China revises electric-car incentives to reward longer ranges

BYD e5. Photo by CarNewsChina.com.It's long been official policy for China that the country's automakers will become the world's highest-volume producer of electric cars. (It also intends to dominate lithium-ion battery cells and photovoltaic solar panels, for the record.) But the government policies and incentives to achieve that goal have often changed over the years. DON'T...

Tesla’s Q2 2017 deliveries fall slightly due to 100-kwh battery shortage

2017 Tesla Model STesla delivered slightly more than 22,000 electric cars during the second quarter of the year, split between roughly 12,000 Model S hatchback sedans and about 10,000 Model X crossover utility vehicles. That total is more than 50 percent higher than the comparable April-June number for 2016, but down from the 25,000 cars it delivered in the first...

Better electric motors can boost electric-car efficiency

Electric motor, shown in 'How Does an Electric Car Work?' video by PatreonOne of the greatest challenges faced by modern electric cars is the vehicle's range, which is largely proportional to the energy capacity of the battery. Range anxiety often keeps buyers out of electric cars and in their fossil-fuel powered counterparts. Most of the attention given to solving the range dilemma has focused on the battery, but one...

Tesla Model 3 production to start Friday, deliveries July 28

Tesla Model 3 Driving on a Public RoadAs he had promised he would late one evening last week, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has tweeted out some updates on the upcoming Model 3. He expects first production Model 3 electric car, with serial number 001 ("SN1"), to be completed this Friday, July 7. The first 30 customers to buy Model 3s should receive them, he followed up, at a "handover...

To honor Energy Week, lease an electric car: 10 lessons from new EV driver

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EVThe White House has declared this week the inaugural "Energy Week," and what better way to mark the occasion than by driving electric cars? Cars that plug in to use grid energy for travel are a great catalyst for reducing energy consumption and reducing our use of fossil fuels. Now one reporter who took the plunge and leased a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt...

IIHS says Tesla electric cars have higher miles, more costly repairs

2017 Tesla Model SThe Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute has once again confirmed the Tesla Model S electric car is an outlier. While the Model S gets high ratings for its crash safety, it also seems to incur higher insurance losses than competing conventional cars. Higher claim frequencies, more costly repairs, and higher...

Utility V2G test with BMW shows electric cars can aid the grid

BMW i3 electric car charging in 'EV Charging Only' space, Santa Clarita, CA  [photo: Steve J. Myung]As the demand for electric cars grows, utility companies are considering their effect on local power grids—both positive and negative. Recently, California's PG&E and BMW recently wrapped up a pilot program testing experimental vehicle-to-grid technology to see if electric cars could actually aid the grid—and they did. The program...

Fall debut for electric BMW 3-Series to fight Tesla Model 3: report

2019 BMW 3-Series, portion of spy shot from Motor Authority  [Image via S. Balfauf/SB-Medien]In August 2016, when the first U.S. ads for the BMW 330e plug-in hybrid sport sedan hit the airwaves, they carried an interesting promise. "You will wait, and wait, and wait some more," the voiceover intoned, "all before that electric-car company's new model ever even arrives." That would be the Tesla Model 3, of course, the 200-plus-mile sedan...

Renault Kangoo ZE small electric van now on sale with longer range

2017 Renault Kangoo ZE           [photo: Yannick Brossard for Renault]French automaker Renault has given its small light commercial electric vehicle a handful of upgrades, including a significantly longer battery range. The Renault Kangoo ZE is now officially on sale with a longer rated range, a more powerful charging system, and a heat pump to keep the little van efficient in the coldest temperatures. Renault...

Tesla Hardware 2: so what functions work in Autopilot and what don’t?

Tesla Enhanced AutopilotThe expanded collection of sensors known as Hardware 2 continues to bring new and revamped features to the Tesla Model S and Model X electric cars. But how do the latest features offered by Autopilot stack up against those offered until last fall by the superseded Hardware 1 setup? One owner has gone through the trouble of laying everything out as...

Bizarre Swedish study claims electric cars are worse for the environment

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car at EVgo fast-charging station, Newport Centre, Jersey City, NJElectric vehicles shouldn't be considered all-out carbon footprint saviors, but they can legitimately be viewed as the great minimizers. The benefits of electric vehicles over those with internal-combustion engines are vast, but a strange new study is making rounds that claims electric cars are worse for climate-change emissions. The study...

Electric BMW X3e to come in 2020, but BMW i5 defunct: what happened, and why?

2018 BMW X3Over the last two years, Audi and Mercedes-Benz have released severa; all-electric concept cars that are thinly disguised production models to arrive in 2018 and beyond. But electric-car pioneer BMW's plans are less clear. Its sole recent electric concept car was the iNext luxury sedan shown more than a year ago; it'll be a production model in...

Ubitricity LED street lamp offers electric-car charging circuit

Ubitricity street lamp charging stationA German company has brought forth its idea of how to provide convenient, cost-effective electric-car charging and now it has made its way to the United Kingdom. Ubitricity rolled out its streetlight car charging ports two years ago, but the German company has now spread its innovation to the UK. In a recent video, the Fully Charged Show takes a...

Ubitricity street lamp socket provides electric-car charging

Ubitricity street lamp charging stationA German company has brought forth its idea of how to provide convenient, cost-effective electric-car charging and now it has made its way to the United Kingdom. Ubitricity rolled out its streetlight car charging ports two years ago, but the German company has now spread its innovation to the UK. In a recent video, the Fully Charged Show takes a...

When will major buyer demand for electric cars arrive? Poll results

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars outside dealership    [photo: Patrick Reid]With modern electric cars about to enter their eighth year on sale, they remain a tiny fraction of the North American and global markets. While plug-in models now make up almost 1 of every 20 vehicles sold in California, in the U.S. overall and globally it's more like 1 percent. The hurdles to getting shoppers to consider electric cars are...

Tesla finds Chinese production site for electric cars: Shanghai

Tour of Tesla battery gigafactory for invited owners, Reno, Nevada, July 2016Tesla is closing in on a deal to begin production of its cars in China, after it signed a preliminary agreement to explore building cars near the major city of Shanghai. By signing the preliminary agreement, Tesla will begin the first step towards local production in China, a move that would significantly lower costs. More importantly, it will...