2018 Mini Cooper S E Countryman All4 review of plug-in hybrid

2018 Mini Cooper S E Countryman All4 plug-in hybrid, Catskill Mountains, NY, July 2017The makers of the 2018 Mini Coooper S E Countryman All4, the unwieldy name for its first plug-in hybrid small crossover utility vehicle, aren't going to make any friends among electric-car fans. That's because the company has included in its marketing the notion that the car's hybrid powertrain should offer some fuel-economy benefits even though...

Why Robert Bollinger decided an electric utility truck was ‘obvious’

Robert Bollinger on Day One of Bollinger Motors, in empty garage, Hobart, New York, late 2015One week from today, in a pricey supercar club in Manhattan, journalists, electric-car advocates, and perhaps a few celebrities will gather for the unveiling of a new electric vehicle. It's not another fast, luxurious sedan or crossover utility vehicle. Instead, it's an electric utility truck called the Bollinger B1. DON'T MISS: All-electric...

2018 Nissan Leaf to have e-Pedal: here’s what that means

Teaser for 2018 Nissan Leaf debuting on September 6, 2017No, the new 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car isn't going to have only a single pedal—despite at least one headline late yesterday claiming that. Honest. But the "e-Pedal" in the next generation of Nissan's highest-volume plug-in vehicle does offer some interesting new features. DON'T MISS: Latest 2018 Nissan Leaf teaser shows ProPilot Assist...

How do you service a hydrogen fuel-cell car at a dealer?

Service technician working on Honda Clarity Fuel Cell at dealershipOver the past century, gasoline-powered vehicles have gotten simultaneously more complex and more reliable. Service intervals have lengthened, drivers no longer check a car's fluids daily or weekly, and many new-car owners will never once open the hood. Reliability data shows that some of them won't visit a dealer service department except for...

When will Tesla Model Y crossover to go into production? Poll results

Teaser for Tesla Model Y electric SUV due in 2019The Tesla Model 3, the first mass-market electric car from the Silicon Valley carmaker, is now nominally in production. Scaling up from a trickle of hand-assembled cars to 10,000 units a month is Job One to keep Tesla afloat by letting it sell cars to hundreds of thousands of hand-raisers globally who put down a $1,000 deposit on the car. Still...

Why all electric-car owners should follow Formula E racing

2016/2017 Team ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport Formula E race carIn North America and Europe, the old saying—"Win on Sunday, sell on Monday"—probably no longer applies. That is, winning races over the weekend probably does little if anything to boost sales of passenger cars and light trucks, certainly not the way it did in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s. But like owning an electric car, the FIA...

Chevy Bolt EV plant shutdown extended, due to slow Sonic sales

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars outside dealership    [photo: Patrick Reid]One of the biggest tests of an automaker's discipline is what it does when sales start to ebb and inventories of unsold cars swell. Does it keep the production lines churning, and dial up its incentives to keep new-vehicle deliveries flowing? Or does it prioritize profitability and suspend production until inventories are back where they should...

11 things you need to know about Formula E electric-car racing

New York City ePrix FIA Formula E electric-car race, Red Hook, Brooklyn, July 2017We've just spent a packed, very hot weekend at the New York City ePrix, the first time the FIA Formula E electric-car racing series has come to the country's media capital. It was our first Formula E race, and like many who follow electric cars, we learned a lot. More than that, we got a better sense of why this facing series is important, and...

2018 Chevy Equinox Diesel pricing to start just above $31,000

2018 Chevrolet Equinox 2.0TEvery now and then, resourceful journalists dredge up automotive news before it emerges in a sanitized press release from the maker in question. So it is with the pricing on the 2018 Chevrolet Equinox Diesel, one of two diesel-powered compact crossover utility vehicles expected to hit the U.S. market this year. While combined EPA ratings haven't...

2018 Chevy Equinox Diesel pricing to start just above $31,000

2018 Chevrolet Equinox 2.0TEvery now and then, resourceful journalists dredge up automotive news before it emerges in a sanitized press release from the maker in question. So it is with the pricing on the 2018 Chevrolet Equinox Diesel, one of two diesel-powered compact crossover utility vehicles expected to hit the U.S. market this year. While combined EPA ratings haven't...