Green Car News
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Future Ford Escape plug-in, China vs US, more solar power, electric semis on wires: Today's Car NewsJohn VoelckerToday, we've got a different approach to electric trucks, a complicated combustion engine, more solar power, a plug-in future Ford, and some worries about U.S. competitiveness. 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 The Toyota Prius V hybrid wagon will be withdrawn from the U.S. market due to the sales success of its less-efficient crossover sibling, the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. While the unveiling of the Tesla Semi electric long-haul tractor continues to make headlines, there's another way to...
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Is China making U.S. irrelevant to the future of automobiles?The first automobile was invented in Germany in 1885 by Karl Benz, but it was the U.S. that led the building of the global 20th-century automobile industry. Through the turn of the current century, the U.S. new-vehicle market was the world's largest, and General Motors was for decades the world's...
John Voelcker -
Soaring growth of solar power demonstrated in one chart (updated)Sometimes a picture is truly worth a thousand words. In the case of the rapidly rising rate of solar installations for electricity generation, numerous forecasts by internationally respected bodies have proven woefully conservative. The chart in the tweet below, created by Auke Hoekstra at the...
John Voelcker -
2019 Ford Escape to get plug-in hybrid, plus Expedition SUV hybrid, Lincoln versions too: reportIn recent years, Ford Motor Company's plans for putting more plug-in electric cars on the road have been, shall we say, murky. GM has the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, sales of its Chevy Bolt EV 238-mile electric car have risen every month, and it plans a pair of all-electric SUVs by...
John Voelcker -
2019 Infiniti QX50 crossover to debut variable-compression engineEfforts by automakers to increase fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions have intensified in recent years as emission rules have tightened and the effects of climate change are better analyzed. While electric cars and hybrids will grow in popularity, the internal-combustion engine remains the...
Sean Szymkowski -
How about electric semis that draw power from overhead wires?While battery-powered semi trucks remains years away for many prominent makers, the German tech company Siemens is experimenting with a well-known source of electric power delivery to make a different kind of electric semi. Much like electric trams or streetcars used by public transit agencies for...
Sean Szymkowski -
After six model years, the 2017 Toyota Prius V will soon leave the stage, and there will be no 2018 version. Toyota has confirmed to Green Car Reports that it is ending production of the hybrid wagon for the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The reason is simple: Its sales have fallen considerably since the 2016 launch of the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid compact crossover. DON'T MISS: 2012 Toyota Prius V: Hybrid Wagon Drive Report (Jan 2012) Buyers' preference for a hybrid SUV against a hybrid wagon simply follows the overall market trend, in which passenger sedans, hatchbacks, and wagons are giving way to utility...
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Best Car To Buy 2018; Tesla Semi, Roadster; VW e-Golf driven; electric-car tax credit: The Week in ReverseWhat strong new competitor to the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid will go on sale December 1? Which vehicle did we name our Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2018? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, November 17, 2017...
John Voelcker -
Tesla semi, Roadster surprise too, Clarity Plug-in price, Jeep Wrangler MPG: Today's Car NewsToday, it's almost all about Tesla: introduction of its future Semi, a surprise new Roadster too, and the most important question for the company. Also, aggressive pricing on the Honda Clarity Plug-In, some long-ago electric-car history, and a billion dollars for Nio. All this and more on Green Car...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Semi, new Roadster distract from Model 3 production problemsNever let it be said that Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his event producers are not masters of showmanship. Last night's launch of the Tesla Semi heavy-duty commercial truck tractor came with a surprise: a new Tesla Roadster emerged from the back of the trailer. The wow factor was ... high. DON'T MISS...
John Voelcker -
Electric cars 'right around the corner' in 1966: what took so long?Looking at yesterday's visions of tomorrow is always entertaining, from flying cars to cities of the future. In the case of the electric car, there have been two futures: one from 1890 to about 1910, and then another starting 100 years later in 2011. The intervening century saw many, many...
John Voelcker -
Chinese electric-car startup Nio gets $1 billion in funding: reportNio, the electric-car maker formerly known as NextEV, has raised a substantial amount of money in its latest round of fundraising. The Chinese startup reportedly received a stunning $1 billion in funding, with Chinese investment powerhouse Tencent leading the charge. Notably, Tencent also holds a...
