In an effort to make longer-lasting, safer, and more affordable batteries, Washington-based XNRGI aims to build lithium batteries on plentiful, off-the shelf silicon wafers. Last week, the company announced plans to bring new batteries based on its patented technology to market in 2020, in a new stationary storage battery. Most such batteries...
As countries from India to Ethiopia plant millions of trees to combat global warming, one German company has a much smaller idea. Berlin-based Green City Solutions plans to clean the air of local emissions from gasoline and diesel engines, by planting millions of tiny mossy trees in cities. Moss works similarly to trees in filtering pollutants out...
Inductive charging is here—on a plug-in hybrid. A different twist for battery cooling could help performance and charging. Nio regroups in light of sagging sales in China. And a French company wants to do EV conversions on a budget. All this and more on Green Car Reports. BMW has announced that it will soon offer inductive wireless charging...
The two biggest challenges for electric cars—battery life and charge times—come down to battery cooling. Now British auto parts supplier Ricardo is working with partners to come up with a new type of cooling technology that the company hopes will allow automakers to pack more energy into cars' batteries and to charge them faster. The...
Off-the-shelf EV conversions aren't just for classic cars like Prince Harry's Jaguar anymore. French startup Transition One plans to make it easy to convert a wide variety of average old cars in the country to electric power by building a standard conversion kit. The company says the kit will fit several top-selling models in Europe, including the...
After laying off 70 workers and closing an office in the U.S., Chinese automaker Nio is searching its cupboards for cash. EV sales have foundered in China this year after generous subsidies expired. and several companies have delayed or abandoned expansion plans. Nio seems to be no exception, except that it has other resources it can look to cash...
Americans soon will have a fully automaker-supported car that supports inductive wireless charging. BMW announced Friday that it will soon offer inductive charging in the 2019 BMW 530e iPerformance. In BMW’s current nomenclature, that’s the plug-in hybrid version of its 5-Series sedan. The catch: You’ll need to live in one of 13...
When it comes to auto racing, hybrid technology isn't just about cutting emissions and fuel consumption. New hybrid powertrains planned for Indy racers are expected not only to boost horsepower, but also to make racing safer by diminishing or eliminating stalls on the track, which now require a safety crew to respond to restart the car. IndyCar...
Which car became exclusive to California? What did NHTSA say to Tesla? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending August 9, 2019. Tesla was hit with a lawsuit alleging that a software update cut range from some of its cars. The NHTSA also sent Tesla a letter asking it to stop saying...
Tesla faces a lawsuit over lost range in some older models. Mini may go all-electric with its next generation of models. Startup heavy truckmaker Nikola won a federal grant to improve fuel cells. And a European project worked out how to get as much range and efficiency from natural-gas engines as from gasoline. All this and more on Green Car...
![2013 Tesla Model S, in July 2017 [photo: David Noland]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/2013-tesla-model-s-in-july-2017-photo-david-noland_100613425_t.gif)
What over-the-air-updates give, they can also take away. That’s part of what's at the root of a new lawsuit against Tesla on Thursday from a California man who says that a recent software update to his 2014 Model S cut 40 miles off the maximum range of his car, and it has lost about 8 kilowatt-hours of battery capacity. Since Tesla prices...
Startup truckmaker Nikola, which plans to build fuel-cell-powered semi trucks in Arizona, won a $1.7 million grant to research improved techniques to assemble fuel-cell membranes, the company announced on Wednesday. The company will partner with Department of Energy scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, Northeastern University, and Georgia...
As the next-generation of Mini models goes on sale, they may all be electric. According to a Tuesday report from Automobile, Mini's overseers at BMW have may have nixed all future gas engines for the brand and simultaneously pared its future lineup to just three models. The remaining models, to come in 2023 or later, will include a replacement for...
Some biofuels, like biogas from landfills—or synthetic methane—are attractive for use in vehicles as they have a potentially low energy cost to produce. They also have lower criteria emissions, of the sort that affect human health and cause smog. These engines should easily be cross-compatible with those using compressed natural gas...
Nissan and EVgo are working together to make fast-charging faster and more widespread. Tesla has started to bump up the price of its Full Self-Driving Capability option for existing owners. Auto suppliers show how much range electric heat pumps can save. And Toyota cleans up its act at factories. All this and more on Green Car Reports. As part of...
This past winter’s deep freeze and its record-low temperatures exposed a reality that anyone thinking about an electric car has to come to terms with: Cold winter weather can cut the effective driving range of some electric vehicles by 40 percent or more. Partly to blame is that the resistive heating electric cars rely on (yes, like those...
![Consumer Reports Tesla Model 3 testing Navigate on Autopilot [CREDIT: Consumer Reports]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/consumer-reports-tesla-model-3-testing-navigate-on-autopilot-credit-consumer-reports_100702129_t.gif)
Tesla announced in an email to owners on Wednesday that it will boost the price of its "Full Self-Driving Capability" suite of driver-assistance features starting Aug. 16. The increase applies over-the-air upgrades for existing Tesla owners who already have some of those features in the Enhanced Autopilot package. The move is the first step in...
Toyota announced plans last week to reduce emissions from its U.S. operations by 40 percent over the next three years as part of its plan to operate emissions-free by 2050. The plan calls to purchase Renewable Energy Credits equivalent to 40 percent of the energy needs of Toyota's U.S. operations. Those credits go to fund renewable energy...
Nissan is expanding its partnership with charging network EVgo to install 200 more DC fast-chargers across the U.S. The new chargers will each dispense up to 100 kw, which can deliver up to 150 miles of range in less than half an hour, and will have both a CHAdeMO plug to charge the Leaf and a CCS Combo plug to charge most other (non-Tesla) EVs as...
Harley hopes the LiveWire, its first production electric vehicle, will redefine an industry that has grown complacent while sales decline.
