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  • 2015 Nissan Leaf

    Batteries are the key component in building practical electric cars. And for its first all-electric Leaf in 2011, Nissan developed its own proprietary lithium-ion battery pack--even planning and setting up its own assembly facilities to build them. That trajectory started back in 2007, but today, the landscape of electric-car battery supply and procurement is vastly different. Perhaps most notably, batteries are integrated into the entire automotive supply chain. So, seven years later, just how committed is Nissan to keeping battery development, engineering, and assembly in-house? DON'T MISS...

  • 2015 Honda Fit EX-L Navi, Catskill Mountains, NY, Oct 2014
    2015 Honda Fit Gas Mileage: True 40-MPG Subcompact, Or Not?

    The 2015 Honda Fit subcompact is an entirely new model, and for North America, it's built in a new plant in Mexico. That means that its launch was necessarily slow and cautious--in fact, it was delayed two months--and then a bumper upgrade to reinforce crash-safety welds hardly sped up the...

  • 2015 Nissan Leaf
    Plug-In Electric Car Sales In Sept: Leaf Up Again, Volt Down: FINAL UPDATE

    With U.S. sales of plug-in electric cars now averaging more than 10,000 vehicles each month, September sales achieved that mark but fell short of the sizzling pace of the last two months. Sales of the Nissan Leaf totaled 2,881 last month, bringing year-to-date deliveries to 21,882. That's almost a...

  • Tesla Model S P85D leaked (Image via Tesla Motors Club)
    Mysterious Tesla Model S 'D' Photo Appears: What Could It Be?

    The Internets exploded yesterday following a photo tweeted by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, with the caption, "About time to unveil the D and something else". Feverish speculation over what it meant took up terabytes of server space. Then, yesterday afternoon, a photo surfaced that purports to show a...

  • Photo from Tesla 'D' tweet by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, October 1, 2014
    Elon Musk Tweets Tesla To Unveil 'D' On Oct 9th: Our Guesses

    Do you ever get the sense that Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has fun in his job? Last night, at 6:31 pm Pacific time, he tweeted a photo with the caption, "About time to unveil the D and something else". The photo showed a roller door with the letter "D" on it, the shadowy front end of what appeared...

  • 2015 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel
    2015 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Production To Double: 1 In 5 Trucks To Get Diesel

    Ram is increasing EcoDiesel truck production to meet demand.

  • 2014 Tesla Model S in China

    Tesla Motors sales in China are "robust," and the company may have as many as 4,000 reservations for its Model S--which it only started selling in China five months ago. The upbeat assessment came from Patrick Archambault, a Goldman Sachs analyst who has followed Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] since its initial public offering several years ago. Tesla only releases sales figures quarterly, so we won't know its sales from July through the end of this month until sometime in November. DON'T MISS: Tesla In Deal To Build 400 Charging Stations In China With the Chinese national government discussing and...

  • 2015 Honda CR-V
    2015 Honda CR-V: New Engine, CVT For Higher Gas Mileage, New Features, Mild Restyle

    The 2015 CR-V boasts improved gas mileage thanks to a new CVT.

  • Tesla Store Los Angeles [photo: Misha Bruk / MBH Architects]
    Iowa Dealers Shut Down Tesla Test Drives As Rep Humiliates Them

    Sometimes you almost have to feel sorry for car dealers--or, more specifically, their ineptness at the public-relations end of their fight against electric-car maker Tesla Motors and its direct Internet sales to car buyers. Consider Bruce Anderson, president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers...

  • 2015 Toyota Prius Liftback
    Prius Competitors, Lutz On Tesla, Toyota Fuel-Cell Ad: The Week In Reverse (Video)

    Why is Senator Harry Reid a new convert to electric-car incentives? And, are you part of what Toyota calls the "bold few" who will usher in a zero-emission future? This is the Week In Reverse for Friday, September 26, 2014, right here at Green Car Reports. Friday, we covered a comment by former GM...

  • 'Revenge of the Electric Car' premiere: Bob Lutz arrives in a Chevy Volt
    Tesla A 'Fringe Brand': Former GM Product Czar Bob Lutz (Video)

    When an unknown automotive startup from Silicon Valley unveiled an all-electric sports car with supercar performance back in 2006, the shock was enough to make industry giant GM sit up and pay attention. That, plus the desire to gain some of the green halo seized by Toyota's Prius hybrid, led GM's...

  • National Drive Electric Week 2014: Boston. Photo by John C. Briggs.
    National Drive Electric Week: 150 Cities, 90,000 People, Electric Cars All Over

    National Plug-In Day became National Drive Electric Week for the first time, with seven days worth of electric-car events.

  • 2015 Toyota Prius Liftback

    Time was, the Toyota Prius hybrid was the unquestioned technology champion and king of the fuel-efficiency battles. No longer, though. Now, as Toyota starts to plan for the launch of its fourth-generation flagship hybrid car, the legendary Prius faces more competition than ever before from newer plug-in electric cars and even some diesel vehicles. An article in trade journal Automotive News (subscription required) reports that Toyota dealers have now seen the design of the new Prius, which will be sportier and more streamlined. MORE: All-New 2016 Toyota Prius: What We Know So Far The latest...

  • Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Concept-S, 2014 Paris Auto Show
    2016 Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid: Revealed At Paris Motor Show

    Pity poor Mitsubishi, whose Outlander Plug-In Hybrid has been on sale in Europe and Asia for almost two years. But the plug-in hybrid SUV's U.S. debut has been delayed several times, and now is set for the fall of 2015, likely as a 2016 model. Now we can get a glimpse of what the revised plug-in...

  • Toyota 'Turning Point' video ad for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, frame grab, Sep 2014
    Toyota Fuel-Cell Ad Asks: Are You 'The Bold Few' Or A 'Handbrake'?

    The piano music is somber, the announcer's voice well modulated and filled with gentle concern. Over the next year, we'll be faced with a decision to support, oppose, or even ignore the future of hydrogen-fueled propulsion. Indeed, and most likely the discussion--whether it's a flat decision is...

  • 2015 Nissan Leaf
    Feds Should Boost Electric-Car Incentives: Harry Reid, Nevada Senator

    Today, most plug-in electric car buyers qualify for a Federal income-tax credit of $2,500 to $7,500--but Senator Harry Reid thinks those incentives should be expanded. He proposes to overcome one challenge with that incentive: Buyers must wait up to 15 months to realize the benefit, which they...

  • Tesla Model S lithium-ion battery pack in rolling chassis   [photo: Martin Gillet via Flickr]
    Tesla Battery Cost: New Report Suggests Model 3 To Cost $50K Or More

    It's likely the biggest question for the future of electric cars: How low can battery cost go, and how fast? Tesla Motors is thought to have the lowest cost-per-kilowatt-hour in the electric-car business, with some estimates suggesting the company is already approaching the crucial $200/kWh level...

  • 2016 Mercedes-Benz S550e Plug-In Hybrid
    2016 Mercedes-Benz S550 Plug-In Hybrid: First Drive

    The 2016 Mercedes-Benz S550 Plug-In Hybrid luxury sedan will arrive in the U.S. next spring. We've now driven a prototype of the U.S.-spec car, which is quiet, luxurious, and likely to carry a six-figure price tag. And it will be followed within a year by two more plug-in hybrids using the same...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt, before lease return, Hudson Valley, NY, Aug 2014 [photo: David Noland]

    It was a sad day. After three years, 34,752 miles, roughly 7,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity, and 327 gallons of gas, I said good-bye to my 2011 Chevy Volt last week. Its lease was up, and there was no one left in the family to drive it. I've been at the wheel of a Tesla Model S for the last 18 months. My wife, a fanatical stick-shift devotee, refuses to give up her Mini Cooper. And my 18-year-old daughter--the Volt's primary driver since I got the Tesla--has gone off to college. DON'T MISS: Tesla Model S Vs Chevy Volt: Owner Compares Electric Cars After three years of ownership, I've...

  • 2014 Toyota Prius V
    2014 Toyota Prius V: Hybrid Wagon Ultimate Guide

    The Prius name has been around since the very first Prius sedan back in 1999, but for quite a while Toyota's flagship hybrid was a single-model range. The Prius C subcompact and Prius V changed that, and we've put together a guide on the latter to help you make the right decision when choosing your...

  • 2015 Nissan Leaf
    FINAL UPDATE: Plug-In Electric Car Sales In Aug: All-Time Leaf High, Volt Best In 12 Months

    The best-selling electric car in the world, the Nissan Leaf, logged its best-ever U.S. sales in August, selling a record 3,186 units. This marks its 18th consecutive month of year-over-year sales increases, and brings the eight-month total to 18,941 and the total sold in almost four years to more...

  • 2014 MINI Cooper hardtop, Northeastern road test, Aug 2014
    2014 MINI Cooper: Gas Mileage Review With 3-Cyl Engine + Manual

    The 2014 MINI Cooper hardtop is the first entire, top-to-bottom redesign of the iconic British minicar. In its base form, with a new 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine and a six-speed manual gearbox, it runs a bit more than $20,000 and is rated at 34 mpg combined. But it's longer, wider...

  • Slide showing Tesla Motors gigafactory statistics, from Feb 2014 presentation
    Tesla Gigafactory Going To Nevada, Apparently (First One, Anyhow)

    A press conference to be held this afternoon may answer one of the major questions for the future of electric-car maker Tesla Motors: Where will it locate its gigafactory? The answer appears to be Nevada. The office of state governor Brian Sandoval said he would make a "major economic development...

  • 2014 BMW i3
    2014 BMW i3 REx 38-HP Range Extender Vs. 14,000-Foot Mountain: Who Wins?

    Steep climbs are the enemy of electric car drivers. While modern electric vehicles are more than capable of powering up a hill, with ample torque, the effect on a car with limited range can be significant. It's less of a problem with a range-extended electric vehicle like the 2014 BMW i3 REx, but a...

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