VW Group plans 8 plug-in electric cars for China

Volkswagen I.D. electric car concept, 2016 Paris auto showAs it works to recover from its diesel emission scandal, the Volkswagen Group is rapidly embracing electric cars. By 2025, the company hopes to be selling 1 million electric cars per year, and plans to launch 30 different electric models across multiple brands in the coming years. According to a news report, China—for several years, the...

French target Renault, Brits query Fiat, over diesel emissions

New Renault TwingoThe past week has not been a particularly pleasant one for advocates of diesel cars. Volkswagen agreed to plead guilty to criminal counts related to its diesel-emissions cheating and pay $4.3 billion in fines, while U.S. prosecutors arrested one of the company's executives and indicted five more. Fiat Chrysler was accused by the EPA of using...

European electric and plug-in hybrid sales for Jan-Nov 2016

2016 Renault Zoe electric carIn the waning months of 2016, no dramatic changes occurred in European plug-in electric car sales. The established players remained on top of the sales charts, in virtually the same sequence seen in previous months. The Renault Zoe was again the best-selling electric car in Europe between January and November, the most recent month with available...

All 2017 BMW diesels certified by EPA, production now starting

2017 BMW 3-SeriesThis might not seem to be the most convenient moment to restart production of a gaggle of diesel cars. The Volkswagen diesel scandal continues to unfold, and last week the EPA accused Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) of failing to reveal eight separate software routines that altered the behavior of diesel engines in Jeep and Ram vehicles...

Mazda to launch homogeneous-charge compression engine next year

2017 Mazda CX-5The differences between gasoline and diesel engines lie not only in their fuels, but in how those fuels are ignited. Gasoline engines use spark plugs, while diesels simply use compression. But it is possible to ignite gasoline in an internal-combustion engine with compression, as in a diesel. DON'T MISS: Mazda diesel to arrive fall 2017 in new...

How high a hill could recharge a coasting Tesla electric car completely?

2017 Tesla Model SOne of the benefits of electric cars is that slowing down becomes a useful activity. Regenerative braking recovers energy normally lost as friction heat, as it does when the accelerator pedal is not pushed and the car is coasting. In some cars, regeneration is aggressive enough to allow "one-pedal driving," where the friction brakes are only...

All Dutch electric trains now running on 100-percent renewable energy

Dutch NS Sprinter electric train by Flickr user kismihok (Used under CC License)While modern electric cars have only been available in large numbers for a few years, electric trains have been commonplace for some time. As with electric cars, the source of the electricity used to power these trains impacts their overall carbon footprint. The cleaner an energy source, the cleaner the vehicles it powers. DON'T MISS: Alstom...