electric
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And the entry of electric cars into the U.S. market continues apace. The first 2011 Nissan Leaf was delivered in San Francisco on December 12, and the first 2011 Chevy Volt came three days later in New Jersey. Now, Smart has delivered the first example of its own electric car, the 2011 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive. Its new driver is Mindy Kimball, of Silver Spring, Maryland. She's an early adopter--and a major in the U.S. Army--who has been a presenter with the Climate Project for four years and participates actively in the Electric Vehicle Association of Washington, D.C. Smart will deliver...
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2011 Nissan Leaf Laurels: Euro Car of the Year, U.S. Cell Plant Underway
Initial deliveries of the 2011 Nissan Leaf battery electric car have been fitful, compared to hundreds of Chevy Volts sold each week. But Nissan's first modern mass-produced battery electric car continues to rack up accomplishments (and the company says it will be at full production by March)...
John Voelcker -
LED Headlights Give Your Electric Car An Extra Six Miles
Your electric car can go six miles further on its battery if you use LED headlights. That’s the conclusion drawn by an automotive engineer with Osram Sylvania, according to Autoblog Green. Electric and electric-hybrid car ranges are impacted by external factors like temperature, whether...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
Best Buy Adds Onstar, Electric-Car Chargers; Are Cars Next?
If you haven't been keeping an eye on Best Buy, you may have been stunned by their recent announcements at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). First, on January 6, Best Buy announced that it will offer General Motors' OnStar system (conveniently packaged within a rear-view...
Jason Hendler -
Rent A Tesla For $25/Hour, Just Plan Your Charging Carefully
The all-electric Tesla Roadster is probably the world's best advertisement for electric cars. While crude, cramped, and expensive, its 0-to-60-mph time of 3.9 seconds will make a convert out of any electric skeptic. But thus far, Tesla Motors has built only 1,500 Roadsters, and the car was always...
John Voelcker -
Electric-Car Startup Coda Announces New CEO, Phil Murtaugh
Coda Automotive, the electric-car startup that last fall delayed the launch of its all-electric Sedan, announced this afternoon that it had hired Phil Murtaugh as its new CEO. It also revealed that it plans to launch its Coda Sedan electric car into the domestic Chinese market once the car has been...
John Voelcker -
Driving a Tesla Roadster is an unforgettable experience. To be fair, perhaps driving any car with acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds is unforgettable. But the fact that all the Tesla's torque comes from 6,831 lithium-ion laptop cells powering an electric motor--and the relative silence of the car as it slingshots you forward--makes it truly memorable. The ultimate Ohm-My-God electric sports car is the 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport. It's even faster--0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds, rather than 3.9--and has a host of other fittings and accessories that set it apart from "normal" Tesla...
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Question: How Do Electric Cars (Volt, Leaf) Heat Passengers?
Another in our irregular series of answering questions from readers, this one from John Q of Eugene, Oregon: Question: I was wondering how an electric car provides heat and defrosting. Using batteries to generate the heat will drain them pretty fast. Maybe with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the internal...
John Voelcker -
Guest Post: Cool Factor Must Woo New Buyers To Electric Cars
Researching and writing for GreenCarReports, we've come to respect the insights of Oliver Hazimeh, Director and Head of the Global E-Mobility Practice at global management consulting firm PRTM. This invited post, written by Hazimeh and Principal Aaron Tweadey, offers thoughts on how carmakers can...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Releases Pretty Video of Model S Sedan Under Own Power
Hot on the heels of its appearance at last week's Detroit Auto Show as a body-in-white, the 2012 Tesla Model S sedan also clearly moves under its own power. Tesla Motors just posted a beautiful, scenic video on the company's blog showing about 90 seconds worth of a Model S "alpha" prototype...
John Voelcker -
Big Crash, Small Electric Car: 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' Barrier Test
It's both true and not-so-true: Small cars are dangerous in a crash. It's true, in that the laws of physics indicate a heavier object will have more momentum than a lighter object when they collide, meaning the small one gets displaced. But it's not so true if you're looking at absolute levels of...
