Updates to conventional cars come in a predictable pattern. Once a new model is launched, it gets only minor tweaks to features, prices, and paint colors for two or three years. Then in the third or fourth year, it gets what the industry calls a "mid-cycle refresh": some updated sheetmetal, perhaps a redesigned dashboard, and other more visible... 2018 Kia Soul EV gets bigger battery, range boost from 93 to 111 miles
Updates to conventional cars come in a predictable pattern. Once a new model is launched, it gets only minor tweaks to features, prices, and paint colors for two or three years. Then in the third or fourth year, it gets what the industry calls a "mid-cycle refresh": some updated sheetmetal, perhaps a redesigned dashboard, and other more visible... ![Virginia State Capitol, Skip Plitt/C'ville Photography [CC BY-SA 3.0]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/virginia-state-capitol-skip-plitt-cville-photography-cc-by-sa-3-0_100638890_t.gif)
Virginia is for lovers—and it may soon be for lovers of electric cars and plug-in hybrids, too. Virginia House Delegate David A. Reid [D-32nd] has proposed a bill, expected to hit the House floor Wednesday, that would see buyers of electric vehicles receive a state-tax rebate of up to $3,500. Currently, Virginia's green-car incentives are... 
It's 41 degrees F outside. Your electric car, rated for 100 miles, has been charging all night in the cold. Ahead of you lies a 80-mile drive. How confident are you that you'll make it to your destination? What if you want to set your climate control to a comfortable 70 degrees F? Germany's AutoBild wondered the same thing, so it gathered some of... 
Seven years after the first mass-priced modern electric car was sold in the U.S., more car buyers than ever are at least dimly aware that such vehicles exist. Sales of cars that plug in have risen every year, with one slight dip in 2015, but they were still just 1 percent of the U.S. market of 17.5 million light vehicles last year. One reason for... 
It's well known that a battery-electric version of the Kia Niro will join the lineup soon, completing a range that now comprises the Niro Hybrid and the recently launched plug-in hybrid. Most observers had assumed the Niro EV would use the same underpinnings as its corporate sibling the Hyundai Ioniq Electric, just as the pair of hybrids does. But... 
As China stares down climate change and smog alerts in numerous cities, the central government has extended its tax rebates for hybrid and electric vehicles for another three years. The move is one of many recently that will eventually see traditional internal-combustion cars all but eliminated from new vehicles sales in the country. The changes... 
Amidst all the coverage on Wednesday of the Tesla Model 3 production numbers, we realized we'd forgotten one piece of the Model 3 saga. That would be the official EPA range and efficiency ratings for the 2017 Tesla Model 3 Long Range version. Those were issued at the end of November, and they seemed worth highlighting as a way to compare the Model... 
We tend to take batteries for granted. Day after day, we recharge batteries and expect them to work without giving a thought to how they work or to their state of health. But Akira Yoshino is different. He's one of the pioneers of lithium-ion battery technology. DON'T MISS: Lithium-ion battery packs now $209 per kwh, will fall to $100 by 2025... ![Bus in Shenzhen, China, By GEei Ginhee wins (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/bus-in-shenzhen-china-by-geei-ginhee-wins-own-work-cc-by-sa-4-0_100638544_t.gif)
Over the last few years, the Chinese government has begun to push electric vehicles with all its might. In addition to incentivizing the purchase of electric vehicles, the central government has recently banned the sale of some 553 fossil-fuel passenger cars in the country. But when it comes to local concerns, a collection of municipalities... 
We've long known that the Kia Niro wagon would get an all-electric version to accompany the 2017 Niro Hybrid and the just-launched 2018 Niro Plug-In Hybrid. The battery-electric Niro will fill out the suite of six cars sharing the same underpinnings, with the others being the same three versions of the Hyundai Ioniq hatchback, the Niro's... 
Tesla said it delivered 1,550 Model 3 electric cars between October 1 and December 31 last year, but built 2,425 over the same period. That compares to a total of 260 Model 3s delivered in the third quarter, after a splashy "handover event" in which the first 30 cars were delivered to buyers. The Model 3, the electric car starting at $35,000, is... 
Remember all those brownouts we experienced last week because everyone plugged in their electric cars? No? Oh right, that didn't happen. It still isn't happening. And it's unlikely to ever happen. That's the conclusion of a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), using infrastructure investment data from California's biggest... 
It was clear late last year that the number of plug-in electric cars sold in the U.S. during 2017 would set a new record. December is always a strong sales month for all vehicles, and dealerships across the country have rushed to deliver new cars, crossovers, and trucks to hit their year-end bonuses. While the rise in sales of battery-electric and... 
When buying a car, one point to consider during the process should be insurance costs. Aside from any finance or lease payment, and fuel costs if you cover lots of miles in a not-very-efficient vehicle, insurance is likely your biggest car-related expense. Thankfully, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Highway Data Loss Institute (HLDI)... 
First sales of the 2018 Nissan Leaf, the second generation of the pioneering electric car, should come this month. But Nissan has quietly been showing the 2018 Leaf to electric-car shoppers for several months now, hosting drives at dealerships and other venues. Several of our readers and contributors have now taken part in these events, and now we... 
Europeans will soon have the opportunity to enjoy quiet, emission-free, long-distance motoring with far shorter charge times when driving electric cars along Germany's autobahns. The charging network Allego has rolled out its first 175-kilowatt ultra-fast charging stations—dubbed "Ultra E"—at its first location in Kleinosthei, along... 
As a given generation of any vehicle ages, German companies in particular often spice up the allure of the aging car with new and sportier versions. Porsche is a master at rolling out new versions of its models across the entire life of a generation, but BMW has learned the trick too. Thus in the fifth model year for the BMW i3, we have the new... 
As they say, it's what's inside that counts. That's doubly so for Fisker, Inc., the second auto company founded by famed automotive designer Henrik Fisker. The first declared bankruptcy; its new Chinese owners renamed it Karma. In an interview with Car and Driver, Fisker (the man) claims solid-state batteries will still be part of his company's... ![Zev Gitalis takes his 97-year-old grandfather for a ride in his Tesla Model S electric car [YouTube]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/zev-gitalis-takes-his-97-year-old-grandfather-for-a-ride-in-his-tesla-model-s-electric-car-youtube_100638015_t.gif)
"I hear you got an electric car," says a 97-year-old man, looking every bit like a 97-year-old man, suspenders and all. "Is it outside?" The man behind the camera is Zev Gitalis, and the man in front of the camera is his grandfather. DON'T MISS: South's good ol' boy drag racers whupped by Tesla, not happy about it Outside sits not a Nissan Leaf...