Green Car News

  • 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid

    It’s easy for the 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid to get lost. Short of small “Hybrid” badges on the front fenders, not much on the car’s exterior says it's powered by electrons. There’s no plug-in variant for now (a role reserved to the Clarity Plug-In sedan), and the latest hybrid Accord is built alongside other Accords in Ohio this time around. Even the battery packs, which have been moved from the trunk to underneath the rear seats, don't intrude the way like they used to. Will buyers miss having less trunk space than other Accords? (Editor's Note: Probably not.)...

  • 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Catalina Island, CA, Sep 2017
    2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV: first drive of plug-in hybrid SUV

    Not too many people will ever drive the 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, the plug-in hybrid version of the company's mid-size crossover utility vehicle. So it was fitting that the company launched the vehicle on dusty roads in the back country of Catalina Island: roads that not many people are...

  • 2014 Tesla Model S in China
    Leaf vs Bolt EV, Outlander PHEV prices, China wants electric cars, will Tesla win? The Week in Reverse

    What did China do last week that rocked the automotive world and likely altered its future direction? Which upcoming electric car turned out to have more orders than anyone expected? (It's not a Tesla ....) This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for...

  • Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Sesame Street advertisement
    China's huge EV sales rules, Tesla vs Germans, Pacifica Hybrid monster, diesels down: Today's Car News

    Today, China changes the world, a monster markets a minivan, AM radio may vanish, diesels drop for 2018, and we cast a sceptical eye on Tesla's chances of destroying all German luxury brands. All this and more on Green Car Reports. The biggest news of the week, and very possibly the year, is the...

  • 2014 BMW i3 and 2014 Tesla Model S   [photo: Tom Moloughney]
    Will Tesla steamroller German luxury makers? Perhaps not

    It has become an article of faith among some Tesla fans and owners that the company will inevitably rise to compete with and ultimately defeat the titans of the global auto industry. This belief is especially prevalent for the luxury sector, where three German carmakers dominate the global market...

  • 2015 BMW i3 REx  -  Driven, Portland OR, April 2015
    BMW i3 electric car quirk: no AM radio offered, but why? (update)

    The BMW i3 electric car is a tour de force of advanced engineering--and it was the most energy-efficient car sold in the U.S. in 2014 and 2015. Its body shell is made of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, riding on an aluminum platform containing the lithium-ion battery, the electric motor, and the...

  • Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Sesame Street advertisement

    The 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is a one-of-a-kind vehicle, the sole plug-in hybrid minivan offered for sale in North America. Its early months were plagued by a powertrain recall for a potentially faulty diode within the power inverter module. Now, the Pacifica Hybrid is back on sale in its second model year, and the minivan with 33 miles of electric range has some new support from familiar faces. DON'T MISS: 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid sales have resumed after recall Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced a new ad partnership with both Sesame Street and actor Dax Shepard to support the...

  • Beijing smog
    China electric-car rules to start in 2019; aggressive totals are world's highest

    You may not have heard it happen, but the global automotive industry changed forever on Thursday. China released its plan to require substantial sales of plug-in electric cars by all makers who want to sell in the world's largest car market, and they start in little more than a year. The levels far...

  • 2018 Hyundai Accent
    2018 Hyundai Accent small sedan debuts at minor auto show

    Hyundai decided to skip the major auto-show circuit and debut its redesigned Accent subcompact sedan at a relatively minor auto show. The Korean automaker revealed the 2018 Hyundai Accent at the Orange County Auto Show in California, which boasts a new design, more interior space, and an updated...

  • 2017/2018 Audi e-tron FE04 Formula E racecar
    Outlander PHEV prices, Dyson electric, BMW wireless charging, Toyota ❤ Mazda: Today's Car News

    Today, we've got a wee bit more news on the Toyota electric car for 2020, prices for the 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, wireless charging for two German luxury sedans, and a teaser to get you to come back a bit later. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Yesterday afternoon, we got prices for...

  • 2018 BMW 530e iPerformance wireless charging
    BMW, Mercedes to offer wireless-charging options for plug-in hybrids next year

    Every one of the modern electric cars on the market for almost seven years requires plugging in a cord to recharge the battery using grid electricity. Inserting the cord into the socket takes just a few seconds, and most cars today are charged overnight. But soon there will be another option...

  • James Dyson
    Dyson electric car for 2020 draws executives from Aston Martin, Tesla

    Dyson, the British appliance company best known for its bagless vacuum cleaners, has cleared up speculation that has persisted for nearly 10 years. Founder and chief engineer James Dyson officially confirmed his company is developing an electric car and is planning for a 2020 launch. Not only has...

