electric vehicles

BMW has taken a radical departure from its traditional brand of teutonic sedans with its "i" range. The i3 is a carbon-bodied electric city car and the i8 a plug-in hybrid sports coupe, and both display wild styling and high-tech features. We were at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show to get a closer...

Two weeks ago we brought you images of the Volkswagen Nils electric car concept to be revealed at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. The car has now been unveiled and Green Car Reports can bring you a full gallery of Volkswagen's smallest electric car concept to date. The Nils looks very similar to the...

While Smart used the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show to release its new, upgraded Fortwo Electric Drive and the production Smart eBike, the new Forvision concept previewed a few weeks ago gives us an idea what the next generation Fortwo might look like. Still a Smart... Importantly, the Forvision is...

A common misconception of electric cars and hybrid vehicles is that at the end of a short battery life, the remainder is dumped in landfill and contributes ever more pollution to the Earth. Of course, we know this to be incorrect. Not only are the more common lead acid batteries the world's most...

While dozens of supercars will be revving up their engines ready for the start of Ireland's upcoming Cannonball Run, the ESB ecars team will be off to a much quieter start. The ESB team's 2011 Nissan Leaf is the first electric car to participate in the Cannonball Run which starts this Friday...

We thought the 2011 Geneva Motor Show was one of the best ever for electric cars and green vehicles, but the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, starting in less than a week, is shaping up to be even better. We'll be covering the show in-depth next week, but in the meantime we've rounded up all the electric...

With the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show less than two weeks away the German auto industry is starting to really crank out the concept cars. Latest in the onslaught of new German metal is the Audi A2 concept. If you think the name sounds familiar then you aren't wrong. Audi launched a production A2...

We brought you news last year of a horrific accident, in which a woman was killed when her G-Wiz neighborhood electric vehicle, a model not sold in the United States, was struck by another vehicle. An inquest into the accident has now ended and the verdict has been given as accidental death. Last...

A few weeks ago we told you about the third generation Smart ForTwo Electric Drive which was due to be unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. With a faster top speed, better range and ultra-fast 1 hour recharge capability, the new version of the diminutive city car should hit the roads next year...

Las Vegas is better known for its excess than its frugality, but city bosses are turning that image around by trialling a fleet of electric cars, the first of which is GM's range-extended electric vehicle, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. The trial will make the city the only government agency in the state...

It's a sad fact of business that many start-up companies fail within the first few years of trading. Electric car fans are quite used to this and even the most promising new companies can struggle. One such company is Green Vehicles, an electric start-up that folded back in July. Green Vehicles had...

The 84th Academy Awards -- otherwise known as The Oscars -- might be many months away, but we’re probably going to see a stretched Nissan Leaf acting as red-carpet transport. Or at least, that’s what we think might be happening after a limousine company has confirmed that it has been...

It seems that Audi just can't contain itself with its latest concept cars, the two-seater Urban Concepts. Three weeks ago some spy videos trickled onto the internet showing the camoflaged electric car being driven around in the center of Berlin. The very next day Audi revealed its first sketches of...

Electric car enthusiasts have struggled for years with "golf cart" jibes and only recently with cars like the 2011 Tesla Roadster and 2012 Nissan Leaf has the "ugly and slow" image started to disappear. In Florida, there's a different problem - people who believe their golf carts are actual cars...

It's human nature to take on challenges, and for many in the electric car industry that means embarking upon huge road trips in cars not known for their long ranges. We've seen trips from Alaska to Mexico in an electric race car and 25,000 miles in a Tesla Roadster, amongst others. Minddrive's idea...

Back in the 1990s, when it seemed like electric vehicles were gaining traction with consumers, Costco did something unusual: the big-box retailer installed charging stations at many of its California locations. Now, however, those stations are being removed, and electric car fans aren't happy...

Were it not for imminent reveals at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show in mid September, you might think the automakers were getting careless with their upcoming models. First, Audi's E1 e-tron was caught on camera in the center of Berlin, being filmed in camoflage for an Audi promotional video. The E1...

Presumably following studies on whether bears really do defecate in the woods and to which religion the Pope actually pertains, The Greenling Institute in California has released a new report suggesting that expensive electric vehicles aren't benefitting communities of low income. The new study...

You might feel a little "green around the gills" the following morning, but a night of drinking Bruichladdich whisky from the UK helps to do your bit for green transportation. Mark Reynier is managing director of the whisky distillery in Scotland, and every day drives to work in his recently...

A few months after BMW and MINI's electric car study ended in the United States, a similar scheme run in the U.K. has also come to a close, and the results are in... ...and if you've read the results of the American tests, the figures coming from the U.K. will all look very familiar. Basically, all...