Today, Toyota Prius Prime buyers complain of uncooperative dealers, Honda announces a new dedicated hybrid model for 2018, and California utility Pacific Gas & Electric offers rebates for electric-car use. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Find out why Faraday Future's luxury electric car is called the FF 91. China plans to invest $360...
In certain states, electric utilities are getting into the business of installing and operating electric-car charging infrastructure. They may build public charging stations, or work with other entities that operate them, but that's usually as far as their efforts to promote electric cars go. But one California utility is now taking direct action...
In recent years, Honda has announced that it planned to release advanced-technology green cars in the future—without mentioning even their names, let alone any details or specifications. That's what happened two years ago with a pair of unnamed battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles that later proved to be two new variants of the Honda...
The Toyota Prius Prime is a far better car than its plug-in hybrid predecessor, and it seems likely to become one of the higher-volume plug-in electric cars on the U.S. market. If, that is, Toyota's own dealers prove willing to sell it—or even find out that it exists. After three separate complaints by readers in different areas of the U.S...
It's a new year, and that means a new crop of buyer deals on green cars. The 2017 model year is now well underway, but older 2016 versions of certain vehicles still sit on dealer lots. As dealers get more anxious to clear this older stock, look for more aggressive incentives on these models. DON'T MISS: Plug-in electric car sales in Dec: Bolt EV...
Despite a recent downturn, the Chinese government is moving full-speed ahead to invest heavily in renewable energy. The country's national regulators have already promoted renewable energy as a possible cure for the country's notoriously-bad air pollution. But China has placed more emphasis on renewable power in its latest five-year economic plan...
Faraday Future unveiled its FF 91 electric car at a special event held during the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. It's a crossover-utility vehicle with a claimed 1,050 horsepower and 378-mile range, the latter courtesy of a 130-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. Aside from those ambitious performance claims, the FF 91...
Gasoline-powered carts have improved garbage collection in Central Park, but they are noisy and smelly. A squadron of electric vehicles is coming to the rescue.
More proof that plugging in cuts carbon emissions, news on the batteries of the new 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid, and discouraging news on the calculated fuel economy of new vehicles sold last year: all this and more in today's car news on Green Car Reports. Samsung says a new lithium-ion cell will recharge to 80 percent capacity in just 20...
Cars that run entirely or partly on electricity from a battery pack have no tailpipe emissions, but to judge their overall impact, you have to look at lifetime wells-to-wheels emissions. That includes emissions associated with extracting, refining, and burning the fuel used to make the electricity that recharges them, as well as the same for any...
Masato Katsumoto is Toyota's chief engineer for the global Camry sedan program—so when he speaks, it's worth listening. Following yesterday's Detroit Auto Show launch of an entirely new 2018 Toyota Camry mid-size sedan, he was one of several Toyota executives who answered media questions in a morning panel. And during that session, Katsumoto...
For nearly a decade, the average fuel economy of new cars sold in the U.S. steadily increased—but that moment has stalled in recent years. Low gas prices and increased consumer interest in SUVs has caused new-car average fuel economy to plateau and, in the case of 2016's figures, decline slightly. The average fuel economy of new cars sold in...
The limitations of current lithium-ion battery-cell technology pose a hindrance to more widespread adoption of plug-in electric cars. Relatively short ranges and long charging times accorded by current lithium-ion cells still limit the appeal of electric cars in the minds of many new-car buyers. Now Samsung SDI—the South Korean electronics...
Today, the Volkswagen ID Buzz electric-car concept debuts at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show, the 2018 Ford F-150 full-size pickup truck will get a diesel engine option, and a new study indicates electric-car battery costs have fallen substantially over the past few years. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Catch up on green-car news from CES and...
The head of VW Group's U.S. regulatory compliance group was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation this weekend on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Oliver Schmidt led the German automaker's regulatory compliance during 2014 and the early part of 2015. The Volkswagen diesel emission scandal erupted in September 2015 when...
When the Volkswagen diesel scandal erupted last year, it not only hurt the public perception of diesel vehicles in the U.S., but also eliminated the biggest seller of diesel passenger cars from the market. TDI diesel models once made up as much as a quarter of the Volkswagen brand's U.S. sales, and VW Group's Audi and Porsche luxury brands sold...
![Elio Motors 84 mpg 3-wheeler [Image: Elio Motors]](http://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/elio-motors-84-mpg-3-wheeler-image-elio-motors_100477636_t.gif)
Three-wheeled vehicles have never been remotely popular in North America, but some new makers of these unusual vehicles are hoping for a resurgence of interest. Falling into a gray area between cars and motorcycles, production-ready electric and gasoline 3-wheeled vehicles have been wheeled out by several companies promising deliveries in the near...
Media days at the Detroit Auto Show always open with the announcement of the year's North American Car and Truck of the Year awards, and this year is no exception. But green-car enthusiasts had a special reason to follow this year's awards, now broken into three categories: car, truck, and utility vehicle. That was the chance that a...
If you pronounce the word "buzz" with a German accent, it sounds like "bus"—which is almost surely why VW's second all-electric concept vehicle is called the Volkswagen ID Buzz. It's the latest in a series of concept studies for a modern-day Microbus, with stylistic nods to the classic Type 2 bus launched 65 years ago. It's one of the few...
High costs of lithium-ion battery cells have been one of the main hindrances to large-scale electric-car adoption, as they typically lead to higher purchase prices for electric cars than comparable internal-combustion models. But electric-car battery prices are falling fast, according to one recent study. Global Trends in Renewable Energy, calls...
