electric vehicles

  • 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV Prototype

    When the RAV4 EV reaches its Phase One stage next year, and a limited-production vehicle goes on sale, it will have one key difference versus the Phase Zero prototype we drove in the San Diego area this past week. While the RAV4 EV prototypes have a proprietary charge connector from Tesla Motors, the production version next year will have an industry standard, 220-volt SAE J1772 charge connector. But there definitely won't be any quick-charging capability. A quick charger would provide a lot of additional cost and mass, Toyota decided. According to Brown, adding a quick charger to the...

  • 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV Prototype
    2012 Toyota RAV4 EV Prototype: First Drive

    Just a year ago, seeing the 'RAV4, Powered by Tesla' startup greeting would have been almost unthinkable. Yet last May, Toyota and Tesla inked a deal that took the industry by surprise—and left a lot of observers scratching their heads. And nearly eleven months since that deal—and nine...

  • Mia Electric microbus
    Mia Electric: 2011 Geneva Motor Show, The Microbus Concept

    If you read our guest post by actor, TV presenter and electric car convert Robert Llewellyn, you may have noticed his mention of a little electric microbus by the name of "Mia". Sitting in the middle of halls 4 and 5 with major manufacturers like Honda, Toyota, Renault and Ferrari in all...

  • Moduléo adaptable electric car, 2011 Geneva Motor Show
    Silly Little Electric Cars Doing Damage To The Industry?

    Tucked away in a little corner just off Hall 6 at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, something weird and frightening lurked. Hiding behind the shiny stands of Kia and Smart and sitting in what looked like a poorly-carpeted entrance foyer, a collection of electric motoring misfits vied for the attention of...

  • GE WattStation Publicity Shot
    Do Businesses Need an Electric Vehicle Experience? GE Thinks So

    Vehicle tours, the de facto way of getting a new electric car in front of the people most likely to buy it, are pretty much an accepted stage in any electric car rollout from a major automaker. So why is General Electric, a company which doesn’t even make an electric car embarking on its own...

  • wind farm
    Researchers: 100 Percent Green Energy Possible By 2050

    We approach energy policy with care here, since GreenCarReports is largely about ... well, cars. But a recent article claims it could take just 40 years to convert the bulk of the world's global energy usage from fossil fuels to renewable energy, primarily wind and solar power. That's not only...

  • Dave Cloud's Dolphin electric car

    The practice of home-building electric vehicles is not uncommon amongst hardcore EV enthusiasts. Our own Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield has converted her own EVs before, and several members on the website Ecomodder have done the same, often using the economy driver's favourite, the Geo Metro, as a starting point. Dave Cloud has done much the same, only he clearly wasn't that happy with his 1997 Metro's aerodynamics. To this end, Dave has created the Dolphin, and like its namesake the Dolphin's body is incredibly streamlined. There's certainly very little on the exterior giving clues to its humble...

  • Map showing nationwide sales rollout for 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car
    Chevrolet Shows Nissan How It’s Done, Speeds Up Volt Rollout

    Nissan may still be aggravating customers patiently waiting for their 2011 LEAFs with no news of delivery dates, but Chevrolet has just announced that it will be delivering its 2011 Volt plug-in hybrid to all 50 states by the end of 2011. Spurred on by massive consumer interest and a stream of...

  • Shenyan Chevy Dealer
    How Are Car Dealers Getting Ready to Service Electric Cars?

    As we've discovered, some car dealers are less than enthusiastic about the prospect of selling and servicing electric cars. Luckily, others are more game. Either way, what can you expect from your local electric car dealership when you take your shiny new EV in for a service? Training You'd be...

  • Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk with Tesla Roadster
    Tesla’s Challenge: Build $30k Mainstream Electric Car by 2015

    Build a $30,000 electric car in under four years. That’s the promise made last night by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Speaking at the Cleantech Investor Summit in Palm Springs, California, the 39-year old businessman shared his plans for the venture-backed automaker. In addition to bringing the 2012...

  • Tesla Model S prototype on the road, January 2011, screen capture from video
    2012 Tesla Model S Oozes Class in First Official Road Video

    It was announced nearly 3 years ago and we’ll not see it on the roads for another year, but Tesla’s Model S has made another important step towards production: the obligatory drive-by road video. As our John Voelcker reported yesterday over at GreenCarReports, the all-electric...

  • RoBoCar Prototype
    VIDEO: Future Electric ‘Car’ Drives Itself But, Oh, Those Looks...

    If you listened to countless futurists of days gone by, we should all be living in little space pods by now, with electric cars, robotic servants and self-cleaning homes. But as with many promises for the future, many of these predictions from long ago seem rather laughable today. Except of course...

