Wind energy capacity in Europe now exceeds total coal output

wind farmWhile homeowners are more familiar with photovoltaic solar panels, large-scale wind power is an increasingly important part of the growth in renewable energy. For the first time, the total installed capacity of wind energy in Europe now exceeds the total output of electric powerplants fueled with coal. And that imbalance is likely to grow as more...

GM’s Maven car-sharing adds Chevy Bolt EV electric cars (in LA)

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car in Maven car-sharing fleet, Los Angeles [photo: Dan MacMedan foWith the 238-mile Chevy Bolt EV electric car now in its third month of sales and rolling out to additional states every month, the industry is focused on its sales numbers. Retail buyers have asked to what degree GM's plans to dedicate a number of the early Bolt EVs to its Maven car-sharing service might affect availability. If yesterday's...

2018 Lexus LS 500h hybrid luxury sedan to debut at Geneva show

2018 Lexus LS 500hIt should come as no surprise that Toyota's Lexus luxury brand remains enthusiastic about hybrids. Toyota has sold more hybrids than any other automaker, with luxury models sold under the Lexus brand contributing to a total that just exceeded 10 million. That trend will continue with the 2018 Lexus LS 500h, a hybrid version of the brand's flagship...

Tesla now tells electric cars about charger status en route

Tesla Supercharger site in Newburgh, New York, up and running - June 2015Unlike most automakers, Tesla doesn't schedule redesigns, updates, and new features for its cars to coincide with traditional model years. Aided by the fact that most of its new features are software-related, Tesla takes a more flexible approach. Many new features are pushed to its electric cars whenever they're ready, in the form of over-the-air...

Auto industry split over halting, changing fuel-economy rules

The White House, Washington, D.C.  [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]Just days after the presidential election, automaker lobbyists urged Donald Trump to loosen pending emissions and fuel-economy standards. Shortly after the election, a lobbying group wrote Trump asking him to change or delay an EPA decision that kept planned emissions standards for 2022 to 2025 in place. Last week, executives of 18 automakers sent...

Chevy Bolt EV electric range: can 238 miles stretch to 300 miles?

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EVThe 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV has an official EPA-rated range of 238 miles per charge on the combined test cycle. That gives it the longest range of any electric car currently on sale in the U.S. that isn't a Tesla, at a base price around half that of the least-expensive model from the Silicon Valley automaker. It's enough for the Bolt EV to be...

2017 Ford Escape AWD 1.5-liter gas mileage review

2017 Ford Escape Titanium 4WD, Kingston, NY, Feb 2017Smaller engines with turbochargers have spread throughout new vehicles as a way to meet the increasingly stringent fuel-efficiency rules that started in 2012. But no maker has been as forward about marketing that technology as Ford, which now offers a range of downsized and boosted engines under the EcoBoost brand. We'd tested a couple of Ford...

Plug-in hybrids to catch on more quickly than electrics: Toyota

2017 Toyota Prius Prime PremiumToyota has been by far the most reluctant of recent converts to the idea that battery-electric vehicles might be practical and desirable. Only within the last year has the company moved past its decade-long insistence that all-electric cars were only suitable for tiny, low-range urban uses. Still, old habits die hard, and the company continues to...