The 2017 Kia Optima Hybrid is one of a pair of hybrid mid-size sedans from the Korean maker Hyundai-Kia. It shares its underpinnings, though not a single body panel or styling flourish, with the higher-volume Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. We found it to be a comfortable, stylish sedan that gave us good fuel economy—almost as good as the car's EPA... 2017 Kia Optima Hybrid: gas mileage review of mid-size sedan
The 2017 Kia Optima Hybrid is one of a pair of hybrid mid-size sedans from the Korean maker Hyundai-Kia. It shares its underpinnings, though not a single body panel or styling flourish, with the higher-volume Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. We found it to be a comfortable, stylish sedan that gave us good fuel economy—almost as good as the car's EPA... 
It's a well-reviewed new minivan design from the company that invented the modern minivan three decades ago. Unlike any other minivan, however, its large battery pack gives it 33 miles of EPA-rated electric range, and it can drive largely on battery alone despite its size, its seven seats, and its gaping cargo capacity. It's the 2017 Chrysler... 
If you have your eyes on a used Volkswagen or Audi TDI turbodiesel, you may wind up having to pay more today for 2009 through 2015 models than you would have when they were new. At least right now, only 2015 model-year versions of VW and Audi vehicles sold with the 2.0-liter turbodiesel 4-cylinder TDI engine can be modified to comply with... ![James Dyson with digital motors [image: Dyson]](http://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/james-dyson-with-digital-motors-image-dyson_100531077_t.gif)
Just 18 months after its $90m acquisition of Sakti3, the British consumer-products company Dyson is taking a step back. Dyson has chosen to relinquish the patent rights that were the core intellectual property of the Michigan based start-up company. Its move demonstrates the high risk companies are willing to accept in order to be at the forefront... 
The prospect of ongoing operations as usual continues to darken for the Environmental Protection Agency. According to a detailed internal budget document published in the The Washington Post, the Trump administration wants to eliminate virtually all federal funding for the agency’s vehicle emissions and fuel-economy testing budgets. If the... 
It’s been merely six years since the first modern electric car hit the streets, and the segment looks ready to take off. Over 43,000 people residing in 52 countries all around the globe were asked whether they are considering buying an electric car in the next five years. On average, four out of 10 motorists say they’re either very... 
Today, we have a popular updated crossover utility wagon, a defeat for Tesla, a first drive of the new Cruze Diesel, and a radical range extender for electric cars. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Mazda's been working quietly on a rotary-engine range extender for electric cars; now it has U.S. patents to show for it. Yesterday we updated... ![Tesla Store Los Angeles [photo: Misha Bruk / MBH Architects]](http://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/tesla-store-los-angeles-photo-misha-bruk-mbh-architects_100449435_t.gif)
Tesla has once again been denied permission to sell its cars directly to buyers in the battleground state of Utah. Via a unanimous decision, the Utah Supreme Court handed Tesla Motors another setback this week. The state’s top court upheld a 2015 decision that denied the electric-car maker a license to sell new cars, citing a state law that... 
When the first Chevrolet Cruze Diesel was launched back in 2014, it made a lot of sense. Diesel was in vogue. German manufacturers were pushing diesel power in a huge way, with Volkswagen's "Clean Diesel" leading the charge. Oh, how things have changed. DON'T MISS: Volkswagen diesel scandal - all our stories Diesel for passenger cars today is, for... ![The White House, Washington, D.C. [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]](http://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/white-house_100170583_t.gif)
Last Wednesday, a broad coalition of environmental groups sued the Trump Administration over an executive order that lifted a moratorium on issuing new leases for coal mining on federal lands. That order would have eliminated the requirement for an environmental impact study on the impacts of any form of coal extraction across a wide swath of... 
The Chevy Volt likely continued its winning ways atop the Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales charts in March. Its 377 sales give it a comfortable margin over the Tesla Model S's high mark of 325, set in March 2016 before the Model X became available. The Chevy Bolt's 241 units were nearly triple the 86 sold in February, and could be enough to... 
Recent patent filings suggest Mazda’s next Wankel engine will equip a battery-powered car, not a rear-wheel drive heir to emblematic sports coupes like its RX-7 and RX-8. Mazda has invested more time and money into the rotary engine than any other automaker, so executives are reluctant to let it fade away into history. While the RX-8 has... 
Today, we have an update on our monthly electric-car sales report, then some perspective on those numbers, surprising news from Buick, and a shock for Tesla fans. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Electric cars get generous national and state incentives in many places, but perhaps electric bikes deserve them too. While the Trump... 
Volume sales of plug-in cars, both battery-electric and plug-in hybrid models, began more than six years ago. From a first-year total of about 17,000 in 2011, they rose tenfold over five years, to roughly 160,000 last year in the U.S. But it's important to understand that despite their growth rate, cars with plugs still represent only a tiny... 
The new U.S. president, Donald Trump, is working to eradicate every Obama policy to limit the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Having variously called the science behind climate change a "Chinese plot" to hurt the U.S. and referred to it using an expletive for bovine excrement, this shouldn't come as a surprise. He pledged to do... 
If plug-in electric cars and trucks receive purchase incentives from national and state governments, what about electric bicycles? That's just what a recent report from the European Cyclists Federation suggests. It recommends directing purchase incentives and infrastructure subsidies towards electrically assisted bicycles, known as e-bikes... 
Today, we have a total of what the diesel scandal has cost VW, more details on Chevy Bolt EV fast-charging rates, an update on London's stiff charges for older, more polluting cars, and a moral question to ponder. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Hong Kong closed a tax loophole, one that benefited Tesla buyers more than anyone else. When... 
Large global automakers customarily pursue research into multiple types of technologies and future powertrains at the same time. Sometimes they pan out, sometimes they don't. German automakers have only really come around to devoting their efforts to plug-in electric cars in the last five or six years. DON'T MISS: Mercedes-Benz electric cars to... 
For a few years now, Tesla has shown what a nationwide network of DC fast-charging sites for long-range electric cars should look like. Its Supercharger network now covers virtually all of the lower 48 states, and until earlier this year, it was completely free to Tesla drivers. The Chevrolet Bolt EV, the first affordable battery-electric car with... 
No vehicle on earth is entirely free of emissions; even electric cars charged on renewable energy have emissions associated with their manufacturing. Those emissions, however, are a tiny fraction of the carbon dioxide and other substances emitted by gasoline or diesel cars when scientifically assessed on a "wells to wheels" basis. This is well...