The "Ford Uncovered Future Product Forum" held Thursday for journalists was a break in recent tradition for Detroit's second-largest automaker. The abrupt firing of CEO Mark Fields last May was an indication that Ford's board of directors wasn't happy with progress in preparing the company for a turbulent and uncertain automotive future. But the...
First came the Tesla Model S, followed by the Model X. Then Audi, Jaguar, and Mercedes-Benz rolled out their plans for single long-range electric luxury models to compete with Tesla. Now, the Germans are teasing their plans for further electric cars aimed at Tesla, with the Audi Sport e-tron GT the latest to be announced. DON'T MISS: Audi e-tron...
Lots of automakers wish they could get a bite of Tesla’s business. While critics and auto-industry analysts harp about the company's lack of profitability and slow production, fewer acknowledge that when the Model S was launched it quickly claimed the mantle as the bestselling luxury sedan on the market. If traditional automakers remain...
Many times our polls deal with weighty issues—climate change, renewable energy, the effects of denying science—or survey expectations for the future. But sometimes we just do a "Pick one!" kind of poll. That's what we did last week, when we asked Twitter followers to name their favorite electric car from among four choices now on the...
Today, we've got the first of a few articles from a Ford press event on its future lineup. Also, more info on Tesla Model 3 quality problems, why electric cars are key to China's battle against smog, and another Twitter poll. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Now that utility vehicles and SUVs of all sizes are surging in demand, what...
The automaker plans to widen its range of sport-utility vehicles, including some all-electric or hybrid models, to better compete with rivals.
Ford hasn’t given up on hybrids and electric cars, despite letting its existing models languish since 2013. That was the message conveyed by various executives at an event Thursday morning at the Ford Product Development Center in Dearborn, Michigan. The company will build a hybrid version of five SUVs it sells by 2020, promised Jim Farley...
Electric-car maker Tesla is known for troubled launches, at least for the four products it's offered since the first Roadster in 2008. But the launch of the Tesla Model 3, its lower-priced electric sedan, may be the most challenging yet—and it may be the Tesla with the highest expectations. The first 30 cars, now accepted to be largely...
![Exhaust emissions from tailpipe [photo: Simone Ramella, 2005, used under Creative Commons 2.0]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/exhaust-emissions-from-tailpipe-photo-simone-ramella-2005-used-under-creative-commons-2-0_100644014_t.gif)
Well, that's awkward. At its annual media briefing on Wednesday, Volkswagen Group executives said the costs of meeting new emission tests in the EU, lowering carbon emissions globally, and launching multiple new electric models would eat into the company's profits. With the company's diesels in disfavor even in Europe and unlikely to reappear in...
Roughly half of everyone alive in the U.S. today has never experienced really bad smog. Those over, say, age 45—big-city residents and Angelenos especially—may recall hazy days in which the sun was barely visible, and air that actually tasted metallic. It's a memorable experience, and it's why the future of electric cars increasingly...
Over the last several years, U.S. sales of utility vehicles, from small crossovers to hulking truck-based SUVs, have surged. Meanwhile, passenger cars—sedans, hatchbacks, the occasional wagon—have stagnated and in many cases, fallen sharply. Several factors have driven this shift. DON'T MISS: Where will we see the most electric-car...
Today, we've got electric-car news from VW Group, war brewing between the EPA and California, the reason Germany electric-car sales are rising rapidly, and some thoughts on why Ford might bring back the Escape Hybrid in future. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Volkswagen said yesterday it has secured contracts for electric-car batteries...
Tomorrow, Ford is hosting journalists at an unusual event called "Ford Uncovered," at which it may discuss some of its future products for 2020 and beyond. Key among the questions that attendees will undoubtedly ask will be those about the company's strategy for electrified vehicles. While Ford was the first U.S. carmaker to offer a hybrid...
It's starting to look like China will lead the world in adoption of plug-in electric cars, but which carmaking nations will follow it? While electric cars were launched simultaneously in Japan and the United States, Europe lagged somewhat behind. Now, however, Germany—home to the largest piece of Europe's auto industry—appears to be...
Now, it's war, in the words of California's lead emission regulator. In what Bloomberg News called a "wide-ranging interview" with EPA chief Scott Pruitt, he indicated the agency does not intend to let California set the agenda for national emission limits on vehicles. Bringing California into line would require eliminating the state's 50-year...
For a company that has only two battery-electric models in production, both several years old, VW Group spends a great deal of time talking about electric cars. The company has plans to launch 30 new electric vehicles by 2025, and has released four Volkswagen ID concepts, the first of which will enter production in November 2019. At its annual...
Today, we visited the place where old, non-compliant VW diesels go to rest, we have some surprisingly good news on auto emissions, and the cost of plug-in delivery trucks is clearly coming down. All this and more on Green Car Reports. UPS announced that 50 Workhorse plug-in hybrid trucks it is buying cost no more than their conventional...
The first major emission controls on motor vehicles were introduced in 1975 with the advent of the catalytic converter. Today's cars emit less than 1 percent of the three "criteria" pollutants that came out of their tailpipes half a century ago. They emit relatively so little carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons that the collective...
It might be the world’s largest single-company junkyard and pick-a-part business, if not for the prominent "No Trespassing" and "Drone-Free Zone" signs. Instead, it’s a massive storage facility in Colorado for thousands of disgraced VW and Audi TDI diesel vehicles awaiting whatever fate holds for them. At least the locale, in the...
For almost a decade, commercial-fleet managers have acknowledged that electric truck are much cheaper to run per mile than the diesel equivalents they now use. But justifying the purchase of electric trucks has been a challenge because their upfront costs have been considerably higher. That may now have changed, according to no less a fleet...
