The selection of plug-in vehicles available to US buyers continues to grow steadily – it now stands at 27 models, with several more expected this year. The latest entrant to the market is the 2016 Audi A3 Sportback e-tron, the German luxury brand’s first plug-in model available in the US. Every time a new plug-in… Read more »
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Daimler tells managers to drive EVs, invests 30 million euros in charging infrastructure
The makers of plug-in vehicles generally agree on the importance of charging infrastructure, and several have invested substantial sums in workplace charging. Daimler, the maker of the Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive and S 500 Plug-in Hybrid, as well as the smart electric drive, has already built 556 employee charging points. The company recently announced an… Read more »
Tesla leads the pack as overall 2015 plug-in sales fall short
2015 was a year of retrenching and preparation for the future in the EV industry. US sales for the year were around 116,000, falling short of 2014’s figure of 123,000. The Tesla Model S grabbed and held the lead position, handily outselling all other plug-ins in the US with 25,700 deliveries. However, the big news… Read more »
Fuso Canter E-Cell electric delivery truck wraps up Portugal pilot
Mercedes recently completed a yearlong pilot of an electric delivery truck in Portugal. The Fuso Canter E-Cell. The eight vehicles logged 51,500 kilometers in day-to-day usage with two municipal governments, a delivery service and the national postal service. The Fuso Canter E-Cell, which is based on the chassis of the conventional Canter, features a 110… Read more »
Tesla’s goal: drive units that never wear out
Consumer Reports’ recent finding that the Model S’s reliability is only mediocre was a black eye for Tesla, but Elon Musk says that, while early drive units had a range of problems, most of these have now been fixed. During a recent conference call, Musk assured stock analysts that the powertrains now rolling off the… Read more »
Bob Lutz thinks Tesla’s in trouble
Since Tesla’s 2003 founding, there’s been a steady stream of articles explaining why it would soon go belly-up. The latest comes from a seemingly unlikely source: Bob Lutz, the “father of the Chevrolet Volt.” Back in the day, Lutz and Musk seemed like fellow travelers – the former GM exec said he would always be… Read more »
Connecticut offers “cash-on-the-hood” rebates for plug-in purchases
Connecticut, one of 14 states that have adopted California’s clean-air standards, has set a goal of putting 300,000 zero-emission and hybrid vehicles on the state’s roads by 2025. To further that aim, it has established an incentive program with a new wrinkle: instead of having to apply for a rebate after buying a new vehicle,… Read more »
Sales of plug-ins plateau as Model S maintains a lean lead
It’s official: US plug-in sales are in the doldrums. July sales of 8,951 were substantially down from June (10,364), and from July 2014 (11,242). While we’re waiting for the 2016 LEAF and next generation Volt to get things moving again in the fall, we’ll console ourselves with the news that even as US sales have stalled, worldwide… Read more »
The 2016 Volvo XC90 T8 Twin Engine PHEV enters the US market with great promise
These days when most Americans think of Swedish engineering, they probably remember a frustrating experience with an Allen wrench and one too few pieces of particle board. But we didn’t always buy our Swedish creations under the same roof as our Swedish meatballs. Any American old enough to drink remembers a friend whose parents drove… Read more »
May plug-in sales: Tesla, LEAF and Volt back in the top 3, overall sales mediocre
The traditional running order reasserted itself in May, as the Model S, LEAF and Volt slid back into the top three spots. While plug-in sales were up substantially over April, they failed to best the May 2014 numbers. The Tesla Model S grabbed the lead with 2,400 estimated US sales. Deliveries of the D are… Read more »