As many electric-car buyers will tell you, franchised auto dealers can pose a large and tedious impediment to actually buying the plug-in car you want. From salespeople with no knowledge of the cars to test vehicles that haven't been recharged and have little battery range left, the hurdles are numerous and frustrating. Now Audi has told its... Audi tells its dealers to get with the (electric-car) program
As many electric-car buyers will tell you, franchised auto dealers can pose a large and tedious impediment to actually buying the plug-in car you want. From salespeople with no knowledge of the cars to test vehicles that haven't been recharged and have little battery range left, the hurdles are numerous and frustrating. Now Audi has told its...
With a judge set to weigh in on the settlement VW Group negotiated with its 3.0-liter V-6 diesel owners, Volkswagen seems to have settled most of the U.S. legal claims stemming from its diesel-emission cheating scandal. Total costs in the U.S. alone are now more than $20 billion, and among other penalties, VW has pleaded guilty to three felony...
Today is the first day of the month, so we report on electric-car sales. We also look at the popularity of fast charging, learn what the IIHS said about the safety of the Tesla Model S and BMW i3, and cover VW's latest diesel-scandal settlement. All this and more on Green Car Reports. How important is fast-charging for electric cars? We asked; you...
Volkswagen today announced that it had reached a settlement with owners of Audi, Porsche, and VW vehicles fitted with its 3.0-liter V-6 diesel engine. Different remedies apply depending on the vehicle's model year: 2009 through 2012 cars will be bought back, while 2013 through 2016 vehicles will be modified to comply with emission limits. The...
While the auto industry at large waited to see if January sales continued as strong as last year's record-breaking total, electric-car fans waited for a different number. That was the number of Chevrolet Bolt EVs sold last month, the car's first full month on sale, albeit in a small number of states. Those states, most prominently California, have...
Those unfamiliar with electric cars often don't know that several different types of battery charging exist. Overnight recharging at home can be done either with 120-volt household current or, for longer-range cars, with a 240-volt charging station installed by the car owner. Then there's DC fast charging, which generally provides an 80-percent...
Among his actions during a whirlwind first week in office, U.S. President Donald Trump met last week with the CEOs of U.S. automakers Fiat Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors. He met on two consecutive days with Mark Fields, CEO of Ford, in fact. Fields was part of a group of manufacturing executives who met with the president separately the day...
As seemed likely from the day Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, the country will pull out of the global Paris Climate Agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The move had been signaled even before the election by the new president's choice of noted climate-science denier Myron Ebell as head of his EPA transition team...
Battery-electric cars are being delivered in volume today, but planned hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles from major automakers are on a more gradual timeframe. This morning, General Motors and Honda jointly announced that the two companies would establish a joint venture to produce hydrogen fuel-cell systems for future products from each carmaker...
What would you do if a small, knee-high box on wheels with a flag topping its tall antenna whirred toward you electrically on a sidewalk at 4 miles per hour? It turns out three-quarters of the pedestrians in several cities who've seen one didn't stop or even stare as it avoided them and continued on its way. That box is an electric sidewalk...
It's one of the most fascinating sets of questions in the auto industry. How quickly can Tesla Motors put its Model 3 electric car into production? And when? How many cars can it build this year? How many can it deliver to paying customers? At a promised starting price of $35,000, the Model 3 is not only Tesla's latest moonshot but the car that...
When will Tesla's Autopilot restore its previous capabilities and add new features that take it closer to self-driving? And how is Hyundai suggesting electric-car buyers should assess models that compete with its new Ioniq Electric? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on...
Along with price, the top-line statistic cited for any battery-electric car is its rated range. Until last month, the only electric cars that exceeded 200 miles in that metric were made by Tesla Motors. Now, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV has a 238-mile EPA rating for range—and that's usually the leading point about the Bolt EV in discussions or...
Two days ago, BMW and Nissan announced the latest expansion of their jointly funded DC fast-charging sites for electric cars, which is operated by the EVgo charging network. Those sites now cover more than 50 metropolitan areas in 33 states. This morning, BMW announced that its ChargeNow by EVgo program for owners of its plug-in cars would...
Today, we look at how far electric-car fast charging has expanded, look at the cost of controlling diesel emissions, and learn more about the schedule for Tesla cars to move further toward self-driving. All this and more on Green Car Reports. What's it like to charge a Nissan Leaf wirelessly? We have the video from a six-month trial. Keeping...
Following the removal of all mentions of climate change from the White House website, the new administration has apparently trained its sites on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA and a handful of other government agencies are now reportedly under gag orders: employees are forbidden to discuss ongoing changes, post new material on...
At the end of 2015, BMW and Nissan announced that the two companies had partnered to fund the installation of 120 DC fast-charging stations for electric cars across 19 states. All the sites had one or more 50-kilowatt stations with a pair of charging cables: one with the CHAdeMO connector that accommodates the Nissan Leaf electric car, the other a...
Yesterday, analyses of the air in several parts of France contained high levels of ultrafine particles emitted by road vehicles. Among the guiltiest culprits were older diesel vehicles with minimal emission-control systems, particularly those built under the Euro 4 standard in effect through 2005. Over the last year, Paris has instituted...
Today, we talk about a very controversial Tesla, consider the idea of $1 billion in electric-car infrastructure and incentives, and look at the percentage of Americans who accept climate science (it's high). All this and more on Green Car Reports. Germany's minister for the environment is facing some pushback for his recent electric-car purchase...
French carmaker Renault sells no passenger cars in North America, and hasn't for almost 30 years now. But in Europe, its all-electric Zoe subcompact hatchback has been the best-selling plug-in electric car for months on end. The Zoe is one of three "ZE" (zero emission) vehicles sold by Renault, and now the ZE lineup is adding another member. DON'T...