Green Car Reports, Contributor
Articles
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Recent patent filings suggest Mazda’s next Wankel engine will equip a battery-powered car, not a rear-wheel drive heir to emblematic sports coupes like its RX-7 and RX-8.
Mazda has invested...
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Why electric bikes may deserve purchase incentives too
If plug-in electric cars and trucks receive purchase incentives from national and state governments, what about electric bicycles? That's just what a recent report from the European Cyclists Federation suggests. It recommends directing purchase incentives and infrastructure subsidies towards...
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Hong Kong closed a tax loophole; is Tesla ancillary damage?
Government officials in Hong Kong have eliminated a popular tax exemption that made electric vehicles much cheaper to buy than comparable gasoline-powered models. Now Tesla worries it could take the brunt of the blowback. The loophole helped make Hong Kong one of the biggest overseas markets for...
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All the challenges for hydrogen fuel-cell cars laid out
Twenty years ago, Toyota took the automotive industry by surprise with the Prius. The Japanese giant is attempting to revolutionize driving again, this time by bringing hydrogen-powered cars to the masses. However, it now faces a completely different set of challenges than when it set out to get...
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Tesla Model X electric car vs Toyota Mirai fuel-cell car: CA road trip
The ability to travel long distances has long been a distinguishing feature of Tesla's luxury electric cars, whose Supercharger fast-charging network now offers access to essentially every part of the 48 continental states. But where hydrogen infrastructure exists, which can cover a long road trip...
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Google Street View car used to spot, quantify methane leaks
Natural gas is growing as a part of the world's grid mix, because its carbon per kilowatt-hour is much lower. But methane leaks that emit large volumes of climate-change gas into the air may offset that advantage. Now, a Google Street View car has allowed researchers to pinpoint and quantify the...
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Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler is speeding up its shift towards electrification.
The auto-maker remains on track to bolster its portfolio with 10 electric vehicles, but they’ll arrive...
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Small-town Indiana Chevy dealer is big on electric cars
It's often said that franchised auto dealers are one of the bigger impediments to sales of plug-in electric cars. Vehicles with plugs require more explanation, the financial calculations are often more complicated, and home and public charging stations add a further layer of complication...
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2016 Volvo XC90 T8 Plug-In Hybrid: An Owner's First 21 Days
The 2016 Volvo XC90 T8 'Twin Engine' that went on sale last August was only the second plug-in hybrid SUV to be sold in the U.S., after the Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid. Since then it has been joined by the BMW X5 xDrive 40e, and coming up are the Mercedes-Benz GLE 550e, the Mitsubishi Outlander...
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Electric-Car Battery Energy: Why Waste It On Cabin Heating? (Video)
Among the drawbacks of cars that run on battery power is the energy required to heat their cabins. As electric-car drivers in less temperate climes know, heating the cabin to room temperature has an enormous impact on battery range--conceivably as high as 40 percent. A similar impact is seen from...
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Why A 2015 BMW i3 REx Replaced My 2013 Chevy Volt: Electric-Car Evolution
The car most comparable to the first Chevrolet Volt is the current BMW i3 fitted with the optional REx range-extending engine. Both cars run entirely in electric mode until their battery packs are depleted, unlike other plug-in hybrids which switch on their engines under maximum power demand. But...
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Txchnologist: Why Are Electric Car Demonstrations So Boring?
The New York Auto Show, which opened to the public on Saturday, has elicited some barely stifled yawns from the automotive press. The slightly tweaked top-selling Toyota Camry and the Nissan Altima, conservatively styled to defend its No. 2 position, just don’t get the pulse racing like the...
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Steve Fambro, the man behind the revolutionary and futuristic design that was the Aptera 2e electric car, 2h plug-in hybrid and 2g ultra-high mpg gasoline car, is breaking silence and giving his...
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Txchnologist: Thorium lasers: Thoroughly plausible for nuclear cars
Some proposed technological innovations seem so far out that they are easy to reject out of hand. But sometimes, a new idea has a kernel of plausibility. Such is the case with a new project to develop a thorium laser power generation system that its creator says could provide electricity for the...
Green Car Reports