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Envision Energy, a Chinese company that bought Nissan's former AESC battery business, says it will be able to make battery packs for less than $100 per kilowatt-hour in the next two years. That number is significant, because it's the threshold at which automakers and analysts say electric cars will become cheaper to manufacture and sell than gas cars. Currently, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that manufacturing automotive-quality lithium-ion cells costs about $145 per kwh, and that rises to $190 per kwh for automakers to build them into packs for cars. CHECK OUT: Electric cars...
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Rivian teases electric pickup and SUV planned for LA auto showA new startup automaker, Rivian, plans to beat Tesla to the punch with an electric pickup truck. After years of stealth, the company is finally poised to reveal its new pickup and SUV at the LA auto show later this month. This week, the company set up a media site complete with space for pictures...
Eric C. Evarts -
Track Mode released to make more of Tesla Model 3 PerformanceTesla confirmed last Thursday that Track Mode has started rolling out for the Model 3 Performance, in an update for vehicles that have already received Version 9 of the automaker’s vehicle software. The company emphasized that Track Mode is intended specifically for closed circuits...
Bengt Halvorson -
Algae blooms could be a boon for eco-diesel under DOE-funded projectAlgae-based biodiesel has been hyped in the past as a renewable fuel that can be produced here in the U.S., lowering greenhouse-gas emissions without displacing food crops or taxing water supplies. And yet it still hasn’t arrived in any significant way. There’s no single factor to blame...
Bengt Halvorson -
What happens to electric cars that have been flooded?With all the floods from Hurricane Florence, what happens to electric cars? That's the question many electric car owners may be asking after the 100-year hurricane dropped more than two feet of rain in North Carolina, where a burgeoning electric car movement was springing up. The answer is: It...
Eric C. Evarts -
French luxury brand DS previews electric DS 3 crossover SUVThe French luxury arm of Citroen, DS, released plans for its first electric car last Friday. The DS 3 Crossback is a funky-looking small SUV, something along the lines of the Mini Countryman. It's set to debut at the Paris auto show early next month. While the base version will use a turbocharged...
Eric C. Evarts -
Using new battery-pack architecture, BMW battery supplier Lion Smart has crammed triple the battery capacity into a BMW i3s. Lion Smart's 100-kilowatt-hour battery gives the little city car a range of 435 miles on a charge, in the same footprint as the original battery pack. Lion Smart has developed a modular battery-pack design that makes cooling more efficient and eliminates wiring inside the pack to reduce weight, size, and cost. Within the same dimensions, a modular pack can be designed to produce 101 kwh at 400 volts, 98 kwh at 600 volts, or 106 kwh at 800 volts, depending on the sizes...
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Updated electric Isetta microcar ready for sale in EuropeMicrolino, the maker of scooters and kickboards is ready to launch an electric microcar in Europe. Run by two Swiss brothers, the company unveiled its recreation of the tiny single-door BMW Isetta at the Geneva auto show two years ago, and has now partnered with with boutique Italian coachmaker...
Eric C. Evarts -
Electrify America launches "Jetstones" ad campaignIf regular automakers aren't advertising their electric cars well enough, maybe purveyors of electric-car infrastructure can fill in the gaps. Electrify America, VW's court-mandated effort to build a nationwide DC fast-charge network, is launching its first ad campaign Monday on behalf of all...
Eric C. Evarts -
EPA could base emissions, mpg rollback on tired safety argumentIn the latest draft of new fuel economy and emissions standards obtained by the Associated Press, the Trump administration argues that reducing mileage standards will improve safety. It's an argument that dates back to the beginning of fuel economy standards in the 1970s, and one that ignores...
Eric C. Evarts -
Tesla Model 3 shows bigger profit in latest cost breakdownTesla isn't the only one with a lot riding on the financial success of the Model 3. CEO Elon Musk has called ramping up production of the Model 3 a "bet the company" decision, and said that if the company couldn't build 5,000 of the cars a week, Tesla would "die." Thousands of individual and...
Eric C. Evarts -
Electra Meccanica teases new-old e-RoadsterBuilding a new car, especially one with four wheels intended to be sold in developed markets, is show-stoppingly expensive. A simpler approach is to build a kit car. Kit cars don't come with engines, so to make an electric kit car requires only selecting an electric motor instead of an engine. That...
Eric C. Evarts -
Last week we listed seven of the most bizarre "green" cars (and some not-so-green) of the 20th century, most of which were rolled out in response to depression, war recovery, or out-of-control gas prices. This week, we'll look at seven more from the 21st century, which seems to have had a concentrated share of attempts at innovation in response to war in the Middle East, high gas prices, and deep recession. One notable difference is that this century's cars mostly run on electricity, or at least offer an electric option. They're hardly any more normal, though. Most are answers to a question...
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Crowdfunded Estonian Nobe electric has a plan to revive bubble carsWant to get in on the ground floor of a new electric-car startup? Crowdfunding seems to be the latest rage for automotive startups in Europe. The latest is an Estonian startup called Nobe, which hopes to raise funding to build a small, electric three-wheeler. The company officially launched the...
Eric C. Evarts -
That's wacky! The most bizarre green cars ever proposed, Part IOften 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
Dodge promotes electric cars–in ad for DemonElectric 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...
Eric C. Evarts -
Sweden builds life-size slot-car track for long-distance electric-car chargingLike so many things, Sweden is taking a different approach to charging electric cars for long trips. The country has built a 1.2-mile-long slot-car track into a road near Arlanda airport outside Stockholm to test a new approach to charging electric cars and trucks, according to a report in New...
Eric C. Evarts -
2018 Honda Clarity PHEV revisited: is this the car Bill Clinton wanted built?With new stewardship comes new perspective—sometimes on old things. Here at Green Car Reports, we have driven the 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid a couple of times. New reviewers sometimes bring new context and background to subjects we've covered before. And that's the case with the...
Eric C. Evarts -
Car collectors also gravitate towards car that represented turning points in automotive technology or design, and the Prius does that in spades.
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Shell Airflow Starship semi truck aims for fuel-economy recordBob Sliwa aims to set a new semi-truck fuel-economy record when he leaves San Diego, Calif., on May 17 in his Shell Airflow Starship truck. Hauling his full-sized trailer fully loaded to the truck's 80,000 pounds capacity, he aims to set the fuel economy record for a loaded Class 8 truck in a...
Eric C. Evarts -
British man caught on video leaving driver's seat after turning on Tesla autopilotPatel set the Autopilot while he was driving up the country's busy M1 motorway, then climbed out of the driver's seat while the car piloted itself down the road.
Eric C. Evarts -
Engineers find new ways to improve efficiency of gas engines: Engineering ExplainedResearchers claim their RCCI engine has hit 60 percent thermal efficiency on the test bench, which would represent about a 50 percent improvement over the best modern engines.
Eric C. Evarts -
1970 Clean Car Race: How college teams helped bring about emission limits on new cars (and show up Detroit) after the first Earth Day.Looking back on the 1970 Clean Air Car Race is a good reminder that innovation doesn't always start at the top.
Eric C. Evarts -
Driving a converted electric car from Holland to Australia, relying on giftsWhat do you do when the year you planned for your round-the-world trip in an electric car turns into two—and you still haven't reached your destination? If you're taking such an ambitious trip, it helps to have a name as whimsical as Wiebe Wakker. He's the Dutchman undertaking this adventure...
Eric C. Evarts