Green Car News
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A VW beach buggy made for blasting over the sand may ride again. Volkswagen confirmed Wednesday that it will show a concept electric dune buggy at the Geneva auto show in March. Rumors circulated in December that the brand was considering such a move. READ MORE: Fun revival: Electric dune buggy could join VW I.D. line According to Autocar magazine in Britain, which originally broke the story back in November, the electric Buggy concept will be based on Volkswagen's new MEB electric-car architecture designed for affordable electric cars. Rumors peg it as rear-wheel drive, the basic format of...
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Tesla turned a profit at the end of 2018; Model Y coming by end of 2020Tesla recorded a $139 million profit for the last quarter of 2018, smaller than the $311 million quarterly profit before it, but ended 2018 down nearly $1 billion, the automaker told investors Wednesday. "Last year was the most challenging year in Tesla history, but also the most successful," Tesla...
Aaron Cole -
2019 Nissan Leaf Plus, GM EV investments, electric Ford F-150, coal power: Today's Car NewsCalifornia documents show that higher-trim versions of the 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus won't achieve the estimated 226-mile range. GM will double its investment in engineering new electric and self-driving cars. A new study shows that electric cars are cleaner than gas, even when using electricity from...
Eric C. Evarts -
Don't worry about coal, electric cars are still cleanerOne of the easiest ways for electric-car drivers to get in an argument is discussing how much coal-fired electricity contributes to pollution. Now a new study by BNEF (a Bloomberg spinoff) can help give electric-car drivers some peace of mind in these arguments. It shows that electric cars are...
Eric C. Evarts -
Barra blogs again: GM plans to double EV, self-driving investmentsFollowing a round of layoffs late last year, GM is planning to renew its focus on creating electric cars and autonomous vehicles. For the second time in four months, CEO Mary Barra took to LinkedIn to reiterate that the company is shifting its focus to electric cars. The first time preceded...
Eric C. Evarts -
How soon do you expect an electric Ford F-150 to arrive? Twitter poll resultsWe've called this year the year of the electric SUV, for the number of such vehicles expected to hit the streets in 2019. So far, though, the news seems recently seems to be all about electric pickups. After Michigan startup automaker Rivian debuted its concept R1T electric pickup at the LA auto...
Eric C. Evarts -
New California regulatory compliance documents hint that lower trim levels of the upcoming 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus will be the ones with the longest range. To get the maximum range of 226 miles that Nissan estimates, buyers will likely have to stick to the base S trim level, according to documents, based on California emissions tests and obtained by Automotive News. Higher-trim SL and SV models are likely to have shorter range estimates, which Nissan estimates at 215 miles. READ MORE: 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus revealed: 226-mile range, quicker acceleration In the tests, the base 62-kwh Leaf Plus...
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Some of the fastest electric-car chargers were down: Would anyone have noticed yet? (Updated)UPDATE: As of Tuesday morning Electrify America said that it is "restoring full capacity to its entire network" after the potentially affected charging cables cleared extensive testing, and it called the original incident spurring the shutdown "an isolated event" at a private facility with a...
Bengt Halvorson -
Porsche Taycan, Electrify America shutdown, Mazda plans: Today's Car NewsPorsche plans to include three years of free DC fast charging from Electrify America with its new Taycan electric car. For now, it's a good thing the car isn't arriving too soon, as Electrify America has had to shut down many of its CCS Combo fast charge plugs over safety concerns. Mazda balances...
Eric C. Evarts -
Mazda rotary range-extended EV and diesel engine both coming, but no US hybrids for nowA look under the hood of Mazda’s future includes a patchwork of “what if” possibilities and a series of juggled timelines. Mazda is in a tough spot right now with regulators and in finding its place across many global markets. Part of the issue is that Mazda is considered an...
Bengt Halvorson -
Road-trip mission: 2020 Porsche Taycan charging is free and very fastAs Porsche is finding out with its Taycan electric car, it’s not always easy being the first—or the fastest. The 2020 Porsche Taycan will be the first production model built on an entirely new 800-volt architecture that helps allow much faster road-trip charging than any other electric...
Bengt Halvorson -
US has world's second highest electric-car populationThe race is on to see which countries can sell the most electric cars in an effort to reduce global warming. As with many things counted in raw numbers, China is far ahead, with 1.28 million electric cars on the road. As with most things Chinese, however, the population numbers—of people or...
