Electric Cars
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Pickups in the U.S. are often sold on the bragging rights of numbers—not the Olympic-sprinter acceleration times and top-speed numbers that sell performance cars, but in how high they can tip the scales in strongman-contest pulling and hauling tasks. For that, the electric pickups on the way from Tesla, Rivian, and others, provided they can overcome the significant range and charging concerns, are likely to boast some seriously competitive numbers. Certainly not everyone with towing needs is going to be able to forget about diesels and V-8s; but for those with occasional weekend-towing...
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Hackable home chargers, Tesla tax credits: Today's Car NewsWith a short holiday week and both readers and editors working to focus more on family time than glowing screens, we have a smaller deck of news pieces this morning here on Green Car Reports. In an announcement that should grab the attention of most electric-car owners, electronic security firm...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla offers to cover remainder of full tax credit if it can't deliver by year-endBuyers interested in a Tesla have just one week to take delivery before the full federal tax credit gets cut in half—unless Tesla can't get the car delivered until the new year, that is. Then, Tesla says it will make up the difference. There are some caveats, of course. CHECK OUT: Tesla...
Eric C. Evarts -
All-electric helicopter makes record flightElectric transportation is about more than cars. Trucks and buses are also moving toward electric propulsion. Planes, with their long ranges and high power demands seem to be harder. Where electric power does seem to be making progress in the skies is in helicopters. An independent engineering...
Eric C. Evarts -
Rivian fast charging, Volkswagen electrics, Trump vs GM: The Week in ReverseWhich upcoming electric car has a battery pack engineered to be upgraded to 800 volts? What company plans to do more serious marketing of electric cars' strengths? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending December 21, 2018. This...
Eric C. Evarts -
Faster Rivian charging, Tesla Autopilot chip, new Honda battery tech: Today's Car NewsSamsung might be supplying Tesla's promised new Autopilot chips in the spring. Honda reveals a new battery that could have 10 times the range of today's lithium-ion cells. And the U.S. hit a milestone for electric car sales last month, reaching 1 million plug-ins across the country. All this and...
Eric C. Evarts -
The race to build self-driving cars is heating up, with Google (Waymo), Tesla, Uber, Lyft, Ford, GM (Cruise), and others all vying to build the first reliable self-driving system. Now add Korean electronics giant Samsung to that list—with a twist. Its first client could be one of the major competitors in the business, Tesla. Tesla once had a partner in developing self-driving software, Israel's Mobileye, when it first launched its Autopilot system to great fanfare in 2014. DON'T MISS: Teslas to get new self-driving, Autopilot chip in spring 2019 After a widely reported fatal accident in...
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A million electric cars sold in the U.S., led by CaliforniaDrivers are buying electric cars, and advocates are keeping track. Last month, Veloz, an electric car advocacy organization consisting of regulators, automakers, charging manufacturers and networks, utilities and others, announced that the U.S. had surpassed 1 million electric car sales. That's...
Eric C. Evarts -
Honda presents new battery chemistry that could succeed lithium-ionResearchers from around the world are looking for the successor to the lithium-ion battery for electric cars, power tools, and electronics—one that will store more energy with less size and weight, charge more quickly, and have improved safety. All battery chemistries come with tradeoffs. The...
Eric C. Evarts -
Rivian electric pickup, SUV ready for future 800V upgrade—possibly in 2022The Michigan-based electric-vehicle hopeful Rivian claims that its upcoming R1T pickup and R1S sport-utility vehicle, both revealed last month around the LA Auto Show, will be able to recharge up to 200 miles of range in just 30 minutes—provided they’re connected to a DC fast charger...
Bengt Halvorson -
Nissan muscles up electric marketing, VW ID testing, Tesla fire: Today's Car NewsA new Chinese electric carmaker plans to sell electric cars in the U.S. via the owner of the defunct automaker Coda. A new Tesla Model S unexpectedly caught fire—twice—after getting a flat tire in California. And Volkswagen teased a video and images of its new I.D. electric hatchbacks...
Eric C. Evarts -
VW releases video of electric ID hatchback testing in South AfricaVolkswagen has heard the naysayers. After being caught cheating on emissions tests with its diesels and being forced to promote electric cars through various legal settlements around the world, the company clearly realizes it has a steep climb to convince consumers it is serious about selling a...
Eric C. Evarts -
A week after reports surfaced that a 2014 fire in a Tesla Model S was caused by a bullet fired from inside the car, in the battery of another brand new Tesla Model S caught fire in California. The owner told local news crews that he was driving on Highway 17, which runs from San Jose to Santa Cruz, California when the low tire pressure warning suddenly went off. He pulled off the highway and waited for a tow. DON'T MISS: First Tesla Model S Fire Caused By Collision With Road Debris (2013) After the car was towed to a tire repair shop in Los Gatos, the owner began hearing hissing sounds from...
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Chinese electric sports car Qiantu K50 might be made in U.S., with Coda connectionThere's quite a list of Chinese automakers that are relatively unknown outside China yet have grand plans to enter the U.S. market. The latest is China’s Qiantu Motor, which has developed an all-electric luxury sports car called the K50, The K50 went on sale in China earlier this year and...
Bengt Halvorson -
How Nissan hopes to market its future electric carsThe Nissan Leaf with a roughly 60-kilowatt-hour battery was expected to make its public debut at the LA Auto Show earlier this month. It didn’t. That car is expected to appear “very soon,” perhaps at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show to be held in Las Vegas next month. DON'T...
John Voelcker -
GM battery layoffs, Trump and fuel economy, more fast chargers: Today's Car NewsElectrify America gets plans approved to build more fast chargers in California. A new study shows what the Trump administration is missing about how fuel-economy standards affect vehicle affordability. And we have results from our last Twitter poll and a new poll for you to try. All this and more...
Eric C. Evarts -
GM battery facility discharge suggests no immediate successor for Chevy VoltWill the Chevrolet Volt get an immediate successor, or will any other model soon carry on with the potential of its brilliant Voltec plug-in hybrid system? Considering what General Motors announced yesterday, both of those possibilities are now looking less likely. GM said that it will cut 50 jobs...
Bengt Halvorson -
Will climate talks bring real progress? Take our Twitter pollLast weekend, climate talks in Poland wrapped up by scraping a length of thorns off the Paris-agreement rose stem. Global leaders de-thorned issues as sharp as how nations will measure progress toward reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, whether planting more forests should count, for example, how...
Eric C. Evarts -
EVgo launches its first ultra-fast charger in the desert. Microwave ignition claims to clean up internal combustion. And a group proposes publishing its own independent emissions tests. All this and more on Green Car Reports. "All-electric is not going to work," President Trump said in an interview with Fox News, in lashing out against GM for announcing factory closings that will kill the Chevy Volt next spring. EVgo joined other networks in launching its first new 350-kw fast charge station, nearly two years before the first cars capable of charging that fast go on the market. A new global...
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Electric cars "not going to work," Trump says of GM's planIn an interview with Fox News last week, President Trump revealed his inner thoughts about electric cars—not that many had any doubts. "All-electric is not going to work," he said, referring to General Motors' stated goal to transition to "a world with zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero...
Eric C. Evarts -
EVgo launches first public 350-kw fast chargerThe desert is full of apparitions. The latest is a high-powered DC fast charger for electric cars that don't yet exist. This apparition is an EVgo charging station in Baker, California, the "Gateway to Death Valley" on Interstate 15, halfway between L.A. and Las Vegas, installed last week. DON'T...
Eric C. Evarts -
Electric Infiniti, Hyundai Kona Electric price, Nio ES6, German batteries: Today's Car NewsInfiniti plans to introduce a concept version of its first production electric car at the Detroit auto show next month. Hyundai announces pricing for its upcoming Kona Electric. Chinese electric startup automaker Nio reveals its second production model. And German automakers announce big...
Eric C. Evarts -
Nio ES6 makes appearance in China, on sale JuneChinese electric automaker Nio introduced its second, most mainstream, model at an event in China on Saturday. The Nio ES6 is a small-to-midsize crossover vehicle, which, according to Nio's optimistic specs, could deliver 258 miles range from its standard 70-kilowatt-hour battery, or 289 miles from...
Eric C. Evarts -
German automakers commit to massive battery purchases, sidestep some hard realitiesDaimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, last week revealed that it will be buying $23 billion in battery cells by 2030. What it didn’t fully reveal—its sources for those cells—says as much, if not more about a point of unease among German automakers. Battery packs—and...
Bengt Halvorson