John Voelcker, Contributor
Articles
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The 2020 Porsche Taycan is the German sports-car maker’s first all-electric car. It’s also the most serious competitor yet to the Tesla Model S, the groundbreaking luxury electric car...
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2020 Porsche Taycan preview: Fast, electric, expensivePorsche unlocks all the secrets of its new all-electric Taycan battery vehicle.
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1,000-mile electric car unveiled: Aptera returns 10 years laterOne of the early electric-car hopefuls, Aptera, is back a decade later with a reconstituted version of its car and the team behind it.
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VW diesel mitigation: PIRG rates state plans, lacks reality check on EVsThe Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal has fallen out of the news, but VW Group recently boosted its allowance for the total costs to 30 billion euros ($33 billion). In the U.S., VW has bought back hundreds of thousands of TDI diesel vehicles and is paying two distinct 10-figure penalties. The...
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Busting 7 of the most common myths about electric carsReader receives some misleading information about electric cars, batteries, and manufacturing. We respond with facts and reason.
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Step aside, Boomers: New electric-car buyers in Northeast may be MillennialsA new survey of Northeastern drivers suggests the demographics of future electric-car buyers in that region may evolve from the Baby Boomers who’ve bought most of them so far to Millennial buyers who see them as an inevitable part of a tech-focused lifestyle. Released Thursday at the New York...
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Genesis is the newest brand trying to take a piece of a global luxury-vehicle market still dominated by German makers. Last night, in New York City, the Korean brand revealed its first-ever electric...
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10 lessons from the short life of the Chevy Volt, 2011-2019On February 15, GM ended production of the innovative Chevrolet Volt with little fanfare. Over two generations and nine model years, the company sold more than 150,000 of the compact plug-in hybrid hatchbacks. In automotive time, nine model years isn’t that long. The best brand names live for...
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2019 Nissan Leaf Plus vs. 2011 Nissan Leaf: 5 takeaways over 8 yearsWhen a completely new vehicle is introduced, it's generally around for five to seven years before an entirely redesigned generation of that vehicle is launched. By that measure, the 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus we reviewed earlier this week is ancient, with a basic structure in its ninth model...
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First drive review: The 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus delivers more power, 226-mile range at lastAt the moment, there are more Nissan Leafs on the world’s roads than any other electric car in history—closing in on 400,000. As of Jan 1, Nissan had delivered 380,000 Leafs globally, 130,000 of them in the United States. Nissan is entirely aware that honor may not last long. It all...
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Long-range Cadillac SUV to lead GM's next electric-car push, in 3 yearsOn Sunday night, General Motors showed renderings of a future long-range, all-electric SUV to be offered roughly three years hence by its Cadillac luxury brand. The look at the brand's first battery-electric vehicle came as part of the 2019 Detroit auto-show debut for the 2020 Cadillac XT6, a...
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2019 CES: Quiet year for green-car and self-driving news
As always, the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show held this week in Las Vegas was massive. Hundreds of thousands of attendees, workers, and support staff converged at multiple venues to show off their latest wares, meet with clients, partners, and the media and try to break through the news clutter...
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The word "drayage" isn't commonly used, even among green-car fans, but it's used by the shipping and logistics industries to refer to the transport of goods over short distances.
Drayage turns out...
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Toyota's newest self-driving test car is a Lexus LS luxury sedanIf you're going to develop a self-driving test vehicle, why not make it one that passengers would enjoy riding in? Perhaps that's the logic behind Toyota's choice of its new Lexus LS large luxury sedan as the basis for the P4, its latest automated-driving test vehicle—unveiled yesterday by...
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How Nissan hopes to market its future electric carsThe Nissan Leaf with a roughly 60-kilowatt-hour battery was expected to make its public debut at the LA Auto Show earlier this month. It didn’t. That car is expected to appear “very soon,” perhaps at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show to be held in Las Vegas next month. DON'T...
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Electric cars from Audi, Porsche: Explaining platform magicIt would be unthinkable for any automaker but Porsche to introduce a new car with a flat-6 engine hung out behind the rear axle. At this week’s 2018 LA Auto Show, the 2020 Porsche 911 duly made its debut in the hallowed configuration that has persisted since 1964. But with underpinnings...
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2019 Hyundai Nexo: first drive of 380-mile fuel-cell crossover utilityPretty much any story on a new vehicle these days notes that new-car buyers are snapping up utility vehicles, while traditional sedans languish on sales lots. That puts Hyundai right on trend with its latest hydrogen-powered entry, the Nexo, which it dubs a crossover utility vehicle. It succeeds...
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2019 Jaguar I-Pace real-world review: 3 days with the sexy electric crossoverTo the world’s surprise, the first all-electric luxury utility vehicle to follow the Tesla Model X into production did not come from the German makes of Audi, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz. Instead, it arrived from that trio’s smaller, scrappier British rival, Jaguar Land Rover. The 2019 Jaguar...
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And finally, there is Audi.
Late Monday night, the German luxury maker debuted took to the stage in San Francisco with its long-awaited, first volume battery-electric vehicle, a five-seat midsize...
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BMW Vision iNext electric concept redefines German luxury flagshipFor decades, the flagship of every German luxury maker’s line has been its largest sedan: the Audi A8, BMW 7-Series, and at the pinnacle, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. But times change. The BMW Vision iNext, previewed for small group of journalists this week before Saturday’s global debut...
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Why Chargeway matters: making EV charging comprehensible for buyers, dealers, utilities, networksAsk anyone what kind of fuel their next car will take, and you'll likely get one of three answers: regular, premium, or diesel. Ask that same person what kind of charging an electric car takes, and you'll probably get a blank stare. Ask a salesperson at a car dealer how he explains the different...
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Toyota hybrid repairs, new EV delivered, lessons of 9 years, candy from Elon Musk: Today's Car NewsHybrid repairs to keep customers happy, nine years of green-car lessons, the first of a new electric car is delivered in LA, and Tesla offers us candy. Sort of. We think. All this and more on Green Car Reports. It appears that Elon Musk is starting a candy company, announced (of course) via...
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Transitions at Green Car ReportsIf you can get them to admit it, many reporters and writers consider editors’ notes to be self-indulgent. Sometimes they’re necessary, however—and this is one of those times. Regular readers of Green Car Reports may have noticed that our writing staff has changed in the last few...
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7 things we learned in 9 years, and where green cars are headedMore than four years ago, this site looked back at its first five years of coverage to assess what had changed—and what we'd learned. Now, we're repeating the exercise. By February 2014, Green Car Reports had published about 9,800 news articles. The number is now up to more than 16,800. Much...
John Voelcker