The Volkswagen diesel scandal no longer gets much U.S. media coverage. Engineer James Liang has been sentenced to 40 months in jail for his role, while executive Oliver Schmidt will be sentenced December 6. Buybacks and modifications are underway for more than half a million TDI diesel vehicles sold by Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche. Now, other... VW to spend $3 billion more on rising cost of diesel buyback
The Volkswagen diesel scandal no longer gets much U.S. media coverage. Engineer James Liang has been sentenced to 40 months in jail for his role, while executive Oliver Schmidt will be sentenced December 6. Buybacks and modifications are underway for more than half a million TDI diesel vehicles sold by Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche. Now, other...
What did China do last week that rocked the automotive world and likely altered its future direction? Which upcoming electric car turned out to have more orders than anyone expected? (It's not a Tesla ....) This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, September 29, 2017...
Today, China changes the world, a monster markets a minivan, AM radio may vanish, diesels drop for 2018, and we cast a sceptical eye on Tesla's chances of destroying all German luxury brands. All this and more on Green Car Reports. The biggest news of the week, and very possibly the year, is the release of China's aggressive new electric-car...
It has become an article of faith among some Tesla fans and owners that the company will inevitably rise to compete with and ultimately defeat the titans of the global auto industry. This belief is especially prevalent for the luxury sector, where three German carmakers dominate the global market for pricey and admired vehicles of all sorts. About...
With the permanent end of diesel sales in the U.S. by three VW Group brands—Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche—the number of diesel passenger cars and light trucks has plummeted. In fact, for the 2018 model year thus far, there are only 11. One of the two companies offering the largest number of them may come as a surprise, too. That number...
The BMW i3 electric car is a tour de force of advanced engineering--and it was the most energy-efficient car sold in the U.S. in 2014 and 2015. Its body shell is made of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, riding on an aluminum platform containing the lithium-ion battery, the electric motor, and the crash structures. But you can't get AM radio in the...
You may not have heard it happen, but the global automotive industry changed forever on Thursday. China released its plan to require substantial sales of plug-in electric cars by all makers who want to sell in the world's largest car market, and they start in little more than a year. The levels far exceed those required by California, whose...
Today, we've got a wee bit more news on the Toyota electric car for 2020, prices for the 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, wireless charging for two German luxury sedans, and a teaser to get you to come back a bit later. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Yesterday afternoon, we got prices for the 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and the...
Every one of the modern electric cars on the market for almost seven years requires plugging in a cord to recharge the battery using grid electricity. Inserting the cord into the socket takes just a few seconds, and most cars today are charged overnight. But soon there will be another option: wireless charging, in which the car is positioned over...
Very little is known for sure about the long-range electric car Toyota will launch around 2020. Over the last two years, the company—by far the industry's strongest proponent of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles—has concluded it must field a battery-electric vehicle to stay competitive. Toyota is likely unhappy about it, but regulations in...
Trying to beat luxury competitors who've been at the plug-in hybrid SUV game for a couple of years, the 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV will be aggressively priced, according to an announcement on Wednesday. Before any federal or state incentives, the base Outlander PHEV starts at just $35,535, with the top-of-the-line GT S-AWC model coming in at...
Today, we've got important news from California, some reflections on owning a Tesla, and how diesel's decline is helping hybrids. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over seven years of modern electric cars, it's widely accepted that they lose money for their makers if all costs are fully accounted for. But Indian maker Mahindra says they're...
In late July, we published an article describing one electric-car driver's experience in adding solar panels to his home to help with charging his family's five electric cars. That reader, who'd like to be known just as Shiva, has now owned a 2016 Tesla Model S for a year. He recently outlined for us how that experience has gone, and how it's...
With China mulling an eventual ban on sales of cars with gasoline or diesel engines, the world's largest car market made it clear earlier this month that it intends to force a conversion to zero-emission vehicles. Now California, which has led the U.S. in environmental awareness and emission reduction for decades, is doing the same. Governor Jerry...
Next year is shaping up to be a banner year for electric cars globally. The new, longer-range second-generation Nissan Leaf will be in production at three factories around the world, the Tesla Model 3 should hit volume production, and the Chevy Bolt EV will be fully available in North America, Europe, and South Korea. And then there's China, where...
Today, we've got news on luxury electric cars from Volkswagen and from Jaguar, and a poll asking your opinion on them, as well as a prediction about car-subscription services replacing some sales . All this and more on Green Car Reports. This year's National Drive Electric Week, the eighth one, was larger, better, and held in more places than ever...
In the rarified but still high-volume world of global luxury auto brands, Jaguar is still a tiny player. The British brand sold fewer than 150,000 cars globally last year, one-third of the number of Land Rover and Range Rover SUVs from its alsister brands within Jaguar Land Rover. Audi sold 1.9 million, BMW sold 2 million, Mercedes-Benz sold 2.1...