EVs
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It's finally here! Well, the trailer is anyway... We announced just under a month ago that the long awaited sequel to the film Who Killed The Electric Car?, the logically titled Revenge Of The Electric Car (ROTEC), would be previewed with a trailer released when 10,000 people became fans of the film's Facebook page. In this time, the required number of fans has been reached, and with the last 300 needed signing up over the last 24 hours, the trailer is now available for all to see. Without further ado, here it is: The film follows four groups in a race to get electric cars on the roads, from...
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BMW Hiring 2,600 Workers By 2012 For Hybrid And Electric Cars
First General Motors said it would add 1,000 workers purely to work on electric cars. Now it's BMW's turn. In a strong indicator of its commitment to developing hybrid and pure electric vehicles, BMW says it will hire an additional 2,600 employees over the next two years to work in these particular...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2011 Nissan Leaf? Far Too Boring In Japan...
If it ever really needed to be said, Japanese car tastes can be... "alternative", to put it in polite terms. As well as their Kei-Jidosha class of city cars that are absolutely miniscule compared to U.S. monsters, the country has produced some fairly crazy production cars over the years. That trend...
Antony Ingram -
No Engine, No Brand Identity? Electric Cars And Branding
Let us run a few engines past you. A warbling flat six. A growling V8. The howl of an inline four changing cam profiles. The smooth buzz of a rotary. How about some names now? Hemi. Vortec. Powerstroke. VTEC. Renesis. Ecoboost. Noticing a pattern? The first list is clearly engine layouts, and the...
Antony Ingram -
Ford Starts Delivery Of Transit Connect Electric Vans
The first of Ford’s new Transit Connect Electric commercial vans are being delivered to customers in North America and the UK, just 13 months after Ford initially announced plans to develop the zero-emissions vehicles. To help speed their development Ford joined forces with Azure Dynamics, a...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
2011 Chevrolet Volt Rolls Down The Production Line [Video]
We've already taken a behind-the-scenes look at how the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car is produced with a "how it's made" video at the maker's Oppama factory in Japan. Now comes the turn of Chevrolet's Volt, with the release of a short time-lapse video in celebration of the official start to...
Antony Ingram -
If there's one gadget that seems to go hand in hand with electric cars, it's Apple's iPhone. We've seen apps that allow you to place reservations and even customise your order, apps that allow you to keep track of charging and even switch on your aircon or heater remotely, and earlier in the year Nissan had one of the first iAds for their 2011 LEAF. Now, partner Renault has launched Europe's very first iAd campaign for their 2012 Twizy, a tiny (sub-smart fortwo sized) electric vehicle that blurs the line between car and scooter. Renault's iAd campaign acknowledges Apple users as being at the...
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Cracker Barrel Installing EV Charge Points At Tennessee Stores
Cracker Barrel, not exactly the bastion of green technology, has launched a pilot program that will see a number of EV charge points installed at 24 of the restaurant chain’s outlets across the state of Tennessee. The company that prides itself on old-style country stores is taking a very...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Audi Using Solar Panels To Power Future e-tron Cars
Audi is demonstrating the use of solar energy for future mobility by converting the roof of one of its factories in Ingolstadt, Germany to solar panels. Here, Audi e-tron models will in future have their batteries charged with current obtained directly from the photovoltaic equipment installed on...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Gran Turismo Game Goes Green: Virtual Electric Cars
Depending on your demographic, the new PlayStation 3 Gran Turismo 5 (GT5) video game is either your single most essential purchase this year, or a completely baffling piece of technology that you'll probably never buy. Ironically, the same could be said for the current wave of electric cars we've...
Antony Ingram -
Zero Emission Solar Charging At Chevrolet Volt Plant [Video]
We've discussed before the issue of how clean electric cars really are when you take into consideration the source of the electricity you use to charge them - they're only as clean as the grid powering them. It's usually one of the first things EV dissenters bring up... "Yeah, but where does the...
