Tesla’ Biggest Problem Isn’t Elon Musk
The company can survive its chief executive’s strange behavior. But it cannot escape $11 billion in debt.
The long-running Infiniti Q50 Hybrid luxury sedan won't return for 2019, the automaker said Thursday. Infiniti spokesman Kyle Bazemore confirmed the demise of the Q50 Hybrid this year for Green Car Reports. The automaker axed the Q70 Hybrid in July. Although Infiniti didn't report sales for the Q50 Hybrid and Q70 Hybrid models separately, it's...
The panel of Volkswagen ID Buzz concepts based on the automaker's all-electric frame has finally reached, well, panel status. In Hannover, Germany, Volkswagen on Thursday showed off its ID Buzz Cargo concept based on its MEB electric-car architecture. According to VW, the panel van shows off the company's plans for all-electric light-duty...
Toyota plans to build 10 more hydrogen fuel-cell powered semi trucks. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says dash cams will become standard in its electric cars. The Tesla Model 3 aces the NHTSA crash tests. And the electric-car charging industry agrees on carbon credit standards. All of this and more on Green Car Reports. Toyota's Project Portal fuel-cell...
The 2018 Tesla Model 3 aced its federal crash-test regimen and earned top, five-star scores on all of its sub-tests, safety officials said this week. The Model 3 follows the Model S and Model X, which have both aced the NHTSA's tests. The insurance industry-funded IIHS has only rated the Model S sedan so far, and it earned mostly top "Good" scores...
After showing its second-generation fuel-cell semi-truck at the Port of Los Angeles in July, Toyota announced last week it will build 10 more fuel-cell trucks for the project. In addition to the trucks, the project will add two new heavy-duty hydrogen filling stations, two new hydrogen forklifts at Toyota's warehouse at the next-door Port of Long...
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that the company plans to make dash cams standard in its products with a new software update rolling out in the next few weeks. Since most Teslas already have forward cameras for the Autopilot system, it seems it should be simple for Tesla to enable the feature. Many Tesla owners have been asking...
Driving on electricity produces less carbon than driving on gas. Yet in most places, no one gets credit for lowering those carbon emissions. That is, until now. In an effort to reduce the cost of installing electric-car charging stations, a new agreement by the Electric Vehicle Charging Carbon Coalition (EVCCC), calculates carbon credits to...
The Department of Justice plans to investigate Tesla and CEO Elon Musk. The Kia e-Niro gets an official range rating. VW shares plans for more than two dozen new electric cars. And the results are in from our latest Twitter poll. All of this and more on Green Car Reports. The DOJ will reportedly investigate Tesla and Musk over the CEO's "funding...
Volkswagen is doubling down on its electric car strategy, it announced at a press event in Dresden, Germany on Monday. The company announced plans to build 27 electric cars on its upcoming MEB affordable electric-car architecture by 2022 in an effort it calls "Electric for All." Those include cars already announced, such as the ID small hatchback...
Tons of new electric SUVs are hitting the market for 2019. None, though, can apparently hold a candle to the entry-level Tesla Model 3, in our Twitter followers' estimation. That's the result of our Twitter poll last week, which asked, "What's the most exciting electric car for 2019?" In response, fully 58 percent of our Twitter followers chose...
When it introduced the Kia Niro EV in Korea in June, the company said it would go 236 miles on a charge. It has now been rated at far more than that in Europe. Kia on Tuesday said that the car earned a rating of 301 miles on the new Worldwide Harmonized Light-Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). The news was first reported by the Express, in Britain...
The U.S. Department of Justice may be investigating Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk for criminal wrongdoing related to a series of tweets its founder sent this year, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment on the report. At issue are a series of tweets in August in which Musk said that the automaker had...
The Audi e-tron makes its formal debut as the brand's first mass-market electric car. Lucid Motors secures funding to build a factory for its car. Electric-car car-sharing programs are poised to expand in the U.S. And we ask if readers would sign up for VW's electric-car subscription plan in a new Twitter poll. All of this and more on Green Car...
Volkswagen announced in July that it will launch an all-electric car sharing plan in the U.S. in 2020. Called "WE," the program is likely to serve as a marketing program for the company's new line of electric cars, the hatchback ID, and the ID Crozz crossover SUV. The ID is slated to go into production at the end of 2019, followed by the ID Crozz...
Electric cars and car sharing go naturally together. Both aim to clean up the environment by reducing gasoline consumption. With lower maintenance, electric cars are also easier to maintain for fleets than gas cars. Combined with gas cars, car-sharing fleets can also provide a backup for electric-car owners who want occasional access to a larger...
Lucid Motors announced yesterday that it will receive a $1 billion investment from the Saudi Arabian public investment fund. Lucid is a Silicon Valley-based electric car builder working on a direct competitor to the Tesla Model S. In August, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk suggested that he had held talks with the same Saudi investment fund about...
And finally, there is Audi. Late Monday night, the German luxury maker debuted took to the stage in San Francisco with its long-awaited, first volume battery-electric vehicle, a five-seat midsize crossover utility to be known simply as e-tron. It also opened reservations and will allow customers to configure the car, requiring a refundable $1,000...