  • 2011 Mitsubishi i-MiEV, E.U. spec

    The U.S. EV market will become wider next year with the appearance of the 2012 Mitsubishi "i" electric car, itself wider than those available across international markets. Early reports suggested the American market wouldn't take well to the original's Japanese kei-car dimensions and relatively low performance and interior quality, so the model arriving on U.S. shores is wider, quicker and better equipped. Mitsubishi Motors Corportation (MMC) has announced today that the European-spec Mitsubishi "i", revealed at the Paris Motor Show and still known as the i-MiEV to avoid confusion with the...

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric launch, New York City, January 2011
    2011 Detroit Auto Show: Electric Car Round-Up

    Between the wreck of a Volvo and a $300k Mercedes supercar, the 2011 Detroit Auto show is giving the electric car fan plenty of variety, so if you're planning to visit the show between now and closing time on January 23, here are the electric vehicles you should make the time to see and the EV...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    Battery Wars: General Motors Licenses American Argonne Tech

    A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Actually, no--fairly recently and not so far from home, the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory patented a battery technology known as nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). Discovering and patenting new battery technology in an era so...

  • Volvo C30 Electric crash test
    2011 Detroit Auto Show: Volvo Shows Off Crashed Electric C30

    You might think that having a twisted lump of metal on your auto show stand probably isn't the best way to promote your latest product. Most manufacturers would agree with you. The customers tend to prefer cars shinier and in one piece. Volvo aren't "most manufacturers" though and they've never...

  • Skylar and Teagen from Team VIN 1000
    347.2 Miles! Tesla Takes New Production Car Distance Record

    Many of us will have broken in the New Year celebrating with friends, sinking a few drinks, watching a firework display and generally being merry. For some though, the celebrations will have come later that day. Between the afternoon of December 31, 2010 and the end of January 1, 2011, Team VIN...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    2011 Chevrolet Volt: What Do Owners Think, A Few Weeks In?

    Much of 2010 was spent learning more and more details about Chevrolet's exciting new range-extended electric car, the Volt. Towards the end of the year our colleagues at GreenCarReports finally got to drive the vehicle, and more recently the first owners have taken delivery. So what do owners...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S

    The Tesla Motors company goes hand-in-hand with high technology. Their current 2011 Roadster 2.5 uses cutting edge aluminum and carbon-fiber construction and offers supercar-rivalling performance from its electric drivetrain. We've known about the upcoming 2012 Tesla Model S electric sedan for a few years now and despite the projected lower $50,000 pricetag, it's expected to offer even more technology than the relatively simple Roadster. We've known for a while that the interior would feature a high technology touch-screen center stack, and now we know what'll be powering it. Tesla have...

  • THINK City on hire in the Alps
    Can Electric-Car Clubs And Shows Really Bring In Buyers?

    As an electric car enthusiast or recently-converted gearhead, you'll no doubt be aware of the huge variety of clubs out there for virtually any make and model or automotive scene you can think of. For many people, a thriving scene and great social network might be the difference between choosing...

  • Formulec EF01 Electric Racing Car
    New Electric Car Race Series Lines Up On The Grid [Video]

    If you happen to indulge in the twin passions of both electric cars and motorsport, you'll no doubt have heard of series such as the TTX-GP for electric racing motorcycles that holds events all over the world. A similar series has been slow to emerge for electric cars but at the recent United...

  • 1999 GM (Specialty Vehicles) EV1
    GM EV1 Gets Another Shot At Smithsonian, 4 Years On

    If General Motors' EV1 had featured in the Disney Pixar animated film Cars, we can't imagine it would have been the happiest of characters. It might well have spent a little time complaining about its friends all being crushed back in 1999, and who could blame it? And four years ago it might have...

  • First 2011 Nissan Leaf delivered to buyer, San Francisco, Dec 2010, photo by Eugene Lee
    CA Electric Car Rebate Will Run Out Mid 2011, Advocate Warns

    California has always been kind to drivers of alternative fuelled vehicles with special privileges in High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, reduced parking and even additional purchase tax credits. However, the $5,000 Californian state rebate for those purchasing electric vehicles may soon run out...

  • Chevrolet Sail Electric Concept Vehicle
    Chevrolet Sail Electric Concept Vehicle, Developed In China

    Whilst the U.S. and Europe get the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and 2012 Opel and Vauxhall Ampera, it seems all the full battery-electric vehicles are going to the Far East, and they're keeping fairly quiet about it. A few months back we revealed GM's plans to test an electric version of the Chevrolet Cruze...

News First Drives Electric Cars Hybrids Guides Green Life