  • 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV Prototype

    Very little is known for sure about the long-range electric car Toyota will launch around 2020. Over the last two years, the company—by far the industry's strongest proponent of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles—has concluded it must field a battery-electric vehicle to stay competitive. Toyota is likely unhappy about it, but regulations in China will require every automaker to sell fast-rising numbers of electric cars, starting very soon. DON'T MISS: 2020 Mazda electric car to share Toyota underpinnings, technology On Thursday morning, one small piece of the puzzle came into focus. A...

  • Ford and Lyft partner on self-driving cars
    Owning a Tesla, 48-volt mild hybrids, Indian electric cars, CA to ban cars with engines? Today's Car News

    Today, we've got important news from California, some reflections on owning a Tesla, and how diesel's decline is helping hybrids. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over seven years of modern electric cars, it's widely accepted that they lose money for their makers if all costs are fully...

  • 2016 Tesla Model S   [photo by owner Shiva]
    How Tesla Model S alters car ownership: a buyer's one-year notes

    In late July, we published an article describing one electric-car driver's experience in adding solar panels to his home to help with charging his family's five electric cars. That reader, who'd like to be known just as Shiva, has now owned a 2016 Tesla Model S for a year. He recently outlined for...

  • National Plug-In Day 2012: San Francisco, with 60 Nissan Leafs in front of the Golden Gate Bridge
    California mulls ban on new cars with engines, joining China in climate action

    With China mulling an eventual ban on sales of cars with gasoline or diesel engines, the world's largest car market made it clear earlier this month that it intends to force a conversion to zero-emission vehicles. Now California, which has led the U.S. in environmental awareness and emission...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3
    Which electric car will sell best in 2018, globally? Poll results

    Next year is shaping up to be a banner year for electric cars globally. The new, longer-range second-generation Nissan Leaf will be in production at three factories around the world, the Tesla Model 3 should hit volume production, and the Chevy Bolt EV will be fully available in North America...

  • Johnson Controls 48-volt lithium-ion micro-hybrid battery
    48-volt mild hybrids heading toward ubiquity in Europe as diesel declines

    Public concerns over diesel cars, and their ebbing sales, have become a well-documented phenomenon in Europe after decades of popularity. When the VW diesel scandal exposed deliberate cheating, and real-world testing revealed that virtually no diesels certified for sale actually met emission...

  • Mahindra e2o Plus

    The market for electric cars continues to grow, but vehicles powered by fossil fuels remain dominant across the globe. Many analysts believe electric cars will reach price parity with vehicles powered by internal-combustion engines sometime within the next decade. Indian maker Mahindra, however, says its own small, limited-range electric cars are already on the brink of profitability today—and it plans to fully embrace battery-electric cars moving forward. DON'T MISS: India actually beat China to all-electric new-car pledge, targets 2030 As the business case for electric cars becomes...

  • 2018 Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo
    Lots of luxury electric cars, Volvo XC40 subscription, Drive Electric Week roundup: Today's Car News

    Today, we've got news on luxury electric cars from Volkswagen and from Jaguar, and a poll asking your opinion on them, as well as a prediction about car-subscription services replacing some sales . All this and more on Green Car Reports. This year's National Drive Electric Week, the eighth one, was...

  • Jaguar I-Pace Concept, 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show
    Jaguar I-Pace electric SUV has already accumulated 25,000 orders: CEO

    In the rarified but still high-volume world of global luxury auto brands, Jaguar is still a tiny player. The British brand sold fewer than 150,000 cars globally last year, one-third of the number of Land Rover and Range Rover SUVs from its sister brands within Jaguar Land Rover. Audi sold 1.9...

  • 2006 Volkswagen Phaeton
    Volkswagen to show flagship all-electric ID sedan in Geneva: Phaeton successor?

    The long, strange, sad saga of the now-defunct Volkswagen Phaeton will likely go down as an asterisk in VW's long history. The pet project of now-departed VW Group chairman Ferdinand Piech, a member of the Porsche family that controls the carmaker, it was a $70,000-and-up luxury sedan from the...

  • BMW i Vision Dynamics concept, 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show    [photo: Tom Moloughney]
    Which maker will sell most electric luxury cars by 2020? Take our Twitter poll

    It has taken several years for European luxury makers to sort out what to do about the unexpected arrival of Tesla and its electric cars into a market they've dominated for decades. Sure, Lexus and a host of lesser Asian makes have competitive products somewhere between premium and luxury, but...

  • 2019 Volvo XC40
    Car subscription services to take 1 of 5 sales by 2023, Volvo CEO says

    The 2019 Volvo XC40 not only represents the Swedish brand's first compact crossover to be sold in the U.S. but its first shot at a new model for drivers to obtain cars: a subscription service. During the XC40 launch, Volvo revealed it would introduce Care by Volvo, a subscription service giving...

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