Green Car News
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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...
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Tesla breaks ground on China factory for Model 3 and Model YTesla 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
Which company will sell the first personal-use electric pickup? Take our Twitter pollIf 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
Patent shows new Tesla "windows" operating systemTesla 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...
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 -
Here are the electric-car models on the way for 2019Regular 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
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...
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Volvo Polestar 2, Tesla Model 3 range, self-driving Lexus: Today's Car NewsTesla 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla plans to begin Model 3 deliveries to China in MarchTesla 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...
Bengt Halvorson -
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 -
With cease-fire agreement, spark flickers toward Faraday's FutureLike 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
Future Model 3 rival: Volvo Polestar 2 electric performance car teasedVolvo’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...
Bengt Halvorson -
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...
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Tesla Model 3 price, Hyundai Nexo, used electrics, poll: Today's Car NewsFor 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...
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 -
Hyundai sets lease terms for Nexo fuel-cell vehicle, makes first deliveryHyundai 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...
Bengt Halvorson -
What are your hopes for plug-in cars in 2019? Twitter poll resultsWhen 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
Some used electric-car prices start tracking higherYes, 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...
Bengt Halvorson -
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...
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Tesla sales, VW chargers, coal pollution, used electric values: Today's Car NewsTesla 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
What effect will lower tax credits on Tesla and GM plug-ins have in the new year? Take our Twitter pollThe 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
Trump relaxes coal emissions standards (again) over holiday weekFor 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
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 -
Tesla's new board members, Calfornia's new stickers: Today's Car NewsHappy 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...
Eric C. Evarts