John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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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...
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With automotive emissions regulations again coming under political pressure, we thought we'd re run this Earth Day question from 2014 in an attempt to answer the question: Why all the fuss? Why do we...
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Earth Day: 10 Questions On Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Cars To Ask Toyota, Honda & HyundaiHydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are rolling out to California buyers in small numbers with two models on the market, and hydrogen stations slowly expanding outside a narrow slice of Los Angeles. The Honda Clarity Fuel Cell vehicle first went on sale in California at the end of 2016, and 2018 models...
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Some Chevrolet Bolt EVs get new battery pack for sudden loss of power: here's whyIt's every electric car owner's nightmare: the car indicates that remaining range has suddenly plummeted to zero, the battery pack stops providing current, and the car won't run. For some 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV drivers, that scenario has happened in real life. The problem has resulted in a program...
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2018 Leaf vs e-Golf, BMW i3; Model 3 ills; what carmakers want; gas range anxiety: Today's Car NewsA U.K. review of several popular electric cars, what carmakers really want to happen to fuel-economy rules, a new Jeep with old-fashioned gas mileage, vampires and phantoms in the Tesla Model 3, and range anxiety for gasoline-car drivers. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the weekend, as...
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2019 Jeep Cherokee gas mileage reviewWhile plug-in electric cars are steadily growing in sales, they still pale in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of compact crossover utility vehicles sold each year by virtually every major carmaker. In 2017, Toyota's most popular vehicle became the RAV4 small SUV, supplanting the Camry...
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Carmakers want emission, CAFE tweaks, not huge rollbacks, but won't say so publiclyAs promised, the Trump administration has embarked on regulatory rollbacks across many fronts, some immediate and others taking longer. It remains unclear whether the EPA's plan to loosen carbon-dioxide emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles will survive inevitable court challenges...
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Electric cars have the great advantage that their batteries can be recharged anywhere there's electricity.
It may not be particularly fast, though modern plug-in vehicles get at least 60 miles...
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Tesla Model 3 dates, Clarity Plug-In test, CA vs EPA, future electric Buicks: The Week in ReverseWhen will all-wheel-drive and lower-range versions of the Tesla Model 3 go on sale? What about its Model Y crossover sibling? What might a restyled 2019 Toyota Prius hybrid look like? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on...
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2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid: weekend drive reviewFor several years, the Chevrolet Volt was the sole plug-in hybrid with electric range notably above 20 miles—though it became clear Chevy never figured out how to market its virtues to the public at large. Now it has a strong competitor in the form of the 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid, a...
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Possible retrofits in Germany for dirtiest diesels could cost carmakers moreThese are not good times for the makers or owners of diesel cars, particularly in their European stronghold, where on average half of all new vehicles had been sold with diesel engines. Strict new real-world emission tests have proven hard to meet, consumers are starting to shy away from buying new...
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Audi, BMW, Mercedes large electric luxury sedans to aim above Tesla Model S?The Tesla Model S occupies an interesting position among "luxury" sedans and hatchbacks. It's far from the best-equipped vehicle compared to mid-size and full-size competitors from Audi, BMW, Jaguar, and Mercedes-Benz, but that doesn't seem to matter to its 200,000 or so buyers to date. The good...
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GM, EVgo to build Chevy Bolt EV fast-charging network, for Maven drivers onlyGeneral Motors has consistently declined to fund public charging stations that increase the utility and long-distance potential of the electric cars it sells. The company said firmly two years ago it had no intention of spending money on a charging network, a stance that distinguished GM from BMW...
John Voelcker