Tesla had VW funding lined up to go private, report says

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk at Tesla Store opening in Westfield Mall, London, Oct 2013After Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this month that he planned to take the company private, investment advisors hooked a big fish to provide the funding, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Monday. In a long report about the Tesla board's deliberations over taking the company private, the Journal revealed that investment...

Swords into plowshares: Kalashnikov builds Russian electric car

Kalashnikov CV-1 electric carRetro is apparently the new future. After Jaguar announced it would begin producing electric conversions of its classic E-type this weekend, and Electra Meccanica announced that its next car will be an electric replica of a Porsche 356 roadster, the latest retro-inspired electric car comes from the maker of the infamous AK-47 automatic rifle...

Mercedes EQC electric crossover SUV teased in new videos

Mercedes-Benz Generation EQ concept, 2016 Paris auto showA production prototype of the upcoming Mercedes-Benz EQC electric crossover SUV has taken a peek from under its veil ahead of its official reveal Sept. 4. Mercedes released two short videos of the car. One reveals a quick look at the left headlight that shows some of the car's angular grille and announces the date of the car's full debut...

2019 Chevy Volt gets higher prices with more equipment

2019 Chevrolet VoltIn June, we heard that the 2019 Chevrolet Volt will come with a faster charger and more luxury features. Now, CarsDirect has learned how much those features will add to the price. The price of the base Volt LT model will go up $300 to $34,395, including destination and before any applicable federal or state tax breaks. The top-level Volt Premier...

2020 Kia Soul EV captured in spy photos

2018 Kia Soul EVKia has announced it will build an all-electric version of its Niro hatchback for 2019, but that apparently isn't stopping the company from planning an update for the Soul EV the following year. A spy photographer has captured images of an electric version of the redesigned 2020 Soul testing in Europe. Although the car is covered with heavy...

Tesla push for 5,000 Model 3s per week left many unfinished

Tesla Model 3 all-wheel drive Performance rolls off a new assembly line in a temporary structureAt the end of June, Tesla pushed hard to finish 5,000 Model 3s a week. It may have pushed too hard. New internal documents acquired and reported by Business Insider show that of the 5,031 cars produced in the last week of June, 4,300 had some problem that required rework. In auto industry terminology, the percentage of cars that pass company...