synd-vehicle-history

One of the most widespread concerns about electric cars centers around the availability and cost of cobalt. Cobalt is an element used in lithium-ion batteries to build stability and increase safety. While the signature element in modern electric-car batteries, lithium, is mined in only a few...

Tesla has staked a lot on the number of reservation deposits it has received for the Model 3. When the company first opened reservations for the car two years ago, it said that more than 400,000 people had put down a $1,000 deposit for what Tesla billed as a $35,000 car. That number eventually rose...

After a three-year hiatus, Texas has reinstated purchase rebates for plug-in electric and other alternative-fuel vehicles. Texans who buy electric cars after Sept. 1 can get a $2,500 rebate from the state, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News, in addition to the $7,500 tax credit from...

Rating cars isn't just about acceleration times—or at least it shouldn't be. Unlike other car rating organizations, the Automotive Science Group rates cars according to their life-cycle CO2 emissions, based on a combination of their fuel economy and weight, as a proxy for the materials...

An all-electric Jeep may clamber to life as soon as 2021—at least in China. The Jeep Grand Commander will arrive in 2021 with an all-electric powertrain, according to a sweeping presentation by Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne in Italy Friday. The company didn't reveal any more details...

A Woburn, Massachusetts, company may be attracting big name attention for its solid-state technology that it says can withstand higher temperatures and offer higher capacity. For battery makers, producing a stable solid to withstand the rigors of charging and discharging has proved elusive. Ionic...

The International Energy Agency, an advisory council to energy-consuming countries, released a new report forecasting that by 2030, the world will have 125 million electric cars on the road. That would amount to 10 to 12 percent of the world's cars running on electricity in a little over a decade...

A week after Consumer Reports announced that it could not recommend the Tesla Model 3 because of poor braking performance, a software update improved its performance sufficiently to earn the magazine's recommendation. Consumer Reports announced the update to the Model 3's ratings Wednesday. In the...

Hundreds of thousands of people waiting to order their Tesla Model 3s are also anxiously waiting for word of the car's reliability and build quality. Now Edmunds.com has released its second update on the early car that it bought, and the news isn't good. DON'T MISS: Some Tesla Model 3 cars haunted...

The EPA's Science Advisory Board, tasked with agency oversight, is taking issue with at least three of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's signature decisions. First, according to a Bloomberg report, is Pruitt's decision to freeze fuel economy standards and eliminate increases that had been approved...

Adding to Elon Musk's headaches this month, Tesla is about to hit the limit on federal tax credits for electric cars. This could effectively raise prices for buyers of the company's critical Model 3. The tax credits, passed in 2008 as part of the Energy Improvement and Extension Act and signed by...

In a tweet on Friday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company had started rolling out an over-the-air software update for its Model 3 electric cars to address a problem with their braking performance, a problem revealed by Consumer Reports last week. In the tweet, Musk said the update should improve...

Solar cells have gotten cheap enough to make solar cars practical. At least that's the business model of one electric-car startup in Europe. Sono Motors plans to build a $25,000 electric car covered in solar cells that can provide up to 18 miles of range a day. The company plans to introduce it at...

Often the growth of green cars comes in fits and starts, and new ideas are rushed to market regularly before they're ready. Visionaries with dreams of changing the world may have little real-world experience and find themselves in over their heads after they jump in too quickly. Even pure...

Electric cars are not only the cleanest cars in the world, they're some of the fastest, as quite a few Tesla Model S owners have demonstrated racing against various gas cars on drag strips. Even manufacturers of internal-combustion cars apparently know this. In a recent Twitter ad for the...

When Tesla opened up orders this week for the all-wheel drive Dual Motor and Performance versions of its Model 3, some reports suggested it was early and might complicate the company's ability to ramp up to 5,000 units a week. Tesla emphatically says the move only represents the company sticking to...

Car dealers may be the same all over the world, at least when it comes to electric cars. In 2014, Consumer Reports did a study that showed 50 out of 85 dealerships visited nationwide either outright discouraged its secret shoppers from buying electric cars or tried to talk them into buying a gas or...

When is a hybrid not a hybrid? Potentially when it’s a conventional gas-powered car using an electrified powertrain. Many automakers have announced that they will build some percentage of their car fleet as pure electrics. The gas-powered vehicles that remain will still need a significant...

People buy what they're familiar with. For a lot of consumers in China, that means electric cars. Buyers in China buy nearly four times as many cars as buyers in the U.S. That means more carbuyers in China have experienced them and understand their silent acceleration, their range capabilities, and...

Car buyers don't have to live under California's golden sunshine to want electric cars. Yet, in some months, buyers in California purchase more than half of all the electric cars sold in the U.S. According to reader Mike Kamm (H/T Mike), even several of the electric cars that used to be sold in the...