The 2020 Toyota Prius Prime gets useful updates. Chinese electric-car startup Nio announced layoffs in the US. Polestar revealed that its cars will earn tax credits separately from parent-company Volvo. And Tesla announced that it will make some of its active lane control features standard. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Tesla will roll... Tesla safety features, 2020 Toyota Prius Prime, Polestar tax credits: Today’s Car News
The 2020 Toyota Prius Prime gets useful updates. Chinese electric-car startup Nio announced layoffs in the US. Polestar revealed that its cars will earn tax credits separately from parent-company Volvo. And Tesla announced that it will make some of its active lane control features standard. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Tesla will roll... 
On its way to rolling out full self-driving, Tesla will use the technology to add two more basic safety features to all its cars, the company announced on Thursday. Tesla's Autopilot system can often track lanes better than most other self-driving systems—and occasionally not. But the cars have to be equipped with Autopilot and drivers have... 
Chinese electric-car startup Nio announced Thursday that it will close an office in California and lay off 70 workers, according to a report in The Verge. The report cites a filing with the California Employment Development Department. After introducing two new SUVs alongside its high-performance electric sports car, Nio unveiled a new concept for... 
The 2020 Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid gains some important functionality, even though some of the key specifications for range and efficiency haven't changed. The most important improvement, perhaps, is that the Prime now offers a third seat in the center-rear, making it a five-passenger car. Previous versions had only four seats. The second... 
Tesla raises cash and introduces a new very short-range version of the Model 3 for Canada. The BMW 745e brings a new 6-cylinder engine, with lower fuel-economy ratings, and slightly more electric range for 2020. Los Angeles launches its own Green New Deal. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Tesla announced in a securities filing on Thursday... 
Tesla announced a new entry-level version of the Tesla Model 3 for Canada on Wednesday. The new version is designed to limbo under the $45,000 (Canadian) price cap on Canada's new $5,000 (Canadian) electric-vehicle tax credit, which was itself designed to exclude wealthy Tesla buyers from receiving government rebates for buying their new cars. The... 
As Washington waffles on developing a Green New Deal—or works to torpedo it altogether—LA's environmentalist mayor, Eric Garcetti, signed off on a local Green New Deal for the city on Monday. “Politicians don’t need to look across the aisle to find the answers—they need to look across the country,” he said, in... 
GM CEO Mary Barra confirmed that the company is developing an all-electric pickup. Audi is offering significant incentives right out of the gate on its new 2019 E-tron electric SUV. Our editor emeritus debunks some pervasive electric-car myths. Tesla faces a new lawsuit over last year's fatal Autopilot crash in California. And the results of our... 
The family of a driver killed in the crash of a Tesla Model X driving on Autopilot filed a lawsuit April 26 against Tesla over the crash, Bloomberg reported. Software engineer Walter Huang, 38, was killed March 23, 2018, when his 2017 Model X drifted out of the left lane of Highway 101 in Mountain View, California and struck a concrete median... 
![Exhaust emissions from tailpipe [photo: Simone Ramella, 2005, used under Creative Commons 2.0]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/exhaust-emissions-from-tailpipe-photo-simone-ramella-2005-used-under-creative-commons-2-0_100644014_t.gif)
At Green Car Reports, we've developed something of a tradition for Earth Day. Back in 2014, we formulated the question: "When will we start to see tailpipes on cars as morally wrong?" The question came originally from a friend who works in advocacy in public health, who likened CO2 emissions from tailpipes to smoking cigarettes, which has now been... 
Just as the 2019 E-tron SUV starts arriving at dealerships, Audi is already offering big discounts on them. The biggest incentive so far is 1.9 percent financing on the E-tron for up to 66 months, which is significantly cheaper than most other models in Audi's lineup, according to our partners at CarsDirect.com. The similar-sized, gas-powered Q5... 
General Motors CEO Mary Barra confirmed Tuesday in a call with investors what rumors had long predicted: The automaker will build an electric pickup. Barra didn't specify when the pickup would appear, or whether it would be branded as a GMC or Chevrolet. Rumors swirled earlier this year that GM may invest in EV startup Rivian, but that never... 
Smart will no longer sell cars in the U.S. Faraday Future announced two new investments that could keep it afloat long enough to build its long-awaited FF91. And the EPA is warning others to prepare for climate change—as it maintains it's not really an issue yet. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Just a year after converting Smart into... 
![Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland [photo: Forth]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/chevrolet-bolt-ev-being-charged-outside-go-forth-electric-car-showroom-portland-photo-forth_100606247_t.gif)
In the last few months, it has become clear how much of an effect the federal plug-in vehicle tax credit has on sales of electric cars. The tax credit on Teslas was cut in half in January, from $7,500 to $3,750, and its sales dropped from more than 90,000 cars to 63,000 after the tax credit was cut. Dec. 31, 2018 was the last day the full credit... 
The EPA published a report last week advising local governments to start planning for climate change, despite references by the agency's administrator that the worst effects of global warming won't be felt for another 50 to 75 years. The new report, "Guidance about Planning for Natural Disaster Debris," comes as the Trump administration is working... 
Climate scientists have issued frequent warning about the effects of rising sea levels from global warming on cities such as Miami and New York. But among the first places in the U.S. that may suffer the effects of climate change could be Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, according to a 2017 report by the Hawaii Climate Commission report, which showed... 
On-again, off-again electric-car startup Faraday may have a future after all. The company announced two new rounds of financing Monday, a $1.25 billion stock sale expected to be completed by the end of the year, and a $225 million bridge loan to make it to the end of the year. In a statement, Faraday Future said the money will pay for the... 
Tesla CEO Elon Musk reaches a new settlement with the SEC to avoid contempt charges. We sat down with the chief engineer of the new 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid to learn how it reaches fuel-economy estimates similar to the compact Corolla. Some new infrastructure could help boost wind power in California. And New York puts its public... 
Elon Musk's Twitter followers may face a new reality next week. The Tesla CEO reached a new agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced Friday, that he will no longer tweet about the company's finances or sales without preapproval from a Tesla securities lawyer. Musk's Twitter feed (@ElonMusk) has until now been a... 
![Wind farm outside Fort MacLeod, Alberta, Canada [photographer: Joel Bennett]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/wind-farm-outside-fort-macleod-alberta-canada-photographer-joel-bennett_100608718_t.gif)
In the efforts of Green New Deal and electric car advocates, a new permit for power transmission lines may knock down one of the biggest hurdles to bringing more renewable power to electric cars. Last week, a major new power transmission line from Wyoming to the Hoover Dam won final approval from Wyoming, the last of the states it traverses to...