The company that bought the remains of Swedish carmaker Saab, known as National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), finally celebrated the start of car production in China two weeks ago. NEVS first production vehicle is the 9-3 electric, of which it plans to produce 50,000 copies annually during phase one at its assembly facility in Tianjin, China. It...
It's not just the world automotive industry that's grappling with rapid changes brought about by the need to reduce the effects of climate change. The world's fossil-fuel extraction, refining, and delivery industries are also faced with the reality that two centuries of burning their core products hurts the planet and has already exacerbated...
The end-of-year holiday season is just really starting, but information on Detroit auto show debuts next month is coming in. A new hybrid car from one of the pioneers of hybrid-electric vehicles is notable, and that's what Honda has delivered. The company said Tuesday morning that it will show a prototype of what will be the 2019 Honda Insight...
Today, we've got news about VW's Electrify America charging-station project, BMW's solid-state battery research, and a big pledge by Toyota, as well as our first drive of the 2018 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid. 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...
Some plug-in hybrid models are easily distinguishable from the rest of the cars their maker sells. Others, like the 2018 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid, are all but invisible. It takes a sharp eye to see the charging port door on the left-front fender or the trim and badging differences that distinguish it from a garden-variety Niro Hybrid. We spent 500...
After numerous positions with BorgWarner, Fiat Group, Volvo, and China's largest automaker Geely, an executive named Freeman Shen has finally rolled out his own creation. That is the Weltmeiser EX5, the product of $1 billion in first-round funding from some of the largest players in Chinese tech. Shen's company, WM Motor, claims it will start...
Some of us take for granted the difficulty and cost of owning a car, but more alternatives exist today than did 10 years ago. While many view car ownership as a monthly lease or financing payment, owning a car for others requires finding a place to keep it and perhaps the need to keep moving it around. That's where car sharing comes in. Whether...
Sales of plug-in electric cars are rising steadily in North America, Europe, and Asia, with roughly 2 million now on the world's roads. China is debating when it will ban sales of new vehicles with combustion engines. Meanwhile, Toyota—one of the four largest global automakers—is only reluctantly planning to launch its own...
The $2 billion electric-vehicle infrastructure program funded by Volkswagen as part of its diesel-emission scandal settlement has picked an installer to roll out some of the first phase of its electric-car charging network. Electrify America said on Monday it would contract with the Greenlots charging network for up to 900 stations. They will be...
The industry trade journal WardsAuto has been giving out "Best Engine" awards for 24 years now, and this year's list includes some interesting choices. For starters, there are no engines from German manufacturers on the list: The sole luxury recipients this year are Infiniti and Jaguar. But more importantly, and for the first time ever, four of...
While lithium-ion cells have powered all but a handful of plug-in electric cars since 2008, carmakers have looked further down the road toward solid-state battery cells with an eye toward launching them sometime during the 2020s. On Monday, BMW Group and Solid Power announced that the two companies would partner in an effort to develop Solid...
In 1962, a 39-year-old Carroll Shelby stuffed a Ford V-8 into an AC Ace to create one of the most sought after performance cars ever made, the AC Cobra. Some 50 years later, a group of engineers from British Columbia, Canada has brough Shelby's idea—small two-seat sports car, very big power—into a new age. EPower Racing has been...
Magna’s etelligentDrive systems will be on display at CES 2018. The company’s e1 concept vehicle will be used to demonstrate different electric-drive (e-drive) concepts and systems, as well as demonstrate Magna’s vehicle integration capabilities. The e1 system consists of one highly integrated e-drive system on the front axle and one on the rear axle with two electric motors (e-motors).
Magna says the demo car achieves superior longitudinal and lateral dynamics combined with excellent vehicle stability for more safety. Each e-drive system in the demo vehicle uses 3x 140-kilowatt AC induction motors, adding up to an overall performance of 420-kilowatt peak.
The Tesla Model S based e1 concept vehicle demonstrates improved stability and handling with electronic torque vectoring (eTV). The powertrain features an integrated eDrive 140 kW peak AC induction on the front axle while the rear axle has an integrated eDrive with 2 x 140 kW AC induction motors connected to a summation gearbox and axle lock clutch operated by the eTV control system to provide torque vectoring.
Magna is responsible for providing the e-motor, electronic control module/inverter and the transmission for the Ford Focus BEV and Magna has supplied Volvo with the electrified rear axle drive system (eRAD) featured on the Volvo V60 and S60 plug-in hybrid models. Magna’s eRAD system offers multiple hybrid driving modes while also adding electric all-wheel-drive capability.
More recently, the company announced a joint venture partnership with Hasco in China to produce a high volume e-drive system for a German automaker.
Which country may wipe the floor with the U.S. in the global race among makers of electric cars? What car may pose a significant threat to the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, December 15, 2017. Friday, we learned EV shoppers can...
Today, we've got two different takes on electric-car batteries, some new oversight for the EU to prevent the next Dieselgate, and a small electric delivery van that got bigger. All this and more on Green Car Reports. A new joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic will develop prismatic cells for future electric cars, despite Toyota's aversion to...
As the United Kingdom joins other countries in committing to a future ban on fossil-fuel vehicles, commercial fleet operators that rely on diesel vehicles are left in a bit of a pickle. Nissan has an answer in its zero-emission eNV200 electric cargo van, but its small dimensions leave a lot to be desired for commercial operators that need...
Today, battery-electric cars are built in volume at only three locations across the entire United States. Tesla builds its three different electric models in Fremont, California; the new 2018 Nissan Leaf has just gone into production in Smyrna, Tennessee; and the Chevrolet Bolt EV is built at the Orion Assembly Plant in Michigan. Ford also builds...
