John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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Over the many months EPA administrator Scott Pruitt signaled his intention to revisit the Obama administration's emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, California warned that it would not go...
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More sedan, smaller, entry models bite the dust in DetroitTwo years ago this month, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles essentially threw in the towel on the "automobiles" part of its name. Canceling the compact Dodge Dart and the mid-size Chrysler 200 sedans, the company doubled down on the pickup trucks and utility vehicles that had long been its profit centers...
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Buick to launch new electric, plug-in hybrid models in China; what about US?For 15 years now, Buick has been a far more important brand in China than it is in North America: four out of five Buicks sold globally are purchased by Chinese buyers. The brand has a wider range and variety of vehicles in that country, along with numerous models U.S. buyers never lay eyes on. So...
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2019 Toyota Prius will be restyled to look more like Prime: reportGlobal sales of compact hatchbacks are hardly surging, and fuel economy for all types of vehicles is steadily improving. Even given those factors, though, the fourth-generation Toyota Prius hybrid has had an especially rough road since its launch as a 2016 model. At just 108,661 deliveries across...
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SF Motors electric cars, emissions vs gas mileage, Honda Clarity poll, UK engine ban: Today's Car NewsA Tesla founder has a new startup car company, the British utility would be OK with more electric cars sooner, reporters are getting a crucial distinction wrong, and we've got a new Twitter poll on the Honda Clarity. All this and more on Green Car Reports. The national electric utility in the U.K...
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EPA does not set fuel-economy limits: get this right, journalists!Journalism as an industry is under great pressure these days. There are far more people writing "content" than in past decades, and in general they are having to produce more of it for less money than they did 10, 20, or 50 years ago. That's no excuse, however, for getting the basics wrong. DON'T...
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Norway and The Netherlands started the trend a few years ago, though they're relatively tiny car markets. Then France and the U.K. joined in.
China, the world's largest new-car market by far, is...
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Nikola hydrogen semi deposits, EV around the world, climate forecast grim, EPA sloppy: Today's Car NewsA startling announcement from a zero-emission truck maker, some grim news on climate change, sloppiness from the Trump administration's EPA, and a quixotic round-the-world electric-car trip. 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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Pruitt's EPA emission rollback reasoning may well fail in courtDespite the sturm und drang around the announcement by embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt that he will relax emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, not much will happen immediately. His determination last week that the Obama administration was "incorrect" and that the limits on those...
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Bolt EV vs Tesla, Jaguar I-Pace drive, Kona Electric info, Model 3 production: The Week in ReverseHow many Tesla Model 3 cars did the company make and deliver during the first quarter of this year? Why did one reader trade in his year-old Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car for a used Tesla Model S? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week...
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Pruitt's EPA decision: 38-page intention vs 1,217 pages of analysisWhile the name of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is often preceded by "embattled" these days, his agency is now on record as rejecting its own recommendation of just 16 months ago. It concluded in July 2016 that the auto industry had handily met lower carbon-emission limits from 2012 through...
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2018 Hyundai Ioniq Electric "Unlimited" subscription more limited this yearWhile global demand for the Hyundai Ioniq Electric appears to be strong, supplies have remained limited. The battery-electric compact hatchback, rated at 124 miles of range by the EPA, forgoes the "weird styling" of contenders like the previous Nissan Leaf. In the U.S., however, the all-electric...
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The U.S. sales history of the Smart two-seat minicar started with a bang in 2008, when gasoline prices soared, and has waned since then.
A complete redesign of the little ForTwo in the 2016 model...
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Electric I-Pace may lead Jaguar design, style into the futureIn January 2007, Jaguar dropped a bombshell, in the form of the C-XF concept sedan it unveiled at that year's Detroit auto show. The sleek, fastback shape, simple rectangular grille with recessed mesh, and swept-back cat's-eye headlights yanked Jaguar design out of its fusty retro-traditional...
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McKinsey summarizes state of the art, latest trends in electric carsOver the seven years modern, mass-priced electric cars have been on sale, various bits of wisdom have emerged among their fans, advocates, and owners. One might be how much battery range is "enough" to prevent drivers from worrying constantly about whether they need to charge. Another might be...
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Why I traded my Chevy Bolt EV for a Tesla: one reader's storyAs a nation, the U.S. takes lots of road trips, because most of the country has no viable mass transit between city pairs. If electric cars are ever to enter the mass market in North America, they have to be usable on those road trips. Last year, our reader Jay Lucas of Alexandria, Virginia, wrote...
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Kona Electric info, context for EPA plan, CX-5 Diesel MIA, China learns from California: Today's Car NewsToday, we've got an apt pupil (China) learning from the master (California), a diesel crossover that's MIA, our context to keep perspective on the EPA's announced plans to let cars emit more, and some new info on the 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric. All this and more on Green Car Reports. California...
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5 things about the 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric we learned at the NY auto showAfter a Detroit auto show that was about little except pickup trucks and a new Jeep, followed by a tepid Chicago show, New York proved to be relatively rich in interesting new green cars. The standout was clearly the 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric, the 250-mile battery-electric small hatchback that...
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8 things you should know about EPA plan to let cars emit more (cutting fuel economy as well) John VoelckerEPA administrator Scott Pruitt said yesterday the agency plans to modify rules limiting carbon-dioxide emissions for light-duty vehicles in model years 2022 through 2025.
The agency, he said, had...
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Mazda CX-5 diesel: engine still MIA in compact crossover utility vehicleIt's the mystery model, the all-but-legendary vehicle still just beyond reach, years after its maker first announced plans to offer diesel engines. Specifically, it's the diesel version of the Mazda CX-5 compact crossover utility vehicle, first revealed in 2016 and later announced as a 2018 model...
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What China learned from California about getting electric cars on its roadsIn the U.S., California has long been viewed culturally as the crazy, free-spirited cousin. As Californians like to point out, their state of 40 million people is also the world's sixth-largest economy all by itself. Resolutely progressive, it has regulated vehicle emissions for five decades and...
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Plug-in electric car sales for March: Prius Prime romps, monthly data an endangered species? (update)The monthly report on sales of plug-in electric cars may well have come to a close this month. General Motors, makers of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Volt, said it will only release sales figures quarterly starting after its Tuesday release of deliveries for the month of March. Interestingly, the...
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Model 3 production update, Prius Prime stomps Chevy, are monthly sales a goner? Today's Car NewsToday, we've got last month's sales numbers for plug-in electric cars (and a possible obituary for monthly sales data), a broken promise from Tesla on Model 3 production, and our latest Twitter poll. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Our latest Twitter poll asks our followers whether they...
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Tesla Model 3 production crossed 2,000 last week; is it sustainable?Tesla reported Tuesday that it built 34,494 electric cars in the first quarter of 2018, by far its largest quarterly production total ever. But all eyes were on one number: the production of Model 3 sedans, which was 9,766 vehicles out of that total. Of the rest, 11,730 were Model S hatchback...
John Voelcker