Green Car News
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As part of its latest revelation of a new, mainstream electric SUV for 2021, startup automaker Fisker (the eponymous founder's second under his own name), implicitly made a somewhat startling admission: The solid-state batteries the company has been working on may not be ready any time soon. Founded by Henrik Fisker, the former BMW designer who built the original Fisker Karma (now the Karma Revero, produced by a different company), Fisker originally planned to launch the new company with a super-sedan called the EMotion, which it revealed at the 2018 Consumer Electronics show in January last...
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Ford plans to revamp Michigan plant for 2023 electric car productionFord Motor Company yesterday announced a plan to build future electric vehicles at a Michigan plant that currently makes the Ford Mustang. Ironically, the plant won’t be where Ford will ramp up production next year of its Mustang-influenced all-electric performance SUV; but the move...
Bengt Halvorson -
BMW plans 12 all-electric models by 2025At its annual shareholders meeting in Munich on Wednesday, BMW laid out plans to bring 12 new all-electric cars to market by 2025, including five in the next two years. Along with the company's existing i3, the first five will include the Mini Electric, due on sale later this year, the iX3 SUV next...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla Model 3 vs. Nissan Leaf, VW diesels, electric off-roaders: Today's Car NewsTesla is starting to have some competition. We lay out the pluses and minuses of the new base Tesla Model 3 against the new longer-range Nissan Leaf Plus. One of the biggest makers of recreational vehicles looks poised for more electric ones thanks to a new deal. And despite Volkswagen's big plans...
Eric C. Evarts -
Do Tesla stores still matter? Twitter poll resultsTwo weeks ago, Tesla announced it was closing all its stores and move all sales online, where the company does most of its business anyway. Last week, it said it would reopen most of them. That led us to wonder whether Tesla stores are still relevant. To gauge the answer among our own readers, our...
Eric C. Evarts -
Deal could bring more electric off-roaders: No more buzzing through the woodsOne way to get more buyers interested in electric cars is to introduce electric power to other machines whose function is less critical, and where consumers can get used to the idea of driving electrically. That could be the outcome of a deal in which Bombardier Recreational Products has purchased...
Eric C. Evarts -
Volkswagen is scrambling to convert its business to building electric cars from building internal combustion cars to building electrics. But globally it hasn't put diesels behind it. According to a report by VW itself, global orders for its diesel vehicles rose from 39 percent of its products in 2017 to 43 percent in 2018, and that goes double for private customers versus fleet orders. With sales of 10.8 million cars worldwide in 2018, that amounts to 4.6 million diesels sold in 2018. MUST READ: VW says it is now developing its last generation of gas, diesel engines Among VW's retail...
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Tesla Model 3 Standard Range vs. Nissan Leaf Plus: What you get for your moneyUntil recently, there have been electric cars, and then there have been Teslas. Quite a few automakers were scrambling to build electric cars to meet increasing demand from California and other states, to earn ZEV credits, and to give their Corporate Average Fuel Economy numbers a booster shot...
Eric C. Evarts -
Amazon charges Kias, Chevy Bolt mountain range, UN climate report: Today's Car NewsA second automaker has signed on to Amazon's Home Services charger installation program. We took a Chevrolet Bolt EV to the top of the Continental Divide to see how its range fares in mountain driving. A new UN climate report calls for optimism in tackling climate change. And our latest Twitter...
Eric C. Evarts -
Which electric SUV would you buy? Take our Twitter pollThe Tesla Model Y will be the first model from the company to launch into a sea of electric competitors. Mainstream automakers, from Audi, BMW and Jaguar to Hyundai and Kia have announced new electric SUVs that are either already on the market or will be in the next few months. The Model Y is not...
Eric C. Evarts -
UN global climate report restores hope, lays out roadmapA new UN report on global climate change isn't quite as dire as one it issued last October. That special report on warming of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) showed that the effects of climate change could become catastrophic by 2040, at least 10 years earlier than scientists had...
Eric C. Evarts -
Amazon hooks Kia owners up with easier home-charger installationThose just transitioning to an electric car, like the 2019 Kia Niro EV, face some potentially daunting decisions well beyond the vehicle itself—not just how they’re going to charge up the vehicle in their own garage or driveway, but how they’re going to charge it quickly enough...
