Time for a quick quiz: which carmaker sold more plug-in electric vehicles last year—both battery electrics and plug-in hybrids—than any other? If you're a reader in North America or Europe who managed to miss our headline, odds are you may answer "Tesla" or "Nissan," based on media coverage of those two companies' achievements. You... China’s BYD built more plug-in cars than any other maker last year
Time for a quick quiz: which carmaker sold more plug-in electric vehicles last year—both battery electrics and plug-in hybrids—than any other? If you're a reader in North America or Europe who managed to miss our headline, odds are you may answer "Tesla" or "Nissan," based on media coverage of those two companies' achievements. You...
Tesla said yesterday it would shut down its production lines for one week this month to prepare for the launch of its upcoming Model 3 electric sedan. The Silicon Valley carmaker said the "brief, planned pause" was to add paint-shop capacity and do general maintenance at its assembly plant in Fremont, California. An exclusive Reuters news service...
As the first mass-priced electric car with more than 200 miles of range to hit the market, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV has attracted a great deal of attention. It's won numerous awards, including the Green Car Reports 2017 Best Car To Buy title, and received rave reviews from a wide variety of media outlets. But what do actual owners think? DON'T...
Just as the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car is launching in North America, its European cousin is beginning deliveries across the Atlantic. In Europe, General Motors markets the U.S.-built Bolt EV as virtually identical Opel Ampera-e under its German Opel brand. An example of what is known in the industry as "badge engineering," the Ampera-e...
Bill Nye, better known as "The Science Guy" on the popular PBS children's series that bears his name, loves electric cars. He drove one of only a few hundred original GM EV1 two-seat electric cars almost 20 years ago. Three weeks ago, he took delivery of a brand-new "Kinetic Blue" 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV—and he says he couldn't be happier...
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...
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...
What's a "green car"? Is it a hybrid? A zero-emission vehicle? One that plugs in? Or just one that uses less fuel than other cars in its segment? It's a perpetual conundrum, for Green Car Reports among others, but it illustrates one of the longstanding challenges in the field. Will the market for green cars expand as more enter the market, or is...
The first few Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars were delivered in California's Silicon Valley more than a month ago, marking the start of what will be a nationwide rollout. Electric-car advocates and buyers outside the Golden State are eager to know exactly when the 238-mile electric hatchback will be available for purchase in their areas as well...
The Nissan Leaf is by far the highest-volume electric car ever sold, with total sales now having passed 250,000 units. First launched in 2011, the Leaf got some updates for the 2013 model when production for North American sales moved from Oppama, Japan, to Smyrna, Tennessee. It got a battery capacity upgrade for 2016, boosting its rated range...
It's a hot topic whenever anyone mentions electric cars: pricing. Many electric cars are more expensive than their regular counterparts, though in general they cost far less to run on a per-mile basis. But what do today's electric and plug-in cars actually cost? We've gathered the relevant data for each battery-electric car on sale today, and...
Last month, the first Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars were sold in California's Silicon Valley. Electric-car advocates and buyers across the U.S. now want to know when they too can expect to take delivery of their 238-mile electric hatchbacks. And as numerous comments and e-mails from readers attest, some Chevy dealers don't seem to have a clue...
While still just shy of the 30,000 vehicle milestone, cumulative Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales likely finished 2016 high enough to scale Mount Everest (elevation in feet: 29,029). While the full 2016 milestone is unlikely to be reached by January 11—birthday of Sir John A. MacDonald, the country's first Prime Minister—it may...
If you pronounce the word "buzz" with a German accent, it sounds like "bus"—which is almost surely why VW's second all-electric concept vehicle is called the Volkswagen ID Buzz. It's the latest in a series of concept studies for a modern-day Microbus, with stylistic nods to the classic Type 2 bus launched 65 years ago. It's one of the few...
In recent years, Ford has acquired a bit of a reputation for opacity in its dealings with the media. One example was its promise last TK that it would introduce 13 new "electrified" vehicles by 2020. Ford didn't specify what those were, or what the term meant, leading to widespread inaccurate reporting that assumed that meant 13 electric cars ...
It's well known by now that the used-car prices of low-range electric cars are low. Any 2011 through 2016 electric car not made by Tesla is likely to be cheap on a used-car lot due to worries about battery degradation and its effect on range. Used Nissan Leafs, for instance, can often be found for around $9,000, even with only 30,000 or 40,000...
It's one of the most frequently asked questions by anyone hearing about a modern electric car: do I have to replace the battery? With 15 years of experience in mobile phones and more than that with laptop computers, most buyers know that lithium-ion batteries lose capacity over time. Replacing phone or laptop batteries, generally for less than...
In September, Chevy scored quite a publicity coup for its Bolt EV long-range electric car. The car's chief engineer, Josh Tavel, took a pre-production 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV to show Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple Computers—universally known as "Woz." He's a big electric car fan, and had driven a Tesla Model S since he picked one up his...
How would you like an all-electric wagon with five seats, a rear liftgate, and 187 miles of EPA-rated range? Sounds pretty good, right? You'd think such a vehicle might sell well, since it would have more rated range than any other electric cars on the market except the Chevy Bolt EV and anything from Tesla. Well, such a car has been certified by...