John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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2017 Kia Niro Hybrid Crossover Utility Vehicle Debuts At Chicago Auto Show: Live Photos & Video John VoelckerThe 2017 Kia Niro "hybrid utility vehicle" revealed this morning at the Chicago Auto Show marks the South Korean brand's ambitious entry into dedicated hybrids.
While dedicated hybrids have...
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Tesla Model 3 Unveil On March 31, Deposits Accepted That DayTesla Motors held its quarterly conference call yesterday for its fourth-quarter and 2015 full-year financial results, and some of the numbers weren't great. But for eager buyers and Tesla advocates, the most important news concerned the upcoming Model 3, the company's third generation of electric...
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2016 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid: Gas Mileage ReviewThe 2016 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is the first mass-market crossover utility with a hybrid powertrain since the demise of the Ford Escape Hybrid in 2012. Granted, there's the luxury Lexus NX hybrid (using some of the same underpinninngs), and the low-volume Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid, with a mild-hybrid...
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Will Tighter CAFE Rules Bring More Trucks, Fewer Small Cars?The entire auto industry was startled when Fiat Chrysler said two weeks ago it would end production of its Dodge Dart compact car and its Chrysler 200 mid-size sedan. The company intends to use the plant capacity freed up to build more light trucks, meaning its popular crossover utilities and...
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GM Willing To Sell Chevy Volt's Plug-In Hybrid Powertrain To Other MakersThe biggest challenge in introducing new technologies is getting to the volume production that permits economies of scale for expensive components. Toyota is now nearing 9 million hybrids produced, over almost 20 years--but it builds 10 million cars a year. General Motors, on the other hand, has...
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Georgia Electric-Car Fee Cut From $200 To $75 By Proposed BillFor a couple of years, Georgia offered an example to the rest of the nation on how a seemingly unlikely state could boost electric-car sales. Then it all came crashing down. Last spring, opponents of the state's generous $5,000 income-tax credit for purchase of a zero-emission vehicle killed off...
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Allen Schaeffer probably doesn't have the easiest job these days.
He's executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the importance...
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Multiple Trends Turning Slowly Against Oil, Says Rocky Mountain InstituteThe cost of a barrel of oil is now just a fraction of what it was several years ago, and fuel prices have mostly fallen across the globe as a result. Oil prices rise and fall, but most industry analysts suggest that the emergence of North American production has loosened OPEC's ability to set...
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Cadillac ELR Is Walking Dead (But May Be Great, Rare Used Car)You almost have to pity the Cadillac ELR range-extended electric coupe: It's a very pretty car with luxurious appointments, but no one wants to buy it. And if the rumors that now-departed General Motors CEO Dan Akerson personally set its initial price at $75,000 are true, you have to wonder how it...
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Bentley To Be Fourth VW Group Brand To Offer Electric CarIf an electric Audi is good, then an electric Audi plus an electric Volkswagen plus an electric Porsche plus an electric Bentley must be better, yes? At least, that would seem to be the thinking at VW Group, which over the last six months has announced plans for the first three brands to launch...
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Electric-Car Trends, Tesla Model 3, GM Vs LG, VW Diesels (Again): The Week In ReverseWhich large factory hasn't quite lived up to its projections for jobs or investment as yet? And, what do we see as the biggest electric-car trends between now and 2020? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse--right here at Green Car Reports--for the week ending on Friday, February 5, 2016...
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Obama Proposes $10 Per Barrel Tax On Oil To Fund U.S. Transportation NeedsYou have to give the man credit for vision. U.S. president Barack Obama will propose a tax of $10 per barrel on oil in the 2017 budget he will submit to Congress next week. According to the White House, its goal is to create "a clear incentive for private-sector innovation to reduce our reliance on...
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California is by far the most advanced state in adopting plug-in electric cars.
Fully 45.3 percent of the country's more than 400,000 plug-in cars were sold in California, according to data from the...
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2017 Hyundai Ioniq: Dark-Horse Competitor For Prius AND Bolt EV?The new 2016 Toyota Prius is now arriving at dealers all over the country, and while gas prices--and hence hybrid sales--are down, it's expected to boost sales of the quintessential hybrid, now ranked at 52 or 56 mpg combined. Meanwhile, anticipation is building over the first deliveries of the...
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Tesla Model 3 March 'Debut' May Not Be A Car, But...Pictures?Much of the electric-car world has been waiting--eagerly, avidly, with bated breath--for next month's unveiling of the Tesla Model 3. The third-generation electric car from Silicon Valley startup Tesla Motors is promised to offer a 200-mile range at a sticker price of $35,000 before incentives...
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Tesla Model 3: What We Know About Its $35,000, 200-Mile Electric CarThere are now 100,000 Tesla Model S electric cars on the roads, and its Model X crossover finally struggled into production last fall. Since that time, long-range plans by Tesla Motors for a third, smaller, and much less expensive range of electric cars continue draw huge interest. Little bits and...
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Bolt EV Powertrain: How Did GM And LG Collaborate On Design, Production?In last fall's runup to the launch of the production 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV 200-mile electric car, GM discussed working together with Korean corporate giant LG on the Bolt's development. Mark Reuss, GM’s head of global product development said in October that the company's partnership with LG...
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Plug-In Electric Car Sales In Jan: Steady, But Little To CelebrateJanuary has historically been a tough month for plug-in electric car sales, and last month doesn't look like it'll be an exception. Added to the usual winter slowdown in electric-vehicle sales were the effects of Winter Storm Jonas, which effectively closed parts of the Eastern Seaboard for several...
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Five years after the first mass-market electric car hit the market, cars with plugs haven't lived up to the most optimistic projections for their adoption.
They are at least pacing the rate of hybrid...
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Tesla Vs Michigan (UPDATED): Dealership Application, Conservative Coalition, Ballot PushElectric-car maker Tesla Motors is the fourth-largest U.S. car maker, but its home in California's Silicon Valley is far from the heartland Detroit base of GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler. In Michigan, Tesla is banned by law from selling cars directly to buyers, and from opening Tesla Store retail...
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Denise Gray, CEO Of Battery Maker LG Chem Power: Five QuestionsDenise Gray is used to challenges in her career, generally over new technologies. As a young engineer at GM, she first designed electrical components, then got her first major managerial role on the team to develop what became the 1997 Corvette. She was given the responsibility of introducing and...
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Ford Electric Miles, Volt Winter Test, Plug-In Hybrids In China, More VW Misery: The Week In ReverseWhich two cars are unexpectedly being killed off before their time? And, why did we grumble about the 2016 Chevy Volt after a weekend test--even though we still love the car? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse--right here at Green Car Reports--for the week ending on Friday, January 29...
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VW Bites Back: Doubts Diesel Whistleblower, Says Defeat Software Legal In EuropeAnother week brings more new stories on the diesel-emission cheating scandal that threatens to dig Volkswagen deeper into a ditch of its own making. Following reports in German newspapers late last week suggesting that the "defeat device" software was an "open secret" in VW's engine group, the...
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2016 Chevrolet Volt: Gas Mileage Review
By now, it's hardly a secret that we're big fans of the redesigned second-generation Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. We gave it our Best Car To Buy 2016 award, and we've written that it's better in pretty much every way than the innovative first-generation Volt. Last month, we were able to spend four...
John Voelcker