Do German makers face ‘iPhone moment,’ after dodging diesel bullet?

2017 Tesla Model 3 The Volkswagen diesel scandal has largely fallen out of the public eye in the U.S., as VW and Audi buy back and modify roughly half a million noncompliant vehicles sold from 2009 through 2016. In Germany, meanwhile, the major sellers of diesel vehicles—not only VW Group but also Mercedes, Opel, and Fiat—have agreed to modify 5 million...

San Diego utility offers $10,000 off Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 electric cars

2017 Nissan LeafFor southern California residents, it's an excellent time to start considering the purchase of a BMW i3 or Nissan Leaf electric car. San Diego Gas & Electric has joined a host of other utility companies in the state in offering incentives towards the purchase of an i3 or a Leaf. In total, the incentives slash $10,000 from the purchase price of...

Does Tesla Model 3 compete with Bolt EV and Leaf, or BMW 3-Series?

2018 BMW 3-SeriesThere's a new generation of the BMW 3-Series sport sedan coming next year, and rumors suggest there will be an all-electric version in 2019 or 2020. If so, there's only one car that it would be targeting: the Tesla Model 3, the 220-mile or 310-mile electric sedan from the Silicon Valley carmaker that says it will be making 5,000 of them by the end...

Is the Tesla Model 3 really ‘Car 2.0’? Maybe not: here’s why

2017 Tesla Model 3 and 2011 Nissan Leaf, Half Moon Bay, California, Aug 2017  [photo: Scott Forrest]Like the company's three previous electric cars, the Tesla Model 3 launched into production with a splashy media event during which owners received the keys to their new cars and the company's fans applauded. Like the Model S and Model X, production is starting at very low rates, with the rate of increase—to 5,000 cars a week by December 31...

We visited NYC’s Ford Hub; we still don’t know what it was

Scenes from visit to Ford Hub, Westfield World Trade Center, New York City, Aug 2017Those who've lived in New York City since 2001 sometimes choose to avoid the World Trade Center site when possible. The area has largely been rebuilt into a combination of offices, shopping, and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, with construction on some very tall towers still ongoing. A lunch date with a friend prompted us to wander into the Ford...

Baojun E100: GM’s tiny, two-seat electric car for China

Baojun E100 electric carMost North Americans and Europeans will likely never have heard of Baojun, but it's one of many brands operated under General Motors' SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture in China. Its portfolio is mostly made up of small sedans, multi-purpose vehicles (small minivans), hatchbacks, and a crossover utility vehicle, but the brand recently undertook its...

Senate panel rejects clean-energy cuts, boosts DoE funding instead

Offshore wind farmThe Senate Committee on Appropriations recently exhibited a quality somewhat rare in U.S. politics these days: bipartisanship. The committee released a lengthy report on the 2018 fiscal year budget for the Department of Energy that walks away from the Trump Administration's efforts to defund clean energy. In fact, the committee voted on a...