California-based Aptera Motors “is rolling out the first mass-produced solar car this year,” reports the Washington Post, after successfully crowdfunding a restart of their development effort: It’s a three-wheel, ultra-aerodynamic electric vehicle covered in 34 square feet of solar cells. The car is so efficient that, on a clear day, those cells alone could provide enough energy to drive about 40…
Tag: trucks
General Motors Hit by Chip Shortage
General Motors became the latest automaker hit by the global shortage of semiconductor chips as the U.S. automaker said on Wednesday it will take down production next week at four assembly plants. From a report: GM said it will cut production entirely during the week of Feb. 8 at plants in Fairfax, Kansas; Ingersoll, Ontario; and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. It…
Electric Cars Would Save America Huge Amounts of Energy
An anonymous reader shares an opinion piece from Bloomberg, written by Liam Denning and Elaine He: Electrifying U.S. vehicles wipes out the equivalent of our entire current power demand. The U.S. consumes a lot of energy; last year, about 100 quadrillion BTUs (equivalent to 17 billion barrels of oil; which, we’ll admit, is only marginally less abstract). But only about a…
The US Government’s Entire 645,000-Vehicle Fleet Will Go All-Electric
Jalopnik reports:
The United States government operates a fleet of about 645,000 vehicles, from mail delivery trucks to military vehicles and passenger cars. On Monday, President Joe Biden announced that his administration intends to replace them all with American-made, electric alternatives… In 2015, the government operated 357,610 gasoline vehicles and 3,896 electric ones; in 2019, those numbers grew to 368,807 and 4,475,…
GM Will Sell Only Zero-Emission Vehicles By 2035
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: General Motors said Thursday it would phase out petroleum-powered cars and trucks and sell only vehicles that have zero tailpipe emissions by 2035, a seismic shift by one of the world’s largest automakers that makes billions of dollars today from gas-guzzling pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles. The announcement could put…
Biden Rejoins Paris Climate Accord, Works To Overturn Trump’s Climate Policies
During his first moments in the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Biden returned the United States to the Paris climate accord and directed federal agencies to begin unraveling Donald Trump’s environmental policies. The Washington Post reports: Biden’s executive order recommitting the United States to the international struggle to slow global warming fulfilled a campaign promise and represented a stark repudiation of…
Is There a Tech Worker ‘Exodus’ From the San Francisco Bay Area?
The New York Times reports on an “exodus” of tech workers from the San Francisco Bay Area, where “Rent was astronomical. Taxes were high. Your neighbors didn’t like you” — and your commute could be over an hour. The biggest tech companies aren’t going anywhere, and tech stocks are still soaring… But the migration from the Bay Area appears real. Residential…
Due to Popular Demand, GM May Build More of Its ‘Hummer EV’ Electric Pickups
FrankOVD shares this report from CNET: The people were really into the GMC Hummer EV when the brand finally ripped the cloak off the electric pickup truck earlier this year. So much so that the Hummer EV Edition 1 trim sold out in 10 minutes. Now, GMC is reportedly thinking about building more of them due to overwhelming response. According…
Walmart Will Use Fully Driverless Trucks To Make Deliveries In 2021
Starting in 2021, Walmart will use fully autonomous box trucks to make deliveries in Arkansas without any safety drivers in the vehicles. The Verge reports: The big-box retailer has been working with a startup called Gatik on a delivery pilot for 18 months. Gatik, which is based in Palo Alto and Toronto, outfitted several multitemperature box trucks with sensors and software…
Illegal Tampering By Diesel Pickup Owners Is Worsening Pollution, EPA Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The owners and operators of more than half a million diesel pickup trucks have been illegally disabling their vehicles’ emissions control technology over the past decade, allowing excess emissions equivalent to 9 million extra trucks on the road, a new federal report has concluded. The practice, described in a report…