Batteries

We’ve known for some time that Porsche’s 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid concept from the 2010 Geneva Motor Show would eventually enter production but today, more than two years out from its debut, Porsche has announced that the order books have officially opened. We can confirm that the...

Our reader Jonathan P asks: I have a 1997 Saturn that, remarkably, is still running. It probably has the book value of a large watermelon, so if anything major goes wrong with it, that's the end of that. If that Saturn were a hybrid, I'm guessing the battery pack would have died about four years...

It's always good to hear the arguments against electric cars. Some are valid, some are idiotic, and some simply betray a lack of knowledge about how the auto industry really works. Into that last category may go some comments by one William M. Colton, ExxonMobil’s vice president for corporate...

A few months ago we asked the question, what exactly do you have to service on a 2011 Nissan LEAF? After all, the LEAF doesn't even contain many of the items that require regular attention on a regular car, such as oil changes, spark plugs, filters, transmission fluid and muffler parts. Brakes...

Sometimes you just never know where you'll dredge up technical details on vehicles that carmakers haven't yet launched. Technology conferences can be a good source. Take, for instance, the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference (AABC) held last week in Pasadena, California. A battery systems...

While working energetically on its C30 DRIVe Electric battery-electric vehicle, Swedish carmaker Volvo has also been developing green powertrains for its larger vehicles for several years. Now, it's ready to unveil the first of these, a plug-in hybrid version of its V60 station wagon, a model not...

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)...

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Actually, no--fairly recently and not so far from home, the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory patented a battery technology known as nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). Discovering and patenting new battery technology in an era so...

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...

While Toyota dominates global hybrid production, Ford was the first company to launch a hybrid SUV: the Ford Escape Hybrid, in 2004. Now, Ford is pioneering another hybrid model: the small minivan, or as Europeans call it, the people carrier. Hybrid mini-minivan Between 10 and 10:30 am today at the...

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...

Recently, we wrote about the move in the private sector to use electric and hybrid delivery trucks. Companies like FedEx and Frito Lay are tapping into benefits of greener cars — even ahead of the broader consumer market because they’re a hedge against volatile diesel prices and can pay...

At the time of this writing, oil has sprinted above $90 a barrel, silver has jumped 80-plus percent in the last year and China just announced an 11 percent decrease in exports of rare earth metals for 2011. Will these constraints on critical resources, and their inevitable steep rise in costs and...

With the focus naturally going towards some of the big electric car launches we've had this year or established players like Tesla Motors, it's all too easy to forget that there are a wealth of smaller companies out there producing their own, unique take on electric transport. One such company is...

It's been a while since we checked in on the car that will likely make or break Silicon Valley electric-car startup Tesla Motors: the Model S, a five-door midsize sports luxury sedan it hopes to launch somewhere toward the end of 2012. Tesla hasn't said much about the Model S lately, but a number...

This afternoon, Honda unveiled its plans for an all-electric version of the Honda Fit subcompact hatchback to be launched globally in 2012. The announcement came at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. The announcement represented a full circle of sorts, since Los Angeles was the home of many of the 300...

We love it when people send us photos. Especially photos of things that manufacturers aren't necessarily keeping front and center for the cameras. The photo here is a "range extender" that Nissan uses to keep its 2011 Leaf electric cars fully charged for media events. The picture was taken (by a...

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...

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...