Volkswagen Moia electric mobility van is VW’s Uber ride-sharing rival

Volkswagen MOIA electric ride-pooling vanEvery automaker has its niche. Mazda builds a brilliant (and efficient) sports car in the MX-5 Miata. Toyota pioneered the mass production of hybrid-electric vehicles 20 years ago with its Prius. The Tesla Model S made battery-electric vehicles exciting and desirable. And Volkswagen has diesel. DON'T MISS: Volkswagen ID electric car production...

All-wheel drive now standard on all Tesla Model S, Model X cars

2017 Tesla Model STesla now offers roughly the same percentage of its model lineup with standard all-wheel-drive configuration as famed AWD proponent Subaru. The Silicon Valley electric-car maker has completely ditched rear-wheel drive in its Model S hatchback sedans and Model X crossover utility vehicles. Only its Model 3 smaller sedan remains available (at some...

Awake at the wheel: Tesla is far from alone in electric trucks

Tesla SemiThis time, Elon Musk is not alone. In mid-December, Daimler delivered its first 14 Fuso eCanter electric delivery trucks to customers in Germany, a reminder that while Tesla caught car companies flat-footed in 2012, incumbent truck makers are already preparing their countermeasures. In Daimler’s case, these weren’t even the...

2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid: early owner’s first impressions

2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid   [photo: owner 'Viking79']We only published our first-drive report on the 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid last week, and the car is just now showing up at Honda dealers across the country. But that means the first examples are already been bought and driven. A couple of readers indicated that they were among the buyers, so we asked for their first impressions. DON'T...

Tesla Model 3: impressions of a BMW i3 driver (and reservation holder)

Tesla Model 3 with BMW i3 driver Tom Moloughney, Dec 2017  [photo: Tom Moloughney]Getting an opportunity to road test and review a Tesla Model 3 electric car has thus far proved a very difficult task. Since the Model 3 launched in July, Tesla has only been delivering them to employees, friends of the company, and a handful of prior Tesla owners—and most have been eerily silent about their cars. Though it’s been...

In an ideal world, this is how electric-car tax credits should work

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car at EVgo fast-charging station, Newport Centre, Jersey City, NJThe tax reform bill likely to be voted on by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives retained a number of provisions originally slated to be cut from the tax code. Among them was the federal income-tax credit for purchase of a plug-in electric vehicle. Three carmakers—General Motors, Nissan, and Tesla—have now used more than half...