John Voelcker, Contributing Editor
Articles
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With the Labor Day holiday imminent--falling well into September this year--industry analysts have expected U.S. new-car sales for August to be less buoyant than they might otherwise be.
But in the...
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2016 Toyota Prius: What We Want To Know About All-New HybridNext Tuesday evening, the 2016 Toyota Prius hybrid will make its world debut in Las Vegas, kicking off what its maker calls "the next era of an icon." "We’re pulling out all of the stops for this exclusive event to celebrate the future of Prius in a truly spectacular way that will be anything...
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2016 Chevrolet Volt First Drive: Plug-In Hybrid Home RunThe all-new 2016 Chevrolet Volt is just about here, and it builds on all of its predecessor's virtues while resolving most of that car's vices. It's got a lot more electric range--53 miles--and at 42 miles per gallon, it's more fuel-efficient on those rare occasions when the range-extending engine...
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Tesla May Lose Money Building Electric Cars, Or It May NotOne of the most contentious points in coverage of electric-car maker Tesla Motors is its financial performance. On the one side, analysts and naysayers note that the company continues to lose money. CEO Elon Musk himself has admitted that the company won't turn a profit using Generally Accepted...
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Scotland Launches New Electric-Car Incentive: Interest-Free Loans To BuyIncentives to purchase zero-emission cars come in a wild variety of types, from California's rebates--essentially a four-figure check in the mail--to single-occupant access to carpool lanes. The U.S. government has a Federal income-tax credit of $2,500 to $7,500 for purchase of a plug-in car that...
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2016 Toyota Prius: Full View Photos Finally LeakedWith the 2016 Toyota Prius scheduled to make its global debut in Las Vegas on the evening of September 8, you had to figure that photos of the car would leak out at some point. And so they have. After years of spy shots of camouflaged Prius development mules, pre-production prototypes, and test...
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Tesla P85D Love, Hydrogen Stations, Electric Hyundai, New Smart ForTwo: The Week In Reverse (Video) John VoelckerWhich green car broke the Consumer Reports new-car rating system?
And, what automaker did we hear may be planning an all-electric car before the end of next year?
This is our video look back at the...
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2016 Smart ForTwo: First Drive Of All-New Two-Seat MinicarThe 2016 Smart ForTwo is the first entirely new version of the European two-seat minicar since that vehicle was launched in the late 1990s. And it's a much better car, with more power, a choice of manual or automated transmissions, modern comfort and interior features, and fuel economy that's...
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2016 Smart Drive, BMW i3 Coding, Wheego Withdraws: Today's Car NewsWe've got lots of stories on infrastructure today.
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BMW i3 REx Electric Car: 'Coding' Unlocks Features Owners Want (And May Void Warranty)The BMW i3 REx model is an unusual beast, the sole example to date of a car built specifically to comply with California regulations that define it as a zero-emission electric car even though it has a range-extending engine. That's because its gasoline range (EPA-rated at 78 miles) is more or less...
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Wheego Electric Cars Fade From Market; China Is The Future, Company SaysWith hundreds of thousands of plug-in electric cars from established automakers (and Tesla) on North American roads, most earlier startup carmakers have now largely faded away. One is Wheego Electric Cars, which took the same approach as Coda: Adapt a Chinese-built vehicle with a battery pack and...
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More Tesla Praise, Honda Forbidden Fruit, LG Chem Futures: Today's Car NewsWe've got lots of stories on infrastructure today.
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The Tesla Model S P85D, the highest-performance and most expensive version of the all-electric luxury sedan, has earned even more plaudits and compliments from Consumer Reports magazine.
The P85D, in...
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Gas, Electricity, Hydrogen: How Many Cars Can 'Fuel' And What Will It Cost?Gas stations are ubiquitous across the world, many with diesel pumps as well, to fuel the more than 1 billion vehicles now roaming the surface of our planet. As regulators get increasingly serious about reducing carbon emissions from transportation, we'll see competing sites for refueling or...
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2017 Mitsubishi Mirage To Get Updates After Skipping 2016 Model YearThe Mitsubishi Mirage minicar has been an unexpected success for the U.S. arm of what's usually described as "struggling Japanese automaker Mitsubishi." Sales volume after its 2014 launch was roughly double what the company said it expected to sell, and the Mirage may prove that a market remains...
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Ford Engine Power, MPG Figures Tested Using Different FuelsIt's all about the asterisk, it turns out. Most buyers likely assume that the conditions for rating a new car's fuel economy and engine performance are identical. For at least one carmaker--Ford--and possibly others as well, that turns out not to be the case: Different gasoline formulations are...
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Jaguar 'EV-Type' To Be All-Electric F-Pace To Compete With Tesla?It's still hard to explain to outsiders just how disruptive Tesla Motors and its electric luxury cars have been to the established German prestige automakers. From 2017 to 2020, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche will all launch one or more "Tesla-alikes" intended to match or surpass the...
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Hyundai To Launch All-Electric 'Prius Fighter' Model In 2016: TipHyundai's ambitious plans to offer more green cars than any other maker except Toyota may have tilted slightly toward electric cars. At least, that is, if a tip from a source close to the company is to be believed. According to the report, Hyundai has decided that it will offer an all-electric "AE"...
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The Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car scores higher on owner satisfaction than any other vehicle GM has sold since it began surveying its buyers.
It has attracted new buyers who'd never...
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Four Electric Cars To Avoid Buying Used (Get A Nissan Leaf!): UPDATEThere are lots of very good plug-in electric cars for sale now, and quite a few of them--especially Nissan Leafs--are starting to show up on used-car lots as three-year leases expire. We recently suggested some used hybrid-electric vehicles to avoid on the used-car lot. Now we turn to electric...
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Researchers Modify Oilseed To Lower Viscosity For Use As Biodiesel FuelHeading into another U.S. presidential election year, getting more biofuels into the U.S. gasoline supply continues to pose both political and logistical hurdles. But researchers, regulators, and entrepeneurs increasingly see promise in synthetic diesel created from a variety of non-fossil fuel...
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2016 Nissan Leaf's Two Batteries: 84 Miles Base, 110 Miles For Top Trims, Dealer SaysWith many 2016 model details already released by other makers, the specs of the 2016 Nissan Leaf electric car remain conspicuously absent as the U.S. heads toward its Labor Day holiday. But a posting by a Nissan dealer in Indiana suggests that high-end models of the coming year's Leaf will feature...
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Future Electric Cars, Prius Spy Video, Tesla Snake Charger, Hybrid Safety Pick: The Week In Reverse (Video)What did electric-car and plug-in hybrid drivers tell Ford, in no uncertain terms? And, which hybrid car is newly named an IIHS Top Safety Pick? This is our video look back at the Week In Reverse--right here at Green Car Reports--for the week ending on Friday, August 14, 2015. Friday, we put on our...
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Electric Cars Will Evolve Rapidly By 2018, Split Into Segments By PriceElectric car sales may be flat this year. Heading into 2016, only a handful of new vehicles are likely to move the needle much. The long-awaited, multiply-delayed Tesla Model X all-electric SUV should finally go into volume production next year, presumably giving Tesla Motors a major sales boost...
John Voelcker