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In a tweet Wednesday afternoon, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the company will quit selling low-end, short-range versions of its Model S sedan and Model X SUV. The move will dramatically raise effective prices on those models and may push potential buyers into higher-spec Model 3s instead. READ MORE: Tesla cuts prices $2,000, almost hit 250,000 vehicles in 2018 Currently, the base price for a Model S 75D is $77,200, a little pricier than the most expensive Model 3. Without the 75D, the lowest-spec Model S will be the 100D with 335 miles of range, which starts at $95,200—an $18,000...
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2020 Mini Cooper S E: Speedy electric hatchback due for Mini's 60th birthdayAs one of the pioneers of electric cars, Mini isn't content to build a more efficient, emissions-free version of its basic hatchback when it develops its first production electric car. Instead, it hopes to reimagine the electric car as a life-sized slot car that takes advantage of the electric...
Eric C. Evarts -
2019 Nissan Leaf Plus revealed: 226-mile range, quicker accelerationNissan unveiled Tuesday a new version of the 2019 Leaf electric car, called the Leaf Plus or Leaf e+, that can go well over 200 miles on a charge. Although such a model has been a long time coming, the 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus stands as strong evidence that in the eight years since the first...
Bengt Halvorson -
Leading the way: Tesla trounces luxury competitors in year-end sales tallyNow that Tesla has released its final sales numbers for the end of last year, we finally have a yardstick to measure the company’s sales success. In the third quarter, Tesla made a point of noting that, with the Model 3 approaching full production, it became the fifth...
Eric C. Evarts -
Byton brings its big-screen electric SUV back to CES, a step closer to productionThe China-based electric vehicle maker Byton brought a close-to-production prototype version of its M-Byte SUV to the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show this week. The debut of the vehicle, still headed for a starting price of around $45,000 and an available driving range of up to 325 miles, marks...
Bengt Halvorson -
Tesla updates, Hyundai Nexo, Polestar, VW fast charging: The Week in ReverseWhich new fuel-cell car just went to its first customer in California? What emissions rule did the EPA loosen this week? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending Jan. 4, 2018. In this short New Year's week, the news seemed like it...
Eric C. Evarts -
Regular readers of Green Car Reports know we have been saying for a year now that 2019 is the year of the electric SUV. Now the year is finally here, and we thought we'd give our readers a peek at what we know about all the upcoming models. Most are SUVs, with a couple of hatchbacks thrown in. In many cases their specific arrival dates are not made public, but we've estimated as closely has we can based on statements by the automakers. 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric The Hyundai Kona Electric should be going on sale any day and is one of the most promising electric cars of 2019. With a rating of...
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Toyota's newest self-driving test car is a Lexus LS luxury sedanIf you're going to develop a self-driving test vehicle, why not make it one that passengers would enjoy riding in? Perhaps that's the logic behind Toyota's choice of its new Lexus LS large luxury sedan as the basis for the P4, its latest automated-driving test vehicle—unveiled yesterday by...
John Voelcker -
Tesla ekes 4 more miles out of Model 3 Mid RangeAfter a $2,000 price drop on Wednesday, Tesla buyers just got four more reasons to choose a Model 3 Mid Range. According to the order page on Tesla's website, the Mid Range Model 3's EPA range rating went up four miles overnight, from 260 miles to 264. To be sure, it's a minimal improvement on top...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla Model 3 Mid Range misses $35,000 target by $9,000 even after price cutTo offset lower tax credits for its cars that started New Year's Day, Tesla dropped prices by $2,000 for every model on Wednesday. That doesn't quite make up for the $3,750 drop in federal tax credits, and it still doesn't get the company to its stated goal of selling the Model 3 for as low as...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla cuts prices $2,000, almost hit 250,000 vehicles in 2018Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk made a multi-layered end-of-year push, focused on Tesla's final days and weeks of $7,500 federal EV tax credit eligibility. And with more than 90,000 vehicle deliveries in the fourth quarter of the year—a new record for the California electric-car maker—it...
Bengt Halvorson -
Volkswagen tests mobile DC fast charging station for urban network gapsAutomakers face some daunting challenges in selling electric vehicles to urban apartment-dwellers, who are often without a home charging point. As a partial response, Volkswagen has shown a portable DC fast charging unit aimed at urban environments or temporary use at events or in parking...
