Polls
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Innovation can be a hard concept to define as it relates to electric cars. Sure, there are the powertrains and structural designs of the vehicles themselves—including new proportions for the cabin enabled by the compact running gear and battery packs under the floor. But there are also many factors outside the car itself: education and marketing for car shoppers, charging networks to enable longer trips, the role of public utilities, and a lot more. DON'T MISS: What was our most important story of 2017? Twitter poll results Today, China is the world's largest electric-car market, just...
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How much does it matter that top Trump officials deny climate science? Take our Twitter poll
Throughout the world, the accepted science of climate change is no longer in dispute. Every nation on earth has now signed the Paris Climate Treaty to develop plans to reduce the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. Only one plans to withdraw from that treaty: the United States of...
John Voelcker -
What will get more people to consider electric cars? Twitter poll results
Just shy of 200,000 plug-in electric cars were sold in the U.S. last year, their seventh year on sale. That's the highest number yet, but still just a little more than 1 percent of the market. And it's far from clear that the general car-buying public at large is aware that electric vehicles exist...
John Voelcker -
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...
John Voelcker -
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...
John Voelcker -
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...
John Voelcker -
If the U.S. is serious about reducing carbon emissions from road vehicles—under the current administration, the jury remains out—pickup trucks are key. More than half of the reduction in fuel consumption in pickup trucks projected under corporate average fuel economy rules comes from improvements in the 2022 to 2025 model years. That means trucks now being introduced will carry the brunt of that burden. DON'T MISS: 2019 Chevy Silverado: how a big, thirsty pickup gets more fuel-efficient The Detroit auto show earlier this month saw the debuts of new generations of full-size pickup...
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What green tech best suits pickup trucks in 2030? Twitter poll results
U.S. car buyers have increasingly ignored passenger sedans and hatchbacks and replaced them with utility vehicles of various sorts, and that's a trend that shows no sign of abating. One reason is that crossovers and SUVs now get better fuel economy than they did 10 years ago, when owning one...
John Voelcker -
What percent of US full-size pickup trucks will plug in by 2025? Take our Twitter poll
The big announcements at this year's Detroit auto show, now open to the public, were pickup trucks, one from each of the three U.S. automakers. The 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and 2019 Ram 1500 full-size pickups made their debut, each its company's highest-volume single nameplate. So did the 2019 Ford...
John Voelcker -
What will your next new car be? Twitter poll results
Experienced survey companies know that what people say they will do and what they actually end up doing are sometimes two different things. They also know that picking the correct survey group to represent a broader population is crucial to obtaining useful results. Our (unscientific) Twitter polls...
John Voelcker -
What green tech best suits pickup trucks in 2030? Take our Twitter poll
The three most significant debuts at the 2018 Detroit auto show were pickup trucks, one from each of the Detroit Three automakers. The 2019 Chevrolet Silverado full-size pickup led on Saturday night, followed on Sunday by the 2019 Ford Ranger, a mid-size pickup that rivals the Chevy Colorado on...
John Voelcker -
How optimistic are you on efforts to address climate-change impacts? Twitter poll results
It remains entirely unclear if the world as a whole will be able to cut its emissions of carbon dioxide fast enough to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees C over the next few decades. That's the level at which scientists say the most dire effects of climate change may be lessened or...
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Seven years after the first mass-priced modern electric car was sold in the U.S., more car buyers than ever are at least dimly aware that such vehicles exist. Sales of cars that plug in have risen every year, with one slight dip in 2015, but they were still just 1 percent of the U.S. market of 17.5 million light vehicles last year. One reason for that is that most owners only replace a vehicle every five years or so. DON'T MISS: When will major buyer demand for electric cars arrive? Poll results The average car on U.S. roads is still more than a decade old, but most car buyers are naturally...
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Are you optimistic about efforts to address climate change? Take our Twitter poll
Ten years ago, energy security may have been as much a driving force behind electric cars for U.S. policymakers as climate change. Now, with continuous growth in domestic oil and gas production over that period, you just don't hear energy security discussed as much. Scientists agree that the...
John Voelcker -
What topic should we have covered less in 2017? Twitter poll results
Over the nine years this site has published daily news about green cars, the focus of our coverage has shifted significantly. In February 2009, when we started daily coverage, our most popular topics were hybrid cars and the Toyota Prius. With Prius sales in 2017 less than half what they were just...
John Voelcker -
What was our most important story of 2017? Twitter poll results
Year-end roundups are an unavoidable necessity of the media business. They let editors and writers opine, and they fill space when there may be little real news. They also serve the more valuable function of forcing a longer-term perspective on the hundreds of news items a month that flow through...
John Voelcker -
What topic should we have covered less in 2017? Take our Twitter poll
No single definition exists for the idea of "green car," and very few shoppers set out to go buy a green car. Instead, car buyers look for vehicles that meet their needs—with fuel economy or energy efficiency somewhere in that list of needs, whether higher or lower. Certainly the definition...
John Voelcker -
Which plug-in hybrid would you buy today if you had to? Twitter poll results
The Chevrolet Volt, now in its second generation, has long been the king of mass-market plug-in hybrids. With 53 miles of battery range, its electric performance is exceeded only by the BMW i3 REx range-extended electric hatchback. But the BMW's starting price is close to $50,000, taking it well...
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Lists, news roundups, and general reflections are the usual order of business as a calendar year comes to a close. We've published more than 1,600 green-car news stories so far during 2017, and it's proven to be quite a year. In the car market at large, the most notable trend was a continued move toward utility vehicles of all sizes as passenger sedans and hatchbacks lagged in popularity. DON'T MISS: Tesla Model 3: impressions of a BMW i3 driver (and reservation holder) In the U.S., that's largely due to continued cheap gasoline prices and the higher fuel efficiency of all types of new...
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Which alternative fuels will survive long-term? Twitter poll results
Building a fueling network turns out to be more of a challenge than many advocates, regulators, and drivers may have anticipated. The attempt to boost passenger vehicles fueled by cheap, abundant U.S. natural gas is now essentially over, with a mere 942 public natural-gas fueling stations...
John Voelcker -
Which plug-in hybrid would you buy today if you had to? Take our Twitter poll
This has been something of a plug-in hybrid month. Last week we got our first drive in the 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid, which we felt was the first affordable car with a range similar to that of the Chevrolet Volt. This week we're driving the 2018 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid. DON'T MISS: 2018...
John Voelcker -
How many Model 3s will Tesla deliver by Dec 31? Twitter poll results, again
What a difference a few months makes. In June, one month before the delivery of the first 30 Tesla Model 3, we polled our Twitter followers on how many of the lower-priced electric cars Tesla would deliver by the end of this year. The view then was pretty rosy, with more than half the respondents...
John Voelcker -
Which alternative fuels will survive long-term? Take our Twitter poll
You just don't hear the phrase "alternative fuels" as much as you did, say, 10 years ago. With a couple of million plug-in electric cars now on the world's roads, the idea of swapping in one hydrocarbon fuel for another may have passed its time. Admittedly biodiesel continues to make quiet inroads...
John Voelcker -
Where will EVs have the highest market share in 2025? Poll results
How, where, when, and to what degree electric cars will increase their share of the world's billion-plus vehicle fleet is a topic of much debate these days. Combined with autonomy, connectivity, and sharing, the growing electrification of personal vehicles is a major transition for carmakers old...
John Voelcker