Nissan Leaf sedan: company builds Sylphy, first electric car for China

Chinese market Nissan SlyphyNissan on Monday announced it had started production in China of a Nissan Leaf-based sedan called the Sylphy. The company first introduced the car at the Beijing auto show in April. China, the world's largest market for electric cars, also leans heavily toward sedans. The Sylphy stretches the Leaf's wheelbase to give it more rear passenger space...

Chinese electric-car builder Byton says it raised $500 million

Byton SUV conceptA $500 million infusion from investors including an automaker and a major battery supplier could help Chinese electric-car startup Byton put its cars on the road by the end of next year, the company said Monday. Byton said that its big investors—Chinese state-owned automaker FAW Group, Chinese lithium-ion battery developer CATL, and Chinese...

7 things we learned in 9 years, and where green cars are headed

Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland   [photo: Forth]More than four years ago, this site looked back at its first five years of coverage to assess what had changed—and what we'd learned. Now, we're repeating the exercise. In February 2014, Green Car Reports had published about 9,800 news articles. The number is now up to more than 16,800. Much has changed since then, however. We've broken down...

Infiniti announces new electric car lineup based on Q Inspiration

Infiniti Q Inspiration conceptInfiniti has promised to build electric cars in fits and starts since 2012—but we're still waiting. At the 2012 Detroit auto show, the upscale brand showed the Infiniti LE, a dressed up Nissan Leaf with a trunk, but it backed away from the model two years later and we didn't hear anything else about electrics from Infiniti for years. Until...

Tesla founder, Chinese company launch SF Motors electric cars

SF Motors SF5In the beginning, there was Tesla, although it wasn't started by current CEO Elon Musk. While Musk has now become synonymous with the electric-car brand, Tesla was actually founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who had previously founded and sold a eBook reader company. While both left the company in 2008, they have kept their hands in...

What China learned from California about getting electric cars on its roads

2014 Tesla Model S in ChinaIn the U.S., California has long been viewed culturally as the crazy, free-spirited cousin. As Californians like to point out, their state of 40 million people is also the world's sixth-largest economy all by itself. Resolutely progressive, it has regulated vehicle emissions for five decades and worked to get zero-emission vehicles onto its roads...