Bengt Halvorson -
California plug-in car drivers with white or green carpool stickers can no longer use carpool lanes starting Tuesday. The state passed a new program last March that invalidates both the white stickers for electric cars and the green stickers for plug-in hybrids with the start of 2019. For many of those drivers, the state provided a way to extend carpool access, but drivers have to reapply for new red stickers that don't expire until New Year's Day 2022. DON'T MISS: Here's how California's carpool (HOV-lane) stickers work now: updated Only cars sold since the start of 2017, however...
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Pickup drivers target Tesla Superchargers in "ICEing" incidentsPeople are jealous of things they can't (or don't) have. In a spate of incidents reminiscent of "rolling coal," truck drivers have begun seemingly intentionally blocking whole banks of Tesla Superchargers across parts of the South. Photos shared across Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit over the weekend...
Eric C. Evarts -
Porsche Taycan orders, electric towing, urban-charging reality check: The Week in ReverseWhich upcoming electric car is already sold out for a year, before it even goes on sale? What company warned electric-car drivers that networked home chargers could be hacked and potentially damage electrical systems? This is our look back at the (short) Week In Reverse—right here at Green...
Eric C. Evarts -
The 2019 Jaguar I-Pace, a city boy, and range anxietyElectric vehicles aren’t made for me. It’s not that I’m not for them. My circumstances just don’t fit with the realities of charging. I live in Chicago, in a 100-year-old apartment building converted to condominiums 17 years ago. I have a spot in a parking lot behind the...
Kirk Bell -
Opinion: Expiring tax credits hurt U.S. automakers, favor importsPresident Trump campaigned on a promise to aid U.S. manufacturers and provide more incentives for them to produce products in the U.S. Now the President, seemingly in opposition to that stance, has launched into a war of words with two of America's largest automakers—its youngest and one of...
Eric C. Evarts -
Would a Porsche Taycan Turbo confuse the Mission for sports-car brand's electric car?The Porsche Taycan—since way back in its early 2015 Mission E Concept days—has been discussed by Porsche in two distinct ways. On one hand it’s a Tesla rival, capable of meeting higher standards of performance than the Model S or Model 3. And on the other hand it’s at the...
Bengt Halvorson -
Pickups in the U.S. are often sold on the bragging rights of numbers—not the Olympic-sprinter acceleration times and top-speed numbers that sell performance cars, but in how high they can tip the scales in strongman-contest pulling and hauling tasks. For that, the electric pickups on the way from Tesla, Rivian, and others, provided they can overcome the significant range and charging concerns, are likely to boast some seriously competitive numbers. Certainly not everyone with towing needs is going to be able to forget about diesels and V-8s; but for those with occasional weekend-towing...
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Report: Home electric-car chargers vulnerable to hackersConnected home chargers can bring a higher level of convenience to the electric-car ownership experience, allowing more flexibility with remote access, charge scheduling, power-output adjustment, and even data displays. But according to the cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab, they can also bring a...
Bengt Halvorson -
All-electric helicopter makes record flightElectric transportation is about more than cars. Trucks and buses are also moving toward electric propulsion. Planes, with their long ranges and high power demands seem to be harder. Where electric power does seem to be making progress in the skies is in helicopters. An independent engineering...
Eric C. Evarts -
Rivian fast charging, Volkswagen electrics, Trump vs GM: The Week in ReverseWhich upcoming electric car has a battery pack engineered to be upgraded to 800 volts? What company plans to do more serious marketing of electric cars' strengths? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending December 21, 2018. This...
Eric C. Evarts -
Rivian electric pickup, SUV ready for future 800V upgrade—possibly in 2022The Michigan-based electric-vehicle hopeful Rivian claims that its upcoming R1T pickup and R1S sport-utility vehicle, both revealed last month around the LA Auto Show, will be able to recharge up to 200 miles of range in just 30 minutes—provided they’re connected to a DC fast charger...
Bengt Halvorson -
VW releases video of electric ID hatchback testing in South AfricaVolkswagen has heard the naysayers. After being caught cheating on emissions tests with its diesels and being forced to promote electric cars through various legal settlements around the world, the company clearly realizes it has a steep climb to convince consumers it is serious about selling a...
Eric C. Evarts