Green Car News
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The California Air Resources Board will discuss Thursday and Friday raising the state's electric vehicle rebate to offset the expiration of federal tax credits for the two largest electric-carmakers, Tesla and GM. The state offers a $2,500 subsidy for electric-car purchases. CARB is considering raising that amount to $4,500, according to Bloomberg. READ MORE: Tesla sells 200,000th car, starting phaseout of federal tax credits Twice, the program has run out of money, and subsidies have been reduced or delayed. Now, revenue from the state's Low Carbon Fuel Standard can provide funding for the...
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2019 Jaguar I-Pace real-world review: 3 days with the sexy electric crossoverTo the world’s surprise, the first all-electric luxury utility vehicle to follow the Tesla Model X into production did not come from the German makes of Audi, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz. Instead, it arrived from that trio’s smaller, scrappier British rival, Jaguar Land Rover. The 2019 Jaguar...
John Voelcker -
Illegal parking in charging spots: The culprit? Electric carsA whole Hatfields and McCoys culture has grown up around parking in electric-car charging spaces, with electric-car drivers who need juice facing off against conventional cars—and sometimes other electrics who park there and don't plug in or stay longer than they need to. Now a study...
Eric C. Evarts -
Want an Audi e-tron quattro electric? Expect to waitWith its first electric car, Audi plans to change more than what powers the car. Ripping another page from Tesla's playbook, the traditional car company plans to reserve its new electric 2019 Audi e-tron SUV for special orders. Instead of selecting among a wide variety of cars on a local dealer's...
Eric C. Evarts -
Lucid's power grows, Audi e-tron reservations, and Renault battery storage network: Today's Car NewsLucid Motors will give owners access to Electrify America's fast-charging network. Expect to wait for an Audi e-tron electric car. Renault plans for Europe's largest battery storage network. And the results are in from our latest Twitter poll. All of this and more on Green Car Reports. Electric-car...
Sean Szymkowski -
Would you buy into a Volkswagen EV subscription plan? Twitter poll resultsSeveral automakers are experimenting with electric-car sharing programs as they look to an autonomous future when cars are more about providing rides than being purchased. Volkswagen is going whole hog, launching an electric-only car sharing program in Europe that it also plans to bring to North...
Eric C. Evarts -
Lucid owners will get prepaid access to Electrify America's growing number of fast-charging stations when their cars arrive sometime after 2020, both companies announced Tuesday. Electrify America didn't provide details about the program for Lucid owners, including how much charging owners would have access to, whether it would be available via subscription plan, or if the access would be provided in the cost of the car. A spokesperson for Lucid didn't immediately answer questions about the program. According to Electrify America spokesman Mike Moran, the charging network may have other...
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Renault plans Europe's largest battery storage networkEuropean electric-carmaker Renault plans to build the continent's largest stationary battery storage network next year using old electric-car batteries. Renault announced on Tuesday that it will install used (and some new) electric car batteries in three locations: two Renault factories in France...
Eric C. Evarts -
Here's the battery pack behind VW's global electric-vehicle pushNo single core component in an electric vehicle costs more—or probably matters more for the acceptance of EVs—than the battery pack. Many would argue that one of the best decisions Tesla ever made was going with the Panasonic 18650 cells in the Model S (and later, Model X). Thanks in...
Bengt Halvorson -
Old electric car batteries, VW battery pack, and Volvo XC60 T8 plug-in: Today's Car NewsTake a closer look at what happens to older electric car batteries. VW shares the first details about the battery pack behind its global electric-car strategy. Volvo recalls the XC60 T8 plug-in's charging cable. And we provide an answer to the question: What happens when electric cars are flooded?...
Sean Szymkowski -
Charging cord for 2019 Volvo XC60 T8 plug-in hybrid may start fire, will be recalledA certain charging cord included in a small number of 2019 Volvo XC60 crossover SUVs may overheat and shock owners, or start a fire, the automaker said this month. Volvo announced a recall for 35 Volvo XC60 T8 crossover SUVs earlier this month to replace the charging cords. The small number of...
Aaron Cole -
What happens to electric cars that have been flooded?With all the floods from Hurricane Florence, what happens to electric cars? That's the question many electric car owners may be asking after the 100-year hurricane dropped more than two feet of rain in North Carolina, where a burgeoning electric car movement was springing up. The answer is: It...
