Breaking the silence: In Europe, EVs must sound like gas cars

Nissan Leaf Self-Driving CarElectric cars in the European Union no longer benefit from their signature silent acceleration. Instead, they need to sound like gas cars. A new law taking effect in the EU Monday aims to improve safety by ensuring that pedestrians—including those who are sight impaired or distracted—can hear electric cars as they approach. The new law...

Volkswagen talks through Europe’s tough new emissions tests

Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS) on a Peugeot 308From the U.S., we most often encounter European WLTP standards in the context of sizing up plug-in driving range for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids that haven’t yet been rated by the EPA. The Worldwide Harmonised Light-Vehicle Test Procedure, is however taking form as the most comprehensive emissions program in the world, replacing...

Nio recalls SUVs in China after battery fires

2019 Nio ES6Chinese startup automaker Nio is recalling nearly 5,000 of the ES8 SUVs that it has sold in China following a spate of fires in their battery packs. Nio says the pack assembly is the problem. A module in the pack can rub against a cable that samples voltage and eventually wear through the insulation—causing a short that leads to a fire. The...

Genesis confirms electric sedan for 2021

Genesis Essentia Concept, 2018 New York auto showThe first electric car for Hyundai's Genesis brand is due in 2021. Manfred Fitzgerald, the brand's global executive vice president, noted to Australia's Drive that the company is working on a new electric platform that is likely to spawn both a sedan and an SUV, with the sedan likely to come first. Though Genesis has shown several EV concepts over...

Lightyear aims to build solar-team expertise into an electric car

Lightyear OneIf the future is electric, the latest electric-car startup company looks more like the future than most. Dutch startup company Lightyear is developing a futuristic-looking sedan with sleek aerodynamics, wheel-hub motors, and 53 square feet of solar panels on the roof and hood. That could amount to about 795 watts of solar power—about...

Cooling issue slowing some Electrify America fast chargers over holiday week

Electrify America DC fast chargers at San Francisco Premium Outlets, Livermore, CaliforniaDrivers of the Audi E-tron electric SUV aiming for a holiday-week road trip could be up for a longer wait at the charging station. It's no fault of the vehicle, and it's not a widespread issue; but if you have an E-tron it would be cause for some advance planning. The charging network Electrify America has had to temporarily reduce the power of 30...

In spite of tougher standards, European cars get dirtier

English traffic, from European Environment Agency reportEuropean automakers need to sell many more electric cars, but their customers aren't buying. Instead, they're buying more gas powered SUVs that emit more pollution than the cars they drove before. The ramifications for automakers could be dire if they can't sell more electric cars by next year. The European Union is scheduled to introduce the...

Federal tax credit on Tesla models set to ratchet down again July 1

2018 Tesla Model S and 2018 Tesla Model XBuyers who want to buy a Tesla have only a few days to take delivery if they want to earn a federal tax credit of $3,750 after they buy. Tesla is in the midst of the phase-out of its federal tax credit after it surpassed selling a cumulative total of 200,000 cars last June. The $1,875 credit on Teslas will last from July 1 to December 31, before...

BMW isn’t finished with internal combustion engines yet

2020 BMW X3 M CompetitionMany automakers now see electric vehicles as the long-range future of the passenger vehicle. What may actually say more though, in the language of corporate nuance, is that few companies have gone so far as to solidly declare that the end is nigh for internal combustion engines. Among the examples that have been so bold: Volvo won’t develop...

Reports: Tesla working to develop its own batteries

2017 Tesla Model 3, in photo tweeted by Elon Musk on July 9, 2017Unlike other electric automakers, Tesla has long had a lock on its own battery supplies through an exclusive deal with Panasonic and the companies' jointly owned battery Gigafactory in Nevada. Now the company is working to develop its own batteries at a skunkworks near its main car factory in Fremont, California, according to multiple reports...

Architect of clean-air rollbacks resigns at EPA

Bill Wehrum, EPA Office of Air and Radiation head (CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons)EPA Office of Air and Radiation Administrator Bill Wehrum, an attorney who formerly represented power companies in their effort to roll back clean-air regulations, has resigned. The biggest air-quality issues that the Office of Air and Radiation oversees are tailpipe emissions from cars, and emissions from power plants that increasingly provide...

BMW Motorrad sketches out what’s next: electric motorcycles

BMW Motorrad Vision DC electric motorcycle conceptWhile quite a few startup companies have been building electric motorcycles for years, established motorcycle manufacturers have been slow to join the fray. The much-anticipated Harley Davidson Livewire, for instance, isn't yet out but is due in August. On Tuesday, BMW Motorrad, the company's motorcycle division, at last announced its intent to...

Battle over EV tax credit pits automakers against oil interests

U.S. Capitol BuildingThe possibility of an extension for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit has recently intensified lobbying efforts in Washington D.C.—and pitted the efforts of the auto industry soundly against those of the oil and gas industry. So reports the Washington Post. According to its report this week, the powerful companies and interests opposing the...