Best deals on electric, plug-in, and hybrid cars for March 2019

2019 Chevrolet Bolt EVAs more and more long-range electric cars such as the Audi e-tron quattro, the long-range Nissan Leaf Plus, and the Kia Niro and Soul EVs make their way onto the market, some are starting to offer great deals. Every month, our partners at CarsDirect.com sift through all the deals offered that month to find those that represent the best long-term...

Mazda range-extended electric car may help the rotary live on

Mazda RX-Vision Fast and Furious liveryThe Wankel rotary, the peculiar pistonless internal combustion engine design that Mazda built so much of its heritage around, may see a resurgence after all. Earlier reports and remarks from Mazda executives have suggested that while the rotary will make a comeback, it will be relegated to what’s essentially an emergency generator—a...

Forget the F-150, XL Hybrids offers a plug-in F-250 to do real work

XL Hybrids Ford F-250 plug-in As both established and startup automakers rush to build electric pickups, many seem to have forgotten a fundamental principle of pickup design: Trucks were meant to work. Ford has announced it is developing a plug-in hybrid F150, and Ford, GMC, Tesla, and startup automaker Rivian are all working on electric light--duty pickups. What none of them...

EPA proposes more smog-contributing ethanol in summer gasoline

EPA Acting Administrator Andrew WheelerEthanol is known as an alternative fuel, and is even renewable. But that doesn't always make it clean. The Environmental Protection Agency, after releasing proposals to water down emissions and fuel economy standards for cars, attack states' plans to bolster EV sales, and reduce emissions standards for powerplants to charge EVs, has now released a...

Not just diesel: FCA recalling 860K cars for emissions failure

2014 Dodge AvengerFiat Chrysler has recalled 862,520 gas-powered vehicles after on-road testing showed they might not meet emissions standards. The vehicles to be recalled, including the Dodge Avenger, Caliber, and Journey, and the Chrysler 200 (a twin of the Avenger) spanning from 2011 to 2016, met original EPA laboratory emissions tests, but failed in the kind of...

Which Tesla Model 3 would you buy? Twitter poll results

2019 Tesla Model 3 PerformanceNow that Tesla has finally released the $35,000 Model 3 that got hundreds of thousands of buyers interested in the brand, we wondered how many people might follow through and buy it. Along with the new base Short Range Model 3, the company recently filled out the rest of the Model 3 lineup with the new Short Range Plus model, which includes an...

Karma plans to relaunch with three new models at Shanghai auto show

Redesigned Karma Revero teaserKarma, the company that started as the new maker of the Fisker plug-in hybrid (and once Tesla-fighter) of the same name—now called Revero—plans a new birth, four years after buying the company out of bankruptcy. At next month's Shanghai auto show, the company plans a product revival led by three cars: an updated Revero, a new model...

VW boosts electric car plans with more models, 22 million EVs in 10 years

Left to right: Volkswagen ID, ID Buzz and ID Crozz conceptsVW has been busy putting logistics in place to build as many as 15 million examples of 50 new electric models (across its portfolio of brands) by 2028. At its annual conference at its headquarters in Wolfsburg Tuesday, the company upped that commitment to 22 million cars among 70 new electric models in a second wave of models based on its new MEB...