Bengt Halvorson -
Colorado, which is taking steps to adopt California’s EV mandate, has always had a different wildcard factor affecting road trips: altitude. The state has the highest portions of the Interstate highway system, including routes spanning past 11,000 feet and varying several thousand feet. Even with a number of electric cars like the Chevrolet Bolt EV now offering well over 200 miles of EPA-estimated range, the range anxiety that was once the norm for any highway trip in more level states still looms large here, where the long grades can be a true test. That’s exactly what I had in...
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2020 Tesla Model Y: Latest price, range, specs for new crossover SUVThe 2020 Tesla Model Y borrows some of the same underpinnings of the Model 3 sedan, and marries it to what so many American families today want: a crossover utility vehicle shape. As such, the Model Y has the potential to amount to an even greater sales success than the Model 3. The California...
Bengt Halvorson -
2020 Tesla Model Y competitors, no more Mid Range Model 3, new Fisker SUV: Today's Car NewsToday, we run down all the current and near-term competitors to the upcoming Tesla Model Y, and look at everything we know about the car to this point. In the meantime, Tesla dropped the Mid Range Model 3 this weekend. And one-time Tesla rival Fisker revealed that it will launch its new lineup with...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla Model 3 Mid Range disappears from automaker's lineupThe Tesla Model 3 Mid Range didn't last long. Tesla quietly dropped the middle trim level over the weekend, which had offered buyers 264 miles of range. The company introduced the car last November in lieu of the entry-level Standard Range car—although Tesla opened that most affordable Model...
Eric C. Evarts -
Electric crossover charge: These are the rivals to the Tesla Model YAs Tesla finds its sea legs as a larger-scale global automaker, the launch of the Model Y small crossover is its most critical test since the California company started in 2003. No other Tesla has faced this much competition. No other Tesla has faced much of any. When Tesla first delivered the...
Green Car Reports -
Fisker slots $40k electric SUV ahead of delayed EMotion flagshipA decade ago, Fisker and Tesla were two electric-vehicle hopefuls, and it was looking like Fisker might have the better chances of success. While history certainly didn’t play out that way, it’s an odd twist that Henrik Fisker’s new venture, Fisker Inc., has dropped a teaser for...
Bengt Halvorson -
To chase down criminals in a new carbon-constrained era, Agent 007 will need a new kind of Q Ship. But he won't stray far from the royal stable. Introducing the latest, kinder, gentler, reportedly less misogynistic Bond: James Bond, and his new all-electric Aston Martin RapideE, which will appear in the new movie with the working title "Shatterhand," likely to be released next year. Actor Daniel Craig, who returns as Bond, may be the first person outside Aston Martin to have a crack at driving the new RapideE. After a string of six other Aston Martins in his films through the years, Bond is...
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2020 Tesla Model Y, Mazda rotary, wider VW electric plans: The Week in ReverseWhich two companies announced expanded lines of plug-in hybrids this week? What big decision did Tesla take back? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending March 15, 2019. The big news this week was Tesla's unveiling of its...
Eric C. Evarts -
2020 Tesla Model Y reveal, more VW diesel charges, Audi reuses batteries: Today's Car NewsThe 2020 Tesla Model Y officially broke cover Thursday night in LA. The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed new charges against Volkswagen, related to its diesels. And Audi has found a unique way to reuse battery packs from its upcoming e-tron SUV lineup. All this and more on Green Car...
Eric C. Evarts -
Dieselgate continued: SEC charges VW and its ex-boss with fraudAmazingly, the diesel emissions case against Volkswagen in the U.S. is still gaining steam. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged VW and its former CEO Martin Winterkorn on Thursday with defrauding investors, according to wire-service reports. READ MORE: Gauging VW's progress on second...
Eric C. Evarts -
Audi plans to put old EV batteries to work in factory tugsFactory tugs in Audi's Ingolstadt factory now sport the latest in second-hand lithium-ion batteries. With automakers on the hook in jurisdictions around the world to take back and properly reuse or recycle all the batteries they install in electric cars, various automakers are experimenting with...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla Model Y: Comparing some of the details vs. Model 3Tesla CEO Elon Musk prefaced his introduction of the company’s more affordable upcoming electric SUV, the Model Y, Thursday night, by noting how hard achieving at-scale mass production of Model X has been—and what a difficult year 2018 had been for him and Tesla. “It was pretty...
Bengt Halvorson