plug-in cars

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car at EVgo fast-charging station, Newport Centre, Jersey City, NJ

    Seven years and almost 800,000 cars after the first modern electric cars went on sale, there's still a lot wrong with the national charging infrastructure in the U.S. There's little central planning, little standardized signage or public signposting, virtually no awareness among non-EV drivers, and roaming among networks with a single membership remains out of reach. But still, usage of public charging stations rises every year. DON'T MISS: Car buyers have no idea electric-car charging stations even exist Recent summaries of 2017 activity by two large charging networks, ChargePoint and EVgo...

  • Faraday Future plant in Hanford, California
    Faraday Future promised $1.5 billion, says FF 91 will arrive by end of this year

    Starting a car company is not only very, very hard—as Tesla, Fisker, and many others testify—but requires breathtaking sums of money. Now struggling Faraday Future, the electric-car startup firm whose entrepreneurial Chinese backer is facing legal action in his home country, appears to...

  • Tesla Enhanced Autopilot
    Self-driving Tesla to make LA to NYC trip this year, Musk says, without lidar

    In June 2013, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced he would drive a Tesla Model S electric car across the U.S. to show off the company's new Supercharger fast-charging network. Indeed, two Tesla Model S sedans successfully completed the run from Los Angeles to New York City in February 2014. Last year...

  • 2018 Subaru Crosstrek first drive
    Subaru plug-in hybrid to use Prius Prime parts, coming in 2019

    When Toyota and Mazda said last September they would form a joint venture to produce electric-car parts, that answered the question of where Mazda's future plug-in vehicles would get their electric running gear. But it sparked another question: Where did that leave Subaru, another small automaker...

  • 2017 Tesla Model S 100D on cross-country trip from New York to California  [photo: David Noland]
    Life with Tesla Model S: coast to coast in a new 100D (and how it differed from my old 85)

    One of the reasons I traded in my 2013 Tesla Model S 85 last summer for a new Model S 100D was to get extra range. The newer car’s 100-kilowatt-hour battery gives it an EPA-rated range of 335 miles—70 miles more than the old car’s rating of 265 miles. Over four-plus years and...

  • 2015 Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell at hydrogen fueling station, Fountain Valley, CA
    This one 11-year-old chart explains the problem with hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles

    Today, there are roughly 750,000 plug-in electric vehicles on U.S. roads and about 3,800 powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Proponents of each type of vehicle argue strenuously that their powertrain is a better way to produce vehicles with zero emissions from the tailpipe. Electric cars can be charged...

  • 2018 Fiat 500e

    When the Fiat 500e electric minicar launched in 2013, its range was rated at 87 miles, but its most distinctive feature was its wickedly fun-to-drive character. Six years later, the fun driving remains the same—and the range has fallen slightly to 84 miles, based on changes to EPA test calculations. Meanwhile, every other electric model from 2013—from the Nissan Leaf to the Tesla Model S—has seen its range rise. DON'T MISS: 2018 Fiat 500e - full review That's the context for considering the 2018 Fiat 500e, the latest iteration of the tiny Italian-American battery-electric...

  • Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland   [photo: Forth]
    Where will we see the most electric-car innovation? Take our Twitter poll

    It hasn't emerged much into the public eye, but some advocates and auto-industry sources have had quiet discussions on whether the U.S. will continue to lead the world in electric-car technology in a new decade. California remains the epicenter of plug-in car adoption, with roughly half the...

  • Tesla Model 3
    Will GM or Tesla buyers lose electric-car tax credits first? (updated)

    A major contributor to electric-car sales is the program under which buyers of new electric cars qualify for a federal income-tax credit of up to $7,500. But these tax credits are not unlimited. Once a manufacturer reaches sales of 200,000 plug-in electric cars (after December 31, 2009), the...

  • Doug Kerr, daughter Andie Kerr, fiancee Barbara Gleason; Fiat 500e, Ford Focus Electric, Fiat 500e
    How to buy or lease an electric car: advice from owner who's done it four times

    Most shoppers seem to view visiting a franchised auto dealer to negotiate the purchase or lease of a new car with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. In fact, as electric-car driver Douglas Kerr notes, the process is often compared to having a cavity filled. Kerr has now leased or bought four separate...

  • Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk at Tesla Store opening in Westfield Mall, London, Oct 2013
  • 2015 Nissan Leaf charging back at home after 1,000-mile road trip   [photo John Briggs]
    Budget deal restores tax credits for EV charging stations, electric motorcycles, fuel-cell cars

    Fears that Congress would kill the federal tax credit for purchase of a plug-in electric car were laid to rest in December when that incentive survived the $1.5 trillion tax-cut bill. Now Congress has added back a handful of other tax credits related to electric cars and greener transportation in...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3 "first production" car, in photo tweeted by Elon Musk on July 9, 2017

    "Overall, I think, while there were challenges associated with Model 3 ramp, we were in a deeper level of hell than we expected, so a few levels deeper than we'd like to be, but swiftly exiting, I think." Those chastened but seemingly optimistic words came from the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, during a conference call discussing the company's full-year 2017 financial results on Wednesday afternoon. Following that call, however, customers who had put down reservations for the Tesla Model 3 noticed their projected delivery dates had changed. DON'T MISS: Tesla Model 3: what parts breakdown says...

