synd-vehicle-history
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As it gears up for volume production of battery-electric cars starting in 2019, Volkswagen Group spends a lot of time talking to the press about its future plans for the vehicles. We already know its first electric car that year will be the compact hatchback Volkswagen ID, and the first to be sold in the U.S. will be the VW ID Crozz utility vehicle, in 2020. More than a year ago. Green Car Reports suggested the next generation of the VW Beetle might even go electric. DON'T MISS: Could future VW Beetle return to rear (electric) powertrain? (Oct 2016) That report was confirmed more than a year...
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New approach to electric-car battery cooling: immerse cells in coolantRegardless of how your vehicle is powered—whether it be an internal-combustion engine or a battery pack powering an electric motor—most powertrains have a common enemy: heat. For Taipei-based XING Mobility, heat is a major concern for its high-performance Miss R model as its battery...
Mark Stevenson -
Volkswagen ID electric car production date now set: November 2019Since the Dieselgate scandal broke more than two years ago, Volkswagen has spent a great deal of time talking about its plans for electric cars. It has rolled out three concept vehicles within the new Volkswagen ID family, and discussed its dedicated electric-car architecture that will underpin all...
John Voelcker -
Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, Nov 2017: the vaulting Chevy VoltA record 582 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids were sold in Canada last month, two months after Chevy delivered a then-record 483 Volts in September. The achievement is even more impressive considering Canadian car sales dropped by 15 percent between the two months, as the industry enters its slow...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Judge sides with Tesla, slams dealer association in MissouriSince Tesla began selling electric cars directly to customers throughout the U.S., the electric-vehicle maker has had to play franchise-law whack-a-mole in multiple state courts. On Tuesday, Tesla scored a decisive victory when the Missouri Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's ruling that...
Mark Stevenson -
Jaguar I-Pace electric car testing: 200 cars, 1.5 million miles, and countingJaguar’s upcoming first entry into electric vehicles is undergoing final validation in Los Angeles, a year after the British brand revealed the I-Pace Concept at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show. Jaguar wrapped the new I-Pace in a pseudo-mule livery and plastered a hashtag on its side as...
Mark Stevenson -
With Porsche promising ultra-fast charging for its Mission E electric car, Honda isn’t going to let the German automaker keeps its 15 minutes of charging fame. Honda aims to develop cars that can grab enough juice from the grid for 240 kilometers (150 miles) of range in 15 minutes flat. Fifteen-minute charge times are key to bringing electric vehicles on par with gasoline- and diesel-powered counterparts for longer trips. DON'T MISS: Honda's second electric-car concept is Sports EV coupe unveiled in Tokyo According to Nikkei Asian Review, Honda’s plan relies heavily on developing...
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UPS to deliver packages in Florida via electric bikesIf you're the type of person that stays at home listening for the UPS truck to arrive as you wait for a delivery, we have bad news for you: that just got a lot more difficult. UPS has launched its first silent electric delivery trike along Las Olas Boulevard and the surrounding neighborhoods of...
Mark Stevenson -
Tesla Semi, Roadster battery claims prove puzzling: beyond current knowledge?Since Tesla’s reveal of its new Semi and Roadster models, many technical analysts have been left scratching their collective heads. How can Tesla promise performance metrics far exceeding what’s currently physically and economically possible? According to one analyst, it may not be a...
Mark Stevenson -
Plug-in electric car sales for Nov: Volt vs Prime neck-and-neck, Bolt EV just misses 3K (updated)Chevy didn't quite pull it off in November, but it could well happen this month in a burst of end-of-year sales. In this case, "it" would be selling 3,000 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars in a single month: the delivery total reported last month was 2,987. That brings year-to-date Bolt EV sales to...
John Voelcker -
Fiat Chrysler seeks Hyundai partnership for hydrogen fuel-cell vehiclesFiat Chrysler is looking to partner with Hyundai to develop hydrogen fuel-cell technology, its CEO Sergio Marchionne revealed on Saturday. The revelation came after a presentation on Alfa Romeo's planned return to Formula 1 racing, held at the Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese, Italy. “There is the...
Mark Stevenson -
2018 Nissan Leaf electric car now rolling off lines in TennesseeThe 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car will start to appear at Nissan dealers in January, the company said Monday. That availability came in an announcement that the second-generation electric car officially went into production the same day at Nissan's sprawling assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee...
