It’s a cool spring morning in Menlo Park, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. In a two-story concrete-and-glass building on Constitution Avenue, just down the block from Facebook’s vast fortress, a group of automotive engineers and designers is working to create the next-generation luxury high-performance all-electric sedan. A... Lucid Air electric luxury sedan: a Tesla Model S owner’s take
It’s a cool spring morning in Menlo Park, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. In a two-story concrete-and-glass building on Constitution Avenue, just down the block from Facebook’s vast fortress, a group of automotive engineers and designers is working to create the next-generation luxury high-performance all-electric sedan. A...
Unlike rival Rolls-Royce, which may go directly to an all-electric model in future, Bentley has set its sights on plug-in hybrids first—and the Bentayga luxury SUV will be the first one from the brand. The plug-in versions of the Bentley Bentayga is expected to arrive next year, and will be capable of running solely on battery power and...
Audi may have taken an evolutionary approach to the design of the newest, largest luxury sedan, but it is positioning the car as a technical force to be reckoned with. The 2019 Audi A8 ushers in a new era for the German luxury brand—starting now, every single model will soon feature a mild-hybrid system. That hardware begins with the...
VW Group remains one of the world's three largest carmakers, along with Toyota and General Motors, but the German automaker foresees challenges ahead. Specifically, VVolkswagen believes the industry will face a shortage of lithium-ion batteries if new investment is not made soon for additional cell fabrication factories, often referred to using...
Incentives for the purchase of a plug-in battery-powered vehicle continue to be a powerful motivation to get new buyers to consider electric cars. The federal income-tax credit of $2,500 to $7,500 has long been supplemented by various state programs, including a purchase rebate in the crucial California market. Now the California Clean Vehicle...
At the moment, the Tesla Model 3 is getting lots of media attention and electric-car buzz now that the company says its first production car has rolled out of the factory—even if features, specs, and pricing isn't yet known. Meanwhile, the 238-mile Chevrolet Bolt EV is at roughly 9,000 cars sold in North America over the past six months...
It was time to let her go. She is my 2013 Tesla Model S, serial number 003662, in dark green, now with 76,000 memorable miles. The best car I’ve ever owned, by far. She had taken me to 33 states and roughly 100 Superchargers, through deserts, mountains, and tropics, with total reliability, and always with style and flair. DON'T MISS: Life...
Last month, 1,642 Chevrolet Bolt EV 238-mile battery-electric hatchbacks found buyers, enough to take the Bolt's six-month aggregate to 7,592 deliveries all told. It was the latest and highest in a string of rising monthly delivery totals for the 238-mile battery electric hatchback, and it marked half a year (plus a couple of weeks) that the Bolt...
Faraday Future has seen its share of setbacks following January's reveal of its FF 91 electric luxury car, but it walked away with a victory at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The troubled company not only took home a victory, but it also claimed a new record in the process. The FF 91 prototype completed the hill climb in an astoundingly...
It now appears that the 2017 Tesla Model 3 has entered pilot production, following a pair of photos tweeted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The caption on the first of the two photos, this one black-and-white, says simply, "First production Model 3." The second photo, tweeted 40 minutes later, is in full color but bears no caption. DON'T MISS: Tesla Model...
As the market for electric vehicles continues to grow, electric-car infrastructure will need to keep up with the growing population of them. To solve the problem, companies are looking at a variety of new and innovative ways to charge more cars without actually taking up more space. Enter the ebee Smart Technologies streetlight charging...
OK, reporters of the world, it's time for a little chat. We know—believe me, we know—that you are cranking out a whole lot of copy, with much less support than you used to have, on far tighter deadlines, to feed a voracious, anonymous online audience whose clicks get you paid. But it's time to discuss the very, very important...
To celebrate Canada's 150th birthday, Barb Hetherington and Buddy Boyd embarked on their maiden voyage to prove electric car travel is feasible in a very large country with some very sparsely populated areas. With a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV as their chariot, and their dog Piper for company, the couple left Victoria, British Columbia. They don't plan...
It's taken a while, but Oregon will now have a state electric-car purchase incentive that largely matches those in its neighbor to the south, California. First discussed several years ago, the idea of a purchase rebate for cars that plug in hadn't made it through previous legislative sessions. This year proved different, with the rebate included...
Toyota made a strong return to the Canadian plug-in electric vehicle market in June, selling 144 Prius Prime plug-in hybrids. The tally is all the more remarkable as the vehicle has so far launched only in Quebec. Why? That province is the home of Canada’s sole zero-emission vehicle mandate, patterned on California’s. Depending on the...
The state of California has a long track record of supporting electric cars and doing everything possible to ensure plug-in vehicles can be obtained by the largest number of drivers. Aside from the Federal income-tax credits available nationally, the state of California has its own purchase rebates. Local utilities have also begun to incentivize...
Mini, despite being owned by BMW since 1994, has long been a decidedly British brand. But its British roots may be overlooked as a decision on where Mini's electric car is to be built closes in. Most Mini production takes place at the brand's Oxford plant in England, but both supply-chain factors and Brexit may sway BMW board members into...
The influential Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has released a new round of crash-safety test results, and one of the cars tested was the Tesla Model S electric luxury hatchback sedan. In its accompanying release and video, the IIHS suggested that Tesla's claim the Model S is the "safest car in history" might no longer be accurate. Quickly...
In May, the Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid was the highest-selling car with a plug in the U.S. for only the second time ever. Last month, however, the Chevrolet Volt recaptured its usual spot at the top of the plug-in sales charts for those manufacturers who report monthly sales. Chevy sold 1,745 Volts, slightly down from the May number of...
The idea of performance and electric cars normally don't go hand in hand, unless the topic is a Tesla Model S P90 D. Outside of that one high-performance electric vehicle, casual electric cars are hardly the racer's choice, but one owner felt otherwise. Brian Ro, the owner of a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, recently decided his electric car was in need...