When do electric-car tax credits expire? (updated for 2018)

Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland   [photo: Forth]In less than three months, personal income-tax returns or 2017 will be due for most U.S. adults. Some of those taxpayers will have bought a plug-in electric car last year, knowing that the Federal government offers an income-tax credit to help reduce the effective cost. But as more and more electric cars hit the roads, will electric-car shoppers...

Nissan and partners have now sold 540,000 plug-in electric vehicles

2018 Nissan LeafOf the 90 million or so new vehicles sold globally last year, plug-in electric cars made up only a tiny proportion, roughly 1 percent. But the auto industry works on long product cycles and buyers tend to be conservative, only changing the types of cars they buy if life circumstances change or there's a compelling financial reason to do so...

2018 Kia Niro preview

2018 Kia Niro Plug-In HybridMost highly fuel-efficient dedicated hybrids are compact five-door hatchbacks, the most popular vehicle segment globally. When Korean maker Kia was drawing up plans for its first dedicated hybrid vehicle, it took a different path. The wagon it came up with—it calls the Kia Niro a crossover, we disagree—has been a success in the U.S...

Scotland power boss: Peak charging could cause grid problems

Nissan Leaf in ScotlandVastly greater numbers of electric cars on United Kingdom roads could pose problems for the power supplies used to recharge them—if, that is, they all plug in during the day. Frank Mitchell, head of SP Energy Networks a unit of ScottishPower, said a rush to electric cars in the U.K. could burden the power grid if owners opt to charge those...

Trump promised to save the coal industry; it hasn’t happened

Coal trains by Flickr user Kimon Berlin (Used under CC License)You may recall that President Donald Trump made some ambitious and audacious campaign promises about his plans to revive America's dwindling coal industry. Two weeks ago, The Washington Post fact-checked the president's delivery on those promises after his first year in office—in multiples of "Pinocchios," its measure of untruthfulness for...

Here’s how California’s carpool (HOV-lane) stickers work now

I-95/395 reversible HOV lanes, located in the middle of the freeway (pic by Mariordo at Wikimedia)For years, green-car buyers in California have enjoyed a special perk: access to high-occupancy vehicle lanes that can whiz past gridlock, even with just a single occupant. Now, updates to the rules signed into law in October by Governor Jerry Brown will likely change the way owners and shoppers view the coveted carpool-lane stickers and how they...

Effect of Trump solar-panel import tariffs on clean-power growth debated

Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TennesseeA majority of the photovoltaic solar panels used in the U.S. are imported from such countries as China, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. Now, environmentalists and energy analysts worry that the new 30-percent tariff on solar-panel imports announced last Monday by President Donald Trump may stymie the rapidly growing clean-energy...