electric

The 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car is clearly one of the most revolutionary vehicles to be sold in the U.S. in many years. It's a first battery electric car that relies solely on plugging into grid electricity for its the energy that powers it. Unlike the 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric...

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...

Tesla has announced its third quarter results. They show that revenues are down 31 percent from a year ago and that the car maker is losing nearly eight times as much money compared to the previous year. This quarter, Tesla lost $34.9 million, up 7.6 times from the $4.6 million from a year earlier...

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...

We write a lot about electric cars here, and we cover clean diesels and efficient gasoline cars. But it's probably time for a little reality check. Gasoline engines are going to be with us throughout the lifetime of anyone reading this article. They may represent far less than the 90-odd-percent of...

For the next few years, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car will be the sole focus of GM's advanced powertrain efforts for U.S. car buyers. But that hasn't stopped it from putting battery electric cars into production elsewhere in the world. Electric minicars in China Last week, in...

A single zero-emissions 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car served as pace car for the world renowned New York City Marathon, held this morning in crisp, sunny autumn weather. Its presence slightly reduced the exhaust that surrounded the lead racers as they covered the 26.2-mile, five-borough course amid...

BMW is moving full steam ahead with its plans to offer new, radically more fuel efficient vehicles in the next decade. Today, the company said it would put its striking Vision EfficientDynamics concept car into production, to be offered for sale starting in October 2013. And, it signed off on an...

NOTE: Your faithful editor, John Voelcker, moderated this panel at VentureBeat's GreenBeat 2010 conference. As electric cars move towards the smart grid, there’s been a lot of worry about the cars overstraining the grid. But at least for now, GM and PG&E are united on the answer: Not a...

As these things often happen, it was rumored in the Japanese press and then confirmed hours later. Panasonic, the huge Japanese consumer electronics conglomerate, is investing in Tesla Motors, building on a previous agreement to work together on large-format lithium-ion cells for electric car...

Attending a conference in Detroit a couple of weeks ago, we had the chance to drive a converted "Amp'd Chevrolet Equinox" crossover, offered by AMP Electric Vehicles. Based in Cleveland, the company hopes to sell electric conversions of "best of class" vehicles in several segments to early adopting...

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...

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...

Tesla has officially completed its $42 million acquisition of the former NUMMI factory, a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors that was shut down in April due to the recession. The New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. facilities in Fremont, Calif. spans 5.5 million square feet and will...

General Electric, the conglomerate that produces everything from power-plant turbines to television shows, wants to jumpstart the electric-vehicle market. To do that, said CEO Jeffrey Immelt yesterday in London, it will place the "largest order in history" for electric vehicles, numbering in the...

We've been waiting eagerly for more details of the modified U.S.-spec 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car. Now, Mitsubishi has started the long tease. The company tweeted a sketch this morning that shows a wider, slightly more angular i-MiEV that still preserves the now-familiar shape of the...

Recycling old electronics isn’t necessarily something most Americans do. Many of us, it turns out, just stash our old computers, printers, and TV sets in the closet. Or we leave them at the curb. But suppose properly recycling those electronics could help redress a potentially critical...

The PR guy got us lost. Twice. But David Reuter, Nissan’s chief communications director, didn’t break a sweat even when the Remaining Range indicator fell below 5 miles and started flashing. Which leads us to think that even after the 2011 Nissan Leaf battery pack hits...

Plugging a cord into an electric vehicle to charge it up after the daily commute doesn’t take more than a few seconds, and it’s a process we do almost every day with appliances and other electric items used around the house, but that hasn’t stopped companies from attempting to...

Ah, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the gift that just keeps on giving headline fodder to eager editors. Which is probably just what PETA intended. We learned last week that PETA proposed to Boston's chief of environmental and energy services, Jim Hunt, that it run ads promoting the...