Toyota electric-car tech to come from venture with Mazda, Denso

2012 Toyota RAV4 EV PrototypeVery little is known for sure about the long-range electric car Toyota will launch around 2020. Over the last two years, the company—by far the industry's strongest proponent of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles—has concluded it must field a battery-electric vehicle to stay competitive. Toyota is likely unhappy about it, but regulations in...

How Tesla Model S alters car ownership: a buyer’s one-year notes

2016 Tesla Model S   [photo by owner Shiva]In late July, we published an article describing one electric-car driver's experience in adding solar panels to his home to help with charging his family's five electric cars. That reader, who'd like to be known just as Shiva, has now owned a 2016 Tesla Model S for a year. He recently outlined for us how that experience has gone, and how it's...

Which electric car will sell best in 2018, globally? Poll results

2017 Tesla Model 3Next year is shaping up to be a banner year for electric cars globally. The new, longer-range second-generation Nissan Leaf will be in production at three factories around the world, the Tesla Model 3 should hit volume production, and the Chevy Bolt EV will be fully available in North America, Europe, and South Korea. And then there's China, where...

48-volt mild hybrids heading toward ubiquity in Europe as diesel declines

Johnson Controls 48-volt lithium-ion micro-hybrid batteryPublic concerns over diesel cars, and their ebbing sales, have become a well-documented phenomenon in Europe after decades of popularity. When the VW diesel scandal exposed deliberate cheating, and real-world testing revealed that no virtually no diesels certified for sale actually met emission limits, automakers across the industry adopted rapid...

Electric cars about to be profitable, says India’s Mahindra

Mahindra e2o PlusThe market for electric cars continues to grow, but vehicles powered by fossil fuels remain dominant across the globe. Many analysts believe electric cars will reach price parity with vehicles powered by internal-combustion engines sometime within the next decade. Indian maker Mahindra, however, says its own small, limited-range electric cars are...