Sean Szymkowski, Contributor
Articles
-
To celebrate Canada's 150th birthday, Barb Hetherington and Buddy Boyd embarked on their maiden voyage to prove electric car travel is feasible in a very large country with some very sparsely...
-
Missing piece in global vehicle emission puzzle: heavy trucks
A global push to reduce vehicle emissions and create cleaner air for future generations has been underway for half a century now. However, while many governments around the world have introduced lower emission and higher fuel-efficiency standards for passenger cars, another large contributor to...
Sean Szymkowski -
CA bill would make up for federal electric-car incentives as they expire
The state of California has a long track record of supporting electric cars and doing everything possible to ensure plug-in vehicles can be obtained by the largest number of drivers. Aside from the federal income-tax credits available nationally, the state of California has its own purchase...
Sean Szymkowski -
Chevy Bolt EV electric car does many things: autocrossing is one
The idea of performance and electric cars normally don't go hand in hand, unless the topic is a Tesla Model S P90 D. Outside of that one high-performance electric vehicle, casual electric cars are hardly the racer's choice, but one owner felt otherwise. Brian Ro, the owner of a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt...
Sean Szymkowski -
Volvo to electrify all cars from 2019: 'end of internal-combustion engine alone'
Volvo has announced a major leap forward in an effort to embrace an electrified portfolio of vehicles. The Swedish automaker will go all-electrified come 2019; every single vehicle it launches will feature an electric motor in some usage. To be clear, this is not the immediate end of the...
Sean Szymkowski -
What Trump's 'Energy Week' policies actually mean
The White House declared this past week "Energy Week" and offered up a few key points on which the Trump administration plans to focus to unleash what it calls a new American dominance in energy. However, neither the initiatives nor the proposed policy changes hone in on where the world is heading...
Sean Szymkowski -
One of the greatest challenges faced by modern electric cars is the vehicle's range, which is largely proportional to the energy capacity of the battery.
Range anxiety often keeps buyers out of...
-
To honor Energy Week, lease an electric car: 10 lessons from new EV driver
The White House has declared this week the inaugural "Energy Week," and what better way to mark the occasion than by driving electric cars? Cars that plug in to use grid energy for travel are a great catalyst for reducing energy consumption and reducing our use of fossil fuels. Now one reporter who...
Sean Szymkowski -
IIHS says Tesla electric cars have higher miles, more costly repairs
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute has once again confirmed the Tesla Model S electric car is an outlier. While the Model S gets high ratings for its crash safety, it also seems to incur higher insurance losses than competing conventional cars. Higher...
Sean Szymkowski -
Utility V2G test with BMW shows electric cars can aid the grid
As the demand for electric cars grows, utility companies are considering their effect on local power grids—both positive and negative. Recently, California's PG&E and BMW wrapped up a pilot program testing experimental vehicle-to-grid technology to see if electric cars could actually aid...
Sean Szymkowski -
Renault Kangoo ZE small electric van now on sale with longer range
French automaker Renault has given its small light commercial electric vehicle a handful of upgrades, including a significantly longer battery range. The Renault Kangoo ZE is now officially on sale with a longer rated range, a more powerful charging system, and a heat pump to keep the little van...
Sean Szymkowski -
2018 Honda Fit: new safety features, style, Sport model, smartphone connectivity added (update)
Honda's smallest of vehicles—the Fit hatchback—has received several updates for the new model year, its fourth for the current-generation version. The 2018 Honda Fit now has incremental styling modifications, additional safety features, a new optional audio system with Android Auto and...
Sean Szymkowski -
The expanded collection of sensors known as Hardware 2 continues to bring new and revamped features to the Tesla Model S and Model X electric cars.
But how do the latest features offered by Autopilot...
-
Bizarre Swedish study claims electric cars are worse for the environment
Electric vehicles shouldn't be considered all-out carbon footprint saviors, but they can legitimately be viewed as the great minimizers. The benefits of electric vehicles over those with internal-combustion engines are vast, but a strange new study is making rounds that claims electric cars are...
Sean Szymkowski -
Ubitricity street lamp socket provides electric-car charging
A German company has brought forth its idea of how to provide convenient, cost-effective electric-car charging and now it has made its way to the United Kingdom. Ubitricity rolled out its streetlight car charging ports two years ago, but the German company has now spread its innovation to the UK...
Sean Szymkowski -
Diesel deception: more pain ahead for VW brands, Bosch?
Volkswagen Group is moving toward wrapping up its diesel deceit in the United States, but in Europe, it may only be starting. European owners of Volkswagen Group vehicles—Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, and Skoda—may justifiably feel as if they've received the short end of the stick when it...
Sean Szymkowski -
Audi e-tron Sportback, second electric car from automaker, to enter production in 2019
Audi has confirmed what was seemingly already known: the e-tron Sportback concept is headed to production. The e-tron Sportback concept was revealed at the 2017 Shanghai auto show earlier this year and the production version will arrive in 2019 bearing the same name. The brand last week confirmed...
Sean Szymkowski -
Tesla finds Chinese production site for electric cars: Shanghai
Tesla is closing in on a deal to begin production of its cars in China, after it signed a preliminary agreement to explore building cars near the major city of Shanghai. By signing the preliminary agreement, Tesla will begin the first step towards local production in China, a move that would...
Sean Szymkowski -
Tesla has bestowed upon its current owners a sought-after perk previously reserved for early adopters: free Supercharging.
Last year, Tesla announced it would begin charging for Supercharger station...
-
Latest teaser for 2018 Nissan Leaf shows ProPilot Assist self-driving capability
Nissan has begun to release a slow trickle of information about the 2018 Leaf electric car, but the latest teaser has nothing to do with its zero-emission powertrain. Instead, Nissan has revealed the 2018 Leaf will arrive with ProPilot Assist, the automaker's driver-assistance technology. The...
Sean Szymkowski -
Why would Tesla want to start its own streaming music service?
It seems every other day Tesla CEO Elon Musk has news about the next big project for the electric-car maker. This time, the news is about a project that seems relatively achievable, but one that produces as many questions as it answers. According to reports, Tesla is looking into starting its own...
Sean Szymkowski -
Hyundai targets 1,400 units a year of next-gen fuel-cell vehicle: report
It's public knowledge that Hyundai plans to replace its aging Tucson Fuel Cell utility vehicle with an all-new hydrogen-powered vehicle, and that it has big plans for the future. The Korean automaker showcased the FE Fuel Cell concept in March to provide a glimpse of what to expect when the...
Sean Szymkowski -
Tesla gets new Autopilot head after just five months
Tesla's most recent Autopilot software head has left the company after just five months on the job. Chris Lattner, who had previously worked at Apple for more than a decade, joined Tesla in January as head software engineer overseeing development of the electric cars' Autopilot active-safety...
Sean Szymkowski -
Electric cars will cost less to buy than regular cars by 2025: analysis
Studies have shown that electric vehicles have a number of strikes against them in the minds on consumers who don't know much about them. Range anxiety, the lack of electric vehicle charging infrastructure—or even awareness that it exists—and high purchase prices all play a part in the...
Sean Szymkowski