John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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LA auto-show cars, Tesla Model 3 tested, electric motorcycles, 2018 Nissan Leaf: Today's Car News John VoelckerToday, we've got news from the LA auto show, electric motorcycle updates, test data on the Tesla Model 3, and a preview of the 2018 Nissan Leaf. All this and more on Green Car Reports.
We're at the...
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Volkswagen ID Crozz electric SUV to launch in US in 2020A production vehicle based on the Volkswagen ID Crozz all-electric compact crossover will be launched in the U.S. market during 2020, VW said. The announcement came at a media event Tuesday night before the first of two media days at the Los Angeles auto show, where the electric SUV makes its North...
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BMW i3 stop-sale, electric airplanes, 2018 Bolt EV, electric-car market share: Today's Car NewsToday, we've got an unexpected and very specific safety issue in BMW i3 electric cars, a battery boost for a forgotten vehicle, a look at electric airplanes, and a 2018 Chevy Bolt EV preview. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Sales of all new BMW i3 electric cars have been halted, and all of...
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Where will EVs have the highest market share in 2025? Poll resultsHow, where, when, and to what degree electric cars will increase their share of the world's billion-plus vehicle fleet is a topic of much debate these days. Combined with autonomy, connectivity, and sharing, the growing electrification of personal vehicles is a major transition for carmakers old...
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Renault Samsung SM3 ZE electric sedan: battery upgrade gives 130-mile range in Korean testsFrequently, cars withdrawn from one market live on in another, sometimes for years. Those vehicles may even be upgraded with newer technology in the older body. Consider that the first-generation Volkswagen Golf launched in 1974, for example, lived on in South Africa until 2009 as the VW CitiGolf...
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Tesla Model 3 video review, Volvo XC90 plug-in range boost, dealers unprepared for electric cars: Today's Car NewsToday, we've got a pair of articles on the Tesla Model 3, including a poll; a quiet but important electric-range boost for the 2018 Volvo XC90 T8; and some (more) bad news about car dealers. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the weekend, as we do every seven days, we ran down last week's...
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More than five months ago, before the 2017 Tesla Model 3 officially launched, we published the results of a poll asking how many of the lower-priced electric cars would be delivered by the end of...
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2018 Volvo XC90 plug-in hybrid SUV: bigger battery, slight range boostIt's a shock to realize that the Volvo XC90 large luxury SUV is now in its third model year. The first new Volvo in more than five years when it debuted in 2016, the seven-seat XC90 was an entirely new design that redefined luxury in a Swedish vein and won numerous awards, including North American...
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Tesla Model 3 video review compares lower-priced electric car to Model SThere have been no full reviews of the 2017 Tesla Model 3 to date by automotive media outlets, meaning professional test drivers spend a few days with the car putting it through a standard battery of tests. A few early video reviews, apparently by owners, have also vanished from the Internet...
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Big Tesla battery, Prius Prime vs Volt, Ioniq Hybrid miles, China vs US electric cars: The Week in ReverseWhat new hybrid and plug-in cars are coming from Ford, which has been notably silent on that front since 2013? How does fossil-fuel-loving EPA administrator Scott Pruitt define the word "environmentalism"? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for...
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Effect of Trump's attempts to end U.S. climate-change efforts: Twitter poll resultsBy now it's clear that the Trump Administration is doing everything it can to end U.S. government efforts to address climate change. Climate-science deniers sit in powerful government positions, language on climate change has been eradicated from websites, and the U.S. is now the sole nation in the...
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U.S. energy sources and uses: everything you need to know in one lovely chartOne of the interesting side effects of plug-in electric cars turns out to be a greater awareness of energy sources and uses. A 2012 California study, for instance, showed roughly four out of 10 electric-car drivers either had or were considering solar panels to provide electricity to their home...
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Electric-car plugs, 'environmentalism' at today's EPA, Big Oil's future, EV penetration: Today's Car News John VoelckerToday, a possible plug conflict for electric cars, a redefinition from the EPA chief, a study suggesting Big Oil will wane, and our latest Twitter poll. All this and more on Green Car Reports.
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Dual-voltage electric-car charging cords: plug confusion for 240 volts?When the first few thousand electric cars went on sale in California in the mid- to late 1990s, they used various different charging methods, each with its own dedicated charging stations. Given the high cost of installing different infrastructure for different makes of car, that proved a...
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Where will EVs have the highest market share in 2025? Take our Twitter pollChina's announcement in early September that it planned to set a date to end sales of new vehicles with combustion engines should have rocked the global auto industry. The world's largest car market, at roughly 30 million vehicles a year, will at some point permit only zero-emission vehicles to be...
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Toyota electric cars, more Nissan EVs, Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid driven, Volt vs Prius Prime: Today's Car NewsToday, we've got news on future electric cars from Nissan, Renault, and Toyota, some thoughts on more time in a Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid, and a sales race between the Chevy Volt and Toyota Prius Prime. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Toyota's reluctant moves into electric cars will include its...
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Will Toyota Prius Prime outsell Chevy Volt this year?Compared to the U.S. sales of, say, full-size pickup trucks, the monthly reports on deliveries of plug-in hybrid and battery-electric cars contain some fairly low numbers. The Ford F-Series routinely sells 80,000 a month or more, while the most any plug-in car has ever sold in the U.S. is about...
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2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid: further thoughts on 50 mpg after 1,200 milesWe've now spent more than 1,200 miles in a variety of Hyundai Ioniqs, but the bulk of them were covered in the conventional hybrid version of the five-door compact hatchback. That's the highest-volume version, while the battery-powered Ioniq Electric sells in lower numbers and the plug-in hybrid...
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Future Ford Escape plug-in, China vs US, more solar power, electric semis on wires: Today's Car News John VoelckerToday, we've got a different approach to electric trucks, a complicated combustion engine, more solar power, a plug-in future Ford, and some worries about U.S. competitiveness. All this and more on...
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Is China making U.S. irrelevant to the future of automobiles?The first automobile was invented in Germany in 1885 by Karl Benz, but it was the U.S. that led the building of the global 20th-century automobile industry. Through the turn of the current century, the U.S. new-vehicle market was the world's largest, and General Motors was for decades the world's...
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Soaring growth of solar power demonstrated in one chart (updated)Sometimes a picture is truly worth a thousand words. In the case of the rapidly rising rate of solar installations for electricity generation, numerous forecasts by internationally respected bodies have proven woefully conservative. The chart in the tweet below, created by Auke Hoekstra at the...
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2019 Ford Escape to get plug-in hybrid, plus Expedition SUV hybrid, Lincoln versions too: reportIn recent years, Ford Motor Company's plans for putting more plug-in electric cars on the road have been, shall we say, murky. GM has the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, sales of its Chevy Bolt EV 238-mile electric car have risen every month, and it plans a pair of all-electric SUVs by...
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Toyota Prius V hybrid wagon ends U.S. run; RAV4 Hybrid took its salesAfter six model years, the 2017 Toyota Prius V will soon leave the stage, and there will be no 2018 version. Toyota has confirmed to Green Car Reports that it is ending production of the hybrid wagon for the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The reason is simple: Its sales have fallen considerably since the...
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Best Car To Buy 2018; Tesla Semi, Roadster; VW e-Golf driven; electric-car tax credit: The Week in ReverseWhat strong new competitor to the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid will go on sale December 1? Which vehicle did we name our Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2018? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, November 17, 2017...
John Voelcker