John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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When it was unveiled at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, the Cadillac Converj concept was widely lauded for its looks.
That was likely the last time the car that became the Cadillac ELR range-extended...
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2021 BMW i6 Electric Sedan Rumored To Follow 2018 i5 CrossoverWith 2016 about to arrive, BMW is by far the most advanced of the three German automakers in selling battery-electric cars. All three makers plan to offer plug-in hybrid versions of most of their lineups by 2020, but BMW has been selling its all-electric i3 five-door hatchback for more than two...
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Super Slot Car: Electric Drag Racing Via V-12 Engine And Cables!The sport of drag racing has been with us almost as long as the automobile has. Over the last decade, advances in high-power lithium-ion batteries have given rise to a new variant: electric drag racing. But before modern batteries existed, how could you possibly make a competitive electric...
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Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2016 Toyota PriusThe Toyota Prius hybrid occupies a special niche in automotive history. It's the world's best-known and best-selling hybrid car, and it's the halo vehicle for one of the world's three largest automakers. This year, there's an all-new 2016 Prius, and it's quite a different car from its predecessors...
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Is Chevy Actually Testing New Marketing For The 2016 Volt?The new 2016 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid keeps and expands on all the good points of the first-generation Volt, while fixing a number of the old car's quirks. As we wrote in September, "The new Volt's a great car, and brings practical electric drive to U.S. drivers without a shred of range...
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2016 Toyota Prius: Most Fuel-Efficient Car Without A Plug, EverIt was the first hybrid car to be sold in the U.S., beating the now-legendary Toyota Prius by a few months. It was a tiny two-seater with a three-cylinder engine, spats over the rear wheel openings to reduce aerodynamic drag, and a host of highly advanced technologies for its time. It was the 2000...
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Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid And Plug-In Hybrid John VoelckerHyundai is widely viewed as one of the most aggressive car companies in the world. In global industry terms, it's relatively young, having designed and sold its first car only in 1975.
But the South...
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Dead Hybrid Battery: What Should I Do? (Owner Question)Every once in a while, other media outlets will ask for advice from Green Car Reports on various fuel economy or car technology questions. We recently received one concerning a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, which the owner had left unused for several months. The car wouldn't start after that, and when...
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Musk On VW Diesels, Best Car To Buy Nominees, Bad Electric-Car Dealer: The Week In Reverse (Video)Which iconic Sixties vehicle may be reborn as all-electric family transport? And, why does Tesla CEO Elon Musk think VW shouldn't bother to fix its cheating diesels? This is our video look back at the Week In Reverse--right here at Green Car Reports--for the week ending on Friday, December 18...
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Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2016 Honda CivicIt's important to understand how important a car the Honda Civic compact sedan is in the U.S. market. Between the Civic sedan and its coupe sibling, Honda sells more than 300,000 of them a year--or roughly 20 times this year's sales of the Chevy Volt. The Civic nameplate is more than 40 years old...
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Ignore VW Diesels, Make Company Sell Electric Cars: Tesla CEO Musk, 44 OthersIt will cost a huge sum, likely billions of dollars, to make Volkswagen fix all of the 482,000 TDI diesel vehicles it has admitted use "defeat device" software to ignore emission laws. Indeed, it may not be practically possible for VW to modify 325,000 of those cars--and it would cost the company...
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Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2016 Chevrolet VoltThe first Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car won all sorts of awards in 2011, the year it was introduced. But it didn't win that year's Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy award, because we deemed the world's first mass-priced high-volume battery-electric car more significant. That car, the...
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It's been clear for a couple of years now that the German luxury makers feel they need competitive responses to the startling emergence of electric-car maker Tesla Motors.
One by one, the concept...
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How Bad Was Nissan Dealer When Buyer Wanted A Leaf Electric Car? THAT BadFive years after the first modern mass-market electric car launched, stories of recalcitrant car dealers continue to surface from buyers. Walk into a dealership, explain that you want to buy an electric car ... and then endure a litany of reasons why you don't. But a meticulously documented...
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Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2016 Audi A3 e-TronWe were impressed by our first drive of the U.S.-spec 2016 Audi A3 e-Tron Sportback, enough so that it's the first of five nominees for our Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy award. The compact hatchback is powered by a 150-horsepower 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine combined with a...
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Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy: The Also-Rans That Didn't Make ItAs promised, we'll be announcing our nominees for the Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy award this week. But first, it's time note all those candidates that didn't make the final cut. This year, we're explaining why each one isn't on the final nominees list. Remember, to qualify for...
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Tesla, Faraday: Meet Atieva, Your Newest Electric-Car RivalSeems like starting an electric car company making luxury vehicles is all the rage in Silicon Valley these days. Tesla Motors, of course, is now well-established, although its Southern California counterpart Fisker Automotive declared bankruptcy and is now hoping for resurrection under a new owner...
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Portable Hydrogen Fuelers Go To Six Toyota Mirai Dealers As Stations LagWith Toyota having delivered a total of 57 Mirai sedan in October and November, the drivers of those hydrogen fuel-cell cars will be looking for stations at which to fuel their new zero-emission vehicles. But the state of California's ambitious program to install dozens of hydrogen stations is...
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One of the biggest challenges in designing a battery-electric car is how to configure its large battery pack.
The BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla Model S all have flat battery packs under their cabin...
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Prius Vs Volt Video, Tesla Reliability, Mercedes On Electric Cars: The Week In Reverse (Video)Who answered questions from French university students about renewable energy and the climate--and gave us our longest article ever? And, how long does Mercedes-Benz think it will be before long-range electric cars are both desirable and profitable? This is our video look back at the Week In...
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Updated 2017 Ford Focus Electric: 100-Mile Range, DC Fast ChargingWhen it was launched for 2012, the Ford Focus Electric hatchback was more or less competitive at 76 miles of range. Its major competitor, the Nissan Leaf, had 73 miles of range (increased for 2013 and later years to 84 miles). But times have changed, and in the face of increased electric range from...
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Audi V-6 TDI Diesels May Require Only Simple Fixes: CEOWhile Volkswagen has submitted details of proposed fixes for its 2.0-liter four-cylinder TDI diesel models to the EPA, no details of the changes required have emerged. But for the other set of VW Group diesel engines, the 3.0-liter V-6 TDI units used in Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen vehicles...
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Low Gas Prices Lead To Lower 2016 Toyota Prius Global Sales Targets
The 2016 Toyota Prius, the fourth generation of the company's iconic hybrid-electric vehicle, is just starting to come onto the market around the world. But with the price of oil a fraction of what it was two years ago, and gasoline prices at recent lows in major markets, the title of highest fuel...
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Electric Car 'Outrage': Obama Goal Missed, Dubious TV Report Dissected"Billions of your tax dollars were spent to put a million electric cars on the road by the end of this year. You might be outraged when you hear what happened." Sounds shocking, doesn't it? Also perhaps vaguely reminiscent of 2011 and 2012, when uninformed, context-free, and factually-wrong "news"...
John Voelcker