Range-Extended Electric Vehicle

  • Toyota FCV Concept

    While unveiling its fuel-cell vehicle last month–priced to undercut the Tesla Model S ever so slightly–Toyota's Global R&D Chief Mitsuhisa Kato offered some dismissive thoughts on battery-electric vehicles. As quoted in Automotive News, the 39-year veteran of the Toyota Motor Company said: "The cruising distance is so short for [electric cars], and the charging time is so long ... At the current level of technology, somebody needs to invent a Nobel Prize-winning type battery." DON'T MISS: Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Cars To Come From Toyota, Hyundai, Honda While those words could make...

  • Vauxhall Ampera
    Opel Ampera (Euro Chevy Volt) Axed Over Slow Sales?

    European buyers may soon have one fewer plug-in vehicle to choose from, with news that the Opel Ampera--European cousin to the Chevrolet Volt--could be dropped due to slow sales. The Ampera arrived to much critical acclaim, just as the Volt did in the U.S. While expensive--it hit the market at just...

  • 2014 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car owned by Tom Moloughney - after delivery
    2014 BMW i3: Is Range Extended Version Outselling Battery Only?

    The 2014 BMW i3 electric car has a unique feature offered by no other vehicle in the world: Buyers can choose to have it as a battery-electric vehicle, or add an optional range-extending engine that roughly doubles its rated electric range of 81 miles. With the i3 on sale now for two months, a mix...

  • 2015 Chevrolet Volt
    2015 Chevrolet Volt: Bigger Battery, But 38-Mile Electric Range Remains

    With widespread expectations that we'll see a redesigned second-generation model unveiled early next year, the 2015 Chevy Volt was expected to be a carryover model with few changes. And so it is, with one important exception: Without any fanfare, its battery capacity rose to 17.1 kilowatt-hours for...

  • 2014 Chevrolet Volt
    2016 Chevy Volt To Get More Efficient, Less Expensive Inverter

    General Motors is still hard at work behind the scenes on the next-generation Chevrolet Volt. We won't know full details of the car for some time, but one upgrade it's likely to feature is a new, more efficient and less expensive power inverter. According to Charged EVs, GM is currently developing...

  • 2014 Cadillac ELR
    2014 Cadillac ELR: $75K Electric Coupe Gets Five-Figure Discounts, Already

    Ask anyone interested in the Cadillac ELR to name their biggest bone of contention and they'll say one thing: The price. At a shade under $75,000, it's a good $40,000 more expensive than the car it's heavily based on--the Chevrolet Volt. But if you walk into a dealer today and play hard ball, you...

  • 2014 Ford Fusion Hybrid

    We've got used to seeing plug-in car sales inexorably rising over the last few years. Different models sell at different rates of course, but when one or two cars each month hit some kind of individual sales record, the growth is rarely remarkable. But every so often we're taken by surprise by one car's performance. This month, it's that of the 2014 Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid--which, for the first time ever, has out-sold the Chevrolet Volt. It's true: Not only did the Fusion Energi see off the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid this month, but at 1,939 deliveries it also beat the...

  • 2014 BMW i3 REx owned by Tom Moloughney
    2014 BMW i3 Electric Car: Likes And Dislikes From An Early Owner

    Many of us have experienced the highs and lows that come with getting behind the wheel of a new vehicle for the first time. In some respects, your new vehicle will be much better than the one you had before. In others, it may leave you wanting for more. BMW's i3 electric car is about as new as new...

  • 2014 Chevrolet Volt
    What Improvements Do Owners Want From Next-Gen 2016 Chevrolet Volt?

    Ask an electric car owner what improvements they'd like to see in the next generation of the model they own, and nine times out of ten you'll get the same responses. "More range", they'll probably say. "A lower price" is the other--even if you can afford an electric car, who wouldn't want to pay a...

  • 2012 Chevrolet Volt
    GM Offers Free Fix For 2012-13 Chevrolet Volt Battery Coolant Issue

    General Motors will perform free servicing to fix potentially low battery coolant in certain Chevy Volts.

  • 2014 Chevrolet Volt
    Chevrolet Volt Drivers Pass 500 Million Miles On Electricity

    Chevrolet Volt drivers reach another electric-motoring milestone.

  • 2014 Nissan Leaf, Bear Mountain, May 2014
    Plug-In Electric Car Sales In May: Highest-Ever Leaf Total, First BMW i3 Numbers: FINAL UPDATE

    Well, chalk up another first for Nissan: It sold 3,117 Leaf electric cars in the U.S. last month. That's not only its best-ever one-month sales performance, but it's the first time any carmaker has sold more than 3,000 battery plug-in electric cars in a month in this country--ever. (August 2013...

