Not only do electric vehicles cost literally cents per kilometer to drive, but they also make routine car servicing a thing of the past. The maintenance schedule for Chevrolet's soon to be launched Bolt electric hatch back comprises tires rotation every 12,500 km (7,500 miles) and that's about it until a coolant system flush @ 240,000 km (150,000 miles). If an accurate wheel alignment accompanies every new set of tires you can effectively skip rotation which means the Bolt practically requires absolutely zero maintenance.
And that's only the tip of the iceberg. What goes unsaid is that in EV applications electric motors practically last forever. The international standard for rating motor insulation is based on a half life of 20,000 hours. For every 10c increase in insulation rating life expectancy doubles. For example, a class H (180c) motor that runs at 150c, the insulation systems would lose half it's mechanical strength after 160,000 hours. Power electronics components such as those found in motor inverters are typically rated at up to 100,000 hours.
To put that into context, with average annual motoring of 15,000 km @ an average speed of 60 km/h, a typical EV motor will comfortably cover a minimum 1.2 million kilometres, or 80 years of reliable motoring. No wonder dealerships hate selling EVs!
The point at which electric cars will become truly cost competitive with internal-combustion cars is a subject of vigorous discussion by advocates and skeptics alike. But could tougher emissions standards help push the cost of electric and internal-combustion powertrains toward convergence? Even if the cost of electric cars doesn't drop... 
Today, we review the 2017 Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid, Chrysler reportedly plans to unveil a new electric car at CES, and Porsche may have used an illegal emissions-cheating "defeat device" in its gasoline cars Missed last week's news? Catch up with our Week in Reverse feature. Chrysler will reveal a new electric car at CES in January... 
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is among a roster of chief executives from Silicon Valley set to meet with president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, according to news reports. Musk has suggested that climate change is among the most urgent challenges facing mankind, one reason his company makes only zero-emission electric cars. The president-elect, on the... 
The 2017 Toyota Prius Prime turned out to be a better plug-in hybrid than we had expected when we drove it around sunny Ojai, California, on the press launch in October. It's a viable competitor to the second-generation Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, though the Volt has an EPA-rated 53 miles of electric range to the Prime's 25 miles. Now we've had... 
Swiss design firm Rinspeed does not produce vehicles for sale, but it has built quite a number of unusual concept cars over the years. Its latest work will be displayed at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show and the 2017 Detroit Auto Show, which run within days of each other next month. The Rinspeed Oasis is a self-driving electric car designed to... 
It's been 15 months since news broke that VW Group had used "defeat device" software in its diesel cars and SUVs that let them emit far more than permitted levels of nitrogen oxides in real-world use. Even now, however, the Volkswagen diesel scandal continues to grow new tentacles as investigators uncover additional apparent instances of... 
The Volkswagen 2.0-liter diesel settlement approved by a federal judge at the end of October includes a provision for funding of zero-emission vehicle infrastructure. Under the agreement, VW will spend $2 billion in charging or fueling infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles. Exactly how that money will be spent, and how the program will be... 
As 2016 winds down, we have one last round of deals on green cars for the year. We also have the very first deals on the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car and 2017 Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid—two high-anticipated models just now going on sale. And as usual, we've got other notable deals on electric-car and plug-in hybrid models as... 
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said he wants his company to be building 500,000 electric cars a year by 2018. That's an ambitious goal, but at least one necessary piece of the puzzle is already in place. Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, previously produced that many cars when it was a joint operation of General Motors and Toyota. DON'T MISS...