Green Car News
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Today, we've got our long-awaited drive report on the 2018 Tesla Model 3 Long Range, a battery comparison for the Bolt EV and new Nissan Leaf, some California defiance, and our annual electric-motorcycle buyers guide. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the weekend, as we do every seven days, we ran down last week's most important green-car stories. The 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid sedan will go on sale this coming Friday, March 23. A new video looks at what owners' manuals tell us about the battery durability of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and new 2018 Nissan Leaf electric cars. California's...
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2018 Tesla Model 3 Long Range: first drive review of 310-mile electric car“The Tesla Model S was a moment. The Model 3 is a product.” That pair of sentences perfectly summarized the several hours we spent last month with the 2018 Tesla Model 3 kindly loaned to us by reader Jeff Southern of Atlanta. We’d covered more than 100 miles on a variety of...
John Voelcker -
CA attorney general: we will fight looser fuel-economy, emission rulesLast Tuesday, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said the agency does not intend to let California set the agenda for national emission limits on vehicles. He suggested to Bloomberg the EPA plans to cut emission rules aggressively to respond to carmakers' pleas for easing of the corporate average fuel...
John Voelcker -
Battery life of 2018 Nissan Leaf vs 2017 Chevy Bolt EV electric cars: what manuals suggestIt's one of the major questions for any electric-car buyer: How long will the battery pack last? And what would it cost to replace it if I do need a new one sometime down the road? Now a new video looks at that question, comparing the different thermal-management technologies in the batteries of...
John Voelcker -
2018 Honda Accord Hybrid sedan to go on sale Friday, March 23While mid-size sedans are losing the U.S. sales battle to crossover utility vehicles, they still sell hundreds of thousands of units each year. An entirely redesigned Honda Accord launched for 2018 just a few months after a redesigned version of its U.S. arch-rival the Toyota Camry, but the Accord...
John Voelcker -
Ford's electric future, Model 3 parts, VW battery buy, Accord Hybrid MPG: The Week in ReverseWhich CEO actually admitted that underestimating electric cars was probably unwise? What did Ford reveal about its plans, finally, for new hybrid and plug-in electric cars? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, March...
John Voelcker -
Today, it's largely about a big Ford event yesterday that discussed future products, including hybrids and electric cars. We've also got poll results ranking electric cars and a new luxury electric Audi for the early 2020s. All this and more on Green Car Reports. We covered Ford's planned new hybrids and electric cars, revealed at an unusual "Ford Uncovered" future product forum held at its headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. The results of our poll are in showing the favorite electric cars of our Twitter followers, and it's pretty clear what matters. We rounded up the latest info on Ford's...
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Ford's future hybrid, electric-car lineup: 5 things to knowThe "Ford Uncovered Future Product Forum" held Thursday for journalists was a break in recent tradition for Detroit's second-largest automaker. The abrupt firing of CEO Mark Fields last May was an indication that Ford's board of directors wasn't happy with progress in preparing the company for a...
John Voelcker -
Audi e-tron GT electric "super sedan" to challenge Tesla Model SFirst came the Tesla Model S, followed by the Model X. Then Audi, Jaguar, and Mercedes-Benz rolled out their plans for single long-range electric luxury models to compete with Tesla. Now, the Germans are teasing their plans for further electric cars aimed at Tesla, with the Audi Sport e-tron GT the...
John Voelcker -
Ford's future 300-mile all-electric performance SUV: what we knowLots of automakers wish they could get a bite of Tesla’s business. Ford first said more than a year ago that it would launch a long-range battery-electric vehicle, describing it as an SUV with 300 miles of range. But the company is late to the game. Longer-range compact hatchbacks from...
Green Car Reports -
Which electric car is your favorite? Twitter poll resultsMany times our polls deal with weighty issues—climate change, renewable energy, the effects of denying science—or survey expectations for the future. But sometimes we just do a "Pick one!" kind of poll. That's what we did last week, when we asked Twitter followers to name their favorite...
John Voelcker -
Ford hybrid plans, Tesla Model 3 quality, VW profit hit, Chinese electric cars fight smog: Today's Car NewsToday, we've got the first of a few articles from a Ford press event on its future lineup. Also, more info on Tesla Model 3 quality problems, why electric cars are key to China's battle against smog, and another Twitter poll. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Now that utility vehicles and...
