Which green-car technology will matter least in 2025? Poll results

2015 Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell, 2016 Toyota Mirai at hydrogen fueling station, Fountain Valley, CAThere's no single silver bullet that will reduce the energy consumption and emissions from the 80 million new road vehicles sold globally each year. Instead, thousands of individual efforts to improve the efficiency of powertrains, reduce vehicle weight, cut wind resistance, and all the rest come into play. But alternative powertrains will likely...

First 2017 Chevy Bolt EV electric cars sold today, in California

First 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV buyers, Fremont, California: Bobby Edmonds, Bill Mattos, Steve HenryAnd now it's real. Just 23 months after GM CEO Mary Barra unveiled the Chevrolet Bolt concept at the Detroit Auto Show, the very first production versions of Chevy's 238-mile electric car to be sold were delivered this morning to eager San Francisco Bay Area buyers. The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV will be sold first in California and Oregon, and then...

Tesla CEO Musk, other Silicon Valley execs, to meet Trump Wednesday

'Revenge of the Electric Car' premiere: Elon Musk arrives in a Tesla RoadsterTesla CEO Elon Musk is among a roster of chief executives from Silicon Valley set to meet with president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, according to news reports. Musk has suggested that climate change is among the most urgent challenges facing mankind, one reason his company makes only zero-emission electric cars. The president-elect, on the...

2017 Toyota Prius Prime: gas mileage, electric range review

2017 Toyota Prius Prime, Catskill Mountains, NY, Nov 2016The 2017 Toyota Prius Prime turned out to be a better plug-in hybrid than we had expected when we drove it around sunny Ojai, California, on the press launch in October. It's a viable competitor to the second-generation Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, though the Volt has an EPA-rated 53 miles of electric range to the Prime's 25 miles. Now we've had...

Porsche too said to use ‘defeat device’ software for gasoline cars

2017 Porsche 911 Carrera 4SIt's been 15 months since news broke that VW Group had used "defeat device" software in its diesel cars and SUVs that let them emit far more than permitted levels of nitrogen oxides in real-world use. Even now, however, the Volkswagen diesel scandal continues to grow new tentacles as investigators uncover additional apparent instances of...

Chrysler to reveal new electric car at CES, possibly a minivan: report

2017 Chrysler PacificaThe Fiat 500e electric minicar is aging, and with the introduction of the 238-mile Chevrolet Bolt EV this month, the three-door hatchback's 84 miles of range becomes woefully uncompetitive. So Fiat Chrysler Automobiles needs a new all-electric vehicle to comply with California zero-emission vehicle rules, despite its CEO's frequent complaints that...