Electric Cars
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“The Tesla Model S was a moment. The Model 3 is a product.” That pair of sentences perfectly summarized the several hours we spent last month with the 2018 Tesla Model 3 kindly loaned to us by reader Jeff Southern of Atlanta. We’d covered more than 100 miles on a variety of highways, back roads, and suburban stop-and-go arterials, testing everything from full-on acceleration to cruise control, on routes from straight-ahead six-lane Interstates to twisty mountain back roads. The Tesla Model 3 turns out to be better, in some ways, than its advance press made us fear...
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Battery life of 2018 Nissan Leaf vs 2017 Chevy Bolt EV electric cars: what manuals suggestIt's one of the major questions for any electric-car buyer: How long will the battery pack last? And what would it cost to replace it if I do need a new one sometime down the road? Now a new video looks at that question, comparing the different thermal-management technologies in the batteries of...
John Voelcker -
Audi e-tron GT electric "super sedan" to challenge Tesla Model SFirst came the Tesla Model S, followed by the Model X. Then Audi, Jaguar, and Mercedes-Benz rolled out their plans for single long-range electric luxury models to compete with Tesla. Now, the Germans are teasing their plans for further electric cars aimed at Tesla, with the Audi Sport e-tron GT the...
John Voelcker -
Ford's future 300-mile all-electric performance SUV: what we knowLots of automakers wish they could get a bite of Tesla’s business. Ford first said more than a year ago that it would launch a long-range battery-electric vehicle, describing it as an SUV with 300 miles of range. But the company is late to the game. Longer-range compact hatchbacks from...
Green Car Reports -
Which electric car is your favorite? Twitter poll resultsMany times our polls deal with weighty issues—climate change, renewable energy, the effects of denying science—or survey expectations for the future. But sometimes we just do a "Pick one!" kind of poll. That's what we did last week, when we asked Twitter followers to name their favorite...
John Voelcker -
Tesla employees say Model 3 parts need substantial rework after productionElectric-car maker Tesla is known for troubled launches, at least for the four products it's offered since the first Roadster in 2008. But the launch of the Tesla Model 3, its lower-priced electric sedan, may be the most challenging yet—and it may be the Tesla with the highest expectations...
John Voelcker -
Well, that's awkward. At its annual media briefing on Wednesday, Volkswagen Group executives said the costs of meeting new emission tests in the EU, lowering carbon emissions globally, and launching multiple new electric models would eat into the company's profits. With the company's diesels in disfavor even in Europe and unlikely to reappear in North America, VW brand chief Herbert Diess said the costs of cutting carbon emissions "pose the greatest challenge for us as a company" through 2020. DON'T MISS: VW Group has nailed down $25 billion of batteries for electric cars, it said today The...
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Why the future of electric cars depends on China's war on pollutionRoughly 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...
John Voelcker -
In what segments will electric cars do best by 2025? Take our Twitter pollOver the last several years, U.S. sales of utility vehicles, from small crossovers to hulking truck-based SUVs, have surged. Meanwhile, passenger cars—sedans, hatchbacks, the occasional wagon—have stagnated and in many cases, fallen sharply. Several factors have driven this shift. DON'T...
John Voelcker -
Electric car sales in Germany finally start to soar: Tesla leadsIt's starting to look like China will lead the world in adoption of plug-in electric cars, but which carmaking nations will follow it? While electric cars were launched simultaneously in Japan and the United States, Europe lagged somewhat behind. Now, however, Germany—home to the largest...
John Voelcker -
VW Group has nailed down $25 billion of batteries for electric cars, it said todayFor 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...
John Voelcker -
UPS says 50 Workhorse plug-in hybrid trucks cost no more than regular delivery vansFor almost a decade, commercial-fleet managers have acknowledged that electric truck are much cheaper to run per mile than the diesel equivalents they now use. But justifying the purchase of electric trucks has been a challenge because their upfront costs have been considerably higher. That may now...