John Voelcker -
Sprint To Connect Ecotality’s Electric-Car Chargers Nationwide
Electric car charging company Ecotality announced today it has partnered with Sprint to its electric car charging stations. The partnership will make stations searchable on GPS and will enable billing services and the ability to track data on charging habits. This is one of many examples in recent...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
If Bentley is all about seamless low-end torque from V-8 engines (or the odd W-12), then Rolls-Royce is about 'wafting'. That's the word used to describe the experience of riding in an utterly silent, totally effortless conveyance that sets one above the common man. Which might, if you think about it, be more suited to electric power than it would first appear. Rumors had emerged more than a year ago that a small number of all-electric Rolls-Royce Phantoms would be built for the event, and now the company has more or less confirmed the program. Yesterday, according to Britain's Daily Mail...
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Five Questions: Peter Rawlinson, Tesla Motors Chief Engineer
If Tesla Motors had a single message to convey at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, it was this: We're a real car company. Rather than show a completed prototype of its Model S all-electric luxury sports sedan, scheduled to launch by the end of 2012, the company showed the car's shell. That allowed other...
John Voelcker -
Washington State Pioneers Electric-Car Scenic Tourism Route
The Pacific Northwest is a remarkably scenic corner of the continental United States. The striking coastal ranges of Washington and Oregon offer dramatic vistas, temperature (if often damp) weather, and dozens of outdoor activities within a few hours' drive. Now those drives can be done in electric...
John Voelcker -
Electric Car Crashes? Just As Safe As Any Other Volvo
Despite thousands of automotive gasoline fires in the U.S. every year, we've pretty much normalized the risks of the highly explosive liquid that we use to fuel our cars. But for electric cars, there's a whole new set of potential fears. One may be driving through water--it's not like tossing a...
John Voelcker -
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...
Antony Ingram -
2012 BYD e6 Electric Crossover To Cost $35,000, 200-Mile Range
Later today at the Detroit Auto Show, Chinese carmaker BYD will take the wraps off a new incarnation of the e6 crossover it's shown twice before. This time, however, it comes with an upgraded interior, a more powerful drive motor, and a price: $35,000 before incentives. The company hopes to offer...
John Voelcker -
As you may have seen by now, the 2012 Ford Focus Electric was officially launched today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by Ford CEO Alan Mulally. At the very same time, another notable executive--Bill Ford--unveiled it in New York City. He covered the same production details that were presented at CES, but with a specific spin. You have to admit, it's not every day that the man whose name is on the nose introduces a car he calls "a game-changing technology" for the company's second century. Some notable points from a quick, and very crowded, inspection of the 2012 Focus...
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Smart Grid’s Silver Spring To Unveil Prius Charging Technology
In the latest example of the opportunities created by the rollout of electric vehicles, smart grid networking player Silver Spring Networks announced it will unveil a prototype tomorrow of a charging station enabled with its technology for the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid (pictured). The...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
GM To Use Argonne National Lab Advances In Next-Gen Volt Battery
General Motors announced today that it has licensed lithium-ion battery technology developed at Argonne National Laboratories, the research institution that's funded largely by the U.S. Department of Energy. The agreement allows GM to use the technology throughout its supply chain, and covers a...
Bengt Halvorson -
Electric-Car Startup Coda Gets $76 Million in Venture Funds
Last year was a rough one for electric-car startup Coda. The company replaced its CEO, along with its marketing chief, and announced a delay of up to nine months in the launch of its first car, the 2011 Coda Sedan. This year is starting off on a much better note, though, with the announcement of an...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Employee: Model S Alpha Prototype Up And Running
Has Tesla completed their first Model S prototype? A Tesla manufacturing team employee, commenting on Engadget, appears to confirm this, though Tesla has not formally announced anything. “I just got to see the 1st Alpha proto run…. And, boy, did that thing run! The production vehicle...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
VW Vexed By 'Anarchic' Audi A1 E-Tron Electric? Nein, Says Audi
We've loved the concept of the Audi A1 e-Tron concept since its launch at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show last March. It's a range-extended electric vehicle (like the 2011 Chevy Volt) that uses a tiny Wankel rotary engine to run a generator that produces electricity to power the car once its lithium-ion...
John Voelcker