Honda confirms a Civic Hybrid. Tesla gets a “do-over” on fixing its Boombox. The Leaf and Niro lineups get refreshed. And California sets its rules for more EVs. This and more, here at Green Car Reports.
California this morning officially posted its Proposed Regulation for Advanced Clean Cars II rulemaking. Distilled down, the rules aim to boost sales of battery electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel-cell light vehicles, combined, to 35% of new light-vehicle purchases by the 2026 model year. It’s on the way to a 68% portion of those vehicles by 2030 and 100% by 2035.
Honda has confirmed that it plans to drop its Insight hybrid sedan soon—to make room for the upcoming return of a Civic Hybrid, as well as other hybrid models. It’s all part of a push to make hybrids a higher portion of the automaker’s U.S. sales.
Tesla’s Boombox feature has been made the subject of a recall campaign yet again, as a recent recall didn’t assure that the cars were compliant whenever they were moving. A “do-over” issued in an over-the-air update now also includes Summon and Smart Summon in making sure federally mandated pedestrian sounds can be heard.
At the New York auto show this week, Nissan revealed a refreshed version of the Leaf. The 2023 Nissan Leaf builds on the price cut given to the lineup last year, making way for the pending arrival of the Ariya, and simplifies the lineup to just two models. There are also some new design details to distinguish the fresh model year of this EV, which rates up to 215 miles of range.
Kia also rolled out a U.S. lineup of redesigned Niro models at the NY show. Back in hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and EV versions, the 2023 Kia Niro offers more range and higher mpg for the respective models, as well as a design that yields more interior space than the current version.
And in case you missed it, Mercedes earlier this week reported that it completed a 626-mile real-world trip in its Vision EQXX concept, on a single charge and with about 15% of its charge remaining—al with a battery pack of less than 100 kwh. Although we can make no confirmation as of yet that the production compact SUVs it previews will be as lightweight as this 3,850-pound concept.
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