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Honda will be the next automaker to market an all-electric car as Toyota continues to sit on the sidelines. -- HACKENSACK, N.J. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Consumer Reports seems to have a blind spot for all-electric cars. The magazine's annual Auto Issue, just out, picks the 10 best new cars for 2017, but all of them use gasoline. For a full report, see: Consumer Reports smells (of gasoline)

The all-electric 2017 Chevrolet Bolt is not expected to be in New Jersey and New York showrooms until March. Shocking Car News , a blog I started after I bought a Tesla Model S, has moved to The Sasson Report , which also covers food,  journalism and other issues. --VICTOR E. SASSON

The humble, all-electric 2017 Chevrolet Bolt on display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit (photo from Mark Brush/Michigan Radio). By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Auto writers from the United States and Canada have crowned an EV you can buy in only two states as 2017 North American Car of the Year. At the international auto show in Detroit, GM's all-electric Chevy Bolt beat out the Genesis luxury sedan and a big Volvo, both powered by conventional internal-combustion engines. I went online to find out whether I can buy a Bolt in New Jersey, and was told the EV is available in limited numbers only in California and Oregon. Here's the result of my live chat: Benjamin : 3:00:38 PM Thank you for your interest in the Bolt EV! The Bolt EV will be available nationally, but the vehicle is currently available in California and Oregon. The national roll-out begins in 2017, and a number of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States, including New York, Massachusetts and Virginia, ...

On the way to the International Jazz Festival in Montreal last July, I stopped at a free Tesla charging station in a mall outside of Albany, N.Y., and found plenty of company. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Since I took delivery in April 2015, my Tesla Model S has given me more than 12,000 miles of effortless driving in a challenging environment -- northern New Jersey. Affluent Bergen County, where I live, has a street network that hasn't been improved significantly since the 1950s, and some of the lousiest, most discourteous drivers in the nation. They will cut you off without mercy, roll through stop signs right in front of you and tailgate or stop inches behind you at lights. OK. I get that drivers of conventional cars haven't gotten the message about just how fast all-electric cars are, especially how they can leap away from a traffic light in suburban driving. So, please, stop trying to race me or cut me off before you get to that double-parked truck on Cedar Lane in Teaneck o...

A free Tesla Supercharger on Route 300 in Newburgh, N.Y., is conveniently located in a strip mall with an Italian-American restaurant and pizzeria, and a frozen yogurt store. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Who doesn't like "free"?  In the last four years, owners of the all-electric Tesla Model S four-door hatchback and the Model X SUV have enjoyed free juice at a growing network of Superchargers across the continental U.S. And if they have solar panels at home, all of the electricity they've used has been free. Now, for Teslas ordered after Jan. 1, 2017, owners will receive 400 kWh hours of free Supercharging credits annually (roughly 1,000 miles) so that they can continue to enjoy free fast charging during travel. "All cars will continue to come standard with the onboard hardware required for Supercharging," according to Tesla. That hardware was a $2,000 option when I ordered my Model S 60 in early 2015. Costs less than gas Beyond the roughly 1,000 miles of fre...

On a visit to Monticello, N.Y., an open top, manual transmission, deserted two-lane roads and a gorgeous fall day are an unbeatable combination. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR MONTICELLO, N.Y. -- Quiet has returned to the two-lane roads that wind past clusters of homes framed by fall colors. This week saw the annual invasion of the International Motor Press Association, whose members were unleashed at the wheels of performance and super cars with incredibly loud mufflers. IMPA, the country's oldest organization of automotive journalists and public relations professionals, set up camp at the Monticello Motor Club, a 4.1-mile race circuit and playground for the wealthy nestled in the Catskill Mountains. Many sponsors Sponsors of the so-called Test Days included Detroit and foreign automakers, manufacturers of tires and automobile sound equipment, PR Newswire and the private club where the event was held. Previous Test Days took place at Pocono Raceway and Lime Rock Park. On Wednesday, wr...

