Do Tesla stores still matter? Twitter poll results

2018 Tesla Model S and 2018 Tesla Model XTwo weeks ago, Tesla announced it was closing all its stores and move all sales online, where the company does most of its business anyway. Last week, it said it would reopen most of them. That led us to wonder whether Tesla stores are still relevant. To gauge the answer among our own readers, our Twitter poll last week asked, "Do Tesla stores...

VW sold twice as many diesels in 2018 as in 2017

Volkswagen turbodiesels await their fate near Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado SpringsVolkswagen is scrambling to convert its business to building electric cars from building internal combustion cars to building electrics. But it hasn't put diesels behind it. According to a report by VW itself, orders for its diesel vehicles rose from 39 percent of its products in 2017 to 43 percent in 2018, and that goes double for private...

Which electric SUV would you buy? Take our Twitter poll

Tesla Model YThe Tesla Model Y will be the first model from the company to launch into a sea of electric competitors. Mainstream automakers, from Audi, BMW and Jaguar to Hyundai and Kia have announced new electric SUVs that are either already on the market or will be in the next few months. The Model Y is not expected to go on sale until late next...

UN global climate report restores hope, lays out roadmap

Smokestacks [CREDIT: Global Climate Budget 2018]A new UN report on global climate change isn't quite as dire as one it issued last October. That special report on warming of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) showed that the effects of climate change could become catastrophic by 2040, at least 10 years earlier than scientists had predicted. Another report in December by private energy...

Amazon hooks Kia owners up with easier home-charger installation

2019 Kia Niro EVThose just transitioning to an electric car, like the 2019 Kia Niro EV, face some potentially daunting decisions well beyond the vehicle itself—not just how they’re going to charge up the vehicle in their own garage or driveway, but how they’re going to charge it quickly enough. The 2019 Niro EV starts arriving to dealerships...

Tesla Model 3 Mid Range disappears from automaker’s lineup

2017 Tesla Model 3The Tesla Model 3 Mid Range didn't last long. Tesla quietly dropped the middle trim level over the weekend, which had offered buyers 264 miles of range. The company introduced the car last November in lieu of the entry-level Standard Range car—although Tesla opened that most affordable Model 3 up to orders late last month. At the time Tesla...

Electric crossover charge: These are the rivals to the Tesla Model Y

2019 Jaguar I-Pace, photographed outside Tesla Store, Mount Kisco, NYAs Tesla finds its sea legs as a larger-scale global automaker, the launch of the Model Y small crossover is its most critical test since the California company started in 2003. No other Tesla has faced this much competition. No other Tesla has faced much of any. When Tesla first delivered the Roadster in 2008 it was a novelty. The peerless Model...

Fisker slots $40k electric SUV ahead of delayed EMotion flagship

Teaser for Fisker electric SUVA decade ago, Fisker and Tesla were two electric-vehicle hopefuls, and it was looking like Fisker might have the better chances of success. While history certainly didn’t play out that way, it’s an odd twist that Henrik Fisker’s new venture, Fisker Inc., has dropped a teaser for its first product—a fully electric...

Will Aston Martin RapideE be James Bond’s new electric ride?

Aston Martin Rapide E prototype from video posted by Andy PalmerTo chase down criminals in a new carbon-constrained era, Agent 007 will need a new kind of Q Ship. But he won't stray far from the royal stable. Introducing the latest, kinder, gentler, reportedly less misogynistic Bond: James Bond, and his new all-electric Aston Martin RapideE, which will appear in the new movie with the working title...

Dieselgate continued: SEC charges VW and its ex-boss with fraud

Volkswagen TDI diesel vehicles owned by Phil Grate and family, Seattle, WashingtonAmazingly, the diesel emissions case against Volkswagen in the U.S. is still gaining steam. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged VW and its former CEO Martin Winterkorn on Thursday with defrauding investors, according to wire-service reports. READ MORE: Gauging VW's progress on second diesel-settlement anniversary (Updated) The charges...

Audi plans to put old EV batteries to work in factory tugs

Audi factory tug uses recycled e-tron batteriesFactory tugs in Audi's Ingolstadt factory now sport the latest in second-hand lithium-ion batteries. With automakers on the hook in jurisdictions around the world to take back and properly reuse or recycle all the batteries they install in electric cars, various automakers are experimenting with different ways to reuse the depleted batteries that...

Tesla Model Y: Comparing some of the details vs. Model 3

Tesla CEO Elon Musk introducing Model YTesla CEO Elon Musk prefaced his introduction of the company’s more affordable upcoming electric SUV, the Model Y, Thursday night, by noting how hard achieving at-scale mass production of Model X has been—and what a difficult year 2018 had been for him and Tesla. “It was pretty tight; it was a hard one,” said Musk...