Sean Szymkowski -
Most reports on startup electric-car maker Faraday Future tend to describe it as "struggling," and that may be an understatement. It halted work at its Nevada-based production facility in 2016; the startup company's main backer, China's LeEco, acknowledged this past May it was experiencing financial problems; and Faraday Future has been clamoring for investment since this past summer to keep itself afloat. Following an emergency $14 million loan from California-based Innovatus Capital Partners, Faraday Future may now have found a savior in India's Tata, the parent company of luxury maker...
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New 2018 Jeep Wrangler boosts fuel economy, from bad to less badAhead of the next-generation 2018 Jeep Wrangler's debut, the EPA released fuel-economy estimates for the V-6 powered model of the archetypal SUV. They're higher, as are the ratings for pretty much every new model, courtesy of steadily rising corporate average fuel-economy rules for model years 2012...
Sean Szymkowski -
2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid starts at $34,290 with 47-mile rangeThe 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid will start at a recommended price of $34,290 including delivery, making it the least expensive plug-in hybrid sedan on the market this year. Honda says it will go on sale December 1, and it will be offered at all Honda dealers in the U.S. That means that for...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Semi: 500-mile range, lower running costs than diesel... and it's fastThe long-awaited Tesla Semi electric truck was unveiled Thursday night and it promises to shake up the shipping industry by significantly reducing the cost of transporting goods from point-to-point. Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the Semi at a private event in California, where he touted a 500-mile...
Andrew Ganz -
Tesla Roadster is back: 0-60 in 1.9 seconds, 620-mile rangeWhat's old is new again. The Tesla Roadster is back, company CEO Elon Musk revealed Thursday night at a special event in California. Forget about the old, Lotus-derived Roadster. This latest 2020 Tesla Roadster is shapely, sprints from 0-60 mph in just 1.9 seconds, 0-100 mph in 4.2 seconds, and...
Andrew Ganz -
Big electric truck, cheaper small cars, Fisker solid-state cells, CARB vs EPA: Today's Car NewsToday, we've got a drive report on the largest electric vehicle we've ever piloted, some patents on solid-state batteries from Fisker, California's powerful air-quality agency expanding, and more deals on smaller cars. All this and more on Green Car Reports. General Motors CEO Mary Barra yesterday...
John Voelcker -
A Class 5 cargo van is a remarkably large vehicle, especially when navigating it through the mixed industrial and 19th-century residential streets of the Prospect Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. The Chanje V8070 electric cargo van, in fact, is the largest vehicle—electric or otherwise—we've ever driven. (We're still waiting for a chance to drive a BYD or Proterra electric transit bus ...) That meant we didn't have much frame of reference for comparing it to conventional diesel-powered cargo vans. DON'T MISS: Comparing it to the two dozen or so other battery-electric...
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CARB steps up shadow-EPA role with new building, vehicle testing labFor 45 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has been charged with protecting the U.S. from pollution in its air, water, and land. Under the Trump Administration, its administrator Scott Pruitt is aggressively muzzling and removing scientists, eradicating climate-science from its activities...
John Voelcker -
Discounts soar on many small cars as market stampedes toward SUVsThe market's shift to crossovers and SUVs is well documented, but what may be less well known are the massive discounts some automakers now offer on small cars as a result. While those small cars may deliver smaller profit margins, automakers must now add in steep discounts to move them from...
Sean Szymkowski -
Fisker still aims at solid-state electric-car batteries, as patents attestAt first, Fisker had promised its upcoming EMotion electric sedan would launch with revolutionary solid-state batteries. The company then backtracked in June, saying the technology would not be ready. Instead, the EMotion will launch with conventional lithium-ion batteries. Fisker announced on...
Sean Szymkowski -
GM CEO Mary Barra hints at Bolt EV-based crossover SUV, details future electric vehiclesGeneral Motors CEO Mary Barra gave investors a detailed playbook for the automaker's future electric vehicles plans Wednesday, including a possible glimpse at a crossover based on the Bolt EV. Barra gave the presentation for investors at the Barclays 2017 Global Automotive Conference in New York. A...
Aaron Cole -
2017 VW e-Golf driven, electric-car cargo, Twizy drive, Faraday Future rescue? Today's Car NewsToday, we've driven the longer-range 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf, Faraday Future may have been rescued, we compare electric-car cargo space, and one writer gets his dream drive in a ... Renault Twizy. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Our Tesla-owning writer David Noland had always wanted to drive...
John Voelcker