Tesla CEO Elon Musk reaches a new settlement with the SEC to avoid contempt charges. We sat down with the chief engineer of the new 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid to learn how it reaches fuel-economy estimates similar to the compact Corolla. Some new infrastructure could help boost wind power in California. And New York puts its public... Elon Musk tweets, 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, NYC solar: Today’s Car News
Tesla CEO Elon Musk reaches a new settlement with the SEC to avoid contempt charges. We sat down with the chief engineer of the new 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid to learn how it reaches fuel-economy estimates similar to the compact Corolla. Some new infrastructure could help boost wind power in California. And New York puts its public... 
![MTA 207TH Street rail yard [CREDIT - Fan Railer - Wikimedia Commons]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/mta-207th-street-rail-yard-credit--fan-railer--wikimedia-commons_100699744_t.gif)
Electric cars and public transportation go together in more ways than one. In the latest example, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to add solar panels to the rooftops of its rail yards and bus depots to help feed the local power grid. READ MORE: Forget light poles, British firm to build chargers from cable boxes The MTA... 
German automaker hopeful Sono Motors announced last week that it intends to assemble its solar-assisted electric car, the Sion, at the former home of Saab Automobile in Trollhättan, Sweden. The now defunct automaker Saab nearly always could be counted on to take the unconventional—if not downright eccentric—route in design... 
Concept cars are relatively easy to build—particularly concepts of cars that may exist only on paper or as clay and foil design studies. That has given rise to a host of new concepts launched as online crowd-funded endeavors of various levels of seriousness and potential. One is Sono Motors, a German effort to build an electric car assisted... 
A longtime reader and plug-in car owner lays out an effective roadmap for going solar. Tesla and Electrify America reach an agreement to install Tesla stationary battery storage at some EA DC fast-charge stations. Mercedes-Benz joins the ranks of automakers whose diesel engines are involved in a class-action lawsuit. And Green Car Reports has seen... 
![George Parrot's home solar installation [Credit: George Parrot]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/george-parrots-home-solar-installation-credit-george-parrot_100689848_t.gif)
With the big upturn in electric-car adoption driven by the Tesla Model 3, incoming Kia and Hyundai options, and the highly competitive Chevrolet Bolt, many drivers will be moving to vehicles that will be primarily charged at home. This means that their household electric bills are likely to show a significant increase—a big and obvious... 
As solar cells get more efficient, powerful panels can fit on smaller areas. For those looking to use renewable energy for transportation, that means solar panels can now move from home rooftops used to power car chargers to cars themselves. In Korea on Wednesday, Hyundai and Kia revealed some production-bound examples of that... 
Electric cars and solar power fit together like a hand in a glove. Charging with solar power, electric cars can drive using almost no non-renewable energy. Now according to a report in Bloomberg New Energy Finance last week, solar investment has dropped by 19 percent worldwide in the second quarter following a trade war between China and the U.S... 
Falling prices for lithium-ion batteries will enable half the world's electricity to come from renewable solar and wind by 2050. That still won't be enough to meet global climate targets, however. Those are the conclusions of a new report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), released today. Building on BNEF's Electrc Vehicle Outlook report last... 
Over the years, we've noted the paucity of solid data on the intersection of home solar energy and driving plug-in electric cars. A California-only study from 2012 still gets quoted occasionally, and we continue to seek more recent and more comprehensive data. Out of a mix of curiosity and desperation, we turned to our (far from unscientific)... 
![Photovoltaic solar panel installation on house, Fremont, California [image: Shiva Singh]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/photovoltaic-solar-panel-installation-on-house-fremont-california-image-shiva-singh_100615724_t.gif)
Drivers who buy an electric car that plugs into the power grid to recharge the battery often start to consider the source of their energy. A 2012 analysis from California, in the earliest days of modern electric cars, indicated as many as four in 10 electric-car drivers were already using or considering the addition of home solar panels to... 
A majority of the photovoltaic solar panels used in the U.S. are imported from such countries as China, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. Now, environmentalists and energy analysts worry that the new 30-percent tariff on solar-panel imports announced last Monday by President Donald Trump may stymie the rapidly growing clean-energy... 
While Tesla may be the automaker most known for marketing home-solar equipment, it's actually not the only player on the block. Japanese automaker Nissan previously offered home-energy storage solutions in Europe, dubbed Nissan xStorage, that utilitzed cells recycled from Nissan Leaf batteries. That's as far as Nissan has gone—until now... ![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... 
For much of last year, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry pursued a plan that, in essence, would prop up the financially challenged U.S. coal and nuclear industries. His proposal, submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last fall, provided financial subsidies to electric-generation plants that kept 90 days of fuel onsite. Natural-gas... 
Call it the Ikea mindset. On populated islands, space is at a premium, just like those stereotypical Swedish kitchens you see when you stroll through your local assemble-it-yourself retailer. That space restriction is a major reason fossil fuels remain a better power-generation option than renewables on populated islands that have just experienced... 
Five years ago, an electric-utility think tank issued a dire warning to its members: Your century-old business model is ending. The continually falling costs of renewable energy generation, especially solar panels, would begin to erode utilities' business from its most profitable customers, the study said. Now, in Germany—hardly known for... 
Earlier this month, the 30th World Solar Challenge kicked off in Darwin, Australia, with 42 competitors vying for victory. At the end of the 3,022-kilometer (1,880-mile) race from Darwin to Adelaide, one team emerged victorious in the highly contested Cruiser class. Solar Team Eindhoven, from the Netherlands, placed first with its Stella Vie... 
Although a car powered solely by solar power is far from reality, the 30th anniversary of the World Solar Challenge showcased just how far the technology has come. World Solar Challenge kicked off its celebrations with this year's iteration of the solar-powered car race in Darwin, Australia, on Sunday. From the starting point, the teams will...