Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory last week announced they've managed to transfer 120 kw of power at an efficiency of 97 percent—more efficiently than any currently available physical charging connection. A version of the 20-kw wireless charging system that the same laboratory previously designed...
The Tesla Model S has slipped back off Consumer Reports recommended list, due to a dip in reliability, as the consumer organization assesses it. Suspension problems are to blame, reported CR. In 2017 Tesla made its air suspension standard on the Model S, and all versions were dual-motor (all-wheel drive). DON’T MISS: Tesla tops Consumer...
BMW has announced an expanded recall effort over the possibility of fire in recent-model-year vehicles equipped with a diesel engine. The issue, which now potentially affects 1.6 million vehicles worldwide, concerns an issue in which coolant (glycol) leakage from the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system cooler could combine with “typical...
Volvo invests in mobile charging. Vehicle bodies might double as batteries in the future. And yes, the day has finally come for Tesla. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Tesla yesterday reported a profit. With some creative number-crunching, it also claimed to have the best-selling car in the U.S. on a revenue basis. Other good news for...
Volvo Cars has announced an investment in Freewire Technologies, a company that emphasizes mobile charging solutions. Freewire earlier this year attracted a $5 million investment from the petro-giant BP, which will result in Freewire’s fast-charging systems being installed at some BP stations in the UK and Europe—effectively helping...
Automakers seem to be in agreement that the ‘skateboard’ location for heavy battery packs—low and wide beneath the passenger floor—is the ideal layout for electric vehicles. Decades from now that might not be the cars. Researchers in Sweden have examined the possibility of using the vehicle shell as a battery casing...
Although Tesla may still sometimes be finding its way in terms of how to build cars themselves, it retains a distinct advantage over pretty much every other automaker in one respect: superb power management. Buried in the company’s third-quarter 2018 financial results—hailing a profit—were some numbers worth boasting about more...
Tesla’s quarterly earnings call today was shaping up to be, at long last, an earnings call. Tesla reported a net income of $312 million for the third quarter of 2018.The all-electric vehicle maker made money. It also claimed that, given its financial results—and some creative number-crunching—it has the best-selling car in the...
A surge in production and sales of the Model 3 sedan helped lift the company’s performance.
A surge in sales of the Model 3 helped lift the company’s performance, but big financial and production challenges remain.
GM is next, after Tesla, in hitting the 200,000 ceiling for the EV tax credit. The EPA dismisses some more groups of scientists. And electric-vehicle hopeful Dyson is soon starting a factory, as Faraday Future's struggles continue. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Less than six days after rolling its new Model 3 Mid Range out for order...
Uber announced Tuesday that it will levy a surcharge for its ride-hailing passengers in London. The goal: to get 20,000 drivers to go all-electric by the end of 2021, on the way to make every car using its ride-hailing app an electric vehicle in the smog- and congestion-prone city by 2025. The surcharge, which is part of the company’s...
Beginning next April, buyers of General Motors’ electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids won’t be getting the same break on their purchase as those who buy those vehicles from any other brand. Any other brand but Tesla, that is. GM has confirmed to Green Car Reports that it will reach 200,000 deliveries of vehicles eligible for the...
The EPA has dismissed two panels of outside scientists that advised the agency on particulate matter and ground-level ozone, which have been linked to smog and respiratory problems. Under acting administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal-industry lobbyist, analyzing those pollutants will be left to the EPA's internal Clean Air Scientific Advisory...
Dyson, the British maker of premium vacuum cleaners, aims to enter the electric-car arena—and it’s chosen Singapore as the global assembly site. The company confirmed that its board has ratified the decision for the company itself to construct what it calls a “purpose-built advanced automotive manufacturing facility” there...
![Munro & Associates teardown of Tesla Model 3 [Autoline]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/munro-associates-teardown-of-tesla-model-3-autoline_100676157_t.gif)
A much-publicized Tesla teardown from earlier in the year reveals some lessons and missed opportunities. Battery manufacturing happens to be in places with dirty power sources. And DC fast chargers have the potential to downsize. All this and more on Green Car Reports. The teardown (disassembly) analysis of a Tesla Model 3 earlier this year...
Last year employee parking lots overflowed at Tesla’s Fremont, California, plant. By comparing the headcount of Tesla's factory at present versus historically, it’s easy to grasp why the facility has seemed so crowded. At its heyday, Toyota and GM needed 4,400 people at Fremont. Tesla has an on-site workforce estimated to be...
Mercedes-Benz is launching a new trial for fuel-cell cars in Germany, with aims to study real-world use patterns. Mercedes will begin leasing its GLC F-Cell fuel-cell SUVs to fleet customers in Germany for $917 a month, according to a report in Automotive News Europe (Subscription required.) No information was available about how many GLC F-Cells...
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a 50-kw fast charger that they say costs half as much as conventional DC fast chargers, is more efficient, and only 1/16th the size. Instead of being mounted on concrete slabs, sometimes in two locations, with a transformer behind a fence and a charge station box by a parking space, the...
A new report shows that emissions from producing large battery packs for electric cars could cancel out improvements from their low emissions for years. The report comes from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which is usually optimistic about electric cars. In May, the analytic arm of the finance publishing house predicted that electric cars will make...
