synd-vehicle-history

  • U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry in 2008, when he was governor of Texas

    For much of last year, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry pursued a plan that, in essence, would prop up the financially challenged U.S. coal and nuclear industries. His proposal, submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last fall, provided financial subsidies to electric-generation plants that kept 90 days of fuel onsite. Natural-gas plants are supplied continuously via pipelines, and renewable-energy sources have no "fuel" on site, so that helped only plants powered by coal or nuclear energy. CHECK OUT: Trump DoE to critique renewables against coal for grid reliability (Apr 2017)...

  • Porsche Mission E concept, 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show
    Porsche Mission E electric sedan to offer 300 miles of range, 400 hp, at minimum

    Though generally mum on details, Porsche has been trickling out tidbits on its forthcoming MIssion E electric sedan since it first unveiled the concept at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show. Porsche let slip another detail in late December. It had already revealed a claimed 200-mile recharge within 15...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV
    Best deals on hybrid, electric, fuel-efficient cars for January 2018

    Is one of your New Year's resolutions to go green? We're here to help with this month's deals on electric, plug-in hybrid, hybrid, and other efficient vehicles. Against last month, the cars offering the best incentives haven't changed—but the incentives themselves have. Click ahead to find...

  • First 2018 Nissan Leaf produced at assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, Dec 2017
    300,000th Nissan Leaf electric car delivered as new version kicks off

    Nissan, the first automaker in the world to launch a mass-priced electric car, has a reason to celebrate this week. The automaker said on Monday it delivered the 300,000th example of its electric hatchback, the Nissan Leaf—though it did not detail whether it was one of the new...

  • 2017 Mazda CX-5 First Drive
    Mazda rotary engine may find new life in self-driving Toyota e-Palette project

    Mazda's famed rotary engine may spin once again. The automaker confirmed the development of a range-extending rotary engine with Toyota for use in a shared future project. Toyota revealed the e-Palette concept on Monday at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The vehicle, a...

  • 2017 Kia Soul EV
    2018 Kia Soul EV gets bigger battery, range boost from 93 to 111 miles

    Updates to conventional cars come in a predictable pattern. Once a new model is launched, it gets only minor tweaks to features, prices, and paint colors for two or three years. Then in the third or fourth year, it gets what the industry calls a "mid-cycle refresh": some updated sheetmetal, perhaps...

  • Opel Ampera-e

    It's 41 degrees F outside. Your electric car, rated for 100 miles, has been charging all night in the cold. Ahead of you lies a 80-mile drive. How confident are you that you'll make it to your destination? What if you want to set your climate control to a comfortable 70 degrees F? Germany's AutoBild wondered the same thing, so it gathered some of Europe's most popular battery-electric cars for a test of range and efficiency in near-freezing temperatures. DON'T MISS: 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf: weekend drive report and range test In the forest around Delmenhorst, in Lower Saxony, Germany, AutoBild...

  • Kia Niro EV concept shown at 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas
    Kia Niro EV concept at CES: 238 miles of range from 64-kwh battery

    It's well known that a battery-electric version of the Kia Niro will join the lineup soon, completing a range that now comprises the Niro Hybrid and the recently launched plug-in hybrid. Most observers had assumed the Niro EV would use the same underpinnings as its corporate sibling the Hyundai...

  • Hyundai Nexo
    Production Hyundai Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell SUV appears at CES

    The world of cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells is still small and low-volume, but Korean maker Hyundai unveiled its production entry into that group on Monday. The sprawling Consumer Electronics Show is increasingly a showcase for advanced-technology and zero-emission vehicles, and the Korean...

  • 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV
    Plug-in electric car sales in Dec: 2017 set new record, Bolt EV ends strong (final update)

    It was clear late last year that the number of plug-in electric cars sold in the U.S. during 2017 would set a new record. December is always a strong sales month for all vehicles, and dealerships across the country have rushed to deliver new cars, crossovers, and trucks to hit their year-end...

  • Hydrogenics hydrogen fueling station
    California to fall short of 100 hydrogen fueling stations by 2020

    As electric charging stations continue to sprout across the country, hydrogen fueling stations haven't experienced the same rapid growth. That's an issue in California, where Assembly Bill 8 stipulates a goal of 100 functioning public hydrogen stations by 2020. The latest forecast predicts the...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3, in photo tweeted by Elon Musk on July 9, 2017
    Tesla Model 3 Long Range rating of 310 miles: Is it understated?

    Amidst all the coverage on Wednesday of the Tesla Model 3 production numbers, we realized we'd forgotten one piece of the Model 3 saga. That would be the official EPA range and efficiency ratings for the 2017 Tesla Model 3 Long Range version. Those were issued at the end of November, and they...

  • Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland   [photo: Forth]

    As with any innovation, coverage of plug-in electric cars by mainstream media has been, shall we say, variable. Seven years after the first Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt were delivered to their buyers in December 2010, misconceptions and misinformation abound. Technology is often not a strong suit for business reporters, of course, and plug-in vehicles represent only 1 percent of the U.S. market after seven years. But, slowly, we think media coverage of electric cars is getting better—as we'd suggest a handful of recent articles show. DON'T MISS: Hey, media, get it straight...

  • Lithium-ion cell and battery pack assembly for Nissan Leaf electric car in Sunderland, U.K., plant
    Batteries in autonomous electric cars must be more durable: lithium-ion pioneer

    We tend to take batteries for granted. Day after day, we recharge batteries and expect them to work without giving a thought to how they work or to their state of health. But Akira Yoshino is different. He's one of the pioneers of lithium-ion battery technology. DON'T MISS: Lithium-ion battery...

  • Teaser for Kia Niro EV concept debuting at 2018 Consumer Electronics Show
    Concept for Kia Niro EV all-electric wagon to appear at CES

    We've long known that the Kia Niro wagon would get an all-electric version to accompany the 2017 Niro Hybrid and the just-launched 2018 Niro Plug-In Hybrid. The battery-electric Niro will fill out the suite of six cars sharing the same underpinnings, with the others being the same three versions of...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3 and Model S in Tesla assembly plant parking lot, Fremont, CA, November 2017
    Tesla delivers 1,550 Model 3s in Q4; Models S, X over 100,000 in 2017

    Tesla reported its fourth-quarter global deliveries on Wednesday, saying it delivered 1,550 Model 3 electric cars between October 1 and December 31 last year, but built 2,425 over the same period. That compares to a total of 260 Model 3s delivered in the third quarter, after a splashy "handover...

  • Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland   [photo: Forth]
    No, electric cars (still) aren't crashing the grid. Again.

    Remember all those brownouts we experienced last week because everyone plugged in their electric cars? No? Oh right, that didn't happen. It still isn't happening. And it's unlikely to ever happen. That's the conclusion of a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), using infrastructure...

  • Smart crash test
    Insurance claims on electric cars vary hugely, though perhaps predictably

    When buying a car, one point to consider during the process should be insurance costs. Aside from any finance or lease payment, and fuel costs if you cover lots of miles in a not-very-efficient vehicle, insurance is likely your biggest car-related expense. Thankfully, the Insurance Institute for...

  • On-Road Fuel Economy of Vehicles in the United States: 1923-2015 (Sivak and Schoettle)

    As automakers yet again lobby Washington to roll back planned fuel-economy targets for 2025, they've employed some familiar tactics to drive the point home to lawmakers. It cannot be done. It will cost too much. It will destroy the industry and kill jobs. Consumers do not want this. The science is not clear. The market will solve it. If you were to believe automaker rhetoric, the entire car-building industry in North America has been constantly under threat, its mere existence hanging by a thread year after year. CHECK OUT: For pickup trucks, more than half all fuel savings come in 2022-2025...

  • 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car, test-driven by Shiva of Fremont, California, Oct 2017
    2018 Nissan Leaf: an early Leaf driver's impressions (he has a Tesla too)

    First sales of the 2018 Nissan Leaf, the second generation of the pioneering electric car, should come this month. But Nissan has quietly been showing the 2018 Leaf to electric-car shoppers for several months now, hosting drives at dealerships and other venues. Several of our readers and...

  • 2018 BMW i3s
    2018 BMW i3s: range, efficiency lower for sportier model of electric car

    As a given generation of any vehicle ages, German companies in particular often spice up the allure of the aging car with new and sportier versions. Porsche is a master at rolling out new versions of its models across the entire life of a generation, but BMW has learned the trick too. Thus in the...

  • 2016 BYD Tang plug-in hybrid SUV, made in China
    China is serious on fuel economy: 500-plus models to go out of production

    China has taken a major step toward cleaning up the new cars sold in the country beginning January 1. As numerous countries debate plans to end sales of fossil-fuel vehicles completely at points in the future, China has now forced the end of production for some 553 models, starting Monday. The...

  • Fisker EMotion
    Before Fisker EMotion luxury electric sedan debut, founder touts future solid-state battery

    As they say, it's what's inside that counts. That's doubly so for Fisker, Inc., the second auto company founded by famed automotive designer Henrik Fisker. The first declared bankruptcy; its new Chinese owners renamed it Karma. In an interview with Car and Driver, Fisker (the man) claims...

  • Chrome exhaust pipe
    2017's most important green car story: internal-combustion engine ban in China

    The most important green-car story of 2017 came on September 10, in a report by the Associated Press that covered articles in two Chinese state media outlets on a statement by a deputy industry minister. Speaking at "an auto industry forum," the AP wrote, Xin Guobin said his ministry has begun...

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