Politics

Awards to dealerships and car-dealer groups are common, and often both appreciated and promoted by their recipients. A new award nomination that recognizes the work of state dealer lobbyists, however, is not likely to get that appreciation or publicity--at least from dealers in those four states...

Electric-car maker Tesla Motors has shaken up the auto industry in many ways, and it continues to do so. Now, aspects of Tesla's online direct-sales model are starting to influence other companies in the car business--and their executives are saying so--even as lobbyists for franchised car...

Would you trust a politician who believes the earth is flat? Or that the sun revolves around the earth? Or that the Holocaust never happened? No? Then what do we make of politicians who continue to deny the accepted scientific consensus that human activity is affecting the climate? DON'T MISS: U.S...

The U.S. will not meet an electric-car adoption goal set by President Obama in 2011.

Connecticut may change dealer-franchise laws to allow Tesla direct sales.

Wiithin two years, some Californians will be able to lease or buy a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle from at least three well-known carmakers: Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota. Their state is working hard to ensure that those drivers will have sites at which they can fuel those vehicles. DON'T MISS: Japan...

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe endorses measures to encourage hydrogen-car adoption.

Governor Jerry Brown proposed an ambitious goal to cut fuel consumption over the next 15 years.

With gasoline costing 40 percent less than it did just six months ago--and under $2 a gallon in many states--you might think this would be a good time to discuss raising the Federal gas tax. You would be wrong. The Federal gas tax hasn't risen since 1993, and the U.S. Highway Trust Fund has been...

China continues to push for more electric cars as it fights rampant pollution and congestion.

Gas prices have fallen 40 percent in a year. Sales of SUVs and crossover utility vehicles are up, while hybrid sales are flat or falling. And a midterm review is coming up, giving auto companies a chance to argue that the corporate average fuel economy rules that stretch out to 2025 need to be...

Germany plans to install more charging stations as it moves to massively increase the number of electric cars on its roads.

If politics is the art of successful compromise--defined as outcomes that make all parties equally unhappy--then the recent budget extension bill offers something for everyone. It extended the tax credits for electric-car charging stations and natural-gas-vehicle refueling stations, which should...

Congress lets a tax credit for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles expire.

Lead is terrible stuff: damaging to humans in even small quantities, and persistent if it's improperly disposed of. Nonetheless, it's a central element of technology that has enabled a century of automobiles to be started via ignition keys rather than hand cranks--which occasionally broke the arms...

It's the end of another Congressional session, which means that a budget extension bill has now been rushed through and is likely to be signed. Called The Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 (H.R. 5771), it contains special provisions, rule tweaks, and concessions for many, many, many different...

It seems to be a common assumption among Tesla Motors supporters: State auto-dealer lobbyists work with Republican legislators to enact laws banning direct sales of Tesla's electric cars to retail buyers. But is it true? An article last month in The New York Times offers a few data points that may...

California has close to half the nation's plug-in electric cars.

Traffic often finds its own balance: Cars will flow onto less-crowded roads, while drivers will avoid congested routes or--to some degree--change their driving habits and times. But there's a limit to this flexibility, given how many people now drive to their jobs or other commitments. That means...

French company Bollore wants to build a national charging-station network, and could get help from the government.