  • 2018 Hyundai Elantra
    Best deals on hybrid, electric, fuel-efficient cars for February 2018

    With gasoline cheap and buyers continuing to shun passenger cars for crossovers and trucks, there are bargains to be had in fuel-efficient and electrified vehicles. This month's deals, courtesy of CarsDirect, includes cheap leases, low financing rates, and money off sticker prices. They cover a...

  • Traffic in China
    China's largest electric-car battery maker, CATL, sets sights on U.S. market

    Just a handful of companies today make the bulk of battery cells used in plug-in electric cars worldwide. Now the largest single maker of electric-vehicle cells in China has expanded its focus, from the home market to global markets and specifically the U.S. The name, CATL, may not be familiar to...

  • Tesla Model S at Supercharger site in Ventura, CA, with just one slot open  [photo: David Noland]
    What electric-car charging will satisfy a mass market? Twitter poll results

    One of the obvious challenges of even the latest electric cars is that you can't drive them coast-to-coast as quickly as you can gasoline cars. It's far from impossible to do such a trip—especially if you own a Tesla and can use the company's DC fast-charging Supercharger network—but it...

  • 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Catalina Island, CA, Sep 2017
    Plug-in electric car sales in Canada for Jan: Outlander has landed (plus 2017 analysis)

    The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV helped the Canadian plug-in electric vehicle market to its first 1,000-unit January last month. The company sold 174 of its plug-in hybrid SUV in its first full month on sale, representing about 30 percent of overall Outlander sales. If that ratio holds, the Outlander...

  • Teaser for Rimac supercar debuting at 2018 Geneva auto show
    Geneva auto show green car preview: concepts, electric cars, new models

    Media days at the huge and influential Geneva show are March 6 and March 7, and this year it looks like the show will offer a lot of news for plug-in electric car fans. Several significant new production cars powered entirely by batteries are expected to make their debuts. They'll be supplemented...

  • 2019 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter e-Sprinter electric version (European model)

    The 2019 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter commercial van launched today, the later generation of the successful delivery vehicle, and an electric version will enter production in 2019. It will debut initially in European markets, and might possibly make its way to North America—maybe. The eSprinter will borrow the electric powertrain from the eVito van now available in Europe, a slightly larger option to such small-van competitors as the Ford Transit Connect. DON'T MISS: Voltia conversion expands Nissan e-NV200 electric delivery van for London The company's approach to building an all-electric...

  • Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland   [photo: Forth]
    What will get more people to consider electric cars? Take our Twitter poll

    A recent study from the University of California, Davis suggested that awareness of available plug-in electric cars among potential buyers was no higher in 2017 than it had been in 2014. Worse, only California car owners were surveyed—and that's the state in which roughly half of all the...

  • 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car, test-driven by Shiva of Fremont, California, Oct 2017
    Plug-in electric car sales fall in Jan after year-end surge (further update)

    While 2017 saw higher U.S. sales of plug-in electric cars than any previous year, expectations for 2018 sales are running even higher. The Chevrolet Bolt EV will be available in all 50 states for a full year, the new 2018 Nissan Leaf with a 151-mile range is now on sale, and of course the Tesla...

  • Tesla Supercharger site in Vacaville, California, before expansion    [photo: George Parrott]
    What if car buyers aren't ready for electric cars, even in California?

    It's accepted wisdom among electric-car fans and advocates that within a few years, mass-market car buyers will start snapping up battery-electric cars. First, battery prices have to come down to the point that electric vehicles aren't much pricier than comparable models with gasoline engines. But...

  • Virginia State Capitol, Skip Plitt/C'ville Photography [CC BY-SA 3.0]
    Virginia state-tax rebate up to $3,500 for electric-car purchase dies in subcommittee

    Virginia is for lovers—and electric-car advocated had hoped that it would soon be for lovers of electric cars and plug-in hybrids, too. A bill proposed in mid-January by Virginia House Delegate David A. Reid [D-32nd] would have granted a state-tax rebate of up to $3,500 to buyers of plug-in...

  • Blink network  -  charging by the kWh
    Blink charging-station network hits up users to buy shares (updated)

    It's not unheard of for the fans of well-loved brands—e.g. Tesla—to decide to buy shares in the company. It's somewhat less common for companies to reach out to their customers en masse and pitch all of them on buying shares in the company. That's apparently what the Blink charging...

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