  • 2014 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car owned by Tom Moloughney - in dealership showroom

    Electric cars enjoy many incentives, from tax credits and purchase rebates through carpool-lane access, to encourage buyers to give them a try. But the range-extended model of the BMW i3 electric car turns out not to qualify for a state exemption from New Jersey's new-car sales tax--despite at least some assurances to BMW dealers and buyers by the company that it would. DON'T MISS: 2014 BMW i3 REx: Range-Extended Electric Car Drive Report, By Very First Owner Dave Buchko, of BMW's product and technology communications group, confirmed that, "The sales tax exemption in NJ only applies to...

  • James May
    Top Gear's James May To Buy 2014 BMW i3 REx Electric Car

    You know Top Gear, right? The UK car show with a trio of presenters who hate fuel-efficient cars, think electric cars are useless and like to scream around airfields in gas-guzzling supercars? Well, not quite. James May has always been a little different. He often drives to the studio in a...

  • 2014 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car owned by Tom Moloughney - in front of house
    2014 BMW i3 REx: Range-Extended Electric Car Drive Report, By Very First Owner

    This past Wednesday, May 21, I picked up my shiny new 2014 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car from JMK BMW in Springfield, New Jersey. The car, in Laurel Grey, was the first range-extended i3 delivered in North America, and I will always appreciate that BMW gave me the honor of being the first...

  • 2014 BMW i3 range-extender EPA window sticker (Image: Tom Moloughney)
    2014 BMW i3 REx Window Sticker Revealed, 39 MPG On Gasoline: BREAKING

    Yesterday we reported on the delay getting range-extended versions of BMW's 2014 i3 electric car to the market, pending the confirmation and fitment of their EPA-approved window stickers. That wait may not be much longer--and now we know the car's official EPA-rated mileage. The 2014 BMW i3 REx is...

  • 2014 BMW i3 (German-market version), Amsterdam, Oct 2013
    2014 BMW i3 REx Range-Extended Electric Car: On Hold At Ports (UPDATED)

    The 2014 BMW i3 electric car is now in U.S. dealership, and early examples are eagerly being taken home by drivers--but, so far, only the battery-electric version is on sale. Despite hundreds of cars parked at multiple U.S. ports, the so-called i3 REx model, which includes an optional two-cylinder...

  • Wrightspeed turbine-electric converted truck
    What Is It Like To Drive A Turbine Electric Truck? (Video)

    Common advertising practice tends to show you how your life can be made better by a product--easier, perhaps, or more fun, or bringing friends and family closer together. If you're advertising a commercial truck, you might show it hauling heavy loads, or maneuvering with ease around a city. MUST...

  • 2014 BMW i3

    It takes all sorts of people to make the world go around, and the same can be said about electric vehicles. Some customers never want to touch a drop of gasoline again, and opt for a pure battery electric vehicle. Others like the convenience that a range-extended or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle gives them. BMW offers you both with the 2014 i3, but if you're torn between the two options, which should you buy? Long-time BMW electric program participant Tom Moloughney has taken a look at this question on BMW Blog, and his comments on each vehicle should help you decide which i3 model is the...

  • Mother-daughter team installs battery packs in Chevrolet Volt electric cars
    Mother-Daughter Team Installs Battery Packs In Chevy Volt Electric Cars

    A mother and daughter work side by side to install Chevy Volt battery packs at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant.

  • 2014 BMW i3 hits the race track
    2014 BMW i3 Electric Car Online Configurator Now Live

    As the first customers take delivery of their new BMW i3 electric cars, it's time for the pre-launch hype to disappear and let sales do the talking. The hype isn't hard to understand though--BMW is far outside its comfort zone with the i3, yet has come out with a product that looks, and is...

  • 2014 BMW i3 (German-market version), Amsterdam, Oct 2013
    2014 BMW i3 Range-Extended Model Gets Full $2,500 CA Rebate For Electric Cars

    It's clearly the week for news about the new and distinctive 2014 BMW i3 electric car. Yesterday, as the first cars arrived at dealers, we learned that it was rated at 81 miles of range (less than a 2014 Nissan Leaf's 84 miles), but operates at an unparalleled efficiency of 124 MPGe. Then, late...

  • Toyota Central R&D Labs' Free Piston Engine Linear Generator (FPEG)
    Toyota Describes Combustion Engine That Generates Electricity Directly

    Despite the recent advent of usable, talented electric vehicles, combustion engines are likely to persist for quite some time, often as a component in plug-in hybrid and range-extended electric vehicles. The onus then is on refining combustion power to work harmoniously with increasingly...

  • 2015 BMW i8, test drive in greater Los Angeles area, Apr 2014
    2015 BMW i8: Sexy Plug-In Hybrid Sport Coupe, Our First Drive

    Could the 2015 BMW i8 sports coupe, coming this summer, do for plug-in hybrids what the Tesla Model S did for battery-electric vehicles? That is, could the sleek, sexy, attention-luring coupe with doors that open like insect wings make plug-in hybrids...sexy? ALSO READ: Chevy Volt: How It Really...

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