Green Car News
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Just as the Volkswagen Group begins to wind down its diesel scandal in the United States, things may be ramping up in Europe. A German government task force discovered a new type of defeat device in Audi vehicles, which allows the cars to cheat emission tests. Both V-6 and V-8 powered Audi A8 diesels—built between 2009 and 2013—were equipped with the defeat device with a total of 24,000 cars affected. DON'T MISS: Settlement for Audi, Porsche, VW 3.0-liter diesel TDI owners announced Half of the cars were sold in Germany, according to Handelsblatt. Germany’s Transport...
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Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, May 2017: what dominance looks likeAs certain as LeBron James reaching the NBA Finals, the Chevy Volt led the Canadian plug-in electric vehicle market in May. Barring a sales collapse in June, it will have led the category for a remarkable two-thirds of the months (48 of 72) in which electric vehicles from major carmakers have been...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Tesla insurance, $10K Leaf discounts, cleaner electric cars, CT6 Plug-In drive: Today's Car NewsToday, we've got a first drive of the Cadillac CT6 Plug-In hybrid luxury sedan, $10,000 discounts on Nissan Leaf electric cars, higher Tesla insurance rates, and Trump misstating a climate study that was deeply flawed to start with. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the weekend, we...
John Voelcker -
Electric cars cleaner than any gas-only car for 97 percent of U.S. driversElectric cars have no tailpipe emissions when running. But unless they're charged entirely on renewable energy—still statistically unlikely today—there are emissions associated with generating the electricity used to charge their batteries. For several years now, rigorous...
John Voelcker -
AAA raises Tesla insurance rates 30 percent; company disputes analysisIt's never a good day to learn one's insurance rates are rising, but AAA has decided the Tesla Model S and Model X warrant 30 percent increases. AAA combed through its own data and found Model S and Model X owners had abnormally high claim rates. The claim rates were also much costlier than...
Sean Szymkowski -
2017 Cadillac CT6 Plug-In: first drive of hybrid luxury sedanThe 2017 Cadillac CT6 Plug-In will be a rare beast in the U.S.; fewer than 1,000 are likely to be sold each year. In many ways, that's a shame. This version of the CT6 large sedan is a worthy competitor among plug-in hybrid luxury cars, the rest of which will come from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and...
John Voelcker -
German automakers are beginning to play catch-up with electric vehicles, as Tesla continues to corner the market. Audi has once again reconfirmed its plans to bring three battery-powered electric vehicles to production by the year 2020. The German luxury brand reiterated the plan at the annual general meeting in Neckarsulm, Germany, and said it will continue electrifying its portfolio gradually thereafter. DON'T MISS: Two more electric cars to follow Audi e-tron SUV by 2020, maker says By the year 2025, Audi expects one-third of its portfolio to be fully or partially electrified. Audi plans...
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Study Trump cited in Paris pullout speech can't be taken seriouslyIn his speech on Thursday announcing that the U.S. would pull out of the Paris climate treaty it signed last fall, President Donald Trump cited a number of statistics of the dire effects that treaty would supposedly have on the U.S. economy. In general, data, statistics, and analysis are...
John Voelcker -
Plug-in electric car sales for May: best Bolt EV, Prime months yet; Leaf, Volt rise too (final update)Sales of four high-volume plug-in electric cars rose last month, with new monthly record for the Chevy Bolt EV and the Toyota Prius Prime. The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV 238-mile battery-electric hatchback logged its highest monthly total since sales began in December. Chevrolet delivered 1,566 Bolt...
John Voelcker -
Lots of ways to get $10K off 2017 Nissan Leaf electric car by end of JuneThe 2017 Nissan Leaf might well be the hottest electric car deal on the market right now, with a slew of potential discounts. Nissan is working with numerous partners to provide $10,000 off a 2017 Leaf lease, which adds to the $7,500 federal income-tax credit, giving a total of $17,500 in...
Sean Szymkowski -
Tesla Model X sales, electric cars vs hybrids, Hyundai Ioniq battery, Paris pact pullout: The Week in ReverseWhy didn't the Tesla Model X sell as well as Elon Musk suggested it could? What happens when a Hyundai Ioniq Electric battery uses up the last of its energy capacity? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, June 2...
John Voelcker -
Electric Popemobile, Musk vs Trump, coal to wind, plug-in sales: Today's Car NewsToday, we update U.S. plug-in electric car sales data for May, look at a program to help coal miners get wind-farm jobs, explain Musk's view of Trump's Paris pullout, and highlight the unlikely place the newest Popemobile is actually made. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Donald Trump pulled...
