Stories To Follow In 2017: Electric cars

2017 will be a big year for the electric car. Of course, we’ll be watching closely to see how the Chevrolet Bolt EV 2017 sells, and whether the Tesla Model 3 lives up to its promises—promises that have already won over the hundreds of thousands of people who pre-ordered it. In any case, the biggest story of 2017 has yet to be announced!

Chances are we’ll be learning more about lots of cars. Take for example the new Nissan LEAF, which we expect to hear more about in 2017. The current generation has been on the market for a while, and even though it’s been updated with a more powerful battery, it still can’t compete with everything that Tesla and Chevrolet have on offer. Nissan’s going to have to deliver a car with over 300 km of range. We’ll have to wait and see if they can make it happen.

• Also: Stories To Follow In 2017: Electric vehicles? Probably. Hybrid vehicles? Definitely.
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We also have to keep an eye on Toyota and Mazda. Until recently, Toyota was convinced that hydrogen was the fuel of the future. In fact, the brand even owned shares in Tesla when it worked on hydrogen technology. But when we asked some of the bigwigs at Toyota about hydrogen, they told us there weren’t really any 100% electric cars in the pipeline.

We recently learned that Toyota and Mazda are teaming up to develop electric cars. For such monumental news, the reaction was remarkably muted: this means Toyota should be rolling out electric cars in the next few years—and knowing Toyota, it could happen pretty quickly—and it also means that Mazda could come out with an electric car. Until recently, it did not seem like that was in the cards. Plus, if Toyota and Mazda continue work closely together (remember that the Yaris sedan is just a Mazda2 in disguise) it would come as no surprise if Toyota were to acquire Mazda.