Search Results Found For: "Clean Cars"

The US and EU take different approaches to the threat of Chinese EV imports

Governments in North America and Europe are seriously concerned about China’s growing dominance of the EV industry. Chinese automaker BYD recently surpassed Tesla as the world’s leading seller of EVs, and it’s only one of several Chinese-owned brands that are already selling cars in the US and the EU. However, the world’s #2 and #3… Read more »

New studies indicate that battery-electric aircraft with 800 km range could be practical

Several companies are working on battery-electric aircraft, but electric aviation is a tougher nut to crack than electric cars, for physical reasons. It simply takes a lot more energy to keep an aircraft aloft than it does to propel a vehicle along a road, and every additional pound of battery weight takes a steep toll… Read more »

GM’s rosy year-end figures obscure the fact that legacy automakers are in deep trouble

Duplicitous doublespeak has become de rigueur dialect in the auto industry. “We remain committed to an all-electric future,” says GM as it announces a rollback of its electrification plans. “We strongly believe in EVs,” say auto dealers as they support efforts to slow the EV transition. “The greatest responsibility for us as a company is… Read more »

Kia EV9 and Volvo EX30: Are they 2024’s most important EVs?

One’s a three-row midsize SUV under $60,000; the other’s a compact hatchback that starts in the mid-30s. Now we’ve driven both. Choosing “best of” or “most important” new cars is always dicey, and doubly so with electric vehicles. New entries are announced virtually every month, and picking the 2025 models that will be most important… Read more »

Cummins to pay $1.6-billion fine for installing VW-style emissions cheating devices

Here we go again. The scandal that we dubbed VW’s Dirty Diesel Debacle opened a lot of folks’ eyes to the true priorities of automakers and other corporations. As reported in these pages, VW was truly sorry that it got caught, and performed several acts of contrition—it bought back a fraction of the defective cars,… Read more »

Working to eliminate dangerous e-bike batteries

Electric bicycles have quickly become enormously popular—the Light Electric Vehicle Association estimates that some 880,000 were imported to the US in 2021. However, some of them have a way of catching fire unexpectedly, sometimes in residential settings, with unfortunate consequences. At this point, unfortunately, a disclaimer is necessary. This is not one of those “EVs… Read more »

Michigan’s Governor Whitmer directs state government vehicle fleet to go electric by 2040

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed an executive directive requiring the state government to convert its fleet of cars and trucks to zero-emission vehicles by 2040. Michigan state agencies currently own more than 8,000 vehicles, and the governor’s office says only three (!) of them are EVs. Under the new directive, Michigan government agencies must… Read more »

UK auto industry execs slam Sunak’s abandonment of net zero pledges

In UK politics, climate change policies cut across party lines. Boris Johnson’s Tory government set an official goal of reaching “net zero” emissions by 2030. This translated to a wide range of pro-EV policies, and the results can be plainly seen in London, which has become one of the world’s most charged cities. Now Rishi… Read more »

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm takes an EV road trip, deals with charging challenges

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm recently took an EV road trip from Charlotte, North Carolina to Memphis, Tennessee in order to draw attention to the billions of dollars in funding the White House is making available to promote electric vehicles. Granholm addressed audiences at town hall stops along her road trip. “Things are happening… Read more »