John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
-
The Silicon Valley electric-car maker Tesla Motors seems to be in the news almost every day.
Over the last two weeks, the company faced fallout over glitches in early Model S cars, and upgraded its...
-
2015 Ford Fusion: Smaller EcoBoost Engine, Manual Gearbox GoneTime was when mid-size sedans routinely came with V-6 engines of 3.0 to 3.6 liters. But these days, those are rare and expensive high-end options--if they're even offered at all. The 2015 Ford Fusion sedan now has a simplified lineup of engines, and all of them continue to have just four...
John Voelcker -
Could Less-Pricey 2016 Chevy Volt Undercut Plug-In Hybrids?The average new vehicle transaction price in the U.S. today is around $32,000. Now it appears that the upcoming 2016 Chevrolet Volt may possibly have two model variants, one of them targeting a base price of $30,000. That price could potentially equal--or undercut--every plug-in hybrid offered...
John Voelcker -
You're Better Off Buying 100-Mile Electric Cars, Report Says; Shoppers May DisagreeSometimes mathematical logic is simply swept aside by the more primal emotions: fear, anxiety, and insecurity. Which is why so many car buyers make choices that cost them money in the long run. Some of those choices may be luxury items they want but don't need; others may be capabilities they'll...
John Voelcker -
2014 Honda Accord Hybrid Still In Very Short Supply: Why?The 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid received very positive reviews when it was launched almost a year ago. Its EPA fuel-efficiency rating of 47 mpg combined approaches that of the 50-mpg Toyota Prius, but the Accord is a more conventional looking mid-size sedan--a plus for many buyers. Yet sales have been...
John Voelcker -
Cadillac Vs Tesla, Electric Boats, Rolling Coal: The Week In Reverse (VIDEO)Do you know what it's called when a diesel trucker deliberately covers an electric car in soot? And how did we get to spend a lovely July day on the waters of Lake George in upstate New York? This is the Week In Reverse for Friday, August 15, 2014, right here at Green Car Reports. Friday, we noted...
John Voelcker -
While battery-electric and plug-in hybrid cars have had much of the spotlight to themselves for the past four years, we're going to be hearing a lot more about hydrogen fuel-cell cars over the next...
-
Cadillac ELR Not A Tesla Competitor, GM Exec AcknowledgesMark Reuss, the head of global product development for General Motors, has acknowledged that GM may not have a vehicle that competes directly with the Tesla Model S electric luxury sedan. Speaking yesterday at a business breakfast associated with the weekend's Dream Cruise event in Detroit, Reuss...
John Voelcker -
Electric Boats: As In Cars, Battery Power Offers Advantages On The WaterThe world now has something around half a million plug-in electric cars on the roads, and electric propulsion is slowly spreading into other types of transportation. One of them is electric boats, which have been around for more than a century but are now seeing renewed interest. Just as with...
John Voelcker -
Chevrolet Volts In Fleet Use: Might As Well Not Have A PlugChevy Volt owners, and even Chevrolet itself, are usually quite proud of the amount of miles the range-extended electric car covers on grid electricity. The company said last week that 63 percent of all Volt miles driven have been covered on grid power, totaling more than half a billion miles...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Roadster To Get Replacement Battery, 400-Mile Range: MuskRetrofitting new powertrains to used cars isn't something that automakers have done, historically--but electric cars may change that rule. Now, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has suggested that the Silicon Valley electric-car maker will offer a replacement battery for the 2008-2012 Tesla Roadsters that...
John Voelcker -
Why 707-HP Dodge Challenger Hellcat Doesn't Conflict With Green GoalsAutomotive sites with readers whose tastes tend toward sports and performance cars have been having a field day with the upcoming 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. This 707-horsepower muscle car (along with the Charger Hellcat four-door sedan announced just this morning) is the most powerful...
