During the last 9 years, more than 800,000 plug-in electric cars were sold in the U.S. Almost half of that number falls on the state of California, which aims for 1.5 million by the year of 2025. Plug-in electric car sales in California are approaching the level of 400,000 vehicles, which is expected to be reached in April. A most recent graphic shows 388,815 sales to the end of March, 12,631 being sold in March alone. California is leading the U.S. in electric plug-in car sales because it is the country’s largest car market, with high wealth and lots of models to c...
New car registration figures for March reveal a sharp drop in sales. The number of sales is 15.7 percent lower compared to the same month last year. A big part of that fall is due to bumper sales in March 2017, as drivers flooded the dealers to beat the then-new road tax system. The old tax model based on carbon dioxide was favorable to diesel cars. That’s because diesel-powered cars emit lesser CO2 than their petrol counterparts. That explains in a way diesel’s decline, with a 37.2 percent fall in sales last month, compared to a fall of 23,5 percent in February.&nb...
Ford is making two safety recalls to fix some mechanical issues that affect the control of the transmission on several 2017 and 2018 models. The manufacturer is aware of one reported injury-causing accident related to the first and largest recall. This safety recall will affect almost 350,00 pickups and SUVs made in 2018. They want to fix a potentially unseated gear shift cable locking clip which can set the transmission in a different gear state than the one that the driver selects. That means the vehicle could move even when in parking mode, with no warning message on the da...
Donald Trump proposed a 25 percent tariff on some goods, including automobiles, imported from China. This could put a kink in the plans of Ford, GM, Volvo as well as the Chinese brand Guangzhou Automobile Group, who planned to enter the US market next year. Volvo is importing S60 Inscription since 2015 from China; GM imports the Cadillac CT6 plug-in hybrid and Buick Envision; Ford was planning on starting to build the Focus Compact there and importing it. China retaliated, announcing its own 25 percent tax on imports including chemicals, soybeans, aircraft, and cars...
Ford Escape SUV was rated “poor” by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for the new passenger side front crash test. Ford Escape was the only small SUV that failed. This test is the opposite of the driver’s side test that this institute is doing for five years now. It consists of a vehicle that is propelled at a speed of 40 miles per hour into a concrete barrier that is directed to the passenger’s side only. The idea behind the test is to replicate an accident where the vehicle collides with an object with just the passenger’s side. Wh...
