Green Car News

Today, General Motors' Maven "mobility" brand adds Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars to its Los Angeles fleet, the 2018 Lexus LS 500h hybrid is slated to appear at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, and a new feature allows Tesla drivers to check the status of Supercharger stations from their cars. All this...

While homeowners are more familiar with photovoltaic solar panels, large-scale wind power is an increasingly important part of the growth in renewable energy. For the first time, the total installed capacity of wind energy in Europe now exceeds the total output of electric powerplants fueled with...

With the 238-mile Chevy Bolt EV electric car now in its third month of sales and rolling out to additional states every month, the industry is focused on its sales numbers. Retail buyers have asked to what degree GM's plans to dedicate a number of the early Bolt EVs to its Maven car-sharing service...

It should come as no surprise that Toyota's Lexus luxury brand remains enthusiastic about hybrids. Toyota has sold more hybrids than any other automaker, with luxury models sold under the Lexus brand contributing to a total that just exceeded 10 million. That trend will continue with the 2018 Lexus...

Unlike most automakers, Tesla doesn't schedule redesigns, updates, and new features for its cars to coincide with traditional model years. Aided by the fact that most of its new features are software-related, Tesla takes a more flexible approach. Many new features are pushed to its electric cars...

The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV has an official EPA-rated range of 238 miles per charge on the combined test cycle. That gives it the longest range of any electric car currently on sale in the U.S. that isn't a Tesla, at a base price around half that of the least-expensive model from the Silicon Valley...

Smaller engines with turbochargers have spread throughout new vehicles as a way to meet the increasingly stringent fuel-efficiency rules that started in 2012. But no maker has been as forward about marketing that technology as Ford, which now offers a range of downsized and boosted engines under...

Today, we have confirmation of the all-electric Kia Niro EV, pros and cons of automaker subsidization of electric-car fast charging, and why Toyota thinks plug-in hybrids will catch on more quickly than battery-electric cars. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Solar power hit a new high in the...

Toyota has been by far the most reluctant of recent converts to the idea that battery-electric vehicles might be practical and desirable. Only within the last year has the company moved past its decade-long insistence that all-electric cars were only suitable for tiny, low-range urban uses. Still...

In the U.S., the Volkswagen diesel scandal was a case of an automaker betraying the trust of more than half a million owners. But in the Europe, the issue of diesel emissions looms far larger yet. Diesels have represented roughly half of European car sales for decades, their good fuel economy being...

By now, purchase incentives are a well-proven and valuable tool in increasing electric-car adoption. But what if incentives were applied to more than just the cars? Different automakers have shown varying levels of interest in developing DC fast-charging networks for the electric cars they produce...

No matter how you measure it, 2016 was a major year for solar energy. More solar-generating capacity was added last year than either natural gas or wind, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. A study by investment bank and research firm Lazard found that utility-scale solar has now become the...

Today, General Motors CEO Mary Barra says the Chevrolet Bolt EV will form the basis for a "huge range of electric cars," a Chevrolet Cruze Diesel lawsuit moves forward, and a Midwestern electric utility installs public electric-car charging stations. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Will the...

The Renault Zoe closed out 2016 as the best-selling electric car in Europe. While the Nissan Leaf continues to lead in worldwide sales, the smaller electric car from Nissan's alliance partner has remained on top in its home market. These consistent performances have cemented the Renault-Nissan...

Shock waves from Volkswagen's admission that it had installed "defeat device" software on its so-called clean diesels to cheat on emission tests continue to reverberate around the auto industry. The diesel-emission scandal that emerged in September 2015 has already cost VW Group more than $20...

It's common practice in the industry for automakers to base multiple different models on the same basic platform or architecture. This allows them to amortize the development costs of new platforms across a wider range of products. It also means that two seemingly dissimilar models—such as a...

Today, we have news that Smart may start selling only electric cars in the U.S., pricing information for the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid and Ioniq Electric, and rankings of the "Greenest" and "Meanest" cars in terms of environmental impact. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Tesla's updated...

The 2017 Hyundai Ioniq is the South Korean automaker's first dedicated green model. It will offer three powertrain options in the same body shell: hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery-electric. Those models are just now beginning to hit U.S. showrooms, and we now have pricing information for two of...

When the tiny Smart ForTwo launched in the U.S. a decade ago, it got a huge boost in sales from both novelty and soaring gas prices. While its EPA ratings never approached those of the larger Toyota Prius hybrid, the little two-seater found buyers who liked its cheeky character and the ease of...

There seems to be no shortage of startups planning to build new battery-electric vehicles from the ground up. While companies like Lucid Motors and Faraday Future are focusing on high-end luxury models, a newer company named Bollinger Motors is taking a different approach. It aims to launch what it...