Green Car News

  • Byton M-Byte concept

    Patent filings show new features that may be coming to updated Model S and Model X cars later this year. Chinese startup automaker Byton makes another appearance at CES. And our latest Twitter poll asks readers which electric pickup they think may hit the roads first. All this and more on Green Car Reports. On Sunday night, Musk took to Twitter to announce that the company would break ground on its much-needed second factory on Monday. The new plant in China will produce "affordable" Model 3s and Model Ys for the Chinese and surrounding markets. A patent filing late last year shows a new...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3, in photo tweeted by Elon Musk on July 9, 2017
    Tesla breaks ground on China factory for Model 3 and Model Y

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter Sunday night that the company would break ground on its new Chinese factory on Monday. Musk said the plant, known as Gigafactory 3, will produce up to 500,000 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles for China and other nearby markets when it is completed in 2020...

  • Rivian R1T electric pickup concept
    Which company will sell the first personal-use electric pickup? Take our Twitter poll

    If electric cars are going to take over from internal combustion machines, they will need to be offered in the most popular types of vehicles—and that means pickups. Electric-car fans seem to be clamoring for electric pickups, and some startup automakers—along with Tesla—are...

  • 2017 Tesla Model S
    Patent shows new Tesla "windows" operating system

    Tesla is known for having the Apple of car user interfaces on its big center displays. A recent patent filing shows Tesla may not be finished up dating the system, either for the Model 3 or the Model S or X. The latest filing, last month, shows the company may expand the number of windows Tesla...

  • Byton M-Byte
    Byton brings its big-screen electric SUV back to CES, a step closer to production

    The 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...

  • 2019 Audi e-tron first drive  -  Abu Dhabi UAE, December 2018
    Here are the electric-car models on the way for 2019

    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...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3

    Which 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 was all about Tesla, albeit in most cases in incremental changes. First, at the end of the year, the company appointed two new independent directors as required under the SEC settlement with CEO Elon Musk regarding his tweet in August about taking the company private. The company named Kathleen...

  • Volvo 40.2 concept
    Volvo Polestar 2, Tesla Model 3 range, self-driving Lexus: Today's Car News

    Tesla bumps up the range of its Mid Range Model 3, slightly and announces it will start delivering Model 3s to China in March. Volvo teases a look at its first electric model, the Polestar 2. Faraday Future flutters its eyes open, looking for its future, as it agrees to a mutual cease-fire...

  • 2018 Tesla Model 3
    Tesla plans to begin Model 3 deliveries to China in March

    Tesla has confirmed that it plans to start making deliveries of its Model 3 sedan to China in March. That will complement an export strategy that’s ramping up in multiple ways. With the volume of U.S. deliveries potentially falling due to the reduced federal plug-in tax credit on Teslas in...

  • Toyota Research Institute P4 Automated Driving Test Vehicle
    Toyota's newest self-driving test car is a Lexus LS luxury sedan

    If 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...

  • Faraday Future FF91 prototype
    With cease-fire agreement, spark flickers toward Faraday's Future

    Like a prizefighter listening to counts of "eight" and "nine," Chinese electric-car startup Faraday Future, has started groaning, sputtering, and trying to stand. The company, which sputtered to a start building prototype electric luxury cars last year, then was abruptly knocked out when its new...

  • Polestar 2 teased
    Future Model 3 rival: Volvo Polestar 2 electric performance car teased

    Volvo’s Polestar sub-brand has released a teaser picture and revealed a little more about its first electric car, to be called the Polestar 2. And the fledgling tech-performance brand doesn’t miss a beat in mentioning the Tesla Model 3. The Polestar 2, which will be the first fully...

  • 2018 Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD

    After 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 of what was already a pretty useful number of miles—about a percent and a half. READ MORE: Lower-cost Tesla Model 3: Does 260 miles, $46K before incentives split the difference? [Updated] We reached out to Tesla to ask about how they made the improvement, and the company responded with a...

  • 2019 Hyundai Nexo, Topanga Canyon, CA, Oct 2018
    Tesla Model 3 price, Hyundai Nexo, used electrics, poll: Today's Car News

    For the first time, values on used electric cars have begun to recover. Hyundai delivered its first hydrogen fuel-cell Nexo to a customer in Southern California. And our readers tell us what their electric priorities are for 2019. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Tesla Model 3 buyers look to...

  • Tesla Model 3 bought [Photo by reader AH]
    Tesla Model 3 Mid Range misses $35,000 target by $9,000 even after price cut

    To 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...

  • Hyundai Nexo
    Hyundai sets lease terms for Nexo fuel-cell vehicle, makes first delivery

    Hyundai last week made the first U.S. delivery of its Nexo fuel-cell vehicle—to a customer in Southern California. Although the customer, Todd Hochrad, picked the Nexo up from a dealership in Van Nuys, he lives in Ventura, which could place him about equidistant from hydrogen fueling stations...

  • 2019 Chevrolet Volt
    What are your hopes for plug-in cars in 2019? Twitter poll results

    When we asked our readers what they most hope for in the new year in the electric-car world last week our readers put a priority on making electric cars more affordable and easier to drive everywhere over having more new models to choose from. In our Twitter poll last week, we asked our followers...

  • 2015 Nissan Leaf
    Some used electric-car prices start tracking higher

    Yes, really. Used electric cars have appreciated in value, in some cases. Call it a market adjustment or a momentary blip. You have one more thing to toast this new year: that the value of your electric vehicle probably isn’t plunging as rapidly as it was. It may, actually have gone up in...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3

    Tesla 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 appears to have worked. According to Tesla, it delivered 90,700 vehicles in Q4 2018—8 percent more than in Q3. That included 63,150 deliveries of its mass-market sedan, the Model 3. DON'T MISS: What effect will lower tax credits on Tesla and GM plug-ins have in the new year? Model 3 sales alone...

  • Dianchè Bertone BSS GT One
    Tesla sales, VW chargers, coal pollution, used electric values: Today's Car News

    Tesla released sales numbers for the last quarter of 2018. Volkswagen has developed a mobile juice pack for electric cars. The EPA continues to roll back regulations on coal plants to allow them to emit more pollution. For the first time dramatic depreciation on electric cars has begun to reverse...

  • 2018 Tesla Model S and 2018 Tesla Model X
    What effect will lower tax credits on Tesla and GM plug-ins have in the new year? Take our Twitter poll

    The wind-down of federal tax credits on plug-in vehicles begins to hit in 2019. Tax credits for Tesla buyers were already reduced to $3,750 on Tuesday. The same reduction is scheduled to hit GM's plug-in models, the Chevy Volt and Bolt EV on April 1. The reduction in the credits is likely to have...

  • EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler
    Trump relaxes coal emissions standards (again) over holiday week

    For the second time in a month, the Trump administration has rolled back emissions restrictions on coal-fired power plants. Early in December, the EPA announced a new proposal that would undo carbon-dioxide limits on coal plants, overturning one of President Obama's signature climate change...

  • Volkswagen mobile DC fast charger
    Volkswagen tests mobile DC fast charging station for urban network gaps

    Automakers 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...

  • Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson  -  Tesla board
    Tesla's new board members, Calfornia's new stickers: Today's Car News

    Happy New Year! For today's holiday-shortened lineup, we remind California readers that 2018's Clean Air stickers are no longer valid i in the state's carpool lanes. And we look at the two new independent board members that Tesla has named under the company's settlement with the SEC over CEO Elon...

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