Especially once you drive an electric car, home solar is a next step that can lower your carbon footprint, reduce your dependence on the grid, and give you an extra margin of backup power in emergencies with the right setup. But it’s often far too intimidating, requiring too many separate components and, to get the most out of it, regular... Former Tesla Powerwall team aims to go IoT with home electrical panel
Especially once you drive an electric car, home solar is a next step that can lower your carbon footprint, reduce your dependence on the grid, and give you an extra margin of backup power in emergencies with the right setup. But it’s often far too intimidating, requiring too many separate components and, to get the most out of it, regular...
For many decades, so-called crate engines—most often V-8s—have been the basis for adding more excitement to old cars and trucks. But what about an electric motor system that’s disguised as a V-8? Electric GT, of Chatsworth, California, is in the process of doing a “TLC build” electric conversion of a 1970 Toyota FJ40...
School buses may be the perfect application for electric vehicles. They run short delivery routes, sit for hours in between, and deliver the most environmentally precious cargo of all. School districts who want to get on board don’t have to wait. Blue Bird, perhaps the best known coachbuilder with vast vats of yellow paint, now offers three...
Electric transportation technology is spreading beyond cars to heavy equipment, airplanes, helicopters, and now, boats. The Danish ferry boat Ellen, which made its maiden voyage earlier this month between the Danish islands of Aero and Als, claims to be the world’s largest all-electric ferry. While electric technology is still a challenge...
Look out, Tesla. Some versions of the upcoming Porsche Taycan electric car are going vegan, too—perhaps before Tesla can get there. Well, for now let’s call it vegan-ish. In a first release of information about the production Taycan interior. Porsche yesterday said that it will offer both an option of tanned Club Leather, using a...
Five years ago, a frequent matter of debate here at Green Car Reports was whether CCS or ChAdeMO would become the electric-car DC fast-charging standard of choice in the U.S. Soon after that it became quite clear that CCS, with the weight of the European and U.S. auto industry behind it—and then the Korean industry joining later—was...
Electric cars and solar panels are like chocolate and peanut butter: two great things that are even better together. On Monday, Tesla began offering a new solar rental program. Homeowners can choose among three system sizes, for small, medium, or large homes or corresponding electrical use. The company does not require homeowners to pay any...
A quarry in Biel, Switzerland, is operating the world's largest electric vehicle, a 110-ton dump truck, to haul lime and marl off the side of a mountain to a cement factory. Perhaps best of all, it consumes no energy doing it. How is that possible, you ask? The dump truck, at 45 tons, ascends the 13-percent grade and takes on 65 tons of ore. With...
Delivering pizzas in big, aging passenger cars is the norm in many neighborhoods in the nation, and it’s wasteful. In most of those locales, there’s a solid fair-weather alternative to firing up the engine (or taking the electric car) for another delivery just a mile or two away: e-bikes. Domino’s tested the use of e-bikes for...
“Reduce, reuse, recycle” is one of the core concepts for greening your life—and with the right motivations along the way, reducing your carbon footprint. It’s part of what makes the idea of electric-car conversions so compelling. You take a tired, polluting old vehicle with a tailpipe, remove everything having to do with...
The all-electric Ford F-150 teased for the first time last week is something to get excited about—especially as an electric version of the top-selling vehicle in America. The model isn’t likely to show up at dealerships for at least another couple years, though. And there are electric F-150 pickups already in use today. About a dozen...
Plug-in hybrids like the 2019 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid are pitched as great solutions for families who can’t quite make the leap to a fully electric vehicle for road trips but want to keep their local driving—and, perhaps their commute—tailpipe-emissions-free. The vast majority of plug-in hybrids on the market today don’t...
Hybrid technology isn’t just for cars or trucks. Anywhere there’s waste heat or kinetic energy that can be recaptured—which means virtually every mode of transportation—there’s an opportunity for hybrid tech to make the entire mission more fuel-efficient. Such is also the case for big passenger jets. According to the...
Waiting and waiting for more details about the upcoming Tesla Pickup—the “cyberpunk truck”—or concerned that it’s going to be too big when it arrives? You could essentially build your own. That’s what San Francisco YouTube star Simone Giertz did, from a Tesla Model 3. In the project, which declares it’s...
Since even before the first market deliveries of its Leaf electric car in late 2010, Nissan has made frequent mention about the need to create second-use demand for the Leaf's battery packs. It turns out, they may need to see many of those ideas put into place. According to comments made last month by a Nissan-Renault executive, citing charging...
Last week, when we brought you an account of how an electric car wouldn't work in the midst of a medical emergency—in the Midwest, in the winter—boy, did we (and he) get an earful from our readers. That convergence amounted to the perfect storm of difficulty for any electric car—and it's one that doesn't happen often. Still, when...
Three incredibly long days after my nearly 3-year-old son Seth doubled over and screamed his “tummy hurt” we were finally back on the freeway headed home. My mind wandered because there’s not much else on Interstate 380 in Iowa in December. Three days earlier, my wife, kids, and I traveled from Minnesota to Reinbeck...
Norway has only 5.26 million people—about half the size of Los Angeles County in population, and with only about 35 percent of LA's vehicles on its roads. But there's one measure in which Norway trumps America's most saturated EV market. Per capita, Norway has more electric car owners and drivers than anywhere else in the world. But why?...
Wiebe Wakker took one very long drive in an electric car—for a total of 1119 days, covering 59,000 miles and traversing portions of 33 countries on the way from the Netherlands to Australia. It was, by just about any standard, an epic road trip. Wakker reached Sydney last Sunday, April 7, and was welcomed with a parade of EVs, across the...