Green Car News

  • 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV

    The 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car is now arriving at Chevy dealers with no major changes—though drivers may find the heated steering wheel now turns itself on and off. Otherwise, the deletion of the map pocket on the back of the passenger seat from the 2LT trim level is the sole other change from the 2017 model year. The Bolt EV still returns an EPA-estimated 238-mile range from its 60-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, which powers a 150-kilowatt (200-horsepower) electric motor. DON'T MISS: 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV - full review EPA ratings estimate the electric Chevy's energy...

  • World's first electric-plane aerotow with Siemens SPD260-powered Extra 330LE, © Jean-Marie Urlacher
    Are electric airplanes actually a real thing?

    With electrification spreading through many types of transport, one vehicle still remains largely absent in using electrons for propulsion: aircraft. Automakers have been building commercially viable electrified cars—in whole (electrics) or in part (hybrids)—for more than two decades...

  • Renault Samsung SM3 ZE electric car, sold in South Korea
    Renault Samsung SM3 ZE electric sedan: battery upgrade gives 130-mile range in Korean tests

    Frequently, cars withdrawn from one market live on in another, sometimes for years. Those vehicles may even be upgraded with newer technology in the older body. Consider that the first-generation Volkswagen Golf launched in 1974, for example, lived on in South Africa until 2009 as the VW CitiGolf...

  • Prototype production of battery modules for BMW Group’s fifth-generation electric powertrain
    Tesla Model 3 video review, Volvo XC90 plug-in range boost, dealers unprepared for electric cars: Today's Car News

    Today, we've got a pair of articles on the Tesla Model 3, including a poll; a quiet but important electric-range boost for the 2018 Volvo XC90 T8; and some (more) bad news about car dealers. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the weekend, as we do every seven days, we ran down last week's...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3, in photo tweeted by Elon Musk on July 9, 2017
    How many Model 3s will Tesla deliver by Dec 31? Take our Twitter poll, again

    More than five months ago, before the 2017 Tesla Model 3 officially launched, we published the results of a poll asking how many of the lower-priced electric cars would be delivered by the end of this year. Survey respondents on Twitter were optimistic, with more than half suggesting Tesla would...

  • Chinese electric-car startup SF Motors headquarters
    Chinese electric-car startup SF Motors bought Tesla founder's battery-tech firm

    Although Elon Musk is the name now associated with Tesla, the current CEO was not a founding figure in the electric-car startup. That honor goes to two men, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Eberhard subsequently sparred with Musk in and outside of court. Following his time at Tesla, Eberhard...

  • 2018 Volvo XC90

    It's a shock to realize that the Volvo XC90 large luxury SUV is now in its third model year. The first new Volvo in more than five years when it debuted in 2016, the seven-seat XC90 was an entirely new design that redefined luxury in a Swedish vein and won numerous awards, including North American Utility Vehicle of the Year. It also came with a plug-in hybrid version at the top of the line, known as the T8 "Twin Engine" model. DON'T MISS: 2016 Volvo XC90 T8 Plug-In Hybrid 'Twin Engine': First Drive Now, the 2018 Volvo XC90 T8 has received a battery upgrade. The battery rises in capacity from...

  • 2015 Nissan Leaf in front of Longfellow Bridge, Boston [photo: John Briggs]
    Car dealers are woefully unprepared for electric vehicles: study

    Yet another study has revealed that many dealerships across the United States still don't prioritize electric cars and haven't prepared for their growth. The latest report showed dealerships still practice the same unhealthy habits uncovered in earlier studies, including a lack of electric-car...

  • Video review of 2017 Tesla Model 3 electric car by Matt Pressman, Evannex [frame from YouTube video]
    Tesla Model 3 video review compares lower-priced electric car to Model S

    There have been no full reviews of the 2017 Tesla Model 3 to date by automotive media outlets, meaning professional test drivers spend a few days with the car putting it through a standard battery of tests. A few early video reviews, apparently by owners, have also vanished from the Internet...

  • U.S. Postal Service Grumman "Long Life Vehicle"
    U.S. Postal Service urged to choose electric delivery trucks

    The current fleet of delivery trucks used by the United States Postal Service have stood the test of time, but their high maintenance costs mean it's time to retire the iconic boxy vehicles. The USPS began soliciting bids in 2016 and five finalists now remain in the running: they are...

  • 2017 Hyundai Ioniq
    Big Tesla battery, Prius Prime vs Volt, Ioniq Hybrid miles, China vs US electric cars: The Week in Reverse

    What new hybrid and plug-in cars are coming from Ford, which has been notably silent on that front since 2013? How does fossil-fuel-loving EPA administrator Scott Pruitt define the word "environmentalism"? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for...

  • Tesla South Australia lithium-ion battery storage
    Tesla builds world's largest lithium-ion battery, for utility use, in Australia

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a bet that he'd build the world's largest lithium-ion battery in Australia in 100 days. If his company failed, Musk would personally pay for the project, but the battery is now ready for its first test ahead of full operation—and on schedule. The massive...