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Ford hasn’t given up on hybrids and electric cars, despite letting its existing models languish since 2013. That was the message conveyed by various executives at an event Thursday morning at the Ford Product Development Center in Dearborn, Michigan. The company will build a hybrid version of five SUVs it sells by 2020, promised Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets, and produce six battery-electric vehicles by 2022. DON'T MISS: Will 2021 Ford Escape bring back hybrid model (or plug-in hybrid)? Buyers, however, should no longer expect Ford’s hybrids and plug-in models to...
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Tesla employees say Model 3 parts need substantial rework after productionElectric-car maker Tesla is known for troubled launches, at least for the four products it's offered since the first Roadster in 2008. But the launch of the Tesla Model 3, its lower-priced electric sedan, may be the most challenging yet—and it may be the Tesla with the highest expectations...
John Voelcker -
Cutting carbon, meeting real-life emission tests, new electric cars to hurt profits, VW saysWell, that's awkward. At its annual media briefing on Wednesday, Volkswagen Group executives said the costs of meeting new emission tests in the EU, lowering carbon emissions globally, and launching multiple new electric models would eat into the company's profits. With the company's diesels in...
John Voelcker -
Why the future of electric cars depends on China's war on pollutionRoughly half of everyone alive in the U.S. today has never experienced really bad smog. Those over, say, age 45—big-city residents and Angelenos especially—may recall hazy days in which the sun was barely visible, and air that actually tasted metallic. It's a memorable experience, and...
John Voelcker -
In what segments will electric cars do best by 2025? Take our Twitter pollOver the last several years, U.S. sales of utility vehicles, from small crossovers to hulking truck-based SUVs, have surged. Meanwhile, passenger cars—sedans, hatchbacks, the occasional wagon—have stagnated and in many cases, fallen sharply. Several factors have driven this shift. DON'T...
John Voelcker -
German electric cars, VW battery buys, Pruitt's EPA vs California, future Escape Hybrid? Today's Car NewsToday, we've got electric-car news from VW Group, war brewing between the EPA and California, the reason Germany electric-car sales are rising rapidly, and some thoughts on why Ford might bring back the Escape Hybrid in future. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Volkswagen said yesterday it...
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Tomorrow, Ford is hosting journalists at an unusual event called "Ford Uncovered," at which it may discuss some of its future products for 2020 and beyond. Key among the questions that attendees will undoubtedly ask will be those about the company's strategy for electrified vehicles. While Ford was the first U.S. carmaker to offer a hybrid vehicle, back in 2004, it hasn't released a single new hybrid or electric car in six model years. DON'T MISS: Toyota Prius V hybrid wagon ends U.S. run; RAV4 Hybrid took its sales The company walked away from hybrid SUVs after the 2012 model year, with the...
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Electric car sales in Germany finally start to soar: Tesla leadsIt's starting to look like China will lead the world in adoption of plug-in electric cars, but which carmaking nations will follow it? While electric cars were launched simultaneously in Japan and the United States, Europe lagged somewhat behind. Now, however, Germany—home to the largest...
John Voelcker -
Pruitt won't let California set emission standards; EPA not looking at post-2025 rulesNow, it's war, in the words of California's lead emission regulator. In what Bloomberg News called a "wide-ranging interview" with EPA chief Scott Pruitt, he indicated the agency does not intend to let California set the agenda for national emission limits on vehicles. Bringing California into line...
John Voelcker -
VW Group has nailed down $25 billion of batteries for electric cars, it said todayFor a company that has only two battery-electric models in production, both several years old, VW Group spends a great deal of time talking about electric cars. The company has plans to launch 30 new electric vehicles by 2025, and has released four Volkswagen ID concepts, the first of which will...
John Voelcker -
Plug-in hybrid truck costs, where dirty diesels go to rest, emissions from what now? Today's Car NewsToday, we visited the place where old, non-compliant VW diesels go to rest, we have some surprisingly good news on auto emissions, and the cost of plug-in delivery trucks is clearly coming down. All this and more on Green Car Reports. UPS announced that 50 Workhorse plug-in hybrid trucks it is...
John Voelcker -
Cars now clean enough that household products rival them for air pollutionThe first major emission controls on motor vehicles were introduced in 1975 with the advent of the catalytic converter. Today's cars emit less than 1 percent of the three "criteria" pollutants that came out of their tailpipes half a century ago. They emit relatively so little carbon monoxide...
John Voelcker