John Voelcker -
While such autonomous players as Uber, Tesla, and Waymo have already opened their car doors to the public, GM's autonomous subsidiary Cruise Automation has held its cards close to its vest. This past week, the Detroit-based automaker and Silicon Valley-based subsidiary allowed select members of the press a sneak peek of what’s to come from its self-driving fleet of Bolt EV electric cars. According to one first-hand report, you definitely don’t want to hail a Bolt robo-taxi after a hard night out in San Francisco—at least not yet. WATCH THIS: GM releases second Chevy Bolt EV...
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Tesla's huge Australia battery won't last as world's largest: Hyundai in the wingsAs Elon Musk basks in the glow of meeting his 100-day challenge to install the world's largest utility battery in South Australia, another company is looking to take his crown. Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems Co. announced on November 23 it took an order for an industrial energy-storage...
Mark Stevenson -
Ethical sourcing for electric-car minerals: Toyota, Honda, VW, Ford, others sign pledgeAs automakers develop more efficient electric motors, EVs pulling electrons from dirtier, coal-powered grids are as clean or cleaner than even the most efficient fossil-fueled cars when it comes to equivalent tailpipe emissions. But electric vehicles still have a supply-chain problem. A partnership...
Mark Stevenson -
BMW i3 electric car sales stopped, future recall announced for specific safety concern (updated)An obscure safety issue has led to a halt in sales of the BMW i3 electric car until further notice. The German maker announced a recall for every single i3 sold in the United States, covering 30,542 cars from the 2014 to 2018 model year. The safety issue that led to the recall and stop-sale follows...
Sean Szymkowski -
Commercial tests of self-driving Chevy Bolt EV to launch in many cities in 2019General Motors officials made a bold announcement on a Thursday conference call with investors: the automaker plans to launch commercial autonomous fleet operations beginning in 2019. The Detroit-based automaker's vision for commercial, autonomous ride sharing will begin with self-driving Bolt EV...
Mark Stevenson -
If you plan to buy an electric car, you should do it this monthCommon wisdom has it that the last few days of any calendar year are the best time to buy a car. Not only are franchised dealers and their salespeople seeking to close out the month with a bang, but it's the end of a year and their allocation of cars next year can depend on how many they sell this...
John Voelcker -
The Vespa scooter is undeniably an icon on European streets. For 70 years, Vespas have buzzed about roadways, but the buzz will soon give way to an all-but-silent hum in the company's latest scooter. Earlier this month at the Milan Motorcycle Show, Vespa announced its first all-electric scooter, dubbed the Elettrica. DON'T MISS: Volkswagen E-Scooter: Electric Bike To Rival Smart And MINI The Elettrica trades a petrol and tank small combustion engine for a lithium-ion battery pack and electric motor rated at 2 kilowatts of continuous power and peak power of 4 kilowatts. The electric Vespa...
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Half of all Porsches will plug in by 2025, showing importance of electric carsIts customers and employees know, but the rest of the world may not quite have realized that Porsche will soon sell six separate plug-in hybrid models. They span three different vehicles—the Porsche Panamera large sedan, the Panamera Sport Turismo shooting brake, and the Cayenne sport utility...
John Voelcker -
Even supercar maker Lamborghini may go electric, and it's a very cool conceptLamborghini, the Italian purveyor of V10- and V12-powered supercars, has teased a fully electric performance machine for the first time in its 54-year history. Unveiled at Lamborghini's home base in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy, the Lamborghini Terzo Millennio Concept is the product of a...
Mark Stevenson -
Volkswagen ID Crozz electric SUV to launch in US in 2020A production vehicle based on the Volkswagen ID Crozz all-electric compact crossover will be launched in the U.S. market during 2020, VW said. The announcement came at a media event Tuesday night before the first of two media days at the Los Angeles auto show, where the electric SUV makes its North...
John Voelcker -
2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV previewThe 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car is now arriving at Chevy dealers with no major changes—though drivers may find the heated steering wheel now turns itself on and off. Otherwise, the deletion of the map pocket on the back of the passenger seat from the 2LT trim level is the sole other...
Sean Szymkowski -
Are electric airplanes actually a real thing?With electrification spreading through many types of transport, one vehicle still remains largely absent in using electrons for propulsion: aircraft. Automakers have been building commercially viable electrified cars—in whole (electrics) or in part (hybrids)—for more than two decades...
Mark Stevenson