Fun Stuff

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV vs Lunar Rover

    President John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, and the country's space agency met his challenge with five months to go. However, in 1971, NASA sent a remarkable piece of equipment into space with astronauts—the Lunar Rover—which was actually designed and built by General Motors. Now, 46 years later, we can compare GM's work on the all-electric Lunar Rover to that on its first long-range, affordable electric car, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. DON'T MISS: Electric-car road trip: lessons learned in Chevy Bolt EV over 1,300 miles...

  • Tesla Model 3 Easter eggs screen
    Tesla Model 3 Easter eggs, discovered by board member Steve Jurvetson

    The few dozen 2017 Tesla Model 3 owners who've already taken delivery of their electric cars will find a few surprises inside if they look closely enough. The Silicon Valley automaker handed over the first examples of its new Model 3 to customers, one of whom happens to be Steve Jurvetson...

  • 2014 BMW i3 hits the race track
    Electric Cars For Speed Freaks: Which One Is Quickest?

    Debate still rages on the best way to sell electric cars. Should automakers be boasting of their environmental credentials? Or should they talk in a language people understand--money--and highlight the economic benefits? Maybe it's all about silence and refinement? Rarely mentioned is just how fun...

  • 2014 Nissan Leaf
    How Quiet Are Electric Cars? This Nissan Leaf Shows You

    If you've ever lived on a street where one of your neighbors has a noisy car, you'll have been made very aware of its presence every morning as they started it up and went to work. ALSO SEE: Do The BMW i3 And i8 Electric Cars Pose A Threat To Tesla? Unfortunately, these people never seem to go to...

  • 'ToyoHog' Harley-Davidson-powered Toyota Prius on eBay
    Always Wanted A Harley-Davidson-Powered Prius? You're In Luck!

    It's fair to say most Toyota Prius owners are probably quite happy with their cars. Sure, they aren't the quickest vehicles on the road, and plug-in cars use even less gas. But they're quiet, efficient and easy to drive. It might not have crossed many owners' minds to swap the clean-burning...

  • Unpretentious Guide To Electric Vehicles coloring book
    Electric-Car Coloring Book By Irked Tesla Employee Explains It All For You

    As any electric car owner will know, there are still some surprising misconceptions about electric cars out there. One Tesla employee, annoyed at being asked the same questions over and over about electric cars--with the occasional ludicrous question thrown in--has created a coloring book about...

  • Yvon Martel's MTT-136 electric tracked sled

    Modern electric cars are nice enough, but ask them to climb a snowy bank or forge through a forest and we suspect you'd quickly find their limitations. For truly tough conditions, you need something a little more adaptable--but there's no reason you should sacrifice electric propulsion to do so. That's where the MTT-136 comes in (via Autoblog). Uninspiring name perhaps, but Canadian inventor Yvon Martel's "My Track Technology" vehicle is possibly the world's most capable, adaptable electric vehicle. It looks a little like something a villain might attempt to drive over a trapped James Bond...

  • Nissan Leaf powers a Christmas tree in Tokyo (Image: NISSANEV)
    Lighting A Christmas Tree The Modern Way: With An Electric Car

    Should you be one of those people among our readers who celebrates the Christmas holiday, you might be interested in having a greener Christmas. Did you know, for example, that it's greener to have a real Christmas tree than a plastic one, unless you keep the plastic tree many years? The real ones...

  • Scrooser electric scooter (Photo: Scrooser)
    Scrooser Electric Scooter: "A Harley-Davidson For The Sidewalk"

    One of the main criticisms of electric cars is that they often lack the sort of raw appeal that makes you want a product, transcending any notions of buying because you need it. Oddly, the world of electric two-wheelers hasn't had this trouble, particularly as you delve into the realms of simple...

  • GreenWing eSpyder electric aircraft (Image: GreenWing International)
    Fun For $40,000? Electric Plane Beats Electric Car Every Time...

    $40,000 will get you plenty of electric cars these days, including the recently-unveiled 2014 BMW i3. They can be fun on the right road, and it's great knowing you aren't using any gas... but there have to be bigger electric thrills elsewhere, right? The GreenWing eSpyder could be what you need to...

  • Razor Crazy Cart electric ride-on
    Razor Launches New, All-Electric Performance ... Ummmm ... Vehicle

    The trouble with kids is that they just don't have enough ways to injure themselves these days. If you're a parent who thinks this should change, then we can't think of anything with better arm-breaking potential than the Crazy Cart from Razor. What the Crazy Cart is, is a shrunken electric go-kart...

  • Czech flying electric bicycle
    Flying Electric Bicycle Debuts In Prague, Will NYC Ban These Too?

    New Yorker? Own an electric bicycle? You're probably pretty angry right now, since the city has just banned the use of electric bikes on its streets. Which would be fine, had you not just bought one, still entirely legally, from a shop. It's okay though, we have a solution--turn it into a flying...

