Featured (was)
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The 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 MISS: Long-range Nissan Leaf missing from LA Auto Show But we didn't arrive back entirely empty-handed on new insights about where the Leaf is headed. With that plus a fully electric compact crossover utility vehicle on the horizon—and more electric cars close behind it—we sat down with Dan...
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Study finds what Trump is missing about fuel economy: Poor people don't buy new carsRising fuel economy standards make driving more affordable for low-income households, not less as the Trump administration argues, according to a new study by the Consumer Federation of America. In their proposal to freeze fuel-economy increases, the EPA and NHTSA argued that increasing fuel...
Eric C. Evarts -
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 -
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 -
2019 Hyundai Kona Electric price tag meets Chevy Bolt EV, beats it come AprilIf you happen to be in California, rejoice; the 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric will arrive at dealerships in January, at just $37,495. That brings the effective total to $29,995 for the Kona Electric, provided you have enough taxable income to receive the full the federal electric vehicle tax credit...
Bengt Halvorson -
Update: As if to confirm rumors that it is considering building a new electric beach buggy, Volkswagen included the sketch in this lead photo on its corporate Christmas card, sent to various journalists and others who have a relationship with the company. Autocar magazine reports that the concept is under "active consideration" at VW as one of a trio of retro-themed models on the company's new electric MEB platform. The others are the 2022 VW ID Buzz, and a new five-door hatchback in the form of the original Beetle. (No, we're not sure how that works, either.) The company is reportedly...
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Faster fast chargers, Hyundai fuel cells, Prius and e-tron drives: The Week in ReverseWhich company's promised new diesel SUV won't be coming to America after all? What technology did Green Car Reports find we were happy won't make it to America in an electric car? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending Dec. 14...
Eric C. Evarts -
Porsche already has a prototype that will charge faster than its 350-kw TaycanThe Porsche Taycan, when it arrives toward the end of 2019, will likely have the quickest, highest-power DC fast charging of any production vehicle. But Porsche apparently is already setting its sights higher. Yesterday, as part of a research consortium that includes BMW, it presented a prototype...
Bengt Halvorson -
2019 Toyota Prius AWD-e: First drive of 50-mpg all-weather hybridBetween the unexpectedly wild styling, the very wide model range, the Prius Prime plug-in, and now the all-wheel-drive 2019 Prius AWD-e, it seems that Toyota has opted for a mix-and-match philosophy for the current fourth generation of America’s favorite fuel-sipper. The big news for...
Dan Carney -
Compact Audi, flagship VW crossover could show upscale side of VW electric platformAudi has recently released several hints that we’ll soon see a first concept tease of its smaller, more affordable electric vehicle, to be built on Volkswagen’s modular electric-vehicle architecture, termed MEB. And secondly, the Volkswagen brand is also soon expected to give a first...
Bengt Halvorson -
Ford hybrid police cars are pursuit-rated, ready for NYPD actionFord is in the process of applying hybrid technology to a vehicle type that seems like a natural fit for it: police cars. It’s about time. Ford claims to have the industry’s first pursuit-rated hybrid police car with the Police Responder Hybrid Sedan—the police-duty version of the...
Bengt Halvorson -
Over the weekend, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla is testing new features on its Autopilot "self-driving" system, that will allow its cars to recognize stoplights and stop signs and negotiate traffic on roundabouts. "Your Tesla will soon be able to go from your garage at home to parking at work with no driver input at all," Musk tweeted. That sounds like something a lot of drivers would like. Musk has 23.6 million followers on Twitter around the world; 1,400 had commented on the tweet and 5,100 had retweeted it to others, as of yesterday afternoon. Already testing traffic lights, stop...
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EPA rolls back emissions standards on coal plantsOn Thursday, EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced a new rule that will allow coal-fired power plants to emit more than 35 percent more global warming pollution than the current law allows. The proposal came on the eve of a climate summit in Poland that started over the weekend where...
Eric C. Evarts -
Classic Aston Martin features plug-and-play electric powerWealthy buyers looking for an electric Aston Martin may not have to wait until the brand's new Rapide E performance car—at least not previous owners who may already have an old Aston Martin lying around. The company has joined other European automakers in developing an electric drive system...
Eric C. Evarts -
Electric-car and climate-change tipping points, Prius details, Audi e-tron drive: The Week in ReverseWhich automaker made a commitment to end gas engine production (eventually)? What electric car may finally have gotten a name? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending Dec. 7, 2018. This week our news came mostly from follow-up...
Eric C. Evarts -
2019 Audi e-tron first drive: Redrawing the electric-vehicle boundariesRoad-tripping along in the 2019 Audi e-tron, your passenger might not even know (or care) that you’re in an all-electric utility vehicle—rather than just an extraordinarily quiet gasoline one. And as the driver, you might even forget. It gets right to Audi’s point behind the...
Bengt Halvorson -
Electric upstart Rivian plans for dealers, but not to sell trucksElectric cars worry traditional car dealerships. Tesla sells cars nationwide without dealers—even if buyers have to drive over state lines to get them in some cases. Electric cars eat into one of dealerships' main profit centers, service, because they don't need oil changes, spark plugs, or...
Eric C. Evarts -
Our readers speculate a lot on this site about how long it will be until gas and diesel engines fade out, and the transition to electric cars is complete. Volkswagen may just have given an answer to that question in a conference at the automaker's headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Tuesday. The brand's strategy chief, Michael Jost, said the last generation of Volkswagen cars to use combustion engines is now under development and will be introduced in 2026. Beyond that date, new models from Volkswagen will be based on one of its several upcoming electric-car platforms. READ MORE...
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2019 Toyota Prius AWD-e priced at $27,300Toyota has released pricing for the new all-wheel-drive version of the Prius that it revealed at the LA auto show last week. The base version of the all-wheel drive model will start at $27,300, including a $920 destination charge, according to our partners at CarsDirect.com. That's a premium of...
Eric C. Evarts -
Trump administration plans to end electric-car tax creditsAs tax credits begin to expire for some automakers and the electric-car industry begins to lobby to extend them, the Trump administration plans to end them altogether. President Donald Trump's Chief Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow told Reuters that the administration plans to end the $7,500 federal...
Eric C. Evarts -
Latest climate study says it's already too lateSit down before you read this. Good. With all the dire warnings about climate-change coming from the most recent studies—from the Fourth National Climate Assessment released on Black Friday to an October report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which showed that catastrophic...
Eric C. Evarts -
Here’s why Kia Soul EV and Kia Niro EV both get big 64-kwh battery packsOne key specification in the 2020 Kia Soul EV that was revealed at the LA Auto Show this week was a bit unexpected: its inclusion of a large, 64-kwh battery pack. That leaves two vehicles—the Soul EV and the 2019 Kia Niro EV—with the same big battery. And both will be arriving at U.S...
Bengt Halvorson -
Tesla drivers log 1 billion miles on AutopilotSelf-driving systems are like teenage drivers: They get better with practice. Tesla announced in a Tweet on Thursday that its cars logged 1 billion miles driving on Autopilot. That's a key milestone, since Teslas driving on Autopilot (and driven by humans) send data about what they see on the road...
Eric C. Evarts