Electric Cars

  • EVgo charging station in Union City, California with resused BMW i3 battery backup

    Charging network EVgo has installed second-life batteries from two BMW i3s to its charging station in Union City, California, the company announced last week. The two batteries each store 22 kwh of electricity to help balance the load on the power grid when electric cars are charging at peak times, according to a report in Charged EVs. EVgo says they also store solar power produced during peak daylight hours to provide clean electricity for charging at night. DON'T MISS: As used electric-car batteries set to flood market, Automakers ramp up reuse efforts The batteries, contained in a single...

  • Nissan Leaf Nismo Concept, 2017 Tokyo Motor Show
    "Leaving" in a hurry? Sporty Nissan Leaf Nismo headed for Japan

    Mainstream automakers that have been building electric cars are getting the message that they're on the wrong road. As Nissan, Ford, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and others have churned out low-range, and sometimes uninspiring electric hatchbacks, they've seen the success Tesla has had in building...

  • Tesla Model 3 all-wheel drive Performance rolls off a new assembly line in a temporary structure
    Tesla Model 3 shows bigger profit in latest cost breakdown

    Tesla isn't the only one with a lot riding on the financial success of the Model 3. CEO Elon Musk has called ramping up production of the Model 3 a "bet the company" decision, and said that if the company couldn't build 5,000 of the cars a week, Tesla would "die." Thousands of individual and...

  • 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
    2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV review, Lexus F hybrids, and big oil skepticism of electric cars: Today's Car News

    We review the fuel economy of the 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Lexus mulls hybrid systems for its F-series performance cars. Big oil refineries voice skepticism over electric cars. And the results are in from our latest Twitter poll. All of this and more on Green Car Reports. Green Car Reports...

  • 2018 Lexus GS F
    Lexus may add hybrid power to future, high-performance F Sport models

    Tesla shook up the luxury car world by showing that performance cars could be electric. After the German brands followed suit, Lexus could be the latest automaker to follow suit. In an interview at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, brand CEO Yoshihiro Sawa told British auto magazine...

  • Volkswagen ID Buzz and ID Crozz concept, 2017 Los Angeles auto show
    Report: VW may build ID Crozz and ID Buzz electric cars in America

    Two future VW electric cars could be built in the U.S. for American buyers, according to a report Tuesday. VW's North American CEO, Hinrich Woebcken, told British magazine Autocar that upcoming electric cars, which may include the ID Crozz and ID Buzz, would need to be built in the States "for...

  • 2017 Toyota Prius Prime and 2017 Chevrolet Volt with Green Car Reports editor John Voelcker

    Green Car Reports readers and Twitter followers are clearly fired up when it comes to plug-in hybrids. When we asked in last week's Twitter poll how many miles are enough for a plug-in hybrid, we got two to three times our usual responses. We asked the question because plug-in hybrids come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and capabilities. The main thing that sets the best plug-in hybrids apart is the distance they can drive on electricity before they need to run their gas engines. A few plug-in hybrids, such as the Mercedes GLC350e, still deliver barely 10 miles on electricity. They're...

  • Natural gas flaring from oil well [licensed under Creative Commons from Flickr user Sirdle]
    Oil analysts predict peak consumption in 2036

    Most people buy electric cars to reduce oil consumption, but oil companies keep selling more oil every year. Now, a new study by oil industry consultancy Wood Mackenzie predicts that the demand for oil will start to decline as early as 2036, when autonomous cars become more popular. That forecast...

  • Volvo 40.2 concept
    Volvo confirms Polestar 2 electric "sedan"

    A Volvo executive has revealed a few details of the Polestar 2, an electric sedan that will follow next year's Polestar 1 performance coupe. The Polestar 2 will be a sedan and is expected to debut sometime in 2019, according to an interview that British publication Autocar conducted with Polestar...

  • 2018 Formula-E race finish, Brooklyn, NY
    What type of electric car racing interests you? Take our Twitter poll

    Electric cars are showing up at races from mountaintops to drag strips to New York harbor. The cars are quiet—and fast. Yet the series don't seem to have taken race fans by storm. READ THIS: Volkswagen's ID R Pikes Peak race car shows why you should care about electric car racing Two...

  • Tesla South Australia lithium-ion battery storage
    As used electric-car batteries set to flood market, Automakers ramp up reuse efforts

    With the growth of electric cars has come a flood of used batteries that is set to skyrocket in the next five years, according to a Bloomberg report. Bloomberg Businessweek notes that about 55,000 used battery packs were removed from electric cars this year as the cars' packs reach their 10-year...

  • Tesla and SolarCity solar farm on Ta'u, American Samoa
    Solar investment falls in midst of erupting trade war

    Electric cars and solar power fit together like a hand in a glove. Charging with solar power, electric cars can drive using almost no non-renewable energy. Now according to a report in Bloomberg New Energy Finance last week, solar investment has dropped by 19 percent worldwide in the second quarter...

  • Tesla Model 3 bought [Photo by reader AH]

    A new picture by an early buyer of a Tesla Model 3 Performance shows the car's EPA rating of 116 MPGe. That's down 14 MPGe, or almost 11 percent from the base long-range Model 3's rating of 130 MPGe, owing to the battery's and bigger motors' higher output. The EPA does not yet list the rating on its own site, but the car has to have a legal rating to be sold in the U.S. The Model 3 Performance is rated at 271 horsepower, up from the standard Model 3's 258 hp. Some individual owners who have tested their cars on a dynamometer (a rolling treadmill for cars, also used for emissions testing), and...

  • 2018 Formula-E race, Brooklyn, NY
    New York race closes out Formula E season and multi-car strategy (Updated)

    Watching electric cars race is different than watching a race with conventional race cars. Most notably, the sound of squealing tires stands out as the loudest sound you hear—when drivers burn rubber at the start to warm up the tires, try to out-brake each other into tight turns, or overcook...

  • Tesla Model 3 bought [Photo by reader AH]
    Tesla sales, rebates ending, oil studies, and dirty tricks: The Week in Reverse

    Which brand's electric cars won't get a tax credit after next year? Which electric car is in extremely short supply? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending July 13, 2018. Friday, we listed the best deals on green cars for July...

  • 2018 Nissan Leaf
    Best deals on electric, hybrid, and fuel-efficient cars for July 2018

    As supplies of some older 100-mile range electric cars wind down, automakers are beginning to offer the best deals on more-capable recent models. Perhaps best of all, the cars with the best deals this month are much more plentiful and easier to find on dealers' lots than a few of the recent...

  • Teaser for Pininfarina PF0 electric hypercar debuting at 2019 Geneva auto show
    Storied Pininfarina to launch new line of exotic electric cars

    Exotic cars have always gotten attention for using innovation as well as performance to inspire buyers' passion. That hasn't changed, but one thing has: those cars' buyers are no longer inspired by pounding pistons and roaring exhaust. Going electric is now a minimum entry point, says Michael...

  • 2018 Tesla Model S and 2018 Tesla Model X
    Tesla sells 200,000th car, starting phaseout of federal tax credits

    Tesla's vehicle purchase incentives web page on Thursday morning reported that the wind-down of incentives for buyers of its cars has begun. The change was first noted and reported by Jalopnik. Following the change, Tesla buyers will only be eligible to receive the full $7,500 federal tax credit...

  • Canadian reader K's new Tesla Model 3

    Following the election of Conservative Doug Ford as premier July 7, Ontario, Canada, has canceled the province's generous tax incentives for electric cars, according to an announcement on Wednesday on the Ministry of Transportation's website. The move was widely expected after Ford ran on a platform of cutting government expenses, which included canceling the credits. The credits, which included up to $10,645 ($14,000 Canadian) for the purchase of an electric car in the province, were funded by a carbon tax, which Ford also canceled. READ THIS: Tesla Model 3: 456 sales in May Canadian debut...

  • 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf, first drive, New York City, April 2017
    VW e-Golf in very short supply as company prepares for ID Crozz electric car

    As VW gears up to begin selling its new ID line of electric cars, supplies of its existing electric car, the e-Golf have dropped to just 10 cars nationwide, according to our partners at Cars Direct. Inventories that low usually mean that cars are being discontinued, but Volkswagen said the model...

  • Oil well (photo by John Hill)
    Oil prices could double by 2020, boosting electric car sales

    Despite short term peaks and valleys, and a recent agreement by OPEC to ease production restrictions, the overall trend in oil prices is on the rise. That's the conclusion of Bernstein research, an investment research company, which forecast last week that oil could hit $150 a barrel by 2020, just...

  • Electric double-decker bus by Alexander Dennis
    LA gets first double-decker electric city bus

    When thinking of Los Angeles, clean air and double-decker buses aren't the first things that come to mind. Yet the city of angels will put the first all-electric double-decker bus into service later this year on the Foothill Transit's Silver Line route (or Silver Streak route, depending on which...

  • Tesla Autopilot
    Tesla raises price of full self-driving option–if you wait for it to work before buying

    Tesla has increased the price of a feature that doesn't yet exist—at least for customers who haven't bought it yet. That's according to Tesla's online configurator, which lists the price of Tesla's Full Self-driving Capability feature at $5,000 following the company's latest software update...

  • Fisker EMotion
    Henrik Fisker is latest to claim solid-state battery breakthrough (Updated)

    In the race to build solid state batteries for electric cars, almost nobody is counting on Henrik Fisker and his latest electric-car venture, the EMotion, which debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Fisker, however, now says the car will launch in 2020 with his...

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