Eric C. Evarts -
Wind power is expected become America's top renewable energy source in 2019. The recent government shutdown may have held up the sale of some new fuel-efficient cars—and another one may hold up even more. Our latest Twitter poll asks how important it is to our readers for electric cars to be made in America. All this and more on Green Car Reports. New patent filings from Ford show a hybrid system that looks tailor-made for the upcoming 2020 Mustang Hybrid or F-150 Hybrid that the company has promised. It shows a design planned for rear-wheel drive cars, with electric motors driving the...
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How important is it that your next electric car be made in the U.S.? Take our Twitter pollThus far, the vast majority of the electric cars sold in the U.S. have been made here. Now that the market is expanding, with new competitors arriving from both Europe and Asia this year, that may no longer be true. Hyundai and Kia, plan to import new electric models, the HyundaI Kona Electric, and...
Eric C. Evarts -
Shutdown has held up EPA certification, new vehicle introductionsNow that the government has reopened after a 35-day shutdown, EPA employees are going back to work facing a backlog. Toward the end of the shutdown last week, executives at all three major Detroit automakers expressed concern about certification delays that could affect new models they plan to...
Eric C. Evarts -
Ford Mustang Hybrid: Oughta have a V-8?In an era of spreading electric cars and more stringent fuel-economy and emissions standards, some muscle cars are losing their signature V-8 engines. The Ford Mustang, despite the company's announcements that it will be offered as a hybrid, may not be one of them. According to new patent filings...
Eric C. Evarts -
Blowing away dirty energy: Wind to pass hydro as top renewable in 2019For electric-car drivers looking to emit less pollution as the drive, 2019 could be a banner year. The U.S. electric grid has been getting gradually greener as utilities replace coal fired powerplants with primarily wind and natural gas. That trend is due to reach a tipping point in 2019, according...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla Model 3 vs Model S: Tighter dragstrip times, sharper traction systemTesla claims some astonishingly quick acceleration times, and for some of us, testing and verifying those times are part of the fun. To do that, the drag strip is the only safe and fully reliable source for accurate numbers. In February of 2015, I migrated to a Model S Performance, after owning a...
George Parrott -
Which company is looking for new battery suppliers outside the U.S.? What upcoming electric car is not designed to drive but to ride in? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending January 25, 2019. This week included much news about automakers working to broaden the market for electric cars by racing to build more efficient—and electric—pickups, about building up a bigger supply of batteries for electric cars, and about putting the personnel in place for new companies to build more electric cars. Ford and General...
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GMC electric pickup, Silverado mileage, best deals, EPA enforcement: Today's Car NewsWhat our corner of the world seems to be waiting for is electric pickups. We check out the best deals on hybrid, plug-in, and electric cars for this month. And a new report shows how much enforcement efforts have slacked off at the EPA under President Trump. All this and more on Green Car Reports...
Eric C. Evarts -
EPA enforcement efforts slide 85 percent under Trump administrationNot only do polluters have lower standards to meet under the Trump administration, they may not really have to meet those standards at all. That's the conclusion of a new study, published by the Washington Post, that shows enforcement activity has fallen drastically in the past two years since...
Eric C. Evarts -
Chevy Silverado mpg: Turbo-4 lower than V-8 in gas mileage testUntil all cars can become electric, it makes sense to support making internal-combustion passenger cars as fuel-efficient as possible. It makes even more sense for popular, thirsty large pickups, where each mpg improvement can save a lot more gallons of gas. Unfortunately, some of the latest...
Eric C. Evarts -
Best deals on electric, plug-in, and hybrid cars for January 2019The new year brings new deals, and our partners at CarsDirect.com have found deals on some new models that have never made our list before for the beginning of 2019. While the new year often isn't the very best time to find a great deal on a new car, winter weather keeps many buyers at home, which...
Eric C. Evarts -
GMC could join electric-pickup tailgate partyGeneral Motors has remained mum on its plans for making its pickups all-electric—until now. It's something of a fait accompli, really, since GM's CEO Marry Barra has said the company plans to move to a 100 percent electric lineup, eventually. READ THIS: Cadillac to become “lead electric...
Eric C. Evarts