Back in 2013, Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo proclaimed, "I don’t believe in the electric cars"—all but solidifying the automaker's position for the future. Even as recently as 2016, current Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne called the possibility of an electric Ferrari "an obscene concept." Now the purveyor of some of the...
Today, we've got data from China on plug-in vehicle sales, an intriguing hint on pickup powertrains, a date for revised CAFE rules, and an affirmation of electric cars by an unexpected executive. All this and more on Green Car Reports. The 2019 Ram 1500 full-size pickup truck will offer a 48-volt mild-hybrid system to boost its fuel economy. We...
Compared to previous years, overall car-sales growth in the U.S. has all but plateaued at around 17.5 million. China is doing little better, with growth reaching just 3 percent for 2017. But the Chinese new-vehicle market is undergoing a seismic shift in which types of cars are sold. Want proof? China sold 777,000 new-energy...
It's been hanging out there in limbo for more than six months: the answer to the question of what happens to gas-mileage rules under Trump. Given the daily political turmoil emanating from Washington, D.C., the fate of corporate average fuel economy rules may have gotten lost in the noise. But for automakers and consumers, the fate of current CAFE...
Vehicle launches at auto shows include a dance between automakers, which only want certain information revealed, and journalists, who want to put specific news items into a bigger and broader context. For the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado pickup unveiling Saturday night, Chevy's executives and engineers stayed ruthlessly on message. The company said...
When it comes to materials with the most promise in automotive applications, carbon fiber and graphene each rank high on the list. Unlike graphene, however, real-world carbon fiber applications exist today—and they're helping automakers reduce the weight of cars coming tomorrow. There's one big, unfortunate, and somewhat ironic problem with...
Unlike many auto dealers and dealership groups that see selling electric vehicles as a necessary burden, AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson believes electric vehicles offer a "historic opportunity" for the industry Speaking at the Automotive News World Congress, Jackson recognized the challenges associated with electric vehicles, but said he also thinks...
Experienced survey companies know that what people say they will do and what they actually end up doing are sometimes two different things. They also know that picking the correct survey group to represent a broader population is crucial to obtaining useful results. Our (unscientific) Twitter polls are largely seen only by this site's Twitter...
Pickup trucks took the limelight this year, but a significant green car made a quiet debut. It's an interesting and handsome model that revives a familiar name for Honda. The 2019 Honda Insight is a compact premium sedan projected to get an EPA combined rating of 50 mpg or better. The new Insight is Honda's third try at a dedicated hybrid, each of...
The dominant news at the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit was about pickup trucks. Ironically, the Detroit automaker with the fewest electrified models on sale was the only one to bring hybridization to a new truck, in the form of its brand-new 2019 Ram 1500. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has lagged GM and FOrd on the...
Today, we've got some wrapup articles from both last week's Consumer Electronics Show and this week's Detroit auto show, thoughts on the electric-car tax credit, and greener wheels in Costa Rica. All this and more on Green Car Reports. We were able to interview Henrik Fisker, the Danish designer whose Fisker EMotion 400-mile electric luxury car...
Costa Rica isn't what you'd call a bastion of automotive sales. The Central American country ,wedged between Nicaragua and Panama, is home to 4.8 million people who buy just 154,000 vehicles annually—less than 1 percent of the sales in the United States. But that won't deter the Costa Rican government from greening its fleet. It now aims to...
Rather to the surprise of electric-car advocates, the massive tax bill passed by the U.S. Congress in December did not eliminate the federal tax credit for purchase of a plug-in electric vehicle. That credit lets buyers take a credit of $2,500 to $7,500 on their income-tax filing in the year of purchase. Now, financial columnist James Stewart has...
The three most significant debuts at the 2018 Detroit auto show were pickup trucks, one from each of the Detroit Three automakers. The 2019 Chevrolet Silverado full-size pickup led on Saturday night, followed on Sunday by the 2019 Ford Ranger, a mid-size pickup that rivals the Chevy Colorado on sale since 2015. The trio was rounded out on Monday...
GAC Motor said it planned to bring an S.U.V. to the United States in 2019. It may use Fiat Chrysler dealerships hungry for new models.
Fisker Inc., the second namesake automaker from the Dutch auto designer, rolled out its first model at the Consumer Electronics Show last week and gave us some details on what to expect from the luxury electric car. The supercar-esque sedan, which Fisker hopes will steal customers away from rival Tesla, should produce 775 horsepower from its...
Today, we've got news from the Detroit auto show, promised profits on electric cars, yet another teaser from Ford, and some great news on renewable energy. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Over the weekend, as we do every seven days, we ran down last week's most important green-car stories. Detroit debuts kicked off with the redesigned 2019...
Radically new powertrains are widely assumed to lose money for the companies that launch them. Toyota's hybrid-electric system, launched in Japan in 1997, likely didn't break even until sometime after the 2004 launch of the second-generation Prius. Long-range battery-electric vehicles are the same, according to analysts and insiders: the question...
The big new debuts at the 2018 Detroit auto show are largely pickup trucks, one of them being the new mid-size 2019 Ford Ranger. Ford also introduced a new Bullitt Mustang, honoring the 51st anniversary of the legendary 1968 movie, and a high-performance ST version of the Edge crossover. (Is it the Edgest Edge?) But as for new hybrids or plug-in...
![Wind farm outside Fort MacLeod, Alberta, Canada [photographer: Joel Bennett]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/wind-farm-outside-fort-macleod-alberta-canada-photographer-joel-bennett_100608718_t.gif)
Renewable-energy generation costs are falling like photons onto a solar panel. By 2020, it's expected all types of renewable-energy generation will be able to compete with fossil fuels on cost. That's right: saving our environment will actually save electric utilities some money, too. DON'T MISS: Two-thirds of world's new energy capacity in 2016...
