Green Car News

  • Volkswagen turbodiesels await their fate near Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado Springs

    It might be the world’s largest single-company junkyard and pick-a-part business, if not for the prominent "No Trespassing" and "Drone-Free Zone" signs. Instead, it’s a massive storage facility in Colorado for thousands of disgraced VW and Audi TDI diesel vehicles awaiting whatever fate holds for them. At least the locale, in the shadow of Pike’s Peak, is scenic. DON'T MISS: Lasting legacy of VW diesel scandal: EU gets serious about testing (May 2017) Thousands of cars and crossovers VW has bought back from owners over the last year now bake in a dirt parking lot outside...

  • Prototype plug-in electric delivery van with fuel-cell range extender to be tested by UPS in 2017
    UPS says 50 Workhorse plug-in hybrid trucks cost no more than regular delivery vans

    For almost a decade, commercial-fleet managers have acknowledged that electric truck are much cheaper to run per mile than the diesel equivalents they now use. But justifying the purchase of electric trucks has been a challenge because their upfront costs have been considerably higher. That may now...

  • The Boring Company concept
    2019 VW Jetta gas mileage, India's electric cars, Accord Hybrid MPG, Smart EQ: Today's Car News

    Today, we're still cleaning up our list of stories from last week's Geneva auto show, including an electric-car admission and a disappointing debut, along with fuel-economy ratings for the 2019 VW Jetta sedan and this year's new Honda Accord Hybrid. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the...

  • 2018 Fiat 500e
    Underestimating electric cars was a mistake (in China), says FCA's Marchionne

    Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has large challenges, even nine years after it was formed when the Italian company Fiat took over the bankrupt U.S. maker Chrysler. While its Jeep and Ram truck brands are doing well, it sells only three passenger cars in North America above the subcompact category, all of...

  • 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid
    2018 Honda Accord Hybrid rated by EPA at 47 mpg combined

    The EPA has now released the fuel-efficiency ratings for the 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid, and they came in 1 mpg below the combined number the company had hoped to reach. At a drive event last fall, Honda said it hoped the redesigned Accord Hybrid could manage the same fuel-efficiency ratings as last...

  • Smog in Delhi, India (by Flickr user Mfield)
    India plan for converting to electric cars by 2030 may get trimmed, a lot

    Two years ago, the government of India proposed a remarkable and ambitious goal: make every new vehicle coming onto its roads electric by 2030. The plan was largely a response to some of the world's highest levels of hazardous air pollution in its cities, higher in many cases than the legendary...

  • 2019 Volkswagen Jetta

    While plug-in electric cars get lots of media attention, they remained just 1 percent of U.S. vehicle sales last year. And while the Trump Administration appears dead-set on rolling back emission limits and fuel-economy requirements established years ago, that effort will undoubtedly face lengthy court challenges as to the scientific basis required for EPA regulations. Meanwhile, every carmaker has to comply with steadily increasing corporate average fuel economy rules. DON'T MISS: 2019 Volkswagen Jetta preview The redesigned 2019 Volkswagen Jetta, the seventh generation of what has been VW's...

  • 2018 Smart EQ ForTwo Cabrio
    Mercedes-Benz EQ electric car Geneva debut was...a rebranded Smart car

    Unveilings for several key new electric cars were expected during the media days for last week's Geneva auto show. The Jaguar I-Pace made its formal debut, and the Audi e-tron appeared in camouflage as a sort of full-size teaser display. But there had been word from Mercedes-Benz that it would...

  • 2017 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car     [photo: Chris Neff]
    More ways to get $10K off BMW i3 electric car: new utilities add discount

    How badly do you want to buy a BMW i3 electric car? Initially, it looked like you'd have to move to areas of California where Southern California Edison would be your electric utility. But soon enough, those areas expanded to other parts of California, some areas of New Jersey where PSE&G...

  • 2018 Tesla Model 3
    Electric cars in Geneva, Tesla Model 3 quality, new Toyota hybrids, EVs get cleaner: The Week in Reverse

    What new electric cars were unveiled at this week's Geneva auto show, and which one appeared only in camouflage? How did we assess the build quality of the Tesla Model 3 we finally got to drive? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week...

  • LVCHI  Venere concept
    Cleaner electric cars, Mercedes diesel plans, new Corolla hatch, green-car deals: Today's Car News

    Today, we've got our monthly roundup of green-car deals, a first look at a Toyota Corolla Hybrid (that we may not get), an interview with Daimler's CEO, and good news about electric cars—which got even cleaner in the U.S. last year. Again. All this and more on Green Car Reports. An interview...

  • 2018 Hyundai Elantra
    Best deals on hybrid, electric, fuel-efficient cars for March 2018

    Not a lot has changed since last month: Buyers continue to move from passenger sedans to crossovers and trucks, and gasoline remains relatively cheap. That means you can pick up some bargains fuel-efficient and electrified vehicles. DON'T MISS: Lexus lowers hybrid prices a lot to cut premium over...