  • Toyota Camatte57s concept

    If you've ever seen a child zipping along on a bicycle at breakneck speed the concept of putting them behind the wheel of a car is truly terrifying. Toyota still wants to give it a go though, and following on from last year's Camatte concepts, Toyota has once again displayed a brace of electric family-friendly cars at the Tokyo Toy Show. The Camatte57s takes the previous concept and chops the roof off, but maintains some of the previous version's features. Those include adjustable seat and pedals, allowing trusting parents to adjust the driving position for their children, and body panels...

  • Vin Diesel reacts to Singapore Prius pricing... (RazorTV screen grab)
    Toyota Prius Over $150K In Singapore, Vin Diesel Not Impressed

    If you ever feel cars are getting too expensive, consider yourself lucky you don't live in Singapore. The country, an island located on the tip of mainland Malaysia, is smaller than most cities, and one of the most prosperous nations in the world. Due to its (lack of) size, traffic is a big...

  • Nissan Leaf solar charging station on EA's SimCity game
    Nissan Leaf, Solar-Canopy Charging Station In New SIMS Game

    The Nissan Leaf is no stranger to videogames. Last year, we had a little race between a Leaf and the Toyota Prius--albeit in the realistic but completely virtual world of Gran Turismo 5. But what you can't do in Gran Turismo is virtually charge your virtual Leaf with virtual solar panels--something...

  • Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover (Image: NASA)
    Electric Vehicle Sets Longest-Distance-Traveled Record...On Another Planet!

    A vehicle journey of just over 22 miles hasn't really been cause for celebration since the dawn of the motor car itself, when low speeds and unpaved roads made it more arduous than it would have been on the equine alternative. But transpose that figure to another planet and well, it starts to look...

  • Consumer Reports drifts the Telsa Model S (video screengrab)
    New Tesla Testing Technique From Staid Consumer Reports: Drifting!

    We'd not normally advise getting information directly from Wikipedia, but its opening line on the sport of drifting is as good as any other definition you'll find: "Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels, while...

  • Thames & Kosmos Eco-Battery Vehicle kit
    Build Your Own Metal-Air Battery Car: Now There's A Kit

    Most of us, sadly, can't afford a brand new Tesla Model S electric sedan. Even less so, a Tesla Model S with the latest metal-air battery technology, hinted for use in the company's future products. But fret not, dear reader: There is another way to get your hands on metal-air battery technology...

  • 1900 New England Electric vintage car

    Speeding is big business. There's no money to be made from it as an individual of course, unless you subscribe to the theory "time is money". But the U.S. Census Bureau estimates 100,000 Americans are ticketed for speeding every day, at an average cost of $150 per ticket--$5.5 billion a year in revenue. There'll only ever be one "first" speeding offense though, and you might be surprised to learn that it was for an electric car. It was also a taxi driver, which you'll be less surprised about. And a taxi driver in New York at that. "Get outta here," you shout at the computer screen, reaching...

  • Outrider Alpha recumbent electric adventure bike (Image: Outrider)
    Can An 'Ultralight Adventure Vehicle' Be An Electric Bicycle?

    Got some money to burn and in need of a hobby? Perhaps some sort of adventure sport, but nothing too crazy--off-road bikes, perhaps? Not just any off-road bike though. It has to be electric, for a start. What about one of Outrider's electric recumbent bikes? Yes indeed--there is now such a thing as...

  • 1947 Nissan Tama EV (Image: Nissan)
    Nissan Leaf's Great-Grandfather: The Tama EV

    You might think high gasoline prices are a problem now, but at least it's relatively easy to get hold of. The same couldn't be said in Japan after the end of World War II, when the country's gasoline supplies were limited under Allied occupation. Transport was still vital, which led Nissan and...

  • Cover of Los Angeles Times Magazine, April 3 1988, depicting L.A. in 2013
    What 2013 Looked Like For Greener Cars, Back In 1988

    The rate at which technology develops makes predicting the future incredibly difficult, but people get it right sometimes. They get it wrong sometimes too, and you'd have found a mixture of both in the April 3, 1988 issue of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, which peered 25 years into the future--to...

  • Raven 46 hybrid ride-on lawn mower
    Can Your Hybrid Cut Your Lawn? Here's One That Can

    A Toyota Prius is many things, but a convenient lawn mower isn't one of them. Useless, right? Luckily, it is now possible to buy a hybrid lawn mower, known as the Raven MPV-710. In many ways, a hybrid mower makes sense. After all, if you're making an effort to be green, you might as well try and...

  • Odyssey Battery Bigfoot No. 20 Monster Truck -- world's first all-electric monster truck
    Electric Monster Truck Crushes Puny Gasoline Cars This Weekend

    Remember the world's first all-electric monster truck? If you're at the AutoRama Car Show in Kansas City, Missouri this weekend, you'll be able to see it in action. We're told it'll be "participating in two car-crush demonstrations per day", which sounds like a polite way of saying it'll be causing...

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