  • President Donald Trump (Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)

    By now it's clear that the Trump Administration is doing everything it can to end U.S. government efforts to address climate change. Climate-science deniers sit in powerful government positions, language on climate change has been eradicated from websites, and the U.S. is now the sole nation in the world that plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate Treaty signed by President Obama in late 2016. Will it work? DON'T MISS: Climate change all manmade, say actual scientists: awkward for Trump science deniers If nothing else, the administration's efforts have provoked a furious backlash by several...

  • Estimated U.S. energy consumption in 2016  [graphic: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]
    U.S. energy sources and uses: everything you need to know in one lovely chart

    One of the interesting side effects of plug-in electric cars turns out to be a greater awareness of energy sources and uses. A 2012 California study, for instance, showed roughly four out of 10 electric-car drivers either had or were considering solar panels to provide electricity to their home...

  • Uber self-driving prototype in San Francisco
    Electric-car plugs, 'environmentalism' at today's EPA, Big Oil's future, EV penetration: Today's Car News

    Today, a possible plug conflict for electric cars, a redefinition from the EPA chief, a study suggesting Big Oil will wane, and our latest Twitter poll. All this and more on Green Car Reports. We'll be running a light schedule of stories for the next four days as we celebrate the Thanksgiving...

  • TurboCord Dual 120V and 240V adapter
    Dual-voltage electric-car charging cords: plug confusion for 240 volts?

    When the first few thousand electric cars went on sale in California in the mid- to late 1990s, they used various different charging methods, each with its own dedicated charging stations. Given the high cost of installing different infrastructure for different makes of car, that proved a...

  • Oil well (photo by John Hill)
    Big Oil will lose grip on global vehicle market in less than 25 years: study

    The latest study on the future of transportation paints an increasingly dim picture for the oil industry, though it suggests that the industry is in no danger of collapse. Instead, Big Oil will lose its dominance in the transportation sector over a 25-year period as electric cars and mobility...

  • EPA administrator Scott Pruitt  [photo from 2014]
    EPA chief Scott Pruitt: 'environmentalism' is use rather than preservation

    EPA head Scott Pruitt will likely go down as one of the most controversial agency chiefs in that agency's history of almost 50 years. The former Oklahoma attorney general, who sued the EPA 14 times on behalf of fossil-fuel interests during the Obama administration, has a radically different view of...

  • 2018 Nissan Leaf

    China's announcement in early September that it planned to set a date to end sales of new vehicles with combustion engines should have rocked the global auto industry. The world's largest car market, at roughly 30 million vehicles a year, will at some point permit only zero-emission vehicles to be sold. That will accelerate the development, production, and sale of battery-electric cars around the world—whether automakers want to or not. DON'T MISS: China developing timetable to end sales, production of gasoline cars We don't yet know when that will be, and the year is likely to be 10 to...

  • Inflated airbag
    Toyota electric cars, more Nissan EVs, Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid driven, Volt vs Prius Prime: Today's Car News

    Today, we've got news on future electric cars from Nissan, Renault, and Toyota, some thoughts on more time in a Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid, and a sales race between the Chevy Volt and Toyota Prius Prime. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Toyota's reluctant moves into electric cars will include its...

  • 2017 Toyota Prius Prime and 2017 Chevrolet Volt with Green Car Reports editor John Voelcker
    Will Toyota Prius Prime outsell Chevy Volt this year?

    Compared to the U.S. sales of, say, full-size pickup trucks, the monthly reports on deliveries of plug-in hybrid and battery-electric cars contain some fairly low numbers. The Ford F-Series routinely sells 80,000 a month or more, while the most any plug-in car has ever sold in the U.S. is about...

  • 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid Blue, Catskill Mountains, NY, Nov 2017
    2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid: further thoughts on 50 mpg after 1,200 miles

    We've now spent more than 1,200 miles in a variety of Hyundai Ioniqs, but the bulk of them were covered in the conventional hybrid version of the five-door compact hatchback. That's the highest-volume version, while the battery-powered Ioniq Electric sells in lower numbers and the plug-in hybrid...

  • 2018 Nissan Leaf
    Nissan, Mitsubishi, Renault all to 'target' electric cars in 2020, CEO Ghosn says

    Carlos Ghosn has been an advocate of electric cars for years, but after initial disappointment, he's ready to take on the segment with even greater focus. The CEO of the Renault Nissan Alliance that now includes Mitsubishi predicted the rise of electric cars nearly a decade ago, and oversaw the...

  • 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV, Newport Beach, California, July 2012
    Toyota to sell electric cars in China, use Suzuki EVs in India, from 2020: report

    Toyota made its future battery-electric car project public this past April after an "agonizing" decision to depart from its sole focus on a future powered by hydrogen fuel cells as its sole zero-emission vehicle technology. Mostly, that shift is due to China and India—two major auto markets...

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