Eric C. Evarts -
Reduce, reuse, recycle. It's the same philosophy for electric-car batteries as for plastic grocery bags—almost. Knowing what happens to lithium-ion batteries from phones, cameras, and other electronic devices, many electric-car critics express a reasonable concern about what might happen to the similar batteries on a much larger scale that power electric cars. DON'T MISS: As used electric-car batteries set to flood market, Automakers ramp up reuse efforts Jason Fenske, a mechanical engineering graduate from North Carolina State University, who runs a series of videos on YouTube that...
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Porsche kills diesels, BMW iX3 electric car orders, and Kia Soul EV: Today's Car NewsPorsche declares it's done building diesel-powered cars. The BMW iX3 electric car tallies 1,000 reservations in Norway. Kia drops the most affordable Soul EV variant. We ask which electric SUV has readers most interested in a new Twitter poll. And will VW build any of its electric cars in the...
Sean Szymkowski -
Orders in: 1,000 buyers in Norway reserve coming all-electric BMW iX3 crossover SUVBMW opened order books for its upcoming electric iX3 in Europe at the beginning of September, and the company already has deposits for 1,000 in Norway. In a page out of the Tesla playbook, the Norwegian buyers each put down deposits of almost $1,900 (1,600 Euros.) News of the deposits was first...
Eric C. Evarts -
2019 Kia Soul EV drops most affordable trimThe effective price of a Kia Soul EV has gone up dramatically for 2019, in what is likely to be the model's last year of production. The company dropped the bottom Soul EVe trim from the lineup. The EVe listed for $1,700 less than the version officially called "base," according to our partners at...
Eric C. Evarts -
Which electric SUV are you most excited about for 2019? Take our Twitter pollFor 2019, no fewer than 15 companies have announced that they will introduce new electric SUVs. Last week, our Twitter poll asked broadly which electric cars our followers were most excited about for 2019, and none of those SUVs took the prize. Instead, by an overwhelming majority, our Twitter...
Eric C. Evarts -
Will Volkswagen's electric Microbus be made in the USA?Volkswagen is expecting to launch at least three new all-electric vehicles in the U.S. in the next five years. The first will be the 2020 introduction of the ID, a unique electric-only that would replace the e-Golf; the much-anticipated, all-electric ID Buzz, a remake on the counterculture-icon...
Bengt Halvorson -
Are federal officials investigating Tesla CEO Elon Musk? Even more than they already may be? How much will the new 2019 Nissan Leaf cost when it goes on sale? And what about a bigger battery already? And what about Audi's anticipated all-electric model? This is our look back on the week in green cars ending Sept. 21, 2018, right here on Green Car Reports. Friday, we learned that Infiniti's Q50 Hybrid luxury sedan won't return. It follows the Q70 Hybrid, which was axed earlier this year, and for now leaves Infiniti without an electrified powertrain in the lineup. We also learned more about the...
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Burned by scandal, Porsche CEO says it's done building diesel carsDiesel is dead. At least, for Porsche it is. In a statement on the automaker's website, Porsche announced it would stop building diesel-powered cars and instead focus on electric cars. “Porsche is not demonising diesel. It is, and will remain, an important propulsion technology. We as a...
Aaron Cole -
State officials telegraph looming fight to proposed federal EPA rollbacksConnecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and state attorneys general from California and Maryland said Friday that they will vigorously fight proposed rollbacks by the EPA to federal emissions standards ahead of public hearings scheduled for next week. "We’re not interested in taking a punch. We want...
Aaron Cole -
VW electric cargo bus, Infiniti Q50 Hybrid canceled, and Jaguar I-Pace: Today's Car NewsVW shows off the ID Buzz electric cargo bus. Infiniti kills the Q50 Hybrid. Jaguar takes the I-Pace on a tour across the United States. And French luxury brand DS introduces the DS 3 electric crossover. All of this and more on Green Car Reports. The VW ID Buzz Cargo builds on the original ID Buzz...
Sean Szymkowski -
Tesla's head of global supply reportedly resigns in continuing exodus from automakerTesla's vice president for supply management has resigned from the electric carmaker, yet another departure of a high-ranking executive from the luxury brand. The departure of Liam O'Connor, Tesla's VP of global supply management, was first reported by Bloomberg, which cited anonymous sources who...
Aaron Cole -
Jaguar launches roadshow for 2019 I-PaceAs it plans to bring the first luxury electric Tesla competitor to market, Jaguar is taking the I-Pace on the road to give consumers a chance to drive and spend time in it. Jaguar calls it the Jaguar Electrifies Experience, and it kicks off Oct. 3 in San Francisco and runs through Oct. 7 in Los...
Eric C. Evarts