It's fair to say that Tesla CEO Elon Musk probably raises more eyebrows more often than all other automaker CEOs combined. One case in point came in early May, when he mentioned during a financial-results call that the upcoming Tesla Model Y compact crossover utility would be based on a new platform. Three months later, the CEO has walked that... Tesla Model Y to be based on Model 3 after all; Musk ‘reeled back’ from ‘insanity’
It's fair to say that Tesla CEO Elon Musk probably raises more eyebrows more often than all other automaker CEOs combined. One case in point came in early May, when he mentioned during a financial-results call that the upcoming Tesla Model Y compact crossover utility would be based on a new platform. Three months later, the CEO has walked that...
The global debut of the 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car is just a month away, and now another teaser image has been released. This one's a design sketch showing a drawing of the car's side profile, suitably shaded to obscure some of the details. You can compare it to a shot of the actual vehicle, captured last week in Norway while a 2018 Leaf was...
Toyota is one of the largest global automakers, while Mazda is one of the smallest. A new report suggests that the two Japanese makers are close to finalizing a capital-investment deal under which Toyota would take 5 percent of Mazda, and the smaller maker would invest in Toyota as well, and the two would set up a joint U.S. assembly plant...
Today, we've two two Tesla stories covering its entire model lineup, an electric car that went racing, a news roundup from Canada, and a distracted-pedestrian idea. All this and more on Green Car Reports. A piece we published on the net number of Tesla Model 3 reservations may have contributed to CEO Elon Musk's response: Tesla has 455,000 net...
When we published an article on one owner's experience using his Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car to compete in a local autocross, it contained a comment that riled up our reader Doug Kerr. That comment—"Outside of one high-performance electric vehicle, casual electric cars are hardly the racer’s choice"—prompted Kerr to take the...
Sometimes, if you ask a question often enough for long enough, an answer will eventually be forthcoming. In the case of the net number of $1,000 reservations for the Tesla Model 3 electric car, it took 16 months for the company to cough up the latest data. It came, not surprisingly, from CEO Elon Musk, speaking on a conference call for financial...
The Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car deserves a place in history. It was arguably the first mass-produced modern electric car put on sale, well before the Nissan Leaf arrived in December 2010. Pre-production i-MiEVs were operating in test fleets in Japan as early as 2007, and it was on sale in that country even as Tesla struggled to get its Roadster...
Today, we put two criticisms of electric cars into context, look at plug-in vehicle sales for the U.S. last month, fill you in on self-driving cars in The Netherlands, and consider when peak demand for oil could arrive. All this and more on Green Car Reports. We published the first cut at our monthly plug-in electric car sales report for July...
Small Japanese automaker Mazda is in a tough spot. It's been on its own for most of a decade now, after Ford sold its shares in the company, and now Mazda must fund numerous new models all by itself. With global sales of just 1.5 million vehicles, it's one-seventh the size of Toyota or Volkswagen. DON'T MISS: Mazda to launch homogeneous-charge...
In a U.S. car market that's coming off record numbers over the last couple of years, plug-in electric car sales continued strong last month. The Chevrolet Bolt EV, GM's 238-mile battery electric hatchback, set a new monthly sales record of 1,937 deliveries in its eighth month on sale—the highest number for any electric car in July. It was...
Today, more Tesla Model 3 news, coal may supplant climate change at the EPA, the fate of diesels could be dire, and big rigs won't be in the self-driving fast lane—and least not yet. All this and more on Green Car Reports. A Norwegian crew caught the 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car without camouflage during an advertising shoot. We asked our...
One year ago today, a communications staffer (since departed) wrote that Tesla had received 373,000 reservations for its future Model 3—a number first issued in April 2016. In a splashy event for owners, fans, and media, a few dozen early-production Model 3 electric cars were delivered last Friday. During the year leading up to that event...
With electric-car battery prices falling faster than predicted even five years ago, carmakers face tough and costly choices in choosing powertrains for the lineups in 2020 and after. Pressed by stiff carbon-emission reduction laws in Europe and heavy regulations to encourage electric cars in China, they must assess how much to invest in new...
Its maker has begun the countdown to the early-September unveiling of the 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car with a series of staged teaser photos and factoids. But with the prevalence of smartphone cameras, it's harder and harder for carmakers to keep their new models completely under wraps. Which is how we come to have a shot of the 2018 Leaf...
Today, it's mostly about the Tesla Model 3, but we also have a future electric SUV closely related to the Bolt EV, some startling and dire news for fuel-economy rules, and a change of heart from Fiat Chrysler. All this and more on Green Car Reports. The big news over the weekend and again today was the Tesla Model 3, officially launched into...
Among the Detroit Three automakers, General Motors has a quarter of a century of electric-car experience, from the legendary EV1 to the 238-mile Chevrolet Bolt EV. Ford launched hybrids in 2004, before any other maker, but its battery-electric efforts thus far have been strictly compliance cars. Chrysler, however, was by far the most pessimistic...
The industrial revolution that began around 1750 was powered in large part by coal, and the carbon-rich fuel had 200 good years after that. By the middle of the last century, however, serious studies had begun of its deleterious effects on human health—and that was before the climate-change impact of human emissions of carbon dioxide became...
The first, earliest production versions of the Tesla Model 3 electric car were delivered to their owners in a splashy "Handover Party" late last week. A few journalists got short drives at the event, but only one outlet was granted a Model 3 before the party to enable a more comprehensive review. That means lots of "Tesla Model 3 review" articles...
The Chevrolet Bolt EV, initially intended to be adapted from the next-generation Chevy Sonic subcompact, ended up with unique underpinnings designed solely for use as a battery-electric vehicle. Carmakers virtually never limit dedicated architectures to a single vehicle—they're simply too expensive to develop—so it's long been expected...
Thirty of the earliest Tesla Model 3 buyers took delivery of their electric cars last night in a gala event for owners, investors, and friends the company had dubbed the Handover Party. The highly anticipated Model 3, the vehicle Tesla hopes will boost its production to hundreds of thousands of electric cars a year, will initially come in two...