The 2017 Chevrolet Volt is expected to go on sale late this year, but will be available only in limited numbers, according to the automaker. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR The good news for consumers is that the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV will have a starting MSRP of $37,495. But such options as front collision braking, forward pedestrian alert and OnStar automatic crash response is expected to push that past $40,000. In an email this week, Chevrolet delivered the bad news the Bolt will be available only in limited numbers this year. So, greedy Chevrolet dealers likely will sell each Bolt they can get their hands on for list, then pile on "added dealer profit," making the Bolt a lot less "affordable" than the company claims. There will be two versions of the Bolt -- GM's first purely electric production vehicle -- LT and Premier, but Chevrolet hasn't released the starting MSRP for the Premier trim level. The Chevrolet Bolt will have a 10.2-inch touch screen. 238-mil...

In downtown Englewood, a municipal parking garage offers five free PSE&G charging stations. Today, a Tesla Model S 90D, two Smart EVs, and a Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid hooked up to four of them. The Volt driver thought nothing of running the charge cable across the hood of the new car and possibly scratching it. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR I've owned a Tesla Model S since April 2015, and have never had to pay to charge the car on trips away from northern New Jersey. I either charge the car at my home, where solar panels generate the electricity I use, or take advantage of Tesla's extensive network of free Superchargers or destination chargers at hotels and resorts. So, what do you do when you have a non-Tesla EV or a plug-in hybrid without free charging? Today, I saw the owners of four cars using free charging stations at the municipal garage in Englewood, where the first two hours of parking cost $1.50. It's likely that no matter what the rate of charge, owners of EV...

The homely Nissan Leaf EV is available with a bigger battery in the 2016 model year and added range -- up to 107 miles on a full charge. You can still get a Leaf that goes a maximum of 84 miles before you need more juice. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR Jose Munoz, chairman of Nissan North America, delivered good news and bad news to consumers worried about climate change and the 53,000 deaths blamed on auto emissions every year. Speaking to members of the International Motor Press Association in Manhattan, Munoz said Nissan is "close" to launching a new-generation all-electric Leaf with a redesigned body. There was no indication whether the second-generation Leaf will have more range than the 107 miles available with a 30kWh battery in the 2016 model. Leaf lags behind Tesla The homely Leaf, introduced in December 2010, once led electric-vehicle sales in the United States, but it has changed little and has been eclipsed by Tesla, which cost more than twice as much. Meanwhile, Muno...

In this image from Elektrec.co, Porsche's Mission E all-electric concept with suicide rear doors bears a strong family resemblance to the German automaker's sports cars.  By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR When the Porsche Mission E -- the first all-electric car from the German automaker -- appears at the end of the decade, it will have less range than a Tesla you can buy today. The story is the same at Audi and Mercedes-Benz, two more German carmakers who are loudly talking up their plans for purely electric luxury vehicles. Tesla says its Model S P100D has a range of 315 miles on a full charge and accelerates from 0-60 in 2.5 seconds. P100D Tesla Motors has unveiled the first all-electric car with a 100kWh battery, which is available in the Model S four-door hatchback and the seven-seat Model X SUV. The California-built Model S P100D  has an MSRP of $134,500, including a $1,200 destination charge, before a $7,500 federal tax credit. In New Jersey, buyers don't have to pay the 7% ...

No. That isn't the biggest, roof-mounted boom box you've ever seen. That's an autonomous Ford Fusion with a human back-up driver Uber will use to pick up passengers in Pittsburgh. Once the self-driving car is perfected, Uber likely will fire tens of thousands of drivers. This photo is from The Associated Press. By VICTOR E. SASSON EDITOR GM, Ford, Volvo, Uber, Google and other companies are investing billions of dollars in the race to develop self-driving cars. But I've seen little discussion of whether they will be gasoline powered, hybrids or all-electric. Only an all-electric self-driving car makes sense, given climate change and the 53,000 deaths each year from auto emissions. And when Uber perfects a self-driving car, you can bet the unemployment lines will swell with tens of thousands of drivers let go by the anti-labor, ride-hailing monstrosity. Only Google has said its self-driving cars will be "mainly electric." BMW, Nissan lag The media have been spe...