  • Electric-car wells-to-wheels emission equivalencies in MPG, Mar 2018 [Union of Concerned Scientists]

    More good news about electric cars in the U.S.: the emissions associated with the electricity used to charge them have fallen. Again. Based on the latest data on powerplant emissions from the EPA, an electric car on the road in the U.S. now has average emissions as low as an 80-mpg car. DON'T MISS: Electric cars cleaner than any gas-only car for 97% of U.S. drivers (Jun 2017) That figure is sales-weighted, meaning it takes into account where electric cars exist today in the U.S. But that 80-mpg average translates to emissions 10 percent lower than even last year's average, which was 73...

  • 2019 Toyota Corolla hatchback
    2019 Toyota Corolla Hybrid hatchback debuts in Geneva for Europe

    Remember hatchbacks? Actually, come to think of it ... remember passenger cars? You know, the sedans and wagons and hatchbacks that don't have all-wheel drive and aren't jacked up 6 to 9 inches off the ground? They used to roam this fair land of ours, but lately, they seem to have been routed by...

  • Mercedes-Benz EQA concept, 2017 Frankfurt auto show
    Mercedes-Benz takes the electric car plunge, but diesel is here to stay

    Daimler AG executives said Tuesday that diesel power for Mercedes cars is here to stay, even as electric cars and electrified mobility spreads throughout its passenger and commercial vehicles, and even its global partnerships. Electrified vehicles include everything from 48-volt mild hybrids...

  • Tata E-Vision concept
    Model 3 quality (bad), more Bolt EVs (good!), diesel debate, Audi e-tron: Today's Car News (yesterday's too)

    Today, we've got a double dose of news to make up for not sending one yesterday. Stories include more Chevy Bolt EV production, dreadful Tesla Model 3 quality, and continuing debate over diesel amid more bans of the oldest, dirtiest diesel cars. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Our apologies...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3 "first production" car, in photo tweeted by Elon Musk on July 9, 2017
    Tesla Model 3 quality is terrible, but will it matter to buyers?

    So we've finally had the chance to spend time with a 2018 Tesla Model 3, courtesy of a generous and devoted Green Car Reports reader. We'll have our first-drive report and a full review of the car within a day or two—but that's not what this article is about. The build quality of the early...

  • Chrome exhaust pipe
    Rome joins European ban-diesel bandwagon after German court ruling

    First Paris, then a pair of German cities, and now the Eternal City. Two weeks ago, the mayor of Rome announced on her Facebook page that the city would ban diesel cars altogether by 2024. It's not clear whether the ban applies solely to the older, most-polluting diesels as it does already in...

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee

    Over the years, we've noted the paucity of solid data on the intersection of home solar energy and driving plug-in electric cars. A California-only study from 2012 still gets quoted occasionally, and we continue to seek more recent and more comprehensive data. Out of a mix of curiosity and desperation, we turned to our (far from scientific) weekly Twitter polls to get some (possibly very unrepresentative) responses. DON'T MISS: Soaring growth of solar power demonstrated in one chart (updated) We asked our Twitter followers who own or lease electric cars what kind of electricity they used to...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV pre-production
    Chevy Bolt EV production to grow, GM to work for single set of fuel-economy rules: CEO Barra

    General Motors CEO Mary Barra told energy conference attendees in Houston on Wednesday the automaker would increase production of its newest electric vehicle, push for a single fuel-economy standard nationwide, and support expanding tax credits for electrified vehicles. "The good news is that our...

  • 2018 BMW i3s
    2018 BMW i3s first drive review: sportier and nearly as efficient

    BMW's Test Fest in Palm Springs, California, at The Thermal Club attracts a broad range of cars. The star of the show is the 600-horsepower 2018 BMW M5. But before I can test that wild sport sedan on the track, I’ll do my best to balance my carbon footprint in the new 2018 BMW i3s. BMW has...

  • Camouflaged 2019 Audi e-tron electric SUV on stage at 2018 Geneva auto show
    Audi e-tron electric SUV appears in camouflage at Geneva show, on city roads

    The Geneva auto show was expected to offer the first head-to-head comparison between the first two all-electric SUVs models from European luxury brands, both starting deliveries later this year. It didn't quite work out that way. The 2019 Jaguar I-Pace did indeed debut last Friday, before media...

  • Exhaust emissions from tailpipe [photo: Simone Ramella, 2005, used under Creative Commons 2.0]
    Mixed messages on future of diesel at Geneva auto show

    You can smell the diesel exhaust in any city in Europe, sometimes even before you hear the clatter from under the hood of every other passing vehicle. The Volkswagen diesel scandal that broke in September 2015 brought a laser focus to the software used in all diesel engines, and their inability to...

  • 2018 Nissan Leaf with EVgo fast charger at NJ Turnpike Molly Pitcher travel plaza, Feb 2018
    Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, Feb 2018: turning over new Leafs

    Cumulative Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales surpassed 50,000 units in February, aided by the second-generation 2018 Nissan Leaf, which sold 179 units in its “rookie” month. Unfortunately for the world’s best-selling plug-in electric vehicle (and third-best in Canada), its...

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