The processes of climate change don't care about politics. Or economics. Or public sentiment about science. Last December, an analysis showed the most accurate climate-science models to date predicted the worst effects in future years. Now, two more grim assessments have arrived. DON'T MISS: Most-accurate climate-change models suggest worst... Planet at “very high risk” for extreme warming, per leaked UN report; every 5-year delay matters
The processes of climate change don't care about politics. Or economics. Or public sentiment about science. Last December, an analysis showed the most accurate climate-science models to date predicted the worst effects in future years. Now, two more grim assessments have arrived. DON'T MISS: Most-accurate climate-change models suggest worst...
Today, most people charge their electric cars at home, overnight. That's much harder for residents of multiple dwellings or those without dedicated off-street parking, increasing numbers of whom instead recharge during the day while parked at their workplace. Now Tesla plans to make it easier for owners of its cars—and only them—to...
Today, a bit of clarity on a mysterious auto startup, some verdicts on the Hyundai Nexo fuel-cell SUV, and a look at how Nissan and others may handle the end of electric-car tax credits. All this and more on Green Car Reports. What will happen when electric-car tax credits expire, and how will each maker handle it? Turns out their answers may...
When a mysterious company called Rivian issued a mysterious video in January 2017, it promised to "reshape mobility." As is often the case, that has turned out to involve electric cars. A year later, the company has released a few more details about its plans and its team. DON'T MISS: Chinese electric-car startup Nio gets $1 billion in funding...
The Hyundai Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell SUV that debuted last month at the Consumer Electronics Show won't be seen on California roads for many months yet. It is expected to go on sale in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of this year, but now we have a few reports from outlets that have driven the one SUV whose only tailpipe emission is water. The...
Toward the end of last year, electric-car shoppers began to think about a U.S. market without the $7,500 federal tax credit for their purchases of plug-in vehicles. While the tax credit ended up surviving the massive tax-cut bill passed in December, some automakers are still about to face the end of the incentive. As designed and implemented in...
Today, we've got a more powerful Renault Zoe, a new hybrid crossover for Geneva, the same old electric-car global sales champ, and some analysis on hydrogen fueling station numbers. All this and more on Green Car Reports. We asked our Twitter followers where we'll see the most electric-car innovation in future. More than half of them gave us the...
Try asking any electric-car owner or advocate, or for that matter any member of the public, which automaker sold the most electric cars last year. In North America, the answer will likely be Tesla, or possibly Nissan or Chevrolet. But we'd bet you hear Tesla most often. The correct answer for global sales of plug-in electric cars, however, was the...
The global new-vehicle market is moving toward crossover utility vehicles and SUVs, along with vehicles that look like them. Now the production version of another crossover, shown in concept form well over a year ago, has been confirmed to launch at the Geneva auto show with a teaser photo. The Lexus UX will be smaller than the current NX compact...
The subcompact Renault Zoe hatchback has been Europe's best-selling electric car for several years now. Last year, sales soared after it received a major upgrade to its battery pack, which grew to 41 kilowatt-hours, up from 22 kwh in earlier versions, almost doubling its range to 300 to 400 kilometers (185 to 250 miles) on the European test cycle...
As of today, there are 39 hydrogen fueling stations in the U.S., all but four of them in the state of California. They serve roughly 39 million Californians, whereas 284 million Americans outside the state have no access to hydrogen fuel-cell cars nor stations at which to refill them. Germany, on the other hand, has 83 million residents—and...
Innovation can be a hard concept to define as it relates to electric cars. Sure, there are the powertrains and structural designs of the vehicles themselves—including new proportions for the cabin enabled by the compact running gear and battery packs under the floor. But there are also many factors outside the car itself: education and...
Today, we've got another electric concept car coming to Geneva in a couple of weeks, a surge in start-stop sales, a look at Nissan and Tesla sales landmark, and Porsche killing off its last diesel model. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the weekend, as we do every seven days, we ran down last week's most important green-car stories...
Of the three brands caught up in the Volkswagen diesel emission scandal in the U.S., Porsche was by far the least affected. It had sold only one diesel model, a version of its Cayenne performance SUV fitted with a 3.0-liter turbodiesel developed by its VW Group sibling Audi. Regulators approved fixes to some of those engines last October, and...
Only two automakers have built and sold more than 300,000 battery-electric cars to date. One is from Japan, the other from Silicon Valley. And each can claim a specific distinction within those totals. DON'T MISS: 300,000th Nissan Leaf sold as new electric car deliveries start We know that the 300,000th Nissan Leaf was sold in January, almost...
Electric cars may be all the rage, but for now, all but a tiny fraction of the 250 million vehicles on U.S. roads burn gasoline or diesel fuel. One of the ways that new vehicles are boosting fuel efficiency is the use of what are called "start-stop" systems, which switch off the engine while the car is stopped. Now, as the Department of Energy...
Volkswagen's first dedicated battery-electric vehicle will roll off the production lines in 21 months, but we won't see the compact hatchback ID model in North America. Instead, the first dedicated VW plug-in electric vehicle will be the production version of the ID Cross compact crossover that's appeared as a concept at several auto show. Next...
Throughout the world, the accepted science of climate change is no longer in dispute. Every nation on earth has now signed the Paris Climate Treaty to develop plans to reduce the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. Only one plans to withdraw from that treaty: the United States of America. DON'T MISS: All renewable energy types to...
It's been six months since General Motors completed the sale of its Opel division in Europe to PSA Group, the French parent of the Citroën, DS, and Peugeot brands. With the sale came licenses to run out the model life of GM-designed vehicles sold as Opels (and Vauxhalls in the U.K.) while PSA developed successors on its own underpinnings. Now...
Startup carmaker Tesla is just coming up on the 10th anniversary of its first delivery, the first of the 2,500 Roadster two-seat electric sports cars that launched it into world awareness. The company recently delivered its 300,000th car, putting it well ahead of all but one other startup carmaker in U.S. history. That would be Kaiser-Frazer...