Tesla cuts prices $2,000, almost hit 250,000 vehicles in 2018

2017 Tesla Model 3Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk made a multi-layered end-of-year push, focused on Tesla's final days and weeks of $7,500 federal EV tax credit eligibility. And with more than 90,000 vehicle deliveries in the fourth quarter of the year—a new record for the California electric-car maker—it appears to have worked. According to Tesla, it...

Trump relaxes coal emissions standards (again) over holiday week

EPA Acting Administrator Andrew WheelerFor the second time in a month, the Trump administration has rolled back emissions restrictions on coal-fired power plants. Early in December, the EPA announced a new proposal that would undo carbon-dioxide limits on coal plants, overturning one of President Obama's signature climate change programs, the Clean Power Plan, which never went into...

Volkswagen tests mobile DC fast charging station for urban network gaps

Volkswagen mobile DC fast chargerAutomakers face some daunting challenges in selling electric vehicles to urban apartment-dwellers, who are often without a home charging point. As a partial response, Volkswagen has shown a portable DC fast charging unit aimed at urban environments or temporary use at events or in parking lots—and it could be a very useful part of a strategy...

Iron Man 2 reunion: Musk friend Larry Ellison named to Tesla board

Tesla Motors, Palo Alto, CaliforniaTesla announced Friday that it has added two independent directors to the company's board: Kathleen Wilson-Thompson and Larry Ellison. Yes, it’s that Larry Ellison—the Oracle founder, and one of the richest men in the world, who made a cameo alongside Musk in Iron Man 2. Ellison lives a jet-setting lifestyle—including a lot of...

California white and green carpool stickers expire New Year’s Day

Carpool lanes I-5, Seattle, Washington [Credit: SounderBruce-Wikimedia Commons]California plug-in car drivers with white or green carpool stickers can no longer use carpool lanes starting Tuesday. The state passed a new program last March that invalidates both the white stickers for electric cars and the green stickers for plug-in hybrids with the start of 2019. For many of those drivers, the state provided a way to extend...