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An all-electric Tesla Model S on display at the Time Warner Center in midtown Manhattan is usually covered with fingerprints after the curious slam the doors and kick the tires. Red Multi-Coat Paint is $1,500 extra, but that is one option I have to have. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR I can't wait two years for an affordable all-electric car, whether it is from Tesla or Chevrolet. And if I could, I don't think I'd settle for the Chevy Bolt, a 2017 model GM promises will cost thousands of dollars less than the Volt plug-in hybrid. Have you seen photos of the Bolt concept, a stubby four door? It doesn't compare to the elegant Tesla Model 3, another 2017 model with a range of 200 miles and an MSRP of about $35,000. And the Model 3's big brother, the Model S 4-door luxury hatchback, is available now starting at around $70,000. Battery guarantee Originally, I reasoned I'd be happy with the base Model S with a 60 kWh battery and a range of 208 miles. I'm retired, and

The Chevrolet Spark EV, above, and the Bolt EV Concept, below, bear a family resemblance. The Spark is available only in California and Oregon. The Bolt is scheduled to be produced as a 2017 model with a battery that will give it a range of more than 200 miles, General Motors says. The Chevrolet Bolt EV Concept. Compare the forthcoming Tesla Model 3 to the Chevy Bolt Concept. This photo is from Auto Express. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR If you treat an auto writer to an espresso and pastry before a splashy press conference, he or she will write almost anything. That must be the explanation for all of those stories out of the Detroit Auto Show, setting up a confrontation between all-electric cars from Chevrolet and Tesla. Yes. Chevy is the GM division that gave us defective ignition switches, the Nova or "no va" (Spanish for "doesn't go") and the Corvair's dangerous swing-axle rear suspension. Tesla, the upstart maker of all-electric luxury cars, is working on

The Chevrolet Bolt EV Concept has an ambiguous name to go along with an ambiguous production date. Many auto writers are reporting it will be available as a 2017 model with a 200-mile range, but haven't you seen many concepts that never lived up to the splash they made at the auto show?  By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR A bolt is a fastener. Now, Chevrolet is calling an all-electric concept with a 200-mile range a Bolt, which rhymes with Volt, the plug-in hybrid with a limited EV range it has been selling since December 2010. A new Volt is to be unveiled today at the auto show in Detroit. The official press release calls the 4-door Bolt "a vision for an affordable, long-range all-electric vehicle designed to offer more than 200 mile of range starting around $30,000." Chevrolet officials haven't explained how the Bolt can be sold in two years for thousands of dollars less than the current Volt, which has an MSRP of $34,345. In what appears to be a shot at Tesla's Model S

A price sign at a gasoline station in Teaneck, N.J. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR In more than a decade of driving three Toyota Prius hybrids, I've never bothered looking for the cheapest gasoline. When you are getting more than 40 mpg around town and more than 50 mpg on the highway, 10 cents a gallon one way or another doesn't really matter. Now, with a gallon of regular below $2, SUV owners are driving more and not even thinking of trading in their gas guzzlers on something more efficient, aggravating air pollution. All the gains in cleaner air from millions of hybrid cars are being eroded. "Low emissions, high hopes" were the words that appeared on a Prius showroom catalog in 2004. 57 mpg in a Prius I brought home my first Prius in March 2004, when regular was selling for $1.63.9 a gallon at a Mobil station on Route 4 in Englewood. In July 2004, I got 57.1 mpg on a highway trip to Lorain, Ohio. I tried many brands of gasoline, but always from the majors, and settled o

A Tesla Model S demonstrator at the electric automaker's new Showroom-Service Center on Route 17 north in Paramus. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR I don't envy all of those full-time auto writers and bloggers who have to scramble for green-car news. Many of them write for sponsored sites, and range far and wide, even years into the future, in search of stories. Look at all of the copy about the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, which isn't scheduled to come out until late in 2015. But with a first-year production of only 2,100, it's unclear how many will be available in the United States. What is clear is that Toyota dealers are sure to squeeze anyone who wants to buy one of the few available for a lot of added profit over the $57,500 base price, if past practice is any guide. Junket to Japan One of the blogs that wrote about the Mirai acknowledged Toyota provided airfare to Japan, lodging and meals to enable the writer "to bring you this first-person report.&quo