John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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Innovative technology in the auto industry—turbochargers or catalytic converters or disc brakes, say—tends to launch in high-end vehicles and filter down to the mass market over many...
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Electric Mini Classic, 33rd hydrogen station, Leaf batteries, Jaguar I-Pace drive: Today's Car NewsToday, we've got some history on a Classic Mini converted to all-electric, more efforts from China's government to promote plug-in cars, a new hydrogen station in California, and a (very short) first drive in the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace electric luxury crossover. All this and more on Green Car Reports...
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Nissan Leaf refurbished batteries offered for older electric cars, in JapanWith more than 300,000 Nissan Leaf electric cars on the road, some more than six years old, battery degradation is becoming more and more of an issue. The different rates of capacity loss are a topic of much discussion among Leaf owners, but it now seems likely that Nissan's choice of passive air...
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China plans to standardize electric-car tech nationally to expand its global leadSales of plug-in electric vehicles in China were almost four times those in the U.S. last year, and the gap is expected to widen this year. The world's largest car market is engineering a massive shift over the next two decades away from cars with combustion engines toward battery-powered cars. It...
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California now has 33 hydrogen fueling stations for 4,200 fuel-cell cars so farHydrogen fuel first went on sale in California in January 2015, more than three years ago, though it had been dispensed free at a dozen or so prototype locations before that. Five years ago, the state set a goal of 100 hydrogen fueling stations throughout the state by 2020, a deadline that now...
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Classic Mini converted to electric previews 2019 Mini E to comeWith a new, all-electric Mini E set to arrive in dealerships in a year or less, BMW wants to highlight the idea of a Mini Cooper powered by batteries. That's what led it to display an "old Mini" converted to electric power at a reception before last week's New York auto show. Sadly, the car wasn't...
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NY show debuts, 250-mile Kona Electric, Insight hybrid details, Leaf battery fade: The Week in Reverse John VoelckerWhich plug-in hybrid concepts and production electric cars debuted at the New York auto show?
What words were EPA staff told to use to sow doubt about climate change and its effects?
This is our look...
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Tesla Model S recall, Leaf battery worries, EPA climate denial, what's a crossover anyway? Today's Car NewsToday, 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 about how automakers define utility vehicles. All this and more on Green Car Reports. We updated our...
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EPA staffers told how to downplay climate change in leaked memoEPA 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: studyThe 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 sayIt 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 corrosionTesla 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 John VoelckerToday, 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...
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Beverly Hills bans plug-in hybrids from public charging stationsWell, 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 allowed to park and plug in at any of the city's 35 public charging stations—plug-in hybrids will...
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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 resultsIt'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 hybridTeased 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 ShowThe 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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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...
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2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, Lincoln plug-in hybrid, self-driving Jag I-Pace, shorter VW Atlas: Today's Car NewsToday, 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 of all sizes and a lot of plug-in hybrid powertrains. All this and more on Green Car Reports. It's...
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Jaguar I-Pace electric car to join Waymo's self-driving car fleetBritish 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 versionFord'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 showWith 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 futureIn 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...
John Voelcker