Germany fines BMW over diesel emissions

2009 BMW X5 xDrive 35dGerman automakers have been under a microscope when it comes to emissions from their diesel cars, which were formerly bestsellers in Europe. After Daimler, Volkswagen, and German supplier Bosch paid billions in fines and several Audi managers have been arrested over installing diesel-emissions cheat devices, German prosecutors have handed down a...

EPA cuts off fuel-economy talks with California

Freeway, Los Angeles, 2009 (photo by Myriam Thyes via Wikimedia)The Trump administration has ended talks with California aimed at settling their differences over increasing fuel economy and tightening emissions regulations, Reuters reported Thursday, citing an unnamed government official. In August, the EPA, led by Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, released a proposal to freeze emissions and associated fuel...

Ford investigates its own fuel-economy testing methods

2019 Ford RangerFord announced on Thursday that it opened an investigation into the fuel economy testing it does to receive official EPA ratings and federal certification to sell its vehicles in the U.S. The company plans to start by retesting its 2019 Ranger midsize pickup, after employees raised concerns through Ford's internal reporting channel called Speak...

Diesel lawsuit proceeds against Mercedes-Benz

2014 Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTec 4MaticWhile Volkswagen has reached a historic settlement and had to buy back hundreds of thousands of its diesel cars in the U.S., it isn’t the only automaker to be investigated for cheating on diesel emissions. Fiat Chrysler recently agreed to recall its Ram and Jeep EcoDiesels and pay owners for misleading advertising claims. A third case...

Don’t worry about coal, electric cars are still cleaner

Smokestacks pollution air qualityOne of the easiest ways for electric-car drivers to get in an argument is discussing how much coal-fired electricity contributes to pollution. Now a new study by BNEF (a Bloomberg spinoff) can help give electric-car drivers some peace of mind in these arguments. It shows that electric cars are cleaner—even when they do run on primarily...

Shutdown has held up EPA certification, new vehicle introductions

Exhaust emissions from tailpipe [photo: Simone Ramella, 2005, used under Creative Commons 2.0]Now that the government has reopened after a 35-day shutdown, EPA employees are going back to work facing a backlog. Toward the end of the shutdown last week, executives at all three major Detroit automakers expressed concern about certification delays that could affect new models they plan to bring to market. It can now begin addressing that...

EPA enforcement efforts slide 85 percent under Trump administration

Smokestacks pollution air qualityNot only do polluters have lower standards to meet under the Trump administration, they may not really have to meet those standards at all. That's the conclusion of a new study, published by the Washington Post, that shows enforcement activity has fallen drastically in the past two years since President Trump took office. The study, conducted by a...

Lifting the hammer: Germany considers limits on Autobahn speeds

2020 Mercedes-Benz EQCEfforts to curb global warming have led Germany to propose limiting speeds on its famous Autobahns. Facing heavy fines from the European Union if it fails to meet greenhouse-gas reduction targets, the country's committee on the future of transport put forward a series of draft proposals that includes limiting speeds on currently unfettered...