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Opel's new EV concept is a stylish take on the compact SUV
This week, car manufacturer Opel introduced a brand new electric concept SUV called the GT X Experimental. What's more, with the introduction of this vehicle, Opel has announced that all of its models will be fully electric by 2024.
GM settles with motorcyclist over accident with self-driving Bolt
Earlier this year, Oscar Nilsson sued GM over an accident involving one of the company's self-driving Chevy Bolts. In December, according to Nilsson, the Bolt began changing lanes but then suddenly swerved back into Nilsson's lane, knocking him and his motorcycle over and causing injuries to his neck and shoulder. Now Nilsson and GM have reached a settlement. "The parties anticipate finalizing all details and filing a joint stipulation for dismissal with prejudice within thirty (30) days, or before June 29, 2018," says a court filing announcing the agreement.
GM plans to release cars with no steering wheel in 2019
If the Department of Transportation grants GM's latest Safety Petition, the automaker will be able to deploy its no-steering-wheel, pedal-less autonomous car next year. GM has not only revealed what its Level 4 self-driving vehicle will look like -- in a video you can watch after the break -- but also announced that it filed a Safety Petition to be able to deploy its completely driverless version of Chevy Bolt called Cruise AV in 2019. The company describes it as "the first production-ready vehicle built from the start to operate safely on its own, with no driver, steering wheel, pedals or manual controls."
Green tech will be everywhere in 2018
In 2017, clean power gathered unprecedented momentum. Multiple automakers launched entire families of EVs, including the most exciting one yet, Tesla's Model 3. The company also started pre-orders for the Solar Roof, a type of home photovoltaic panel that will make solar panel installations less ugly. With climate change problems mounting, national and local governments are pushing for more renewable energy and an end to fossil-fueled cars -- despite hostile moves in those areas by US President Donald Trump. Elected officials and the public want fewer gas-powered vehicles and coal plants, and more EVs, solar panels and wind turbines. That will ultimately benefit your health, wallet and environment, and you'll be less reliant on large energy and oil corporations, to boot.
Can Tesla avoid becoming the BlackBerry of electric cars?
It wasn't that long ago that the idea of a semi-autonomous, or even an electric car, driving on public roads was incredibly far-fetched. Sure, there were hybrids from companies like Toyota and Honda, but nothing that anyone with a straight face would call cool. Tesla changed all that, first with its roadster but then (more importantly) with its Model S and Autopilot. Its cars had an EV range of more than 200 miles and made caring about the environment and driving "the future" a status symbol. Tesla changed everything in the automotive world and now, well now, the industry has caught up and Elon Musk's company is mired in what he calls "production hell."
GM will have 20 electric car models on the road by 2023
GM is joining other automakers declaring its intention introduce a substantial number of electric vehicles by the middle of the next decade. Today, the automaker announced it would have at least 20 electric cars on the road by 2023. During the announcement this morning, Mark Reuss, vice president of global product development said, "GM believes the future is all electric."
Some early Chevy Bolts suffer from battery issues
We're sure people who were waiting for the Chevy Bolt EV were thrilled when General Motors started selling them much earlier than planned. Unfortunately, some of them might now have electric cars that could leave them stranded in the middle of nowhere. GM has admitted to Autoblog that a number of it earliest Bolts have battery issues that could lead to "unexpected loss of propulsion." The good news is that only around one percent of the 10,000-or-so Bolts -- so, approximately 100 -- on the road are affected. Further, the automaker will fix it for customers at no cost.
LG will build electric car parts in Detroit
LG Electronics is building a 250,000 square foot EV parts plant in Detroit suburb Hazel Park, it said in a press release. LG might not build its own cars, but its vehicle components division supplies many key pieces for GM's critically acclaimed Chevy Bolt, to name one manufacturer. That's an understatement: It builds the battery cells and pack, electric motor, power inverter, on-board charger, climate control, instrument cluster and infotainment system.
GM is beta testing a ride-hailing app for autonomous EVs
General Motors acquired Cruise Automation last year to boost its self-driving car efforts. Cruise made kits that turned Audi S4 or A4 vehicles into autonomous vehicles, and the company's know-how helped GM's plans to place more than 300 driverless cars with Lyft, a company GM has invested heavily with. Now GM is testing a beta app that lets employees in San Francisco hail an autonomous Chevy Bolt EV to anywhere in the city. According to TechCrunch, the car company claims that the new service, "Cruise Anywhere," has become the primary way some of its employees get around.
Lyft relies on autonomous EVs to meet climate impact goals
While Uber has been engulfed in a hurricane of scandal, its ride-hailing competitor Lyft has published its climate impact goals. The company says that with the help of autonomous and electric vehicles it'll be able to reduce CO2 emissions "by at least 5 million tons per year by 2025."
