As East Coast states try to catch California in plug-in car sales, they've lost another arrow in their quiver. Honda switched from offering big incentives on Clarity Plug-In Hybrids in Northeastern States to shipping its entire U.S. allotment to California, according to a Honda spokeswoman. "California is the largest market for plug-in hybrid... Honda pulls back Clarity PHEV outside California
As East Coast states try to catch California in plug-in car sales, they've lost another arrow in their quiver. Honda switched from offering big incentives on Clarity Plug-In Hybrids in Northeastern States to shipping its entire U.S. allotment to California, according to a Honda spokeswoman. "California is the largest market for plug-in hybrid...
Tesla brought back free unlimited Supercharging for the Model S and Model X. When the VW ID R electric race car set a new lap record at Germany's Nurburgring, it demolished other records, too. Concerns over prices and availability of materials for EV batteries may not be about lithium. And our latest Twitter poll asks readers if automated chargers...
As automakers fret over materials and supplies of electric car batteries, it may not be lithium keeping executives up at night. A new report from Bloomberg reveals that prices for class one nickel—high purity and required in some electric car batteries—has jumped more than 35 percent since the end of 2018 on the London Metal Exchange...
Electrify America is developing new chargers with robotic arms to plug into self-driving cars. That led us to wonder: Is that really more helpful than wireless charging pads? Wireless chargers lose efficiency if cars don't line up over them precisely, which may trouble some drivers. If cars are driving themselves, they could be expected to line up...
As the Volkswagen ID R electric race car blistered around Germany's famous Nurburgring-Nordschliefe race course in June, it broke another record too: for the lowest fuel consumption driving around the course. Volkswagen announced Friday that the ID R set a new fuel-efficiency record of the equivalent of 17 mpg on the lap. If that sounds like...
Tesla announced Saturday it is bringing back free Supercharging on its high-end Model S and Model X. We've heard that before. What makes this time different is that the company isn't just offering the incentive on a few cars or in a limited amount. Instead, the company will offer free lifetime Supercharging to all buyers who purchase a Model S or...
California filed another lawsuit against the Trump administration over proposed fuel-economy rules, this time about fines. Karma plans to show off its GT by Pininfarina coupe at Monterey Car week this month. New federal tax credits in Canada have boosted EV sales in the country, the government says. And a new study by Volvo hints at how much fuel...
Self-driving cars are green cars, not just because they are usually electric. One of the biggest reasons engineers began working on self-driving cars more than a dozen years ago was for their efficiency, reducing stop-and-go driving and eventually even stoplights. (Potential safety improvements are another big motivation.) Now, a study by the...
After Canada introduced a nationwide $5,000 tax credit for electric cars, sales shot up by 30 percent, the country's Transport Ministry announced on Thursday. The government announced the tax credit in March, after a new provincial election in Ontario last July brought a Conservative government to power which ended that province's $14,000 tax...
Gone is the Joker grin, as well as the walrus mustache. The new Karma GT by Pininfarina will show off its much sleeker facelift at Monterey Car Week next weekend in California. The GT by Pininfarina, which made its first appearance at the Shanghai auto show in April, is a two-door coupe version of the Karma Revero sedan. The Revero itself is an...
California launched another lawsuit against the Trump administration over fuel economy regulations on Friday, this time over a federal decision to suspend planned increases in penalties for automakers who miss required targets. In announcing the lawsuit, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra accused the Trump administration of trying to make...
Once cars are able to drive themselves, drivers—er, occupants—shouldn't need steering wheels to control them. Yet when BMW teased a new picture of its planned self-driving, electric iNext SUV last month, the photo showed nothing more than a steering wheel—which itself is not even round. BMW says that in the iNext the driver is no...
Who got arrested on charges relating to VW's emissions cheating scandal? What company found low confidence in EVs among consumers? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending August 2, 2019. The diesel-emissions scandal apparently isn't over yet. We started last week with new results...
Audi plans a more affordable, shorter-range E-tron in Europe. Tesla is introducing a larger stationary battery pack for businesses. The Kia Optima Hybrid merges back in for 2020 with minor changes. And a California startup company wants to turn CO2 into gasoline. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Audi's new version of the electric E-tron...
The California startup Prometheus Fuels is one of many efforts aiming to scale up a process that can sound remarkably simple: “We remove CO2 from the air and turn it into gasoline.” The process, which has in recent years seemed alternately like a Holy Grail or a red herring for the oil and gas industry, has already been achieved. But...
Last week, Tesla introduced something bigger than its Powerpack energy-storage systems: the Megapack, for large utility-scale storage installations.. Tesla says the Megapack, which stores 3 megawatt-hours of electricity, has 60 percent more energy density than the Powerpack. For grid power installations, that means companies can install fewer than...
Audi is already introducing a new version of its E-tron quattro electric SUV in Europe with smaller batteries. The short-range model will have a 71-kilowatt-hour battery pack in place of the original's 95-kwh battery pack. Audi confirmed to Green Car Reports that the new model won't be sold in the U.S. In Europe, it will be rated at 186 miles on...
The 2020 Kia Optima Hybrid joins non-hybrid Optima models in making several important safety features standard. In 2019, automatic emergency braking and automatic lane control were optional on the Optima Hybrid EX and were not available on the Plug-in Hybrid. For 2020, the Optima Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid again come only in the EX trim level...