Green Car News

  • Renault Connected Energy charging station powered by second-life batteries

    Renault hasn't tackled the home-energy storage market to the degree its alliance partner Nissan has, but it has found another use for "second-life" batteries. The French brand has worked with UK-based Connected Energy to install two electric-car DC fast-charging stations powered by second-life batteries. Once the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries has fallen to a point that they are no longer suitable to power vehicles, they still retain considerable capacity for use as energy storage. DON'T MISS: Nissan home energy-storage battery: another front against Tesla? The electric-car charging...

  • 2016 BYD Tang plug-in hybrid SUV, made in China
    China's electric-car sales now twice those in US for Jan-June 2017

    Hard numbers provide the latest evidence that shows China is by far the world's largest market for plug-in cars—or new energy vehicles, as they are referred to locally. The latest round of sales figures show the Chinese bought almost exactly twice the number of plug-in vehicles as car buyers...

  • Ford and Domino's deliver pizzas with self driving vehicles
    Diesel demand drops, 2018 BMW i3 updates, Exxon lied for decades, Tesla wins in court: Today's Car News

    Today, we've got the updates to the 2018 BMW i3 electric car (including the sporty new i3s), an analysis that implicates Exxon, a court win for Tesla, and dire details on used diesel demand. All this and more on Green Car Reports. A week before they debut at the Frankfurt auto show, we now have...

  • Oil well (photo by John Hill)
    Exxon knew climate change was real, ads told public it wasn't

    Sometimes it's best not to dare the public to do the research, especially if you're trying to persuade them of something that isn't true. Almost two years ago, Inside Climate News published a significant expose that confirmed Exxon's own scientists had agreed that human carbon emissions contributed...

  • 2018 Tesla Model 3
    Which carmaker will sell most electric cars in 2020, China included? Poll results

    Last year, China's BYD sold more plug-in electric cars than any other company in the world. That includes General Motors, Nissan, and Tesla. Now GM has launched the Chevrolet Bolt EV, the second-generation Nissan Leaf is just days away, and advocates, analysts, and enthusiasts are watching how...

  • Tesla Store Los Angeles [photo: Misha Bruk / MBH Architects]
    Tesla wins Michigan court fight to get e-mails by lobbyist, lawmaker

    As a Tesla lawsuit over the state of Michigan's dealership franchise law grinds on, the Silicon Valley automaker scored a recent legal victory. A federal magistrate has ordered two Michigan lawmakers to turn over their communications to the company's lawyers, including emails they sent to lobbyist...

  • Volkswagen TDI diesel vehicles owned by Phil Grate and family, Seattle, Washington

    Diesel-powered cars, long a staple on European roads, are starting to lose favor as million of dollars of inventory begins to pile up in used diesel models. The inventory, largely recent models certified under the superseded Euro-5 emission standards, has boomed recently over the possibility the cars will not meet future emission limits to be enacted in German cities. German automakers and their various brands—BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volkswagen and more—have responded to the tougher regulations with diesel software-update initiatives. DON'T MISS: Audi, Mercedes now updating...

  • 2018 BMW i3 and i3s
    2018 BMW i3 electric car range adds sportier i3s version

    While the 2018 BMW i3 will formally debut next week at the Frankfurt auto show, the company has released details ahead of time on the updates to the lineup of its compact electric car. While battery range stays the same as last year, a new i3s model (for Sport) has been added, with revised...

  • Mercedes-Benz GLC F-Cell prototype
    Diesel drama, Nissan battery sale, VW jail time, electric-car charging: Today's Car News

    Today, we ended up with two separate stories on the Volkswagen diesel scandal, Nissan sold its electric-car battery unit, transparent solar moonroofs may be coming, and we explain why you should think about hot dogs. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the weekend, we summarized last...

  • Audi and Chinese firm Alta Devices team up to develop a glass solar roof panel
    Transparent solar cells to let Audi capture energy from glass roofs

    Solar energy has long generated electricity both on building roofs and in huge "solar farms" for utility companies, but only a few cars have had solar panels on their bodies. Solar roofs aren't a new concept, but Audi and Alta Devices' solution would be the most transparent photovoltaic solar roof...

  • 2015 Nissan Leaf at evGo fast charger at Livingston Mall, Livingston, NJ   [photo: John Briggs]
    Electric cars and public charging: hot dog and bun, not chicken or egg?

    It's an old cliche used to indicate an unsolvable problem: which came first, the chicken or the egg? Sometimes it's applied to the challenge of electric-car charging stations: which comes first, sales of the cars or installation of public charging to support them? Well, Jeff Allen isn't having any...

  • 2017 Nissan Leaf
    Nissan has sold electric-car battery unit AESC to Chinese investor GSR (updated)

    With the global introduction of the second-generation Nissan Leaf electric car due next week, one open question concerns the source of its battery cells. To date, Automotive Electric Supply Corporation—a joint venture between Nissan and Japanese electronics giant NEC—has supplied...

  • 2017 Audi RS 7

    It has been nearly two years since Volkswagen came clean and admitted its "clean diesel" engines were actually quite dirty. In 2015, a VW engineer admitted the TDI diesel cars sold in the U.S. since 2009 were outfitted with "defeat device" software that let them pass emission tests, only to emit far more nitrogen oxides in real-world use. Two years is a long time to implement damage control, which has cost VW Group $25 billion to date—but the story is continuing to unfold. DON'T MISS: Lasting legacy of VW diesel scandal: EU gets serious about testing A former Audi engineer has now...

  • Tesla charging port in the United Kingdom
    How Teslas charge in US and UK: similarities and differences

    It's well-known that electrical outlets in the United States and elsewhere vary, but it also makes for somewhat different charging experiences with the Tesla Model S. In Europe, the standard voltage is higher than the United States, which means more power can be drawn from a standard wall outlet...

  • 2015 Volkswagen Golf TDI SE
    VW engineer gets 40 months in jail, $200K fine, for diesel cheating role

    Former Volkswagen employee James Liang was sentenced in Detroit on Friday to serve 40 months in prison and pay a $200,000 fine for his role in the global Volkswagen diesel-emission cheating scandal. It was a stiffer sentence than expected for an engineer who helped to create software that...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, road test, California coastline, Sep 2016
    Electric-car range, Audi A5 g-tron, Chevy Equinox Diesel, Bolt EV battery failure: The Week in Reverse

    How many miles of electric-car range turns out to attract many more buyers than a number slightly lower? Which German sport sedan did we test-drive, using a fuel that's all but irrelevant in North America? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, road test, California coastline, Sep 2016
    2017 Chevy Bolt EV battery may fail due to faulty cell; new pack needed for a few GM electric cars (updated)

    General Motors has informed "a few hundred" owners of 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars that their cars could suffer from a problem with the lithium-ion battery pack that could cause it to fail without warning. The cars were among the very earliest Bolt EVs produced for public sale, so are...

  • Audi e-tron Sportback concept, 2017 Shanghai auto show
    Bolt EV battery failure, natural-gas Audi, Tesla semi range, Royal Mail goes electric: Today's Car News

    Today, we've got news on the future Tesla semi tractor, we drove a natural-gas-powered Audi, a few Bolt EV batteries will be replaced, and the Royal Mail launched its all-electric delivery vans. All this and more on Green Car Reports. The Tesla semi tractor will reportedly have 200 to 300 miles of...

  • Arrival UK Royal Mail electric postal van

    The United Kingdom's Royal Postal Service has entered a new era as its first electric mail vans enter service. In total, nine electric postal vans from local company Arrival will enter the Royal Post's fleet, along with another 100 electric vans to be added in December from French brand Peugeot. The Arrival electric vans are capable of traveling 100 miles before charging is required, and the vans being tested come in various sizes and payload ratings. DON'T MISS: Germans to build own unique electric vans for postal service Specifically, the nine trial vans come in four different...

  • 2017 Audi A5 Sportback g-tron (European model), driven, Aug 2017  [photo: Ronan Glon]
    Audi A5 Sportback g-tron: first drive of natural-gas luxury sport sedan

    Audi’s vision of future mobility primarily centers around an array of long-range electric cars scheduled to debut in the coming years under the "e-tron" badge. These are intended to be Tesla killers, as they’re often called in Germany. But there’s another kind of tron with a...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S
    Tesla semi reportedly has 200 to 300 miles of range

    Tesla's first foray into the commercial vehicle sector—an all-electric semi truck—is expected to debut next month, but specifics surrounding the electric-car maker's latest project have been few and far between. An exclusive report may have revealed Tesla's range figure as it prepares...

  • 2018 Volkswagen T-Roc
    Tesla beats supercar, Equinox Diesel drive, 300-mile electric cars, bad news for coal: Today's Car News

    Today, we've got a report from our very, very brief drive in the Chevy Equinox Diesel compact crossover, some interesting survey data on how much electric-car range is "enough," another Tesla-trashes-supercar dragstrip video, and musings on a new Detroit factory and why it's where it is. All this...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV pre-production vehicles at Orion Township Assembly Plant, March 2016
    New LG Michigan plant could boost GM electric-car domestic content

    The question of where consumer goods are made has become more prominent in our political discourse of late, cars among them. Every automobile sold in the U.S. carries a listing of content sources, specifying what percentage by value of its overall content comes from which countries or regions...

  • 2018 Chevrolet Equinox Diesel, first drive, Teaneck, NJ, Aug 2017
    2018 Chevrolet Equinox Diesel (very brief) first drive

    We spent a few days with a gasoline-powered 2018 Chevy Equinox back in May, but now we've driven a much rarer version. The 2018 Chevrolet Equinox Diesel will start to arrive at U.S. Chevy dealers within two weeks, the company says. On Wednesday, as part of a comprehensive presentation on the five...

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