The fully electric 2020 Mini Cooper SE will bring back everything early Mini pioneers loved about the company's first electric effort, the 2009 Mini E, in a more conventional, practical package. It will still be the sportiest Mini, with quicker powertrain responses, and a lower center of gravity, than the gas-powered Mini Cooper S. The biggest...
![Tesla Model 3 dashboard in Autopilot testing with IIHS [CREDIT: IIHS]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/tesla-model-s-dashboard-in-autopilot-testing-with-iihs-credit-iihs_100665437_t.gif)
In a Twitter storm Sunday night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that the company's grand strategy to avoid selling cars for small profits (or less), is to boost prices for fully self-driving cars—at least once such systems are more reliable. In response to a Tweet by Disruption Research (@DistruptResearch), postulating that self-driving cars...
Hyundai last week announced that it has developed what it claims is the world’s first mass-production continuously variable valve duration (CVVD) technology. The company asserted the new valve tech, headed into versions of the 2020 Hyundai Sonata, will produce significant improvements in emissions, fuel efficiency, and performance. The...
Toyota tests a solar-powered Prius in Japan. The Connecticut Supreme Court will decide the future of Tesla stores. Cost estimates get real for renewable power plans. And General Motors cleans up not just its cars, but its factories and tires. Hybrids aren't just for cars and trains anymore. All this and more on Green Car Reports. In Japan, Toyota...
The two giant states have set some of the world's most ambitious climate targets, aiming to slash emissions close to zero in just decades.
While Toyota has been skeptical of electric cars, the carmaker is expressing optimism about technology that can supplement plugging in: solar. Along with its battery partners NIDO and Sharp, Toyota is experimenting with a new Prius Prime in Japan (called the Prius PHV there), equipped with 860 watts of solar panels on the roof, hood, and rear...
Combating global warming and air pollution is about more than electric cars, as General Motors has made clear in its annual sustainability report issued at the end of June. GM CEO Mary Barra has repeatedly proclaimed the company’s goal of “zero accidents, zero emissions, and zero congestion.” To that end, late last year, the...
![Mulan wind farm [CREDIT: Global Climate Budget 2018]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/mulan-wind-farm-credit-global-climate-budget-2018_100682097_t.gif)
Democratic presidential candidates talked hardly at all in the debates late last month about the Green New Deal, a proposal in Congress, to, among other things convert America's electric power completely to renewable sources. Americans have shown broad support for such a transition. What's been left unaddressed—and which many candidates...
![Tesla Store Los Angeles [photo: Misha Bruk / MBH Architects]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/tesla-store-los-angeles-photo-misha-bruk-mbh-architects_100449434_t.gif)
The Connecticut Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the case of whether Tesla should have been allowed to operate stores in the state. It's a case that could help shape a brewing national debate about how consumers buy electric cars, whether current dealers are equipped to sell them, and whether new startup automakers should be subject to laws...
The Roald Amundsen, an expedition cruise ship that can carry 500 passengers and is designed for rough waters, set out last Monday on its maiden voyage silently, on electric power. It can plug in to charge its batteries when it's in port, but with a schedule reaching to the far poles of the world, the ship cruises mainly like a conventional hybrid...