GM begins mass-producing self-driving Bolt EVs
The Chevy Bolt EV is an affordable, long-range electric car that's garnered positive reviews, but GM wasn't willing to stop there. They've just completed production on 130 self-driving test Bolt EVs. These aren't the first autonomous Chevy Bolt EVs that GM has produced. The company has been testing over 50 cars in San Francisco, Scottsdale and Detroit since June 2016, though the self-drive technology on this current crop of Bolts is more advanced. This new fleet of Bolts is notable, though, because it's the first time a company is using mass production techniques on self-driving vehicles. If autonomous vehicles really are the way of the future, manufacturers need a way to produce them in a cost-effective manner. That's just what GM is working on with these new Chevy EV Bolts: marrying safe and reliable self-driving technology with production methods that scale affordably.
Tesla’s Model 3 budget EV can do 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds
Some of the performance details of Tesla's Model 3, which is set to begin production in July, were leaked today by insiders at the Tesla Model 3 Owners Club. An infographic comparing the new, $35,000 model with the fancier and more powerful Model S reports a 0-60 time of a zippy 5.6 seconds.
GM has a rental car service for Uber and Lyft drivers
Maven, General Motors' Zipcar-style service, is expanding to grease the wheels of the despair-inducing gig economy. Maven Gig lets you rent a vehicle for, say, a week at a time, specifically as a way of making money on the "freelance mobility economy." Specifically, if you pay $229, you'll take control of a Chevy Bolt for a week so you can live your dream of working for Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Rodie and GrubHub.
GM aims to put 300 more self-driving Chevy Bolts on the road
General Motors and its San Francisco-based autonomous vehicles division Cruise have made it clear they plan to put an autonomous taxi fleet on the road as fast as possible. Earlier this year, rumors from both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters claimed GM's project with Lyft could start in a test market sometime this year before a wider expansion in 2018. While Cruise has been quickly adding staff in San Francisco, GM will still need to more test cars on the road in order to get enough data and information to refine its autonomous systems for passenger use. According to a new report from IEEE Spectrum, GM and Cruise plan to add 300 more self-driving Chevy Bolts to their fleet and could be rolling them out as soon as next month.
GM's car sharing service offers more EVs by teaming with cities
The city of Los Angeles is no stranger to embracing EVs and now its teaming up with GM's car-sharing service to make those vehicles more readily available. Maven announced today that it's partnering with cities to expand sustainable driving options and the initiative is kicking off in LA. Once the project fully up to speed, over 100 Chevy Bolt EVs will be available in the city.
The Chevy Bolt makes green driving fun
I've driven the Chevy Bolt a few times. At CES, briefly in San Francisco, and after a tour of the GM plant where the electric car will be assembled. But all those tests were in preproduction vehicles. Sure, they were working cars, but they weren't quite ready for consumers. The company still needed to tweak and refine the EV leading up to its official launch at a dealership in Fremont, California, in December. Finally , GM put me behind the wheel of a consumer-ready Bolt, and I wasn't disappointed.
Volkswagen's modern Microbus remake, and more in the week that was
The Volkswagen microbus is one of the most iconic vehicles of all time, and now the automaker is set to revive the classic for the modern era. Meet the I.D. Buzz: VW's all-electric, self-driving microbus of the future. In other auto news, Nissan debuted a stylish Vmotion 2.0 sedan packed with self-driving technology, and the Chevrolet Bolt was named the 2017 North American Car of the Year. IKEA is known for its flat-pack furniture, but it's branching out into urban mobility by launching its very first bike. The Sladda is a chainless aluminum cycle that can be kitted out with front and rear racks, panniers and even a towable cart.
Apple's new solar-powered campus, and more in the week that was
As the founder of Tesla, Elon Musk is a proponent of clean technology and renewable energy. That's why it's so surprising that Donald Trump has selected Musk to serve as a strategic advisor -- here's hoping Musk can convince the President-elect to take climate change seriously. In other news, Chevrolet just delivered its first batch of Bolt EVs to customers in the San Francisco Bay Area, beating Tesla's Model 3 to the punch. Steven Hawking is working with NASA to launch a self-healing starship that will search for habitable planets in Alpha Centauri. And Japan Airlines has developed a way to transform old clothing into jet fuel.
Chevy delivers its first Bolt EVs in Tesla's backyard
The high-range, reasonably priced Bolt EV is finally here. Introduced at CES 2016, the car's delivery to a dealership in Fremont, California is the completion of an aggressive roadmap for the automobile set forth by GM CEO Mary Barra when the vehicle was unveiled. And it's probably not a coincidence that the cars will be transferred to their new owners approximately three miles from the Tesla assembly plant.
Inside the factory building GM's game-changing Bolt EV
At CES earlier this year, GM CEO Mary Barra announced, to much fanfare, that the Bolt EV would have a range of over 200 miles, cost less than $30,000 (after tax credits) and ship by the end of the year. So far, two of those three proclamations have come true. Fortunately for would-be owners, though, the automaker insists it'll deliver on that last one too, promising that the car will begin shipping by the end of the month. Getting the Bolt out on the street isn't just important for Chevy, but also for the future of motoring, and it's all coming together in Detroit.
