electric vehicles

  • Jay Leno

    Never one to miss the opportunity for a pithy quote, petrolhead extraordinaire Jay Leno has come up trumps again whilst taking delivery of his new 2011 Chevrolet Volt. "Electricity is like sex. People lie about it," quipped Leno, referring to how owners are occasionally inclined to add a few more inches... SORRY! miles... to their vehicle's range than is actually the case. It's not one of Leno's better one-liners and we'd be the first to point out that electric car range seems almost infinitely variable depending on the type of car, the type of driving and the type of driver. Not dissimilar...

  • Bluebird Electric land speed record car, 1998
    175mph (And More) In An Electric Car. Range? Don't Ask...

    What'll she do, mister? With electric cars, the response would more often than not usually be relating to the range. With Don Wales' Electric Bluebird, the answer might instead be 150 miles per hour. Maybe even 175 miles per hour. If the name Bluebird is familiar to you, then you'll probably...

  • 2012 Honda Fit EV
    Toshiba Li-Ion Batteries To Appear In Honda's Electric Car

    Following years of claims they weren't interested in developing a battery-electric vehicle, Honda backtracked earlier this year and decided that they would produce one, with the 2012 Honda Fit EV concept finally revealed at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show last month. Now, Honda has announced that...

  • Green Vehicles Triac electric car
    Triac Electric Car - Three Wheels, 100 Miles And $25,000

    With the focus naturally going towards some of the big electric car launches we've had this year or established players like Tesla Motors, it's all too easy to forget that there are a wealth of smaller companies out there producing their own, unique take on electric transport. One such company is...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt MPV5 concept, Unveiled at 2010 Beijing Motor Show
    Volt-Based 'Amp' Due In Detroit: Wise Move By Chevrolet?

    The Voltec powetrain used in the 2011 Chevrolet Volt has never been meant for just the one vehicle. Restricting a new technology developed at great expense to a single niche vehicle makes poor economic sense. The prediction by Car and Driver of a Volt-based Chevrolet Amp, thought to be close in...

  • 2010 Volkswagen Taxi Concept
    Moving On Up? Volkswagen Considers Producing Electric Taxi

    Whilst the 2013 Volkswagen Golf Blue eMotion might be responsible for many of the company's EV headlines, their smaller Up concept is possibly even more intriguing. The Wolfsburg maker has just revealed the third in a trio of electric taxi concepts. Following Berlin and Milano versions, the latest...

  • money

    As recently as last week, it became apparent that the current federal 50 percent incentive towards the cost of installing an electric car charging station would expire on the 31st December this year. This would be particularly bad news to the vast majority of upcoming EV owners, many of whom haven't taken delivery yet, and thousands more potential owners would also lose out should they wish to install charging points in their homes. With 2011 expected to see a jump in the number of EV owners, the end of the incentive scheme looked like it was coming far too soon. Today brings good news for...

  • Sign indicating public electric-vehicle charging station
    Electric Vehicle Collaborative To Help Introduce EVs in CA

    If you were to draw up a listof places least in need of encouraging towards the use of electric cars, California would probably be right up there. As well as being the home of companies such as Tesla Motors and Coda Automotive, many EV manufacturers usually pick at least one city in the State to...

  • 2009 BYD F3DM
    Who Killed The Chinese Electric Car? BYD Looks Away from EVs

    The F3e is officially dead. According to sources cited by China Business News, the battery firm turned electric-car maker has ceased plans for commercial production of its four door electric sedan. There has been little mention of the all-electric sedan since its plug-in hybrid sibling, the F3DM...

  • U.S.-spec Mitsubishi i-MiEV
    Move Over THINK: Mitsubishi i Highest Selling Electric Car (For Now)

    A few months ago we reported that the diminutive Think City had snatched the top spot as the world’s best-selling city EV with over 2,500 vehicles now on the road. But that claim is now dwarfed by Mitsubishi, which last week celebrated the 5,000th i-Miev electric car to roll off its Japanese...

  • Elon Musk Shows Akio Toyoda 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5
    Tesla Thanks Toyota CEO with a 2011 Roadster Sport 2.5

    Finding the perfect gift to say thank you is a difficult task. Finding the right thank you present is a fine line between a gift that will convey that special message and something you know is unique. So what do you give the CEO that has everything, especially if he runs the world’s largest...

  • L.A. Auto Show: Toyota RAV4 EV teasers
    Tesla-Powered Electric RAV4: Initially Just "A Few Thousand"

    One of the more eagerly awaited green vehicles at next week's 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show is the electric RAV4 crossover that Toyota will launch in partnership with Tesla Motors. Now we learn that the initial order is for little more than a test fleet of perhaps 2,000 vehicles, according to Tesla...

