John Voelcker, Contributor
Articles
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Tesla Model S recall, Leaf battery worries, EPA climate denial, what's a crossover anyway? Today's Car News John Voelcker
Today, we've got a recall for no fewer than 123,000 Tesla Model S electirc cars, some worrisome data on newer Nissan Leaf battery life, the EPA working to downplay climate science, and a gentle rant...
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EPA staffers told how to downplay climate change in leaked memo
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt would be controversial even if he hadn't flown to Morocco in December (first-class, on the taxpayer dime) to lobby the country on the benefits of liquified natural gas while living in a condo owned by a lobbyist for the country's largest LNG exporter. He is likely the...
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Nissan Leaf 30-kwh battery decline 3 times that of earlier electric cars: study
The Nissan Leaf, at least for the moment, remains the highest-volume electric car produced in history, with more than 300,000 sold. One of the measures that kept its cost down was the use of passive air cooling for its battery pack, rather than the pricier liquid cooling used by other makers to...
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Kona Electric, Bolt EV, Niro, C-HR aren't crossovers, despite what makers say
It happened again. At this week's New York auto show media days, a manufacturer rolled out yet another vehicle that it calls a "crossover" despite that vehicle having neither the ground clearance nor the all-wheel drive to qualify as a light truck. The car in question was the 2019 Hyundai Kona...
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Tesla recalls 123,000 Model S electric cars over steering-bolt corrosion
Tesla will recall roughly 123,000 of the Model S electric cars it built from 2012 through April 2016 to replace bolts in the power-steering units of the electric cars. The company said the bolts could corrode in cars used on roads where calcium or magnesium salts are used to melt ice. The Model S...
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250-mile Kona Electric, plug-in hybrid charging ban, who owns electric cars? Today's Car News
Today, Beverly Hills (of all places) has released a policy that's got plug-in hybrid drivers in an uproar, we look at a missing mid-size hybrid SUV, and our Twitter followers surprised us, a lot. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Yesterday, the 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric debuted in the U.S...
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Well, that's ... interesting.
The city of Beverly Hills, California, has issued new regulations for parking and electric-car charging.
As of Monday, April 2, only battery-electric cars will be...
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2019 Hyundai Santa Fe launched with diesel; hybrid, plug-in hybrid for US or not?
Along with the 250-mile 2019 Kona Electric hatchback it launched Wednesday at the New York Auto Show, Hyundai unveiled an entirely redesigned version of a much higher-volume vehicle. That's the 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe mid-size crossover utility vehicle, which gains size, features, and considerably...
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When do you expect to buy your first battery-electric car? Twitter poll results
It's called walking the talk. Also, putting your money where your mouth is. Either way, when we polled our Twitter followers to ask when they intended to buy their first battery-electric car, we didn't expect the distribution of responses we got. DON'T MISS: Plug-in electric car sales in Feb better...
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2019 Honda Insight: good-looking 50-mpg competitor for Prius hybrid
Teased in January as a "concept" without an interior, the production version of the 2019 Honda Insight hybrid sedan has been revealed just before this week's New York auto show. EPA ratings aren't yet final, but Honda says the new Insight is projected to achieve "up to 55 mpg" on the city cycle...
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2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback returns at NY Auto Show
The Toyota Corolla is the world's highest-selling nameplate, having surpassed the Ford Model T and Volkswagen Beetle years ago. It exists in many different models and varieties all over the world, but the U.S. hasn't always been offered the hatchback version. In fact, the Corolla lineup only...
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2019 Hyundai Kona Electric US debut: 250 miles of range from small electric hatchback
The biggest question around the 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric has now been answered: it will have a rated range estimated at 250 miles on the U.S. test cycle. Hyundai debuted the U.S. version of the small all-electric hatchback on Wednesday at the New York auto show media days. While the company...
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2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, Lincoln plug-in hybrid, self-driving Jag I-Pace, shorter VW Atlas: Today's Car News John Voelcker
Today, most of our news comes from the New York auto show, where reporters have attended events Monday and Tuesday and media days formally start Wednesday. For us, this year's show is all about SUVs...
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Jaguar I-Pace electric car to join Waymo's self-driving car fleet
British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and Waymo said Tuesday the carmaker would sell Google's autonomous-car technology arm up to 20,000 of its new all-electric Jaguar I-Pace SUV to be used in self-driving service by 2020. While last week's news focused entirely on the fatal crash of a Volvo converted...
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2019 Lincoln Aviator crossover to include plug-in hybrid version
Ford's premium brand, Lincoln, has started to take on a new confidence, with far more luxurious vehicles and high-end trim levels and vehicles that are more than just restyled mass-market products. On Wednesday, it will draw back the veil from one of the several new SUVs that it hopes will power...
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Redesigned 2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid debuts at New York auto show
With buyers showing no signs of letup in their enthusiasm for crossovers of all sizes and shapes, the redesigned 2019 Toyota RAV4 couldn't be coming at a better time. The Toyota RAV4 small SUV became the company's single best-selling model in the U.S. last year, surging past its long-time champion...
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2020 VW Atlas Cross Sport concept shows plug-in hybrid possible in future
In Europe these days, it's all but de rigeur to fit auto-show concept vehicles with plug-in hybrid powertrains. Most of the Volkswagen SUV concepts that previewed what is now the Volkswagen Atlas seven-seat crossover, on sale today, sported plugs—though no such version emerged into...
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EV battery recycling, VW's next electric cars, CA carpool stickers, Teslas and rebates: Today's Car News
Today, we dug up an interesting legal commitment by Volkswagen, added detail to our explanation of California's revised clean-car carpool-lane permits, consider the intersection of pricey Teslas and electric-car rebates in Canada, and offer some good news on battery recycling. All this and more on...
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The Volkswagen diesel emission scandal has now largely vanished from U.S. media coverage, much to VW's relief.
Tens of thousands of bought-back TDI diesel vehicles still sit in fields awaiting...
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Nissan, Sumitomo open electric-car battery recycling plant in Japan
The town of Namie, in eastern Japan, was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, and has struggled to recover from the devastation of that day. Almost seven years later, the first new plant in town is set to open, one contributing to clean energy and zero-emission vehicles to boot...
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“Electric cars are disasters; they are evil," says Hyundai union head
“Electric cars are disasters. They are evil." Not something you'd hear every day, certainly not from a powerful executive in the auto industry. Yet those are the words of Ha Bu-young, head of the Hyundai motor union, both the largest and the most powerful union in South Korea. DON'T MISS: UAW...
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2019 Honda Insight, Lexus UX Hybrid, electric van test, EPA to ease emission rules: Today's Car News
Today, we've got new hybrids at the New York auto show, more than 100 electric vans plus battery storage, and EPA plans to permit more emissions from future cars. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the weekend, as we do every seven days, we ran down last week's most important green-car...
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2019 Lexus UX small SUV emerges in US trim, hybrid included, at NY auto show
After a gestation period of 18 months, the 2019 Lexus UX small crossover utility vehicle is emerging in its U.S. form at this week's New York auto show. One full size smaller than the Lexus RX that launched the luxury crossover segment 20 years ago, the UX gives Toyota's luxury brand an entry in...
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EPA to ease emission limits, reports say, setting up clash with California
The omens have been accumulating for months, as bits of information dribble out of the regulatory rumor mill in Washington, D.C. Now we have the most concrete reports yet that the U.S. EPA plans to modify exhaust emission limits for vehicles in model years 2022 through 2025. The EPA delivered its...
John Voelcker