John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
-
Small cars with all-wheel drive are an increasingly popular offering from automakers eager to boost their overall fuel efficiency while providing a feature that more and more buyers demand.
Now...
-
Electric 'Vintage Car' Proposed To Replace NYC Horse Carriages: New York Auto ShowAnimal rights and electric cars don't usually intersect much, but a long-running New York City battle has produced one of the more unusual electric-car designs shown in public. At the New York Auto Show last week, a very large electric vehicle--effectively a larger-than-life electric scale model of...
John Voelcker -
Surprise NY Auto Show Appearance: New 2015 Lexus NX CrossoverThe 2015 Lexus NX compact crossover has had a long gestation, with two concept vehicles shown over the last 18 months. It was finally, officially unveiled yesterday at the Beijing Auto Show, as Lexus had announced it would be. Then, unexpectedly, it popped up halfway around the world--at the New...
John Voelcker -
New World Record In Canada: 431 Plug-In Electric Vehicles In One PlaceIt appears that a Québec electric-car group has set a new world record for plug-in electric cars gathered in one place. Yesterday, 431 battery-electric and plug-in hybrid cars gathered in a long parking lot on the Île Sainte-Hélène, just south of the Jacques Cartier...
John Voelcker -
Ultra-Efficient VW XL1: Now An Urban Legend, Debunked By SnopesAh, conspiracy theories and urban legends. They lure us in with the promise of dark plots and amazing events--even as our rational minds suggest they're likely not true. Now the ultra-efficient Volkswagen XL1 economy car, the highly aerodynamic two-seat diesel plug-in hybrid we drove last fall, has...
John Voelcker -
Nissan EZ Charge Card To Let Leafs Recharge On Four NetworksOne of the minor hassles of owning an electric car is the need to have multiple accounts, passes, and fobs to access multiple different public charging networks. Now Nissan is working to make public charging simpler, introducing a program called EZ Charge that lets Nissan Leaf electric-car drivers...
John Voelcker -
They're not here yet, but in less than two years, U.S. buyers will have a choice of at least three plug-in hybrid SUV models to choose from.
Now, we've driven a prototype version of one of them: the...
-
Coda Sedan Electric-Car Rolling Bodies For Sale On eBayThe 2012 Coda Sedan electric car had a long, troubled gestation and a brief life before joining other failed automotive startups in the history books. But at least few hundred cars were built, all told, and now some of them are for sale as rolling "gliders," without their battery packs. If you...
John Voelcker -
2014 BMW i3: Polarizing Looks, Average Range--Can It Succeed?Most of the world's truly significant cars have been striking, even polarizing, designs. But some unusual, even polarizing, designs have been colossal failures. And it remains unclear which category the 2014 BMW i3 will fall, in the different global markets in which BMW is selling it. DON'T MISS...
John Voelcker -
2015 VW Golf TDI SportWagen Concept: New York Auto Show DebutNext week's New York Auto Show will see the debut of a car bound to appeal to fans of diesel wagons everywhere. Aha, you say, it's the new Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen! Well, no. But, yes, sort of. ALSO SEE: Johammer Electric Motorcycle: World's Weirdest Way To Go Green What VW is calling the...
John Voelcker -
Does Nissan Leaf Supplant The Prius As Loathing Target For CA Drivers?If you've never lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, you may not have heard of "Mr. Roadshow," the nickname of San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Richards. Nor will you know how important his columns are, covering traffic, congestion, freeways, law enforcement, cars, and all the other topics...
John Voelcker -
2015 Honda Fit: Quick Gas Mileage Drive Of All-New HatchbackIf you're looking for a small hatchback that delivers high gas mileage and almost unparalleled flexibility, the all-new 2015 Honda Fit should probably be at the top of your list. The new Fit has become a more important car for Honda now that it's built in Mexico, and that's reflected in many of the...
John Voelcker -
Sometimes memories are short.
Electric-car advocates often forget that it took seven years from the first Toyota Prius hybrid, launched in Japan in 1997, until sales of the second-generation Prius...
-
California Hands Loss To Tesla In Proposed ZEV Credit ChangesIt was one of the thorniest issues facing the powerful California Air Resource Board: Did the ability to swap electric-car battery packs qualify for "fast fueling" incentives meant to prod carmakers to build zero-emission vehicles that could add 300 miles of range in no more time than filling the...
John Voelcker -
Bentley Hybrid Concept: Preview Of 2017 SUV Plug-In Hybrid SystemAs Bentley has been promising for more than two years now, it will introduce a plug-in hybrid powertrain in a future product. Now we know that the first plug-in Bentley ever will come in 2017, in a dedicated version of its upcoming sport-utilty vehicle. That confirmation came as the British marque...
John Voelcker -
2014 Mazda 3: Gas Mileage Review Of Sporty Compact HatchbackAuto writers tend to like Mazdas; they generally perform and handle well, and are far more fun to drive than the anodyne Fords, Hondas, and Toyotas that outsell them in the compact and mid-size categories. The newest crop of Mazda cars and crossovers, built around the company's highly...
John Voelcker -
Is Tesla Motors A Carmaker...Or Really A Grid-Storage Company?Many among the Detroit auto media were skeptical of Tesla Motors for years, correctly noting just how hard it is to start a car company and build a genuinely appealing product--electric car or not. But as Tesla continues to sell Model S electric luxury sedans, expanding into Europe and China as...
John Voelcker -
GM To Add Plant Jobs, Invest $450 Million For 2016 Chevy VoltNew jobs and plant updates by carmakers often get little attention outside the towns involved, but sometimes they telegraph information about future models. The Detroit News said Saturday that GM is expected to announce it will update its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, spending $450 million and...
John Voelcker -
Access to carpool lanes on California's legendarily crowded freeways is a big perk.
So is getting a check in the mail that cuts the purchase cost.
These incentives were successful in spurring sales...
-
What Are Tesla Model S Drivers Browsing In Their Connected Cars?One of the alluring features of the Tesla Model S electric luxury sedan is its always-on 3G 4G cellular connection and built-in Internet browser. But have you ever wondered what all those wealthy electric-car drivers are actually looking at on their in-car browsers? Now we know. Or at least we have...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Gigafactory Faces Skepticism From Panasonic, Analysts
Elon Musk, CEO of startup electric-car maker Tesla Motors, is no doubt used to skepticism. Now he faces new doubts over the company's plans for a massive "gigafactory" costing as much as $5 billion to manufacture more lithium-ion cells than any other plant in the world. DON'T MISS: Tesla's...
John Voelcker -
Electric-Car Sales Surge In South Korea, Supported By SubsidiesSales of plug-in electric cars are very regional right now, globally as well as within the United States. Norway, for instance, has seen electric-car sales soar because it offers financial incentives and other benefits that aren't available to drivers of vehicles with combustion engines. Now we can...
John Voelcker -
DoE Reboots Advanced Auto-Tech Loan Program That Funded Ford, Nissan, Tesla, FiskerIt's baaaaaaaaaaaack. U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced yesterday that the DoE had revised and updated its Advanced-Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) program, which offers low-interest loans to carmakers and their suppliers. Any new loans, according to a Detroit News...
John Voelcker -
FINAL UPDATE: Plug-In Electric Car Sales In March: Nissan Leaf Has Best March Ever
March was another good month for U.S. sales of the Nissan Leaf, the best-selling electric car in the world. In fact, March was a good month for several plug-in electric cars, with monthly sales up for many models, and new monthly records for a few. Roughly 9,000 electric cars were sold in March...
John Voelcker