plug-in cars

Electric-car charging network ChargePoint has announced a new feature that allows electric vehicle (EV) owners to begin charging their car using near-field communication (NFC) and their smartphone. This doesn’t mean your phone itself is capable of charging your car, of course, though that...

Dubai, the second largest sheikdom in the United Arab Emirates, has introduced new incentives in an attempt to make electric cars more desirable. Battery-electric and plug-in vehicles often go overlooked in the oil-rich area, but even some of the world's largest crude-oil producers plan to reduce...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The 2017 Chevy Bolt EV went on sale last December, but only became available nationwide in August. Meanwhile, electric-car shoppers waited eagerly for details of the 2018 Nissan Leaf, the second-generation car that finally premiered in early September. We've now driven both cars, and can take a...

While the United States federal government threatens to backslide on renewable energy, California and China continue to move at an aggressive pace to lead the world in zero-emission vehicles. However, there's another piece to the electric-car puzzle that China seems poised to lead as well: battery...

Connecticut ushered in a unique electric-car incentive in 2014, and the first points of data on its effectiveness have now been published. The Connecitcut Hydrogen and Electric Automobile Purchase Rebate (CHEAPR) program not only provides a direct incentive for consumers to buy electric cars, it...

While the 2017 Tesla Model 3 electric car is now being delivered in small numbers to company friends and employees, not all the specifications, features, and details for the electric car are available. Now more information has emerged, in the form of a pair of videos—one by a detailer and...

Two years ago, the Volvo XC90 large SUV launched to widespread acclaim and awards as the Sino-Swedish brand's first all-new vehicle in six years. It was followed by the S90 sedan and V90 wagon in 2017, filling out its large luxury lineup. The 2018 Volvo XC60 mid-size crossover utility is now...