Well, that's awkward. At its annual media briefing on Wednesday, Volkswagen Group executives said the costs of meeting new emission tests in the EU, lowering carbon emissions globally, and launching multiple new electric models would eat into the company's profits. With the company's diesels in disfavor even in Europe and unlikely to reappear in... Cutting carbon, meeting real-life emission tests, new electric cars to hurt profits, VW says
Well, that's awkward. At its annual media briefing on Wednesday, Volkswagen Group executives said the costs of meeting new emission tests in the EU, lowering carbon emissions globally, and launching multiple new electric models would eat into the company's profits. With the company's diesels in disfavor even in Europe and unlikely to reappear in...
Roughly half of everyone alive in the U.S. today has never experienced really bad smog. Those over, say, age 45—big-city residents and Angelenos especially—may recall hazy days in which the sun was barely visible, and air that actually tasted metallic. It's a memorable experience, and it's why the future of electric cars increasingly...
Over the last several years, U.S. sales of utility vehicles, from small crossovers to hulking truck-based SUVs, have surged. Meanwhile, passenger cars—sedans, hatchbacks, the occasional wagon—have stagnated and in many cases, fallen sharply. Several factors have driven this shift. DON'T MISS: Where will we see the most electric-car...
Today, we've got electric-car news from VW Group, war brewing between the EPA and California, the reason Germany electric-car sales are rising rapidly, and some thoughts on why Ford might bring back the Escape Hybrid in future. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Volkswagen said yesterday it has secured contracts for electric-car batteries...
Tomorrow, Ford is hosting journalists at an unusual event called "Ford Uncovered," at which it may discuss some of its future products for 2020 and beyond. Key among the questions that attendees will undoubtedly ask will be those about the company's strategy for electrified vehicles. While Ford was the first U.S. carmaker to offer a hybrid...
It's starting to look like China will lead the world in adoption of plug-in electric cars, but which carmaking nations will follow it? While electric cars were launched simultaneously in Japan and the United States, Europe lagged somewhat behind. Now, however, Germany—home to the largest piece of Europe's auto industry—appears to be...
Now, it's war, in the words of California's lead emission regulator. In what Bloomberg News called a "wide-ranging interview" with EPA chief Scott Pruitt, he indicated the agency does not intend to let California set the agenda for national emission limits on vehicles. Bringing California into line would require eliminating the state's 50-year...
For a company that has only two battery-electric models in production, both several years old, VW Group spends a great deal of time talking about electric cars. The company has plans to launch 30 new electric vehicles by 2025, and has released four Volkswagen ID concepts, the first of which will enter production in November 2019. At its annual...
Today, we visited the place where old, non-compliant VW diesels go to rest, we have some surprisingly good news on auto emissions, and the cost of plug-in delivery trucks is clearly coming down. All this and more on Green Car Reports. UPS announced that 50 Workhorse plug-in hybrid trucks it is buying cost no more than their conventional...
The first major emission controls on motor vehicles were introduced in 1975 with the advent of the catalytic converter. Today's cars emit less than 1 percent of the three "criteria" pollutants that came out of their tailpipes half a century ago. They emit relatively so little carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons that the collective...
It might be the world’s largest single-company junkyard and pick-a-part business, if not for the prominent "No Trespassing" and "Drone-Free Zone" signs. Instead, it’s a massive storage facility in Colorado for thousands of disgraced VW and Audi TDI diesel vehicles awaiting whatever fate holds for them. At least the locale, in the...
For almost a decade, commercial-fleet managers have acknowledged that electric truck are much cheaper to run per mile than the diesel equivalents they now use. But justifying the purchase of electric trucks has been a challenge because their upfront costs have been considerably higher. That may now have changed, according to no less a fleet...
Today, we're still cleaning up our list of stories from last week's Geneva auto show, including an electric-car admission and a disappointing debut, along with fuel-economy ratings for the 2019 VW Jetta sedan and this year's new Honda Accord Hybrid. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the weekend, as we do every seven days, we ran down...
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has large challenges, even nine years after it was formed when the Italian company Fiat took over the bankrupt U.S. maker Chrysler. While its Jeep and Ram truck brands are doing well, it sells only three passenger cars in North America above the subcompact category, all of them 10 to 15 years old. Its CEO, Sergio...
The EPA has now released the fuel-efficiency ratings for the 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid, and they came in 1 mpg below the combined number the company had hoped to reach. At a drive event last fall, Honda said it hoped the redesigned Accord Hybrid could manage the same fuel-efficiency ratings as last year's model: 49 mpg city, 47 highway, 48...
Two years ago, the government of India proposed a remarkable and ambitious goal: make every new vehicle coming onto its roads electric by 2030. The plan was largely a response to some of the world's highest levels of hazardous air pollution in its cities, higher in many cases than the legendary foul air in Chinese cities. The world's second-most...
While plug-in electric cars get lots of media attention, they remained just 1 percent of U.S. vehicle sales last year. And while the Trump Administration appears dead-set on rolling back emission limits and fuel-economy requirements established years ago, that effort will undoubtedly face lengthy court challenges as to the scientific basis...
Unveilings for several key new electric cars were expected during the media days for last week's Geneva auto show. The Jaguar I-Pace made its formal debut, and the Audi e-tron appeared in camouflage as a sort of full-size teaser display. But there had been word from Mercedes-Benz that it would introduce an EQ electric car as well. DON'T MISS...
What new electric cars were unveiled at this week's Geneva auto show, and which one appeared only in camouflage? How did we assess the build quality of the Tesla Model 3 we finally got to drive? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, March 9, 2018. Friday, we...
Today, we've got our monthly roundup of green-car deals, a first look at a Toyota Corolla Hybrid (that we may not get), an interview with Daimler's CEO, and good news about electric cars—which got even cleaner in the U.S. last year. Again. All this and more on Green Car Reports. An interview with Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche at the Geneva auto...