2019 Nissan Leaf Plus vs. 2011 Nissan Leaf: 5 takeaways over 8 years

2011 Nissan Leaf, Nashville, October 2010When a completely new vehicle is introduced, it's generally around for five to seven years before an entirely redesigned generation of that vehicle is launched. By that measure, the 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus we reviewed earlier this week is ancient, with a basic structure in its ninth model year—though it received a very thorough restyling for...

Long-range Cadillac SUV to lead GM’s next electric-car push, in 3 years

Future Cadillac long-range electric large luxury utility vehicle (rendering), 2019 Detroit auto shoOn Sunday night, General Motors showed renderings of a future long-range, all-electric SUV to be offered roughly three years hence by its Cadillac luxury brand. The look at the brand's first battery-electric vehicle came as part of the 2019 Detroit auto-show debut for the 2020 Cadillac XT6, a three-row crossover utility vehicle powered by a very...

Porsche adds wagon to upcoming Taycan electric lineup

Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo conceptPorsche announced Friday that it will expand its high-powered upcoming electric-car lineup from one model to two, with a new stretched-roof crossover hatchback joining the standard Taycan liftback. The Taycan electric sedan is a Tesla Model S competitor scheduled to go into production in 2019. It started out as the Mission E concept. The new...

2019 Jaguar I-Pace gets official range, MPGe ratings

2019 Jaguar I-Pace, photographed outside Tesla Store, Mount Kisco, NYNow that it has finally delivered the first retail example of its I-Pace, Jaguar has released official range and MPGe estimates for this new luxurious electric crossover. As we reported on Monday, the I-Pace is rated at 234 miles of range, a little short of the 240 that Jaguar indicated it was aiming for in earlier press drives. For comparison...

Tesla secures site for Chinese factory

2014 Tesla Model S in ChinaIn the midst of escalating trade wars, Tesla is moving ahead with its plans to build a factory in China. The company announced on Wednesday that it signed a "land transfer" agreement with the Shanghai government for a 212-acre plot to build its proposed Chinese factory. The land transfer agreement opens the way for Tesla to start construction on...

BMW i4 will resemble 4-Series Grand Coupe–with big battery

BMW i Vision Dynamics concept, 2017 Frankfurt Motor ShowBMW plans to launch perhaps its most mainstream electric car, the i4, in 2021, about a year after the iX3 electric crossover utility goes on sale. BMW chairman Harald Krüger told British auto magazine Auto Express that the long-awaited i4 will be treated as a variant of the company's 4-series Gran Coupe, a mid-size 4-door hatchback similar in...

Kia to build electric cars in India by late 2019

2019 Kia Niro EVKia will spend $1 billion on a new assembly plant in southern India to build an electric car for that market by late 2019. The move comes just over a decade before India intends to ban the sale of fossil-fuel vehicles. Just what form an Indian-market electric Kia will take remains unknown, especially since the automaker doesn't currently sell cars...

Chinese electric-car builder Byton says it raised $500 million

Byton SUV conceptA $500 million infusion from investors including an automaker and a major battery supplier could help Chinese electric-car startup Byton put its cars on the road by the end of next year, the company said Monday. Byton said that its big investors—Chinese state-owned automaker FAW Group, Chinese lithium-ion battery developer CATL, and Chinese...

Volvo ditches diesel, but will half its cars be electric by 2024?

2017 Volvo S60 and V60 PolestarVolvo says it is going all-in on electric cars in an effort to turn the company into something of a Tesla alternative. To that end, the company has announced that half its cars will be battery electric models by 2024, according to a report in Road & Track earlier this year. It has also dedicated its high-performance Polestar brand to selling...

Nissan begins offering rebuilt Leaf battery packs

2012 Nissan Leaf SL electric car, owned by Shiva of Fremont, California, Oct 2017Starting this month, Nissan has begun offering rebuilt battery packs for the older Leafs, filling a gap for drivers of older cars whose packs have begun to run down. The company built a new facility in Japan to rebuild the packs, and will sell them for about $2,850 (based on the price in Japan), according to Inside EVs. Electric car repair trainer...

Tesla Model S Electric Car: Software Changes Since 2012 (UPDATED)

2015 Tesla Model S 70D in new Ocean Blue colorEven though the Tesla Model S has retained its same basic shape since it went on sale in 2012, what's going on under the hood has been anything but stagnant. The automaker's over-the-air updates for the electric car have put the old guard on notice: People expect their cars to act like the computers and phones sitting on their desks and in their...

7 things we learned in 9 years, and where green cars are headed

Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland   [photo: Forth]More than four years ago, this site looked back at its first five years of coverage to assess what had changed—and what we'd learned. Now, we're repeating the exercise. In February 2014, Green Car Reports had published about 9,800 news articles. The number is now up to more than 16,800. Much has changed since then, however. We've broken down...