Antony Ingram -
LEAF Task Force: Nissan's Electric Car Soldiers Of Fortune
In 2011 a crack task force was sent to the United States by a Japanese manufacturer for a car that's making headlines. These men were promptly trained to be experts in their field. Today, wanted by thousands of owners, they survive as a rapid response unit. If you have a problem, if no one else can...
Antony Ingram -
After several years of taunting and many months of speculation, the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show is finally the venue chosen for Mitsubishi to show off their U.S.-specification 'i' electric car to an expecting public. We've featured the Japanese-spec 'i' several times, as the company has shipped examples around the world for demonstration purposes and to run user trials. Journalists quickly discovered that the version they were testing wouldn't quite be up to the requirements expected of cars on American roads, so we were pleased when Mitsubishi announced that the U.S. would be getting a...
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2010 Los Angeles Auto Show: Guide To Electric Vehicles
We took a look a few weeks ago at the five electric cars we reckoned you should do your best to see at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. Our list included the 2011 Nissan Leaf, 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2011 Coda Sedan, the 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV and the 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Our opinion hasn't changed -...
Antony Ingram -
Cheap Insurance For EVs? LEAF May Benefit, Will Others?
With all the talk of purchase price, charging costs, tax incentives, congestion charging exemptions and maintenance costs for EVs, there's one financial area which often gets overlooked - insuring them. With so few EVs on the road it's been difficult to gauge whether they'll cost more or less than...
Antony Ingram -
2010 Los Angeles Auto Show: SoCal Edison Launches EV Website
The 2010 Los Angles Auto Show is nearly upon us, and we're getting excited for the wealth of new electric cars on display at the show. It's not just about the cars themselves though - equally imporant are the companies displaying EV-related technology. One such company is Southern California...
Antony Ingram -
Revenge Of The Electric Car Trailer Release To Facebook Fans
Who killed the electric car? Chances are that if you've watched the film that poses this question, you'll have some idea of how the electric car fizzled out and died before its 21st-Century re-birth. 2011 will bring a sequel to the original documentary titled "Revenge Of The Electric Car". As with...
Antony Ingram -
Opel Ampera News - Euro Volt Price Revealed, 42,900 Euros
If you're familiar with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt range-extended EV, then you're already familar with the Opel Ampera, since it's essentially the same car. The Ampera will be sold under General Motors' other brands, the Germany-based Opel and in the U.K. as the Vauxhall Ampera. It's not uncommon for...
Antony Ingram -
The world of EVs is a strange business. The jump from gasoline and diesel cars to EVs is akin to the jump at the end of the 19th Century from horse and carriage to motor vehicles, in the change in mindset and widespread adoption of infrastructure required. Charging in particular is an area that many people are still wary about, even if the cars themselves are quickly improving. For those times you're away from home, many people will need the reassurance that they can find a place to recharge. We've explored fast charging and even companies that will drive out to top you up, but now a Kiwi...
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Chevrolet Volt To Cut Down On Oil Changes
Change is definitely eminent in the automotive industry; in fact, some would tell you that the industry is changing fast now than it has in the last couple of decades. It isn’t just the powertrains or the safety equipment—it is everything down to how often you might have to do an oil...
Jonathan McGrew -
Plug In America: EV Public Service Announcements
We've covered Plug In America before on AllCarsElectric. The group is at the forefront of the EV movement in the U.S. and aims to promote usage of electric vehicles and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Now, the group has released a series of humorous "Public Service Announcements" (PSAs) written...
Antony Ingram -
EV Vs Gas Vs Diesel: Breaking Down The Costs
Thanks to the limited availability of electric cars on the market thus far and lack of parity between EV models and their gasoline or diesel counterparts, comparing the relative costs of the three isn't the easiest of tasks. The human race wouldn't have got very far if we'd only ever done what was...
Antony Ingram -
Top 10 Cities For Commuting By Electric Car
We've taken a look recently at the five EVs we're most looking forward to driving, and another look at the five EVs you should do your best to see at the upcoming 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. We're clearly at the beginning of something big for personal transportation, an age where electric travel is...
Antony Ingram -
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...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran