Green Car News

It's been said that the only global carmaker Toyota is really worried about is Hyundai. This year, the legendary Prius hybrid—which celebrates its 20th anniversary—has some new competition. This is the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq. It's a hybrid, but there are actually three models of the Ioniq...

GM said today it will sell its European Opel division to PSA Peugeot Citroën, the French parent of the Citroën, DS and Peugeot brands, for 2.2 billion euros (approximately $2.33 billion). Among the questions surrounding the sale—which includes the U.K.-market Vauxhall brand—is...

The Lexus LS 500h luxury sedan that debuts this week at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show will use the same "Multi Stage Hybrid System" as the LC 500h coupe. It's a somewhat different—and arguably more complex—setup than the powertrain of the LS 600h, the previous-generation hybrid version of...

The Chevy Bolt EV electric car got off to a fast start in its first full month of Canadian sales, selling 86 vehicles in February. Excluding its first week of availability in late January, the Bolt enjoyed the fourth-best debut month of any plug-in electric vehicle in the Canadian market. It...

Volvo currently offers plug-in hybrid powertrains in its top models—the XC90 SUV, S90 sedan, and V90. As the Swedish automaker redesigns its lower-level models, it will add plug-in hybrid options to them as well. But whereas the current T8 "Twin Engine" powertrain uses a 4-cylinder engine and...

What innovation did a 94-year-old battery legend discuss last week? Why should green-car buyers even consider purchasing a new diesel vehicle? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, March 3, 2017. Friday, recent...

The Lexus RX pretty much invented the luxury mid-size SUV category, and it remains a substantial part of the brand's sales in the U.S. 20 years later. It was also the brand's first hybrid crossover, sharing underpinnings with its larger and less-pricey Toyota Highlander Hybrid sibling. The RX was...

Today, why Tesla Model S and Model X sales could very well have plateaued, how much the Tesla Model 3 might cost, and a preview of the green cars debuting at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show. All this and more on Green Car Reports. By the end of this year, Tesla hopes to be cranking out 5,000 Model 3...

Lithium-ion battery-cell chemistry is currently dominant in electric cars, not to mention consumer electronics and other fields. But what seems to be an army of researchers thinks it can be improved. That includes one of the people who helped create lithium-ion batteries in the first place. CHECK...

The 2017 Geneva Motor Show marks the next stop on the annual auto-show circuit. With press days beginning March 7, we aren't expecting an overwhelming number of green cars at the Swiss show this year. A smattering of production and concept cars with some green elements will debut there, though...

Advocates of battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell cars are often at odds over which powertrain technology is the more practical solution to reducing emissions. But French firm Symbio continues to experiment with ways to combine the two. It fits hydrogen fuel cells as range extenders for...

Since more than 350,000 people around the world put down $1,000 deposits to reserve a place in line, the Tesla Model 3 electric car has assumed larger-than-life status. Its maker, Silicon Valley-based Tesla Motors, recently reaffirmed that series production will start in July and that Model 3...

Today, we look at six new electric cars coming in 2018 and 2019, Daimler invests in charging network ChargePoint, and a new study indicates U.S. fleet average fuel economy did not increase much over the past 25 years. All this and more on Green Car Reports. We have additional plug-in electric car...

There are essentially two types of electric cars on sale today. Battery-electric vehicles are powered only by a battery, while plug-in hybrids have an engine to supplement a more limited battery range. Which type will ultimately predominate isn't clear; each has advantages and disadvantages. DON'T...

The average fuel economy of the new cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. is appreciably higher than it was 10 years ago. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has demonstrated that in its regular reports calculating new-car average fuel economy since October 2007. But...

The lithium-ion battery pack is at the heart of any electric car. Its cost, energy density, and safety features do as much as any other feature of an electric car to determine its success. And battery packs from Tesla Motors differ from those built by virtually any other electric-car maker in at...

Even with aggressive promotion of battery-electric or hydrogen fuel-cell cars, hundreds of millions of internal-combustion vehicles will remain on the world's roads for decades to come. But estimates of exactly how many internal-combustion cars will be displaced by alternatives in a given period...

The next couple of years promise to be quite interesting for electric cars. A minimum of six new models are expected in that time period, all promising ranges of 200 miles or more—which until a few months ago had been the exclusive province of Tesla Motors. The list includes two affordable...

Today, we have plug-in electric car sales tallies for February, plans for a major expansion of the Tesla Supercharger fast-charging network, and a report that Bentley is considering an all-electric SUV. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Bentley is considering an all-electric SUV that would be...

In October, a federal judge signed the final agreement covering the majority of cars affected by the Volkswagen diesel-emissions scandal. That allowed the Volkswagen Group to start issuing buyback offers for half a million vehicles sold by the VW and Audi brands from 2009 through 2015 that were...