Electric Cars

January has historically been a tough month for plug-in electric car sales, and last month doesn't look like it'll be an exception. Added to the usual winter slowdown in electric-vehicle sales were the effects of Winter Storm Jonas, which effectively closed parts of the Eastern Seaboard for several...

Five years after the first mass-market electric car hit the market, cars with plugs haven't lived up to the most optimistic projections for their adoption. They are at least pacing the rate of hybrid cars over their first five years, but numerous factors have challenged what advocates see as an...

Electric-car maker Tesla Motors is the fourth-largest U.S. car maker, but its home in California's Silicon Valley is far from the heartland Detroit base of GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler. In Michigan, Tesla is banned by law from selling cars directly to buyers, and from opening Tesla Store retail...

Denise Gray is used to challenges in her career, generally over new technologies. As a young engineer at GM, she first designed electrical components, then got her first major managerial role on the team to develop what became the 1997 Corvette. She was given the responsibility of introducing and...

Penn State researchers say they've created a self-heating lithium-ion battery cell.

By now, it's hardly a secret that we're big fans of the redesigned second-generation Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. We gave it our Best Car To Buy 2016 award, and we've written that it's better in pretty much every way than the innovative first-generation Volt. Last month, we were able to spend four...

Well, this might upset a few martini glasses at National Automobile Dealers Association social events. A bill passed by the California State Senate two days ago allows out-of-state car buyers to take delivery of their electric cars in California without paying any sales tax. The legislation was...

Several companies are collaborating on an all-electric school bus.

Among the drawbacks of cars that run on battery power is the energy required to heat their cabins. As electric-car drivers in less temperate climes know, heating the cabin to room temperature has an enormous impact on battery range--conceivably as high as 40 percent. A similar impact is seen from...

Between now and 2020, the three German luxury brands--Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz-- will collectively add more than a dozen plug-in hybrid models to their lineups. The goal is to offer a plug-in hybrid version for almost all of their most popular vehicles, most with U.S. range ratings of 15 to 25...

China will phase out electric-car subsidies, which could open the door for more plug-in hybrids.

Tesla releases a video demonstrating its autonomous-driving features.

The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV may be the most eagerly awaited electric car since the original Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt (plus everything Tesla). Its claimed 200-mile range and pre-incentive price of $37,500 will make it unique if it launches this December as expected. And there's been much press...

Morgan is investing $8.5 million to develop hybrid and electric powertrains.

Christmas came in April last year for plug-in electric vehicle proponents in British Columbia, Canada, when the provincial government reinstated its Clean Energy Vehicle purchase-incentive program. Purchase rebates for B.C. buyers of plug-in electric vehicles had ended in February 2014, when the...

Media days at the Detroit Auto Show two weeks ago contained relatively little new from Ford Motor Company. A lightly updated 2017 Ford Fusion mid-size sedan emerged, as did an F-150 Raptor SuperCrew performance pickup truck. And that was it for product news. Media reports that Ford and Google would...

Porsche says its plug-in hybrid models are selling well.

Tesla is offering a new Model S lease deal.

Nissan said yesterday it will invest £26.5 million ($37.9 million) in its battery plant in Sunderland, England, to produce "advanced" battery cells for the next-generation Leaf electric car. The announcement may end rumors that Nissan would outsource production of lithium-ion cells and...

Volkswagen hired a Continental executive to oversee its new electric-car development group.