John Voelcker -
All sorts of vehicles have been pressed into service to carry Popes, from simple Fiats to giant Mercedes-Benz luxury landaulets. Francis, the current Pope, has a preference for small, simple, environmentally friendly cars—and largely does without the bulletproof glass enclosures found in some previous "Popemobiles." His latest vehicle is entirely electric and, perhaps to the surprise of some Europeans, it's made in Michigan. DON'T MISS: Strong demand for Opel Ampera-e in Norway moves up launch date Specifically, it's an Opel Ampera-e, the rebadged and minimally restyled European sibling...
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From coal miner to wind-farm worker: Wyoming retraining programPresident Donald Trump has announced his intention to pull the United States from the Paris Climate Pact, but private companies and other entities are taking on the challenge of clean energy themselves. Goldwind Americas, a subsidiary of a leading Chinese wind-turbine manufacturer, continues to...
Sean Szymkowski -
Why Havelaar founder wanted an electric pickup truck: Japan's disasterA Canadian company by the name of Havelaar has tossed its hat into the electric pickup-truck ring with the reveal of its purpose-built Bison pickup. The launch underscores the potential many companies are trying to tap as the market for electric vehicles of various types continues to grow, slowly...
Sean Szymkowski -
U.S. out of Paris pact, so Elon Musk off Trump business councilsFulfilling a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump said yesterday that he will set in motion plans to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Pact that it joined last fall. In turn, Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded that he will have to pull out of Trump's business advisory councils of CEOs and...
John Voelcker -
Leaf batteries, Bolt EV sales, former Saabs, Tesla Model X sales: Today's Car NewsToday, we look at what may have happened to the once-touted Tesla Model X sales, cover a report on the future of Nissan Leaf battery cells, describe the electric cars based on the former Saab 9-3 that are now being built in China, and report on last month's plug-in electric car sales. All this and...
John Voelcker -
Hyundai Ioniq Electric: what happens when battery is run down to the end?One owner has now run his 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric's battery down all the way to "empty" so other owners know what to expect. The Ioniq Electric is EPA-rated at 124 miles of range from the 28-kwh battery pack that powers an 88-kilowatt (118-horsepower) electric motor. The driver in the video...
Sean Szymkowski -
A few years ago, before the Tesla Model X electric SUV went into production, company CEO Elon Musk said he thought it could outsell the older Model S hatchback luxury sedan. That hasn't happened. In the first three months of this year, Tesla said it delivered 11,550 Model Xes—but 13,450 Model Ses. DON'T MISS: 2016 Tesla Model X first drive review The last quarter of 2016 had similar numbers: 9,500 for the Model X versus 12,700 for the Model S. The big electric crossover utility vehicle, in fact, now appears to make up only about 40 percent of the company's total production and sales. In...
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Tesla vs VW poll, cleaner electric cars, CAFE-related jobs, electric work truck: Today's Car NewsToday, our readers weigh in on Volkswagen's claim that it will outdo Tesla, we look at jobs created by fuel-economy rules, the EU gets serious about emission testing, and BMW says that in a few years, you can sleep behind the wheel. All this and more on Green Car Reports. A top VW Group executive...
John Voelcker -
Havelaar Bison all-electric utility truck announced by Canadian companyThe electric-vehicle market remains in infancy, but non-traditional automakers are beginning to explore and tap the potential market for multiple types of vehicles powered by batteries. Canadian company Havelaar is the most recent to try its hand at an electric vehicle; like a few other companies...
Sean Szymkowski -
Electric cars are cleaner than hybrids in most places: mapped once again for your convenienceThe question is a reasonable one: electric cars may be zero-emission, but what about the electricity to recharge them? While renewable energy is growing globally, burning fossil fuels is still the source of most electric power today. The good news is that in most areas of the U.S., the "wells to...
John Voelcker -
Lasting legacy of VW diesel scandal: EU gets serious about testingThe Volkswagen diesel scandal left lasting imprints on the entire automotive industry, and may have changed the way regulators look at vehicles using the fuel forever. That's true not just in the United States, but elsewhere as well. The European Union is now increasing its efforts to make sure a...
Sean Szymkowski -
Fuel-efficiency rules create jobs too, contrary to industry plaintsFuel economy and emission standards have been a contentious issue in recent months as the auto industry and government officials clash over regulations and their potential benefits. Earlier this year, one of the largest pieces of evidence against more stringent fuel economy regulations came from...
Sean Szymkowski