Musk teases Tesla truck, opens Chinese Model 3 orders at lower price

Tesla CEO Elon Musk (r.) and Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong in Shanghai July 10, 2018In an appearance on a "Ride the Lightning" unofficial Tesla podcast this weekend, CEO Elon Musk got a little more specific about the company's highly-anticipated upcoming pickup truck. He confirmed earlier reports that the new pickup "won't look like a normal truck. It's going to look pretty sci-fi," he told interviewer Ryan McCaffrey. To be sure...

NYC taxi mpg requirements also cut pollution, study confirms

Ford Fusion Hybrid TaxiNew York City's efforts a decade ago to clean up pollution from old taxi models has worked—mostly—a new study shows. The study, by researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (in New York) and Drexel University, and published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, shows that the...

VW diesel mitigation: PIRG rates state plans, lacks reality check on EVs

Volkswagen TDI 'clean diesel' television ad screencapThe Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal has fallen out of the news, but VW Group recently boosted its allowance for the total costs to 30 billion euros ($33 billion). In the U.S., VW has bought back hundreds of thousands of TDI diesel vehicles and is paying two distinct 10-figure penalties. The best-known is the $2 billion that will go to create...

Rolls-Royce guns for electric airplane speed record

Rolls-Royce ACCEL electric speed record attempt airplaneWhen most people think of Rolls-Royce, they think of ultra-luxury cars, not airplanes. But a separate Rolls-Royce, spun off of the automaker in 1971, makes aircraft engines. And that company plans to go electric in tackling the world speed record for electric airplanes. To borrow a famous phrase from the automaker, if "horsepower is sufficient."...

EPA lifts smog-related ban, allows more ethanol in summer gasoline

Gas pumpToday, the EPA acted on a proposed change to expand the amount of ethanol that can be mixed into pump gasoline from June 1 to September 1. In an official announcement, the agency made no comment about how the move might affect summer air quality or pollution issues. The EPA said that it “delivers on President Trump’s promise,”...