Look for new gridlock-busting purple California Clean Air stickers

Carpool lanes I-5, Seattle, Washington [Credit: SounderBruce-Wikimedia Commons]California electric-car drivers have a new color to keep track of. Starting New Year's Day 2019, the state will issue updated Clean Air stickers that allow electric cars purchased after January 1 to access the state's carpool lanes, even without a carpool inside. The new purple decals will remain valid through Jan. 1, 2023, a year longer than the...

California to pass half-million electric-car mark

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car in Maven car-sharing fleet, Los Angeles [photo: Dan MacMedan foBy the end of November, California will have more than 500,000 electric cars registered in the state, according to the latest report from Veloz, a consortium of state regulators, utilities, and other advocates for electric cars. California already has 491,000 electric cars on its roads, out of the 1.02 million sold in the United States since 2011...

Tesla, GM, Nissan band together to extend electric-car tax credits

Image from 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric-car ad by Ourisman Chevrolet, Rockville, MarylandAs tax credits for buyers of America's two most popular electric-car brands begin to sunset, automakers and advocates are banding together to restructure the tax-credit program and extend them. Tesla, General Motors, and Nissan—the top three sellers of electric cars in the U.S.—have banded together with the Center for Climate and...

Wind and solar cost less than coal for power

wind farmProducing renewable electricity is cheaper than running old coal plants, a new report from investment firm Lazard shows. Lazard reports that new wind farms in the U.S. can produce power for $29 to $56 per megawatt-hour, compared to $27 to $45 for existing coal-fired powerplants, according to a report last week in the British Financial Times...

Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid plug-in all-electric range revealed

2019 Subaru CrosstrekNew documents reveal that the upcoming 2019 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid will have about 25 miles of all-electric range, according to its EPA estimate. That puts it in the hunt with other plug-in hybrid small hatchbacks and crossover vehicles. The California documents, first obtained by Autoblog, show specific all-electric range ratings of 25.65 miles...

Track Mode released to make more of Tesla Model 3 Performance

2018 Tesla Model 3Tesla confirmed last Thursday that Track Mode has started rolling out for the Model 3 Performance, in an update for vehicles that have already received Version 9 of the automaker’s vehicle software. The company emphasized that Track Mode is intended specifically for closed circuits. It’s primarily a series of updates to the vehicle...

Faraday Future loses final founding executive

Artist’s impression of Faraday Future’s proposed plant in Hanford, CaliforniaFaraday Future is a startup electric carmaker founded by a Chinese investor and five executives with experience in building cars and electric cars. Now that the company seems to be in its final throes of its latest financial crisis, the last of those executives has reportedly left the company. READ THIS: Does Faraday have a Future? Latest...