John Voelcker -
The current 2015 Chevrolet Volt, now in its fifth year, will be the last of its generation before a revised and updated 2016 Volt is unveiled next January and goes on sale later in the year.
But GM's...
-
Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Cars: $50 For 300 Miles--Or Free To Fill Up?
Electric cars are far cheaper to run than gasoline cars on a per-mile basis--and depending on the assumptions, they can be cheaper over their entire life too. And gasoline and diesel vehicles will get steadily more fuel-efficient through 2025 under a variety of global regulations. But what about...
John Voelcker -
Electric-Car Batteries, Rolling Coal, Luring Tesla Gigafactory: Today's Car NewsLots of Tesla news today--including hackers, purchase incentives, even environmental rules in California--plus jet fuel from tobacco, and the odious practice of "rolling coal." All this and more on Green Car Reports. Tesla Motors recently showed up at a hacker conference, looking to hire software...
John Voelcker -
Electric-Car Batteries: What Happens To Them After Coming Out Of The Car?It's one of the recurring questions asked by electric-car skeptics: Yeah, but what about all those battery packs? Won't they just end up in landfills? We know already that the 12-Volt lead-acid car battery appears to be the most-recycled consumer good in the world--though that's largely for safety...
John Voelcker -
More 'Tesla Truth' Reveals Depths Of Derangement Over Electric-Car Maker
Tesla Motors has existed for more than 10 years now, and it's built and sold more than 50,000 electric cars. It's become a genuine U.S. automaker, albeit a very small one, and it now sells all over the world--and garners more media coverage than its volume alone might warrant. But it still seems to...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Repairs, 2016 Volt, 2015 Subaru Outback, Electric-Car Sales: The Week In Reverse (VIDEO)What did Chevy reveal to an unsuspecting public? And how serious are Tesla's drivetrain problems? This is the Week In Reverse for Friday, August 8, 2014, right here at Green Car Reports. On Friday, we asked how serious the Model S drivetrain-replacement problem is for Tesla Motors. Our...
John Voelcker -
The Chevy Volt has been on sale for three and a half years now, and it's never quite lived up to the big expectations that GM and the world had for it.
But this week, the company confirmed that a new...
-
Marketing For 2016 Chevy Volt To Be Rethought, Use Owners As EvangelistsIt's no secret among owners of the Chevy Volt range-extended electric car that the innovative car's advertising and marketing has been muddled at best. Now, with a new 2016 Volt to be unveiled next January, Chevrolet's recently-arrived global chief marketing officer promises that a thorough...
John Voelcker -
2016 Chevrolet Volt To Debut At Detroit Show, First Teaser Photo ReleasedGeneral Motors confirmed this morning that the revised 2016 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car will be released at next January's Detroit Auto Show. And the company released the first teaser image of the car, showing a more rounded rear to the liftgate of what will likely continue as a...
John Voelcker -
2015 Hyundai Sonata: Gas Mileage Review Of New Mid-Size SedanThe last Hyundai Sonata was a striking stylistic departure from usually bland mid-size sedan styling. The new one, not quite so much: To our eyes, there's very little aside from the badges that identifies it as a Hyundai. We spent a few days with a 2015 Hyundai Sonata Limited, a test car so new it...
John Voelcker -
Ram 1500 Diesel Pickup Fuel Economy: Drivers Beat Mileage Ratings In Real-World UseThis year's full-size pickup truck sales are surging, driven at least in part by increased U.S. oil production, according to Ford chief economist Emily Kolinski Morris. Ironic, eh? But new pickups sold today are far more fuel-efficient than those offered even a couple of years ago--and the highest...
John Voelcker -
Nissan And Mitsubishi To Join Forces On Low-Cost Electric MinicarMitsubishi was the earliest maker to launch a modern battery-electric small car and sell it in volume, and Nissan has emerged as by far the world's highest-volume seller of electric cars. Now the two makers have announced they're teaming up to develop an inexpensive electric minicar. According to...
John Voelcker