  • GridBot electric vehicle recharging station

    Starting a venture-funded company is hard. Starting a venture-funded car company is probably a lot harder, as Tesla, Fisker, and Coda have likely found out. But one area that may make sense for venture funding is the electric-vehicle charging station business. A number of companies, including Coulomb Technologies, have entered the space backed by Silicon Valley venture capitalists, and more are on the way. A new entrant is GridBot, which unveiled its prototype charging station at last week's GreenBeat 2010 conference as part of the GreenBeat startup competition. Electric cars and their impact...

  • 2010 Nissan New Mobility Concept
    Report: Three More Nissan EVs Coming After Leaf

    Deliveries of the 2012 Nissan Leaf is about to start in just over a month but attention is already turning to what Nissan has in store for us next in the area of electric vehicles. The automaker recently showed off a new concept vehicle dubbed the New Mobility Concept, essentially a rebadged...

  • Audi A6L electric vehicle prototype
    Audi Partners With China’s Tongji University For EV Development

    Electric vehicle development is quickly proving to be a worldwide effort, with companies and research institutes from across the globe and in varying industries and fields forming partnerships and alliances in order to accelerate the roll out of zero-emission electric vehicles. The latest...

  • 2010 Nissan New Mobility Concept
    Nissan Does Its Take On Future Mobility With New EV Concept

    Nissan is already one of the leaders in the electric vehicle field, having unveiled the zero-emission Leaf, which is scheduled to go on sale next month, and now this latest mobility concept. Previewing one possibility for mobility in the future, where vehicle designs will be dictated by ease of use...

  • ECOtality charge station design by Mark Lee Johnston
    Don't Blink In Disbelief As BP Offers Electric Car Refilling

    What does British Petroleum, one of the most-hated corporate villains in the past twenty years do to become a little more loved by environmentalists? Allow a network of electric car charging stations to be installed at its filling stations. But while there are more than 11,000 BP owned gas stations...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    2011 Chevrolet Volt: Electric Drive Impressions

    In one light, it was nothing more than a drive in a new car on a sunny autumn afternoon. But in another, it meant taking the wheel of the most radical new car since the 1997 Toyota Prius—perhaps more significant yet—and driving it on public roads for the first time. After almost four...

  • Ford Azure Transit Connect Commercial Van

    New York City has one of the best mass transit systems of any major metropolis. But the City itself is still noisy, polluted and congested. The first two may soon be eased, thanks to continuing work from New York’s Power Authority (NYPA), which showcased a range of all-electric and hybrid electric vehicles to Westchester County and NYC governmental customers this week. In a joint venture with Ford and Azure Dynamics Crop., the NYPA hosted a “ride-and-drive” workshop at its White-Plains offices. Among the offerings were a 2011 Ford Connect electric commercial Van and even a...

  • Peraves E-Tracer, winner of Progressive Automotive X-Prize. Photo: Stefano Paris.
    Auto X-Prize Winners Finalize Plans To Bring Unique 2-Wheeler To Market

    Let’s face it. We haven’t been particularly nice about the Automotive X-Prize. While the multi-million dollar competition was originally designed to seek out new engineering talent and encourage automakers to go green, the event became a holding pen for the misfits of the automotive...

  • 2010 Jaguar C-X75 Concept, released at 2010 Paris Motor Show
    UPDATE: 2010 Paris Motor Show: Guide To Electric Vehicles

    The 2010 Paris Motor Show is upon us and amongst the supercars and superminis lie a veritable feast of electric vehicles. Whilst we've known about many of the cars due to be shown for a little while now, for many it will be the first opportunity to see the newest EV concepts and production cars up...

  • Renault Kangoo Express Z.E. electric van
    2011 Renault Kangoo Express Z.E: Value For Money EV Van

    Renault may not have much of an impact to U.S. motorists, but thanks to their partnership with Nissan, they have a large part to play in the future of electric vehicles. The French company has been a market leader in the European light commercial vehicle (LCV) market since 1998, so it's only...

  • Power lines by Flickr user achouro
    Can EV Charging Crash The Grid? Toronto Hydro Chief Says Yes

    Picture the scene: You arrive home after a long day at work. The lights are on, the dinner is waiting for you in the oven and the kids are watching TV. Before leaving the garage, you plug in your 2011 Nissan Leaf and switch the charger on. And the whole neighborhood goes dark. Your EV was the straw...

  • Mitsubishi i-MIEV electric car
    2010 Paris Motor Show: European-spec 2011 Mitsubishi i-MiEV

    Don't want a 2011 Chevrolet Volt or 2011 Nissan Leaf? Fear not - there are a raft of other EVs waiting in the wings to satisfy your desire for something different. If you live in the U.S. though, you'll have to wait until late 2011 to get your hands on Mitsubishi's 2012 i-MiEV. For EV fans in 14...

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