John Voelcker -
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 them 10 to 15 years old. Its CEO, Sergio Marchionne, famously complained for years about the Fiat 500e compliance car it had to sell to comply with California's zero-emission vehicle sales mandate. DON'T MISS: Fiat-Chrysler chief Sergio Marchionne doesn't think electric cars, Tesla are viable (Oct...
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India plan for converting to electric cars by 2030 may get trimmed, a lotTwo years ago, the government of India proposed a remarkable and ambitious goal: make every new vehicle coming onto its roads electric by 2030. The plan was largely a response to some of the world's highest levels of hazardous air pollution in its cities, higher in many cases than the legendary...
John Voelcker -
More ways to get $10K off BMW i3 electric car: new utilities add discountHow badly do you want to buy a BMW i3 electric car? Initially, it looked like you'd have to move to areas of California where Southern California Edison would be your electric utility. But soon enough, those areas expanded to other parts of California, some areas of New Jersey where PSE&G...
John Voelcker -
Best deals on hybrid, electric, fuel-efficient cars for March 2018Not a lot has changed since last month: Buyers continue to move from passenger sedans to crossovers and trucks, and gasoline remains relatively cheap. That means you can pick up some bargains fuel-efficient and electrified vehicles. DON'T MISS: Lexus lowers hybrid prices a lot to cut premium over...
John Voelcker -
Electric cars got even cleaner in a year, new grid data showsMore good news about electric cars in the U.S.: the emissions associated with the electricity used to charge them have fallen. Again. Based on the latest data on powerplant emissions from the EPA, an electric car on the road in the U.S. now has average emissions as low as an 80-mpg car. DON'T MISS...
John Voelcker -
Mercedes-Benz takes the electric car plunge, but diesel is here to stayDaimler 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...
Martin Padgett -
So we've finally had the chance to spend time with a 2018 Tesla Model 3, courtesy of a generous and devoted Green Car Reports reader. We'll have our first-drive report and a full review of the car within a day or two—but that's not what this article is about. The build quality of the early Model 3 we tested in late February was, in a word, appalling. DON'T MISS: Tesla now makes almost 1,000 Model 3s a week, Bloomberg tracker estimates (Feb 2018) Before we were even able to visit the owner, the car had to go back to the Tesla service center to have the central touchscreen replaced. You...
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If you own an electric car, what's your at-home charging from? Twitter poll resultsOver the years, we've noted the paucity of solid data on the intersection of home solar energy and driving plug-in electric cars. A California-only study from 2012 still gets quoted occasionally, and we continue to seek more recent and more comprehensive data. Out of a mix of curiosity and...
John Voelcker -
Chevy Bolt EV production to grow, GM to work for single set of fuel-economy rules: CEO BarraGeneral Motors CEO Mary Barra told energy conference attendees in Houston on Wednesday the automaker would increase production of its newest electric vehicle, push for a single fuel-economy standard nationwide, and support expanding tax credits for electrified vehicles. "The good news is that our...
Aaron Cole -
2018 BMW i3s first drive review: sportier and nearly as efficientBMW's Test Fest in Palm Springs, California, at The Thermal Club attracts a broad range of cars. The star of the show is the 600-horsepower 2018 BMW M5. But before I can test that wild sport sedan on the track, I’ll do my best to balance my carbon footprint in the new 2018 BMW i3s. BMW has...
Kirk Bell -
Audi e-tron electric SUV appears in camouflage at Geneva show, on city roadsThe Geneva auto show was expected to offer the first head-to-head comparison between the first two all-electric SUVs models from European luxury brands, both starting deliveries later this year. It didn't quite work out that way. The 2019 Jaguar I-Pace did indeed debut last Friday, before media...
John Voelcker -
Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, Feb 2018: turning over new LeafsCumulative Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales surpassed 50,000 units in February, aided by the second-generation 2018 Nissan Leaf, which sold 179 units in its “rookie” month. Unfortunately for the world’s best-selling plug-in electric vehicle (and third-best in Canada), its...
Matthew Klippenstein