Which car became exclusive to California?
What did NHTSA say to Tesla?
This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending August 9, 2019.
Tesla was hit with a lawsuit alleging that a software update cut range from some of its cars. The NHTSA also sent Tesla a letter asking it to stop saying its cars are the safest the agency has ever tested. Tesla plans to hike prices for its Full Self-Driving option, and it began offering free unlimited Supercharging again on new sales of its Model S and X.
2019 Tesla Model S
Nissan announced it will expand its U.S. partnership with charging network EVgo to include 200 new 100-kilowatt DC fast chargers—good to take full advantage of the speedier-charging Leaf Plus, among others.
A report indicates that Mini may go all-electric, after leaders at parent company BMW put the kibosh on new gas engines for the brand.
Honda is pulling back sales of its Clarity Plug-in Hybrid to California, citing slow sales elsewhere.
2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid drive, Napa Valley, Caifornia, Dec 2017
Still, a report from Bloomberg NEF shows that the majority of new cars sold around the world by 2037 will be electric.
With no electrics and few plug-in cars on its dealer lots, Toyota plans to clean up the environment by reducing emissions from its U.S. factories and other operations by 40 percent over the next three years, and eliminate them altogether by 2050.
The European Union has been working on a project to improve the efficiency of engines running on renewable gaseous fuels or natural gas. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded a $1.7 million grant to improve the power and durability of fuel cells to startup heavy truckmaker Nikola.
Nikola Tre
Automotive suppliers are pitching a second generation of heat-pump-based technology to reduce the range loss that EVs experience in the winter.
Volvo released a study showing how much self-driving systems could lower fuel consumption.
Volkswagen ID R at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed
And Volkswagen released data showing that its ID R electric race car set energy efficiency records even as it set a new lap record on Germany's famous Nurburgring race track in June.
California sued the Trump administration again—this time NHTSA—over its move to freeze penalties for automakers who violate fuel-economy fines. And Canada announced that its new incentives have boosted electric car sales in the country by 30 percent.
A Bloomberg report traces constraints on lithium-ion battery packs for cars to rising demand and prices for nickel.
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