric-car ownership in big cities work. The station is built around the principle of a power bank, which most people are familiar with, as a way of getting a little more charge on the go when our...
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Tesla's new board members, Calfornia's new stickers: Today's Car NewsHappy New Year! For today's holiday-shortened lineup, we remind California readers that 2018's Clean Air stickers are no longer valid i in the state's carpool lanes. And we look at the two new independent board members that Tesla has named under the company's settlement with the SEC over CEO Elon...
Eric C. Evarts -
California white and green carpool stickers expire New Year's DayCalifornia plug-in car drivers with white or green carpool stickers can no longer use carpool lanes starting Tuesday. The state passed a new program last March that invalidates both the white stickers for electric cars and the green stickers for plug-in hybrids with the start of 2019. For many of...
Eric C. Evarts -
Pickup drivers target Tesla Superchargers in "ICEing" incidentsPeople are jealous of things they can't (or don't) have. In a spate of incidents reminiscent of "rolling coal," truck drivers have begun seemingly intentionally blocking whole banks of Tesla Superchargers across parts of the South. Photos shared across Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit over the weekend...
Eric C. Evarts -
Porsche Taycan orders, electric towing, urban-charging reality check: The Week in ReverseWhich upcoming electric car is already sold out for a year, before it even goes on sale? What company warned electric-car drivers that networked home chargers could be hacked and potentially damage electrical systems? This is our look back at the (short) Week In Reverse—right here at Green...
Eric C. Evarts -
Jaguar I-Pace road trip, Subaru Forester hybrid, Porsche Taycan sold out: Today's Car NewsPorsche reveals that the first year's production of its 2020 Taycan electric car is sold out. Subaru plans a sporty hybrid concept version of the Forester for the Tokyo auto show. And the city of Beverly Hills, California, which banned plug-in hybrids from its public chargers last spring will have...
Eric C. Evarts -
Banning plug-in hybrids from public chargers is no good. That's the conclusion of a new California law signed in September, which forbids cities from restricting access to public chargers for any type of electric vehicles in the state. After making a big splash by banning plug-in hybrids from its public chargers last April, the city of Beverly Hills, California, will have to grant them access by New Year's. READ THIS: Beverly Hills bans plug-in hybrids from public charging stations There are caveats, of course. According to the California law that requires all types of plug-in vehicles to...
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Porsche Taycan sold out for a year—to mostly Tesla driversAs much as they evangelize Tesla, it turns out Tesla owners may be looking for an upgrade. Klaus Zellmer, Porsche's president and CEO for North America, disclosed in an interview that the company's upcoming 2020 Taycan electric sports car could be sold out for a year with pre-orders from customers...
Eric C. Evarts -
The 2019 Jaguar I-Pace, a city boy, and range anxietyElectric vehicles aren’t made for me. It’s not that I’m not for them. My circumstances just don’t fit with the realities of charging. I live in Chicago, in a 100-year-old apartment building converted to condominiums 17 years ago. I have a spot in a parking lot behind the...
Kirk Bell -
Tesla Model 3 headlights, Porsche Taycan Turbo, expiring tax credits: Today's Car NewsPorsche may be planning electric "Turbos." Expiring electric-car tax credits hit U.S. automakers and benefit imports in contrast to Trump policies. And our Twitter followers are not optimistic about climate talks. All this and more on Green Car Reports. After Tesla updated the headlights on the...
Eric C. Evarts -
Opinion: Expiring tax credits hurt U.S. automakers, favor importsPresident Trump campaigned on a promise to aid U.S. manufacturers and provide more incentives for them to produce products in the U.S. Now the President, seemingly in opposition to that stance, has launched into a war of words with two of America's largest automakers—its youngest and one of...
Eric C. Evarts -
Would a Porsche Taycan Turbo confuse the Mission for sports-car brand's electric car?The Porsche Taycan—since way back in its early 2015 Mission E Concept days—has been discussed by Porsche in two distinct ways. On one hand it’s a Tesla rival, capable of meeting higher standards of performance than the Model S or Model 3. And on the other hand it’s at the...
Bengt Halvorson -
Last month, world leaders met in Poland to agree on the next steps in measuring and limiting climate change. Despite the U.S., Australia, Russia, Saudi Arabia and others meeting on the sidelines to promote burning coal, the leaders reached some agreements on how the Paris Climate Accords will be implemented when it goes into effect in 2020: Each signatory to the agreement (which President Trump says won't include the U.S. by then) will report their emissions every two years, and for now they will abide by levels originally set in 2015 in Paris, despite a U.N. report that climate change is...
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Tesla Model 3 now in the running for IIHS Top Safety Pick+Most cars these days perform really well on crash tests. Where they fall down in ratings from the IIHS is usually in either headlight performance or underperforming active safety features. The IIHS confirmed on Wednesday via Twitter that updated headlights on the Tesla Model 3 received the...
Eric C. Evarts -
Electric towing, Lexus electric, sharing chargers: Today's Car NewsElectric SUVs and pickups could be just the thing for those who tow. Lexus trademarks a name for a possible upcoming electric SUV. ChargePoint signs another sharing agreement, this time with the Greenlots network. And our Twitter poll asks what readers' hopes are for electric cars in the New Year...
Eric C. Evarts -
UX small crossover could spawn fully electric Lexus, trademark move suggestsAlthough Toyota isn’t in any big hurry to develop and push out electric vehicles to its dealerships—especially in the U.S., as recent executive comments have suggested—there might be a different trajectory planned for electrifying Lexus showrooms. In a trademark filing earlier...
Bengt Halvorson -
What are your hopes for plug-in cars in 2019?People wish for all kinds of things. When it comes to electric cars, there are several types of things green car fans may wish for to get more such cars on the road, from easier charging to more tax credits, to more types of models. Our Twitter poll for this annual time of reflection between...
Eric C. Evarts -
Chargepoint partners with Greenlots to expand access for driversForget five-minute fill-ups. What seems to drive many electric car drivers crazy is making sure the charger they find has the right connector, how fast the charger is (in kilowatts), and whether they have the right credentials to activate it. Without a single one of these parameters, you may not be...
Eric C. Evarts