John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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On Friday, Tesla held a media call to reveal another in the series of announcements touted in tweets by CEO Elon Musk.
This time, the news covered enhancements to the warranty and service experience...
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Obama Administration To Add 10,000 Hybrids To Government FleetPresident Barack Obama may not achieve his goal of 1 million plug-in electric cars on U.S. roads by the end of 2015. But his administration continues to try to green the U.S. vehicle fleet. The latest salvo: The government's General Services Agency plans to add an additional 10,000 hybrid vehicles...
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Yes, Combustion Engines Will Be With Us For Decades; However...It should be fairly obvious, but apparently it isn't: Plug-in electric cars are not going to sweep the marketplace overnight. Their sales will grow slowly and steadily from a low base. U.S. plug-in sales in 2012 tripled over the previous year, and most projections are that they'll double again this...
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As Predicted, Fisker Execs & DoE Get Roasted In House HearingFisker Automotive CEO Tony Posawatz didn't attend yesterday's House committee hearing on the company's loan from the U.S. Department of Energy. He's out desperately seeking saviors to avert bankruptcy for the struggling startup electric-car maker, but he still may have had the better day. The title...
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2014 Chevrolet Spark EV Rated At 82 Miles Of Range, 119 MPGeThe 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV has been a long time coming, but it's almost here. This morning, Chevy announced that its only battery-electric car will have a range of 82 miles and be rated at a combined 119 MPGe efficiency. MPGe, or miles-per-gallon-equivalent, is a measure of the distance a car can...
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NYC Officially Launches Nissan Leaf Electric Taxi ProgramWithin a few weeks, a handful of New Yorkers each day will ride in a new kind of taxi: an all-electric Nissan Leaf. On Monday, to celebrate Earth Day, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg joined with Nissan officials to announce that six Nissan Leaf taxis would go into service this spring. The...
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You may have read about the latest Buick Riviera concept car, which was unveiled last Saturday at the Shanghai Auto Show.
Perhaps you also noticed that it uses a new and innovative plug-in hybrid...
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Fisker Misses DoE Loan Payment; House Hearing TomorrowThe fortunes of the two highest-profile electric-car startups couldn't be diverging more starkly today. Yesterday, Fisker Automotive failed to make a payment of $10 million on the $192 million of low-interest loan funds it received from the U.S. Department of Energy. And tomorrow company executives...
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Will Future Tesla Electric Cars Use Metal-Air Batteries?Most advocates and industry analysts expect lithium-ion batteries to dominate electric-car energy storage for the rest of this decade. But is Silicon Valley startup carmaker Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] planning to add a new type of battery to increase the range of its electric cars? The high-end 2013...
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U.S.-Built Electric Cars To Get U.S.-Made Battery Cells TooWhile the number of plug-in electric cars built in the U.S. is steadily increasing, the lithium-ion cells in their batteries have mostly come from overseas. But this turns out to be the year that cell production largely moves onshore as well. The 2013 Nissan Leaf, now coming off the assembly line...
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CA Bill To Cut Sales-Tax, License Fees On Electric, Alt-Fuel CarsToday, electric cars and other vehicles that run on alternative fuels simply cost more. That's a fact. Now a new bill introduced in the California Assembly aims to trim a bit more off the costs of buying and registering these cars by reducing their assessed value. The brainchild of Assemblyman Al...
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Gas-Mileage Rules To Add $3,000 Or More To Car Prices By 2025?You most likely know by now that fuel efficiency is slated to double in new vehicles by 2025. What you may not know is how much that will cost you when you buy a new car in future years. Thousands of real dollars The EPA has long estimated that a new vehicle will cost about $3,000 more in real...
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With the delay of its Model X crossover until "late in 2014," it may look as if Tesla's product pipeline is running dry.
But we suspect the Silicon Valley startup electric-car company will offer a...
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CA Air Board Head To Carmakers On ZEV Rules: Back Off, BoysCalifornia is the largest single market for new vehicles in the United States: more than 1.5 million vehicles are sold each year. So when state officials speak, the auto industry has to listen. On Tuesday, Mary Nichols spoke. She heads the powerful California Air Resources Board, which has legal...
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Will Tesla Try For Federal Rule Permitting Non-Dealer Stores?Several thousand Tesla owners have now purchased their cars by ordering and paying for them online after visiting a Tesla Store showroom. No franchised dealers are involved. That's a model that Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] feels is crucial to getting its electric cars into the mainstream. State and...
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2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid: First DriveWhen we first drove the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid in the fall of 2010, it was a pre-production car and--frankly--it wasn't very smooth. The 2011 Sonata Hybrid production car was better, but far from the standards of the best hybrids. Now the Korean carmaker has taken another crack at the car, with...
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5 Million Toyota Hybrids Sold, Near 2 Million Of Them In U.S.Say the word "hybrid" and then ask drivers, anywhere in the world, to name a car brand. They'll likely say "Toyota," a testimony to that brand's launch of the first Prius in 1997 and its tenacious pursuit of improvement in hybrid-electric powertrain technology since then. Today, Toyota announced it...
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Does Tesla Already Outsell Audi, BMW, Lexus & Mercedes-Benz?The established German luxury brands--Mercedes-Benz and BMW--have sold cars in the U.S. for decades. So how could Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] possibly be beating them at their own game? The answer lies in how you define sales: It appears that the Tesla Model S electric sport sedan is outselling both...
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Eighteen months ago, GM announced that it would build the electric motor for its upcoming Chevrolet Spark EV electric car in the U.S.
Now, that motor is officially in production at the company's...
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First Toyota Prius Hybrid National Car Meet Announced For JuneToyota has now sold more than 1 million Prius hybrids in the U.S. over 12 years. Now their owners can get together to celebrate their cars, and all the fuel they didn't burn. For the first time ever, a national gathering of Prius owners is being held from June 14 through 16 in Riverside...
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2013 Fiat 500e Electric Car: First DriveThe 2013 Fiat 500e may be a compliance car, but its engineers created an electric car that's so much fun to drive that seemingly they want it to be more. And with remarkably aggressive pricing--the same $199 monthly lease payment as on a top-of-the-line gasoline 500--Fiat's marketers are trying...
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Nominee To Head EPA Had Key Role in 2025 Gas-Mileage RulesIt's long been known that Lisa Jackson, the current administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, would step down now that President Obama is in his second term. But while Jackson had four years in the spotlight, somewhat less is known about Gina McCarthy, the woman designated to...
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Tesla Model S Loaners For Tesla Model S Owners, Elon Musk SaysLoaners cars are now routinely provided by luxury carmakers when their customers have cars in for servicing. Now Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is joining the crowd, providing Model S luxury sports sedans to its Model S (and Roadster) owners while their cars are in the shop. But according to CEO Elon...
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Tesla Testifies In Texas, Takes On State's Auto Dealers Over StoresTexas is tough, and Texas car dealers are no exception. But electric-car startup Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], in the person of its CEO Elon Musk, testified yesterday at a hearing in the Texas legislature on a bill that would allow it to sell its cars directly to Texas buyers. That's presently illegal...
John Voelcker