With the exception of California's longstanding ability to set its own tougher emission standards, any car legal to sell in one state of the U.S. is legal to sell in all of them. And aside from a handful of differences—daytime running lights, speedometers marked in km/h—Canadian-market vehicles are largely the same as well. Within the...
The automotive business is one that turns raw materials into highly complex finished goods. When the prices of key commodities—especially raw materials—rise, everything downstream in that process becomes more expensive. That's Hyundai's concern over battery prices from 2020 onward, as it envisions a future in which a constrained supply...
The company that bought the remains of Swedish carmaker Saab, known as National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), finally celebrated the start of car production in China two weeks ago. NEVS first production vehicle is the 9-3 electric, of which it plans to produce 50,000 copies annually during phase one at its assembly facility in Tianjin, China. It... 
It's not just the world automotive industry that's grappling with rapid changes brought about by the need to reduce the effects of climate change. The world's fossil-fuel extraction, refining, and delivery industries are also faced with the reality that two centuries of burning their core products hurts the planet and has already exacerbated... 
The end-of-year holiday season is just really starting, but information on Detroit auto show debuts next month is coming in. A new hybrid car from one of the pioneers of hybrid-electric vehicles is notable, and that's what Honda has delivered. The company said Tuesday morning that it will show a prototype of what will be the 2019 Honda Insight... 
Today, we've got news about VW's Electrify America charging-station project, BMW's solid-state battery research, and a big pledge by Toyota, as well as our first drive of the 2018 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid. 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... 
Some plug-in hybrid models are easily distinguishable from the rest of the cars their maker sells. Others, like the 2018 Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid, are all but invisible. It takes a sharp eye to see the charging port door on the left-front fender or the trim and badging differences that distinguish it from a garden-variety Niro Hybrid. We spent 500... 
After numerous positions with BorgWarner, Fiat Group, Volvo, and China's largest automaker Geely, an executive named Freeman Shen has finally rolled out his own creation. That is the Weltmeiser EX5, the product of $1 billion in first-round funding from some of the largest players in Chinese tech. Shen's company, WM Motor, claims it will start... 
Some of us take for granted the difficulty and cost of owning a car, but more alternatives exist today than did 10 years ago. While many view car ownership as a monthly lease or financing payment, owning a car for others requires finding a place to keep it and perhaps the need to keep moving it around. That's where car sharing comes in. Whether... 
Sales of plug-in electric cars are rising steadily in North America, Europe, and Asia, with roughly 2 million now on the world's roads. China is debating when it will ban sales of new vehicles with combustion engines. Meanwhile, Toyota—one of the four largest global automakers—is only reluctantly planning to launch its own... 
The $2 billion electric-vehicle infrastructure program funded by Volkswagen as part of its diesel-emission scandal settlement has picked an installer to roll out some of the first phase of its electric-car charging network. Electrify America said on Monday it would contract with the Greenlots charging network for up to 900 stations. They will be... 
The industry trade journal WardsAuto has been giving out "Best Engine" awards for 24 years now, and this year's list includes some interesting choices. For starters, there are no engines from German manufacturers on the list: The sole luxury recipients this year are Infiniti and Jaguar. But more importantly, and for the first time ever, four of... 
While lithium-ion cells have powered all but a handful of plug-in electric cars since 2008, carmakers have looked further down the road toward solid-state battery cells with an eye toward launching them sometime during the 2020s. On Monday, BMW Group and Solid Power announced that the two companies would partner in an effort to develop Solid... 
In 1962, a 39-year-old Carroll Shelby stuffed a Ford V-8 into an AC Ace to create one of the most sought after performance cars ever made, the AC Cobra. Some 50 years later, a group of engineers from British Columbia, Canada has brough Shelby's idea—small two-seat sports car, very big power—into a new age. EPower Racing has been... 
![2017 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car [photo: Chris Neff]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/2017-bmw-i3-rex-range-extended-electric-car-photo-chris-neff_100622577_t.gif)
Which country may wipe the floor with the U.S. in the global race among makers of electric cars? What car may pose a significant threat to the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending on Friday, December 15, 2017. Friday, we learned EV shoppers can... 
Today, we've got two different takes on electric-car batteries, some new oversight for the EU to prevent the next Dieselgate, and a small electric delivery van that got bigger. All this and more on Green Car Reports. A new joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic will develop prismatic cells for future electric cars, despite Toyota's aversion to... 
As the United Kingdom joins other countries in committing to a future ban on fossil-fuel vehicles, commercial fleet operators that rely on diesel vehicles are left in a bit of a pickle. Nissan has an answer in its zero-emission eNV200 electric cargo van, but its small dimensions leave a lot to be desired for commercial operators that need... 
Today, battery-electric cars are built in volume at only three locations across the entire United States. Tesla builds its three different electric models in Fremont, California; the new 2018 Nissan Leaf has just gone into production in Smyrna, Tennessee; and the Chevrolet Bolt EV is built at the Orion Assembly Plant in Michigan. Ford also builds... 
With the exception of California's longstanding ability to set its own tougher emission standards, any car legal to sell in one state of the U.S. is legal to sell in all of them. And aside from a handful of differences—daytime running lights, speedometers marked in km/h—Canadian-market vehicles are largely the same as well. Within the... 
The automotive business is one that turns raw materials into highly complex finished goods. When the prices of key commodities—especially raw materials—rise, everything downstream in that process becomes more expensive. That's Hyundai's concern over battery prices from 2020 